Guest Star: Dulce

Hi everyone,

Please find below the latest Guest Star entry by Wendy C about how Dulce got to live with her:

Here is the story of Dulce’s arrival to our home. Do edit and adjust as you like or suggest edits. Photos to follow.

Dulce was intended for our Granny;  two days after arriving, Granny lost her in the common area of her building, a network of spaces including five storage rooms, two common rooms, restrooms, kitchens, bicycle room, three laundry rooms, several utility and broom closets, offices, staff common room, mechanical workshop.  Amidst a global scale crisis, a lost cat, and the BLM protests beginning to brew directly adjacent.  Police headquarters of New York City is a short distance away;  lines of police cars with lights flashing, and corrections facility buses with grates across the windows moved past.  Groups of protesters gathered nearby, tarpaulins over tables set with food, drink, first aid supplies, placards.  Police always in groups walked across the grounds.

One manager didn’t believe a Granny could bring a cat out of her flat. We searched her home and walked down the buildings’ two stairwells, 21 floors.   A porter advised when the manager left the premises and then opened locked doors to enable the search.  Maintenance staff knew the corners and small spaces, some helped move furniture. A gardener knew where residents leave food for stray cats.  Porters knew of the delivery schedules, when doors may have been propped open.

On the second day, a night watchman saw a cat drinking from a puddle near the garden, then  again in the car park.  We canvassed the grounds, searched through vegetation, looked under each car on the premises, a vigorous and odd sort of yoga.  We phoned shelters and friends who lent humane traps, requiring the risk of rides on subway trains.  We made rain covers, purchased tins of herring, configured dishes raised above another dish below for water to divert ants.  We placed the traps, checked overnight, changed locations.  Night watchmen helped to monitor into the morning hours.

On the third day, Dulce mewed when a porter entered a storage room, and was brought home for water, food, a soft bed and a very relieved new family.