Here is a story about Henry
Send by Lois Lebert henry@dancris.com
Henry used to be an indoor-outdoor cat. He'd go out in the morning before breakfast. Then he'd be in all day until late afternoon - when he went out again. He loved being outside. He'd usually walk around behind the condo, perch on a little ledge, and watch everything that happened. Once in a while he'd get in a fight with another kitty. Once he caught a baby rabbit and brought it in. It was unhurt and released outside. All in all, his excursions outside were pleasant .... until ....
One Terrible Night!
Henry went outside about 5:00 PM as usual. He didn't come back at suppertime though. About 7:00 PM his Mommy went outside looking for him. NO Henry. She ended up walking through the entire condo complex (which is really big) - calling for him, stopping to listen for a Meow from Henry, looking everywhere. NO Henry. She'd do this, then go back home to see if Henry had showed up there. Then - she'd go looking and calling again. NO Henry. Finally, about midnight, she thought she'd lie down on the bed and rest. BUT - she couldn't sleep she was so worried about her sweet Henry. So she'd go open the door and call and look. Finally, around 1:30 AM, she went to the door, and her sweet cat Henry came running into the house.
He went directly to the bedroom and jumped up on the bed. Mommy petted him. She even fed him a special treat of tuna on the bed. She even brought his water to him on the bed. Then she held him a long time - and inspected every inch of his body. His poor little pads were all rubbed raw - and some of his claws were pulled completely out.
The next day, Mommy took Henry to Dr. Barnes. He said that since all four of Henry's paws showed damage, Henry was probably trying to climb out of something. Nothing else was wrong with Henry and his claws all grew back in. Mommy never did find out what had happened to Henry, but wondered if he'd gotten trapped in a Dempster Dumpster (Dempster Dumpster is a very large trash container for apartment complexes and offices that have a lot of trash. They are about 10'x10'x10' ) - or something like that. Anyway - it all ended well - but that was the last day that Mommy ever let Henry go outside. Mommy fixed up a nice cage on the patio so that Henry can sit out there and look at the birds and bugs and smell the grass and enjoy the fresh air. ---- 