Dita’s Miraculous Tail

Dita has not had an easy life, born almost completely deaf, and dumped as a kitten, it is a wonder she managed to survive as a stray. She lived as a stray for a long time, until she was taken in by a nice man named Michael, who fed her and took care of her.

Not long after Michael adopted Dita, he noticed unusual lumps, discolouration, and scarring on her ears and nose. He took her to the vet, and it was confirmed that she had developed skin cancer from her years as a stray. Even though Michael knew he couldn’t keep Dita long-term (as he owned several dogs, and Dita was not used to the domestic life), Michael paid for vetinary treatments for Dita, and had her ears amputated, as well as part of her nose. Shortly after, he surrendered Dita to the Cat Protection Society. She stayed at the CPS for several months, before I stumbled across her on the CPS Facebook page. The next day, we had adopted her, and she was coming home with us, on November 6th, 2010.

She didn’t adjust well at first. We owned another cat, Douglas, and the two did not immediately hit it off. As per the advice from CPS, we kept her safe and isolated in her own room until she adjusted to living with us. She was very shy, rarely coming out from under the bed. After about a week, she began to come out for pats, and after 3 weeks, she was tentatively venturing out into the house.

We began leaving the door to her room open so she could venture out. On December 10th, she discovered an open window, and when we woke up in the morning, she was gone. It was carelessness.
We put up posters, called shelters, searched the streets, but we couldn’t find her. Our only bit of comfort was that she might be street smart, having been a stray for so long. Contrarily, she was also white, and as we already knew, very susceptible to skin cancer.

But after several months of finding and hearing nothing, we suspected the worst, and we had to move on.

By August 2011, we had another new cat, and adopted stray, as well as our other cat, who had also been an adopted stray. Over time, I’m ashamed to say, I began to forget about Dita. She lived with us for less than a month, she was very shy in that time.

On November 12, 2011, while staying at a friend’s house, I was woken up by a phonecall. When the woman on the other line introduced herself as being from the local vet clinic, my stomach fell through the floor, expecting to hear that something horrible had happened to one of my other pets. She told me that my cat had been brought in. I found this to be strange, since my two are mostly indoor cats, and even when they do go outside, they only play in the garden. When I asked her which one, she told me it was Dita. I was in shock. After 11 months of a cat being missing, you do not expect her to be found. Straight away I called my mum, she picked me up, and we hurried to pick Dita up from the vet. Having been a stray from a young age, Dita never got used to being picked up, and she had been sedated with Valium by the vet, so suffice to say she was less-than-pleased to see us.

The vet told us that not long after  she escaped, Dita was taken in by a woman, not 3 streets from where we lived, and had been living rather comfortably ever since. We don’t know the reason why, but the woman handed Dita in to the vet after 10 months or so of taking care of her, along with a fairly handsome supply of expensive cat food, Dita’s microchip was scanned, and she was returned to us.

She’s a totally different cat now. The woman who took care of Dita had done a good job. Dita is so much more affectionate now. She recognises me as a sort of mother figure, no matter how much mum pats her, as soon as I walk into the room, she will jump off mum’s lap and hurry over to me, expecting pats. She has adjusted much faster to living with us now, and after 2 weeks of living in her own room, she was quite antsy to go exploring in the house. She still enjoys looking out windows, but hasn’t made any more escape attempts. She’s even adjusting to the presence of the now 3 other cats that live here. She still doesn’t like being picked up, dealing alerted nips when one of us tried to touch her stomach. She’s still jumpy with sounds, because of her partial deafness, but she doesn’t run and hide anymore, usually she runs to us when she’s scared. She is doing so well, she is truly the most beautifully affectionate cat, and she is now so contented and happy here.

Krystal