Garfield the kitten arrived at the shelter when he was five weeks old after a good Samaritan found him alone on the street. He was all skin and bones, covered in fleas, and had ear mites.
Megyn Scott-Hintz regularly fosters kittens and when she saw him she knew she had to step in and take him home.
Once there she discovered that he was very laid-back for a feral kitten, they usually hiss and shy away from human company.
It didn’t take long for Garfield to settle into his new surroundings, and he soon made friends with Megan’s outdoor semi feral cat, Captain Pickles.
This senior kitty had never paid much attention to any of Megan’s other foster kittens, but there must’ve been something about Garfield because he became his friend and protector.
They would even snuggle up together on the sofa which was something that Pickles had never done before.
Megan had adopted Pickles over nine years ago, one of his ears had been tipped so she knew that at some point in his life he had been neutered when living in a cat colony.
She had tried for years to turn him into a house cat but he resisted and preferred to spend most of his time on her porch, only entering the house at mealtimes.
It turned out that Garfield had a few health issues and he had to be rushed to the vet for emergency treatment. After spending a few days at the vet he returned home and Pickles was so happy to see his friend again.
“As soon as he came back, Pickles groomed him amazingly,” explained Megan to The Dodo. “He was like, ‘You have to get clean. You’re disgusting.’ And if I tried to get Pickles to stop grooming him, Pickles would try to bite me. He was like, ‘Don’t touch the baby. Get away from him. I know what I’m doing.’”
Pickles was there for Garfield throughout his convalescence, it was if his instincts told him that Garfield was ill and needed constant care. But the little ginger kitty was strong and he was soon on the mend.
“Now that Garfield is doing better, I can tell that Pickles wants to be near him, but he’s more relaxed about the situation,” said Megan. “He’s not guarding him so closely.”
With Garfield feeling much better, Megan noticed that he was now beginning to groom Pickles, who in turn was teaching Garfield how to be a proper cat.
Megan hopes that all of this little kitten’s experiences at his foster home will keep him in good stead when it’s time to be put up for adoption.
And she is so happy that Captain Pickles has decided that it’s not so awful being an indoor cat after all.
