Your Pet's Rescue Story
We were dog people.

Several years ago, we transitioned two T&R feral cats from a community that could no longer care for them. During the three-week process, while Ripley and Jones were in their kennels, we would often see two other cats in the area - cats we had never seen before and who were certainly attracted by the food and activity.

We released Ripley and Jones and continued to see them around our property for several weeks and we felt good about their future.

We would leave food and water for them - and a strategically placed GoPro camera showed who was doing the eating. While Ripley and Jones had moved on, a cat we named “Fat Cat” was doing the eating. And lots of it.

Fast forward a few weeks, we would still see Ripley and Jones and “Fat Cat” would continue to eat and eat. “Fat Cat” was skittish and would run if she heard our door open.

One Friday evening, we were watching her through the window and my husband yelled, “it’s a kitten faucet!” In the backyard, pouring through the bushes were five kittens, followed by the now not-so “Fat Cat.” We quickly renamed her “Magnolia,” for her favorite place to watch over the kittens.

We knew we had to be responsible and quickly set about gathering Magnolia and her five kittens to get her spayed (and tipped) and start socializing the youngsters for adoption.

“Herding cats” is appropriate for what we did next. Somehow, five kittens made their home in a large cat gazebo in our garage and several times each day, we’d feed and play with Tipsy, Fifty, Cookie, Thunder and Li’l Fifty Tufts, getting them ready for adoption.

We were dog people.

We chose to keep Tipsy, Fifty and sweet Magnolia and working with the great people at Lakeland SPCA (we live in Polk County), we successfully placed the others in good homes.

Two years later, we live with two spoiled, once-feral cats who were born in a grill. Magnolia is the guardian of our yard and when we’re outside, she never leaves us. She’s so protective that she’s stared down several walkers and one electrician.

We continue to tell our two Labradors that we’re dog people.

For your consideration, we submit Tipsy - we can’t think of a better name for a bottle of wine.