I mentioned a couple of days ago that if I could get some photos I would tell you about Donkey, the kitty whose humans just got married. I got permission to snag some pictures from the male human’s Facebook, so here is the story. It begins at the house we lived in before this one:
That old house was just a block and a half away from some place my human loves called Trader Joe’s. Since it was so close, she could just walk there instead of driving. One early evening, she stopped by to get some groceries and there was a nice woman out front with a box full of kittens. They were the most amazing kittens ever — so calm and tame. My human picked up a docile little tortoiseshell and looked very sternly at the human who was trying to find homes for them.
“You can’t just give them away like this!” she told her.
“Why not?” asked the lady, who was as naive as she was nice.
“Do you realize what happens to free kittens?” my human asked. “They might get used for bait in a dog fight. They might wind up as a meal for a snake. Some family may take home a kitten like this, but never get her spayed and then toss her away when she gets pregnant. Kitties are a treasure, and when you give them away for free, the people that take them often don’t put any value on them.”
Other Trader Joe’s shoppers chimed in and agreed with my human. The lady looked perplexed. She certainly didn’t want anything bad happening to the kittens, but she couldn’t keep them either.
“There’s a cat rescue in the mini mall on the other side of Trader Joe’s,” my human said as she handed the tortie kitty back to the lady. “They are still open right now. Please go over there and see if they will take the kittens. I think they will.”
My human got the couple of things she needed and walked home. As she passed the mini mall, she saw the lady going into the cat rescue.
That weekend, a drummer who was good friends with my human and her boyfriend took his daughter to adopt a kitten. He had grown up near my human’s house, so he knew about the cat rescue, and that’s where they went. When they brought the kitten home, Pat posted the photo of her on his MySpace page (because that’s where people went before Facebook). My human saw the little tortie kitty and was positive it was the very same kitty she had held outside of Trader Joe’s! I don’t know what happened to the other kittens, and neither does my human, but we do know that this kitty, who got named Donkey, has the best home ever. Pat even lets her have control of the remote.
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Aw Nice to meet you Donkey!
My Mummy is squealing that you have gone to a great forever home, and we are so glad that you all got to go through a cat rescue.
You are so pretty and a tortie, like me!!!
Sparkle, we are so glad your Mummy was there to give advice to the lady who had no idea.
Purrrs, Keiko, Kenji, Pricilla & Yuji
What a nice story about Donkey. And good advice too. Thanks for sharing that.
Max
Oh what a great story! And what good advice too. . . . we never thought of people abusing free kittens but I suppose they do……
Donkey is absolutely gorgeous! What pretty pretty eyes.
The shelter mum used to work for did the cruelty investigations for the region. She saw some revolting things involving free kittens. Your human is a fabulous person for standing up to someone who helps those kinds of things happen. A lot of people talk the talk, but they don’t back it up with their actions.
Oh Sparkle – I love stories with happy endings. I so happy Donkey found a good home.
Hooray for Donkey! That is a very good and happy story.
I just love happy endings! My mom and I are so naive that we had no idea about all the bad things that happen to kittens when they are given away free. What has happened to the world?
Hello dear friend Donkey,
You are adorable, please to meet you!
What a nice story , thanks so much for sharing!
purrs and love
Luna
We love stories with happy endings. We wonder why the kitten was called donkey though -it seems a strange name for a very pretty kitten!!
luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
The Donkey name is a family thing. 😉
What a terrific story. We are so glad your Mom was there and at least we know that one of them got saved. Probably the rest of them did too.We of course, love the name. Take care and have a good day.
That is a wonderful story, I’m glad Donkey went to a good home!
That is such a great story! I love it when “chance” encounters aren’t quite so “chance.”
We’re glad Donkey has a great home and we bet the other kittens do too. Great story!
What a beauty!!!!!!!!! It was a pleasure meeting Donkey and reading her story. We are so thankful she got such a wonderful home.
Donkey is such a sweetie and it is fantastic that it worked out purrfectly!
That is an excellent story!! YEAH!!
I WISH the woman who saw the kittens had taken them herself to the Rescue- that way she would have known for SURE that they were rescued.
A couple of the other Trader Joe’s shoppers had taken over and were walking the woman to the rescue themselves. My human wasn’t needed by them.
We are so pleased that Donkey’s story ended happily ~ but the advice was for real. It’s so irresponsible to just hand kittens over to an unknown person wiv no home checks. :shudder:
Hello to Donkey! We wonder how she got her name…
HUGE props to your Human for offering constructive advice!
That’s a great story about Donkey!
Wow, and your Mom used to live walking distance from a trader Joe’s? Lucky her. My Mom says the closest TJ’s to us is at least a 30 minute drive. So we hardly ever go, only when dad goes to his dentist, who is close to it.
Hi Donkey! This is a great story about the kittens because it teaches a good lesson – we hope they all found good homes! We are glad that you human stepped in.
YAY for DONKEY~!!! And YAY for your mom! We hope they ALL found wonderful furrever homes!
Hi Sparkle! Thanks for introducing us to Donkey. We think your mom did an awesome thing, and we are thankful that the woman in front of Trader Joe’s took her awesome advice. 🙂
Great story and photos=Donkey is a real beauty and and we are so glad she found a loving home…We love happy endings :)…kisses, sweet friends…Calle,Halle, Sukki
We’re so happy that Donkey has such a great furever home now! Your human did a wonderful thing by teaching that lady to not give away free kittens and hopefully she got the momma cat spayed too. Thank you for telling us Donkey’s story! She’s a beautiful Tortie!
That was a great story, Sparkle. It’s nice that the lady with the kittens took your human’s advice…lots of times, humans don’t want to listen and they want to do whatever they want. Donkey is pretty lucky!!
I like the name Donkey. It’s the kind of name I would come up with for a favorite cat.
Hooray! I sure hope the other kitties found nice homes too. 🙂
Donkey’s story is great – we love the name too! We think it was great that your human stepped up and said what she said to the lady. Hopefully Donkey’s littermates found fantastic homes too (and safe ones!)
-Pip, Smidgen, Minnie
Donkey is so cute and has a very cool name!
Lovely story too 🙂
Donkey sure has lovely green eyes! What a great story Sparkle! I am so happy you were able to tell Donkeys Story. I hope more kitties that don’t have fur-ever homes can find a no-kill shelter until their new-fur-ever human comes along. ~hugs, Faythe @GMT
We are so glad it werked out fer Donkey!
She is a little cutie. We are glad she got a loving Forever Home. We hope the others did too.
What a beautiful girl! And a great story. Thank you for sharing.