Buster… the drugstore kitty that found a loving home

Friday morning on January 23rd started out like any other ordinary day for most of the people of Denver, Colorado. Except for one heavenly angel. The morning started out partly cloudy with temperatures in the single digits and some light snow falling. It was just around 10 A.M. when a middle-aged woman pulled into the parking lot of a Walgreens pharmacy at the corner of 29th Avenue and Quebec Street in Denver. She grabbed her prescription from the passenger seat, opened the car door and headed into the store. Unbeknownst to her, she was being followed rather closely. No, it wasn’t some unscrupulous man in a black overcoat or a disheveled homeless street person looking for a quick handout. It was a kitten. The poor feline managed to slip into the store just in the nick of time to avoid the door closing on its tail.

The woman found a small shopping buggy and started walking toward the back of the store, searching for the pharmacy. The lost and shivering kitten scampered down one of the aisles and then found its way onto one of the bottom grocery shelves, crawling into a tiny open space between the boxes of detergent and fabric softener. It let out a soft meow that pretty much went unheard. The kitty was in need of a warm spot to just thaw out, and he found it right there in the household cleaning supplies department.

The woman finally got her prescription and as luck would have it, she started wandering up and down a few store aisles looking for other things she needed to purchase. And there, in the middle of aisle 7B she stopped dead in her tracks. Another tiny meow was heard and she turned her head a few times to try and locate the sound. As the woman bent over, she noticed the frail kitty lying there on the shelf, its paws tucked under its belly and its head slightly shaking and shivering. She gave off a look of both surprise and trepidation, and then reached down and picked up the small kitten, immediately wrapping him in her neck scarf. She looked around its neck for a collar, but there was none. She stood there for a minute or two trying to decide what to do next. She looked down at the kitten in her arms and he smiled up at her, blinking its eyes as if to say bless you dear lady for making me warm. The kitten held on tight and accepted some warm pats and gentle scratches from the stranger, finally feeling a sense of safety and comfort.

The woman gradually made her way to the front of the store, looking for some employee or store manager while gingerly holding the cat in her scarf. He was certainly in no hurry to jump out of this safety net, and stayed there warm and calm. Finally, the lady found the manager and asked him if he knew who belonged to the kitten. At this time, a few other employees came around to check out the commotion, and each one of them also said that they didn’t know if the cat belonged to anyone. Finally, another cashier came by and mentioned that she had seen this cat in the store a few days ago, but when she tried to capture it, he escaped back outside once again.

The woman decided to take the cat home, to at least feed him and keep him safe until she had a more permanent solution. She wasn’t against keeping him, but her Great Dane named Duke had this solitary home all to himself and he wasn’t going to let a stray cat change his living conditions. The barking didn’t stop for 2 days. Duke was temporarily banished to the basement.

She decided to name him Mr. Milk after he literally devoured a small saucer of warm milk and meowed for more. A few days went by, and on the 26th of January she took Mr. Milk into the Humane Colorado facility to have him scanned for a microchip. While there was no imbedded ID, the intake vet noticed a number of health issues with Mr. Milk and discussed with the woman how she wanted to proceed. Although she was quite smitten with Mr. Milk, being on a fixed income, she reluctantly decided to give him up.

Mr. Milk was placed in quarantine for 3 days, treated for ear mites, given the standard immunization shots, and then he underwent neutering surgery. After a few days of recovery, he was placed in the adoption ward of the facility.

Jim and I had 4 cats since moving to Denver. Max, Samantha, and Gus all lived very long lives… over 18 years each. Sabian died of a heart attack at only 2 years old. It took us 2 years after Gus dying to finally decide to get another cat. We first wanted a Maine Coon, but the more I read about them, the more I realized that they required a lot more time and attention than other domestic cats. Plus, they are very expensive, since they are thoroughbred cats.

Jim and I went to the shelter on Saturday, January the 24th. That was a mistake. We got there around noon and there were at least 12 people waiting to adopt. After 2 hours, we got to meet one cat. As we sat in a small room, they brought this tabby in and took him out of the cage. He immediately hid. We tried interacting, but he wasn’t having any of it. Giving him treats didn’t matter either. After a half-hour, we decided to leave and come back another time. We went back the following Friday, January 30th. We were the only guests there, and there were at least 16 cats to choose from. We walked up and down the aisles, looking at each cat, and we finally picked out 2 of them. We were assigned a counselor and put into the small room again. They brought in “Tinkerbell”. She was a short-hair brown and grey tabby. The interaction was short and sweet with her. She finally let me hold her and for the first few minutes she seemed content. Then she stuck out her claws and gave me a nice swipe across my nose. The bleeding stopped after a few minutes and Tinkerbell turned into “Tinker-Hell”. Next came “Roxy”. She was a tortoise-colored Devon Rex breed similar to a tabby. She was shy to begin with, but after 15 minutes, she warmed up to us. Our counselor came into the room and began telling us about her health history. She had a heart murmur, was under treatment for hypertension, and had a few other things going on. Since we already lost a cat to heart issues, we decided she wasn’t for us. And on top of that, she puked right after we set her down on the floor. It wasn’t pretty!

I guess we were lucky because when they brought him into the room and opened his crate, he immediately came to both of us, his tail held high and constant meowing going on. He jumped on our laps, gave us both cheek rubs, and he was so excited to interact with us. We knew right there and then that “he had chosen us”.

We decided to name him “Buster”… it just seemed to fit him. The other alternative was Casey, but when we called him by both names, he seemed to respond more to the name Buster, and so it stuck.

Buster took almost no time to acclimate in his new home. We introduced him to one room and gave him about 2 hours in there while carefully monitoring him. After that he went to the door and meowed to go out. We opened that door and he scampered out to explore every nook and cranny that the condo had. He found his food and water, and he became acquainted with his litter box, learning to keep 99% of the litter inside the box, not out.

Within a day, he was plopping down on couch cushions, countertops, jumping up top of the fridge, and sneaking behind the washer and dryer. He has settled in quite nicely. The strange things about him are that unlike every other cat we’ve owned, he is NOT fond of cardboard boxes, paper bags, having a warm bed in front of the fireplace, or trying out people food like chicken or eggs. That may change, but for now, we are very pleased with him and we couldn’t ask for a nicer pet. See what you’re missing Duke?

Thanks for reading my blog. I’ll try to give updates on Buster from time to time, including photos of all his crazy antics (I’m sure there will be plenty). Please subscribe and leave me your comments. I’d love to hear them. Till next time… Ciao!

Lenny