The Best Little Cat House In Maryland

Preface

The interview that introduced my husband Bob and me to the world was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon in December.  CNN reporter Bethany Swain arrived just as the snow began to fall.  Within a few minutes she had all her video equipment set up and ready to go in front of our carefully decorated Christmas tree.

    As the interview progressed, I began to reflect on the history of our animal sanctuary and all the adventures that led us to this point.  When it all started fifteen years ago, who would have thought two computer nerds working for the Census Bureau would end up on CNN talking about their life’s work with animals?  We certainly didn’t.  I guess you never know where one little decision will take you in life.  For us it was the decision to help a colony of cats behind the family restaurant. 

    While Bethany asked questions about our life and our decision to start Rude Ranch, I was praying the cats wouldn’t knock over the Christmas tree and take out her really expensive looking video equipment.  I was also hoping I didn’t have the proverbial spinach stuck in my teeth, I sounded half-way intelligent, and the camera really didn’t add ten pounds.  Still, every time something furry sauntered by, I worried.  Fortunately, the cats cut us a break, and in an unusual show of support, behaved themselves.  Maybe it was the earlier threat of Santa bringing them coal for Christmas instead of the catnip and toys they were promised.

    The pages of this book lead you through our adventures in rescuing animals and how we inadvertently started an animal sanctuary.  Everything in this book actually happened to the best of our recollection.  Names have not been changed to protect the innocent.  Any resemblance the characters in this book bear to actual people probably means those people played a role in how Rude Ranch became what it is today. 

The Great Xander Capture

    Xander, our elusive feline escape artist had been wandering the house for weeks now, eluding all our attempts to capture him.

    One night we decided it was now or never, and set out to capture Xander.  Our goal was to catch him and put him in the dog crate.  We started out with luck on our side; he was sitting in the middle of our bedroom.  We shut the bedroom door and began the “Great Xander Capture.” 

    First we flushed him out from under the bed.  Then we flushed him (not literally) from behind the toilet.  Then we thought we had him.  He went into the closet.  At that point Bob was in the lead.  He managed to get a grip on him, but Xander would have none of it and was putting up a fight.  Bob wasn't going to get him bare-handed; so, being a level headed kind of guy, he improvised.  He grabbed my bath robe and wrapped it around Xander and triumphantly carried him out of the closet.  There was only one problem: one very critical part of Xander’s anatomy was exposed and that part was shooting a pretty steady stream of urine across my clothes (you know, the good work clothes) as Bob was bringing him out of the closet.

Tommy Visits the Emergency Vet

    Most people don't understand Tommy, our eleventh cat (yes, Bob and I made Tommy a permanent resident).  As you may remember from our earlier rescue adventures, Tommy had a checkered past.  To be honest, if Tommy were human, he would be the leader of a biker gang, with several paternity suits, and a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve.

    Tommy could also be counted on for a couple of other things, but his love of food was his biggest weakness.  If you ever wanted to find Tommy, just open a can of cat food and he would come running.  That's why we knew something was wrong the night Tommy slept through dinner.

    We tracked him down and he definitely did not look good.  He was hot to the touch, as in a really high fever hot.  By now Bob and I had acquired a little bit of knowledge about how to care for sick animals.  We started by taking his temperature.  It was 107.8, okay, that was really high.

    Bob and I felt we had no choice; Tommy was going to need more care than we could give him.  So, we loaded him into a carrier and it was off to the emergency vet…