Ten Steps to Saving a Kitten While Attempting to Retreat Camp

AKA the story of Bug, the kitten

1. Make reservations to have a personal retreat so you can get away from the daily grind and have some rest and reflect time.

2. Pull into the parking spot at the cabin and wait for a 6-month-old kitten to beeline straight for you out of the woods, crying for help every step of the way, loudly.

3. Immediately say to yourself “oh shit, just what I need”. You think this because you’ve recently quit the rescue business after decades of watching how some people treat their pets which was really wearing on your soul while also sucking your time and wallet dry.

4. Locate suitable food in your cooler (salami lunchmeat in this instance) to lure the frantic kitty to you, finding out that’s not needed as he proceeds to rub on your legs.

5. Look around to see if there are nearby campers who may have (stupidly) brought their cat camping. (Seen it before).

6. Talk to only people nearby to find out if they know anything. Have a long chat with them about pets in general and this kitten in particular. Find out they’re just there for the afternoon but have seen him lurking around the edges of the woods.

7. Decide you have to go to the nearest store and buy cat food, knowing there’s a gas station not too far away that stocks household basics.

8. Talk to park employees to see if anyone is missing a cat and find out that people frequently will dump cats here thinking they will be safe and can catch mice, etc. to survive or someone (like me) will take them home.

9. Note that camp rules STRICTLY forbid having pets in the cabins, and if they find one you will be kicked out. Put the kitten in your cabin anyway so he doesn’t take off while you run to the nearest town (30 minutes away) for a litter box, litter, and a pet carrier for the ride home because you can’t leave him here.

10. And lastly, name the kitten Bug because before you decided to put him in the cabin for safekeeping, you watched him race up a tree to snag a flying bug, growl at you for thinking you might come to see what he has, and then eating it.

Note: There are a few more steps that occurred later like making a vet appointment to drive straight to from the campground so the kitty can be tested for feline leukemia and get a checkup and vaccines. You also have to make an appointment to get him neutered.

Another step is finding out that this kitty is terrified of everyone else except for you. Yet when he came to you in the campground he was sticking to you like glue and let you easily pet him and even slept in your bed that first night in the cabin!

And where did Bug end up in the long run? Hint, I now have one more cat than the too many I already had.

And the last photo to show the relief of a kitten once lost, now found.