HIYA!! SAVANNAH HERE!!!
Today I have another interview for my series…
Life Changing Interviews With Savannah
Now this guest will not be known to lots of you. Mouses! I never knew her before myself. But I was so purrleased when she quietly volunteered to share her rescue story with me. She is shy and a bit timid sometimes around other furriends but I know you will all help me give our most warm welcome to her…
Without any more introduction…
Meet MOOCH!!
APAWS!! APAWS!! APAWS!!
Her furramily has a blog called The Misadventures of Me…they are still working on their Mom to let them blog more often…but the kibble has to be brought home somehow so she needs to keep focused on her new business.
Let’s get started…
Savannah: Hiya Mooch. Thanks lots for stopping by and having a meow with me today. How are you feeling?
Mooch: Hi Savannah – I’m a bit nervous.
Savannah: (reaches paw out to Mooch and gives her a little soft paw pat)…don’t you worry Mooch. All my readers are the nicest furriends and very kind and understanding. You just meow at your own pace.
Mooch: Funny story really–the other set of beans saw me first as I was mooching food off of stray kitteh CoCo’s plate. I was hungry so I chased her off to eat. I guess this is what a mooch is – me!
Savannah: Oh Cat! How do the humans ever come up with these silly words? You were just makin’ sure you got some noms…what’s the big deal??
Anywho, we would all like to hear about how you came to your furrever home. Could you give us some meows about that?
Mooch: Four years ago, I was homeless; I dun remember how I got that way. My blonde lady mom would feed the stray kittehs. I would come and eat when she would put food out.
Then one day, I was suddenly scooped up while I was outside, I didn’t mind so much as it was really cold and snowy. When I first came indoors, I ran to da dark area, the blonde lady mom calls it the basement. She would come to visit several times a day, to feed me and spend time wif me.
I know that at one time I was loved acuz I had a lady-ectomy already and I liked peoples but was a bit shy. The blonde lady mom thinks I am about 12 years old but I dun know really. So I was probably 8 years old when I first came to her house looking for foods.
Savannah: Oh noes Mooch. How awful to not know where you came from. I don’t know either and wish I did.
What have been the toughest things you have had to change so you can let your blonde lady Mom know you more as your REAL SELF?
Mooch: Well I dun trust jus any peoples. I’m specially ascaird of littler peoples. I tend to be more alone than most of the kittehs here, the blonde lady mom calls me a vampire cat acuz I come out mainly at night.
Mooch in her daytime hidey place
I do love the big guy and the blonde lady mom, I likes to sit and nap wif them at night. I even roll around and flash my belleh at them to touch. I really likes that a lot!
I have trouble getting along wif Shadow and Molly. Dey has been here like furever and they dun really like me. So when they hiss at me I go at them and I usually win. The blonde lady mom says NO to both of us when it happens, sometimes she plays herding kittehs. Herding kittehs is when she guides one of us back to our safe spot with her legs.
I’m still tryin’ to like different peoples but I’m not sure of it. I dun know how to extend myself to them, so I hide; I guess I need to work on dat still.
Savannah: That sounds scary to come to a furrever home with other kittehs who don’t want you to be there. You are very, very brave Mooch.
Can you meow more about ways blonde lady mom and the big guy try to help you get past your fears?
Mooch: I didn’t play much then and it took her a squillion minutes to coax me out from my hiding spot down there. It took like a million days fer me to let her pick me up—dats when she dragged, er, brought me up to the brighter area of the house.
The peoples first fed me in the area I hid in, then they moved it further away so I had to come out. I was coming out acuz I had to find the litter box somehow, ya know? I surprised them though; I knew all along where the box was yoo see, I’m smart like that!
I trust the big guy a lot now; he can pick me up and roll me around the bed like a puppy he said. I just like that he loves me a lot so I show him my belleh and meow at him.
I has been asked if I was a clean kitty when the blonde lady mom found me. Well, I really wasn’t acuz being outside in all, yoo has to find a place to sleep, which may be in the dirt. My furs was covered with dirt but the blonde lady mom said it started to shine after I came in to the bright part of da house.
While I was in the basement I was really nervous so my coat had white flakes everywhere, I couldnt help it!
I has heard a lot about a ptu and v-e-t person from Toot, my blind sisfur kitty but I’m sure I don’t want to go. The blonde lady mom has promised that she won’t take me as long as I stay healthy.
I’m just so nervous when I’m picked up or in a closed in space that it would do me more harm than good at this point to bring me there it was told to her
Savannah:..Oh Cat Mooch! You really had a tough time living out in the cold like that. And then to be so scared you stayed in the basement for like a whole year! I can so relate to that fear thing…I am scared of my own shadow!
Now, can you give us some idea of how much progress you think you have made trying to be more and more of your REAL SELF? Are things different four years after you first hid in the basement?
Mooch: The blonde lady mom says I am a work in progress. I fink she means I needs a bit more help but what the best fing is—they has all accepted me fer who I am and what I do!
I suppose I need to work on coming out more during the day. Oh and being more friendly to the other kittehs. I did sleep next to a foster kitten the other day where I usually hiss and swat at them!
Savannah: oh Mooch! That’s progress for sure! Good for you! Give me a high Paw Pat…(whappity, whap, whap)…YES!
Ok, last question, can you offer any advice to our readers to help them support their adult rescue cat, or one they may be thinkin’ about bringing into their home, through its recovery process?
Mooch: A new person that takes yoo in has to understand that we need our space and time too. We is confused and sad and sometimes so scared we seem angry (but we really aren’t… ya see cats don’t feel ‘anger’…that’s a peep thing) when we are lost/abandoned or left on our own.
We won’t behave like yoo want us to, and we may even hide for a week, two weeks or a year or more. We has to learn to trust yoo as much as yoo has to learn our ways. I found the right place acuz my family accepts me fer who and what I am but I has also learned that they are good fer me. Time and patience and even getting down to my level (like the blonde lady mom did) helped me.
Savannah: Mooch, you have been so very brave to stick around this long and meow with me about your life and how you found your furrever home. This was great!
Any last thought or words of wisdom you want to share?
Mooch: Sometimes learning to love and trust is furry hard on us kittehs and the right person will know how to see yoo through it all!
Mooch & Blonde Lady Mom
A purrfect last comment Mooch! Right on!! We can do anything when our peeps trust US to show them our REAL SELF as much as we can. And like with you Mooch, we may take a really long time to trust them enough to come into their presence and light. Here, let me give you a paw hug…ummmppff!…Thank you so much!
Hope you all enjoyed meeting Mooch. I sure have had a great time getting to know her.
Paw Pats, Savannah
Savannah's Paw Tracks 