Karen the cat, and how we almost killed her.

[Gator]

This is Karen the cat.  She showed up about a month ago.

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I have an outdoor cat named Sassy, and Sassy does not like Karen.  She has attacked her three times that I know of.  This resulted in an abscess on Karen and she had to go to the vet.  Found out she's already spayed.  So she belonged to somebody, but no one has responded to our found posters.

So, Karen lives out in the pasture with the chickens and goats to avoid Sassy.  We dug a giant hole out there and filled it with trash, brush, and fence posts when we cleared and replaced the fence line.  We noticed that Karen appears to be living in the hole.  Well, the plan was, when done clearing the land, we were going to burn the brush and fill the hole back in with dirt.  Today was the day.  I saw Karen go in the hole.  My dad said he thought he saw her come out and go into the woods.  I did not.
My dad decides to go ahead and start the fire, but at the opposite end of the pit from where I last saw Karen.  He claims Karen will flee from the fire.
I'm so sick to the stomach, I thought I'd vomit.  I knew if she was scared she may hunker down in fear, and with all the tangled limbs and trash she could be trapped.  This pit was seven feet deep and thirty feet wide.  Who knew where she was in there. 
It was the worst thirty minutes of my life.  As the fire progressed, I thought I would have to get in my truck and leave.  I couldn't stand and watch this.
Then, finally, she popped out of the un-burned end of the hole and came to me.  I was so relieved I began to cry.
The tractor is out there filling in the hole now.  When Karen first showed up, we thought she'd stay in the goat house with nice warm hay.  But she chose a hole in the ground.  With that gone, will she move into the goat house, or move on?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I love that photo of her, and that's such a scary experience. 
Perhaps she will move in when it cools down further? I wonder if she ran away or was abandoned shortly after being spayed if she prefers a hole to a more proper shelter.

[otocolobus_manul]

What a beautiful girl!! I wonder what her story is. I'm glad she made it through all that, sometimes animals put themselves in such danger that it's terrifying (though humans do the same thing). It hurts to not be able to communicate to them the danger they're in, though they're better at keeping themselves alive than we tend to give them credit for.

Unfortunate that your other cat doesn't like her - is Sassy spayed? As a side note, did you see if Karen was microchipped? Also, there are tutorials for shelters for outdoor cats who won't come inside online, maybe you can look into making one of those.

[Ponybookworm]

You must have been so relieved to see her come out xxx!!! She looks gorgeous!!! I wonder where she came from & am glad (except for Sassy's dislike of her) you're now giving her a good life

[Gator]

Yeah, scanned for chip.  I'm a vet tech, and when she first showed up, I thought she looked young, but I waited before I took her to work, hoping she would go home to where ever she came from.  But days turned into weeks, then the abscess prompted me to take her into work, that and we didn't want kittens anytime soon if she was intact.
So we sedated her, treated abscess, clipped belly, found her spay tattoo (that saved me some money), combo test, vax.  My boss thinks she's about two years old.  I thought, because she's small, that she was under a year, but she's just petite.

Edit to add: Sassy is spayed too.  She lived alone most of her life.  When I lost my house and had to move in with my parents, they had a senior male cat named Tony.  Tony was boss cat.  I never saw them fight, but they would hiss at one another if they got too close.  Tony drowned in the neighbor's pool sadly almost two years ago, so Sassy was back to boss cat. 

Indoors, the house is already full.  I have three indoor cats: Carter, Cena and Austin.  It used to be four, but my baby Heather passed away Oct 2019, but really not ready to add another indoor cat.  It wasn't supposed to be four anyway, but Carter was a foster failure, and one of the reasons I had to stop fostering.  No room.

[Beldarna]

She's pretty! Hopefully she'll move in to the warmer shed now. But yeah, cats are weird, we know that.

[dragglereeka]

She's beautiful ! I'm so glad she got out of that hole on time haha. Hope she stays happy and safe either at your home or somewhere else <3