Liza Minnelli is our new kitten. She was an impulsive acquisition. Actually, she was forced upon me by some colleagues. On the last day of school, I went by the Special Ed office to drop off a requisition form, and, in that weakened-end-of-the-year-I-have-time-to-raise-a-kitten state, I was given a tiny kitten. “Here, she’s yours. Her name is Liza Minnelli.” Two theater teachers named her. She’s a tuxedo kitten, black with a white nose, collar, and paws. Five weeks old and feisty, Liza is afraid of nothing.
Liza fits perfectly in the palm of your hand, like a teacup.
Every good rescue has a story. I took off so quickly ( If I had hung around, maybe I would’ve changed my mind.) that I failed to get the whole story. That night I messaged one of the teachers for the story. This is what she wrote:
A stray momma cat had a litter of four kittens near her apartment. The area is very prone to flooding and a few weeks ago, very shortly after the kittens were born, they got several days of heavy rain and thunderstorms. The mom was mostly set up at the base of a tree with the kittens, but as the flood waters started to rise, the mom took the kittens in her mouth one by one and carried them up into the tree and spent several days nested around the kittens like a bird to protect them from the thunderstorm. The kittens spent most of their early life in the tree until they began to crawl, and every once and a while a kitten would fall out of the tree. The mom would jump down, get the kitten in her mouth and climb a fence post (the kind of post you see on a barbed wire fence) then she would make a daring 4-foot leap with kitten in her mouth, into the tree. The mom continued to do this until the storms had passed. I just thought it was so crazy that the momma cat had the instinct to protect her babies, and would surround them like a momma bird would, all the while clinging to a tree for protection. “
What a great rescue story! Now, Liza is in the loving arms of one of my daughters. She has taken a trip to New Orleans and been introduced to dogs and children. So far, she is a sweetheart, doing all her business in the litter box and sleeping through the night in a kitty carrier. I haven’t regretted the impulse yet. Save a life; Make a friend.
Dixie, my daughters’ roommate’s dog, is gentle with Liza.
- Liza is tolerant of child transports.
Reflections on the Teche 