One year ago in the mid-evening, while camping in Flaming Gorge in Utah, this little kitten meeped at me. I got a can of cat food for her, then asked around about her. She was too skittish to approach and according to the camp manager, she'd been dumped near the beginning of the summer.
Earlier that day, I learned a friend of mine had succumbed to cancer. I had met Cathy during the rescue effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
This wasn't the first time I've seen stray cats while travelling, but having her meep and on the heels of the news of my friend, I knew I'd have to do something.
We didn't have any trapping equipment and my camping companions had other priorities. Since Flaming Gorge isn't that far from home, I knew I could go home and come right back. And she had survived several months by being fed camp scraps, I figured a couple days could be risked. Three days later, I was back in late afternoon with a trap, carrier, some more food and enough supplies to last a few days.
As it was, I found the camp site where she had been fed the night before. After talking with the campers there, I put the trap up with some fancy feast and headed out for a little bit. 1/2 hour later, she was in the trap. I did a quick transfer of her into a carrier (in the bathroom), where I first noticed her tortie face, and then headed back home getting home about 4am.
I feared she'd be a bit feral, but she turned out to be easy to handle, just skittish. She did immediately fall in love with my wife and after having her checked by the vets, was able to introduce her to the rest of our crew. She got on great with the other cats, so we decided to keep her. She's still a little skittish around people other than my wife, but she's getting better.