Midnight's Cat Musings, --- from author and cat lover Antoinette Beard...

He found a permanent home at Rikki's Refuge, Virgina, U.S.A.... :D <3

Hi, Socrates here. As you can see I'm a black kitty. I was born that way. And I ended up in a pound in a tiny rural mountainous area. It was quite a miracle that I got out alive. Being black and all, so many of us have little chance of making it out of a shelter. And we thank those of you who participate in Black Cat Appreciation Day to help our brethren and sistren survive. Well, I got adopted !!! And I went to live with a family. After a bit, they took me to a hospital and had all my fingers cut off at the first joint. I guess they didn't like me clawing the couch or something -- I mean ... gee .. they could have gotten me something of my own to scratch, or cut my claws to help me out .. they didn't need to resort to cutting my claws and part of my fingers off. I used to run around at night and sometimes I'd get into fights with some of the big toms out there. I wasn't trying to snatch their gals, but maybe they didn't that. I got my ear all beat up and torn up one time. The next time I got hurt it was really bad. Some kind of big beast came out of the dark and got me by a leg. It pulled ... I pulled ... it bit me and bit me ... I finally got lose and drug myself home. My hooman found me on the deck in the morning, bleeding and almost unconscious. They took me to the doc and cut off most of the leg. After a while I was back outside, though now I was kind of scared to be out all by my self all night, but the hoomans said that's where a cat belonged. So I did my best and tried to stay safe. Then the boxes came ... the hoomans started packing box after box. Finally I got put in one and I thought OH we're moving to a new home !!! But they stopped at the pound where they'd gotten me from years before and they left me there. Yeah, just left me. They told the pound they were moving and didn't think a three legged cat could adjust to a move. WHAT??? I could adjust just as good as they could? And what's moving got to do with how many legs you have anyway? Now I was an older guy, not a cute kitten, and the shelter people said I was doomed. Like gonna get killed. But one of them had heard about Rikki's Refuge doing Black Cat Appreciation Day. This was in May of 2012 and so one of them called and talked to Rikki's who said I'd fit in purrfectly and they loved kitties and they were sure a three legged kitty would be very happy here. And so I made a long journey over the mountains and thru the woods to Rikki's Refuge and my new forever home. I found lots of differently abled friends at Rikki's. Yes I did !!! And I learned that many are therapists and teachers !! They travel to schools, groups, nursing homes and all kinds of places being nice to hoomans and teaching hoomans to be nice to all species and to the differently-abled. It's so much fun! I meet so many nice people and it's a really good feeling knowing that I'm helping them learn to be even nicer. I'm understood, loved and appreciated for who I am !!