Our Cats Nine Lives

The tale of three kittens who were rescued from a drain pipe during Hurricane Florence and then also survived a house fire!

I think there’s an unspoken requirement of owning a Victorian home – you must be a crazy cat lady. 

If you had told me just 2 short years ago that I would own not 1, but 3 cats, I would have called you crazy. I had never even held a cat at that point in my life (I’m a dog person). 

Well….when my kids came home from school one day in NC saying there was a mommy cat and 3 kittens stuck in the drain pipe on their playground, my hubby and I spent the next 4 days rescuing them…. and like crazy people, we kept all 3 kittens. (I mean seriously, how do you separate a family??) 

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We rescued the last kitten the day Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina! 

We then moved a couple of months later to Wisconsin. Three short months after moving in, our 1886 Victorian was stuck by lightning and caught fire. While us humans and dogs got out to safety, our rabbit and 3 cats were still inside. 

A very nice police officer braved going inside the house and rescued the rabbit. But the 3 cats couldn’t be found, despite the fire fighters desperately looking for them (one had tears in his eyes telling me he was so sorry he couldn’t find them).

Later that day, when I went back into the house, after the fire was put out, I walked up to our bedroom, pulled up the mattress and found all 3 cats cuddled together inside of our box spring mattress. They had torn a hole in it and were safe. 

God definitely led me straight by to them. I was able to rescue all 3. They may be on life #3 already ?? but they say cats have nine lives, right? So we’ve got a few spares! ? 

The cats were so apprehensive about coming home after not living in our home for 18 months – but they have finally settled in and are loving being home. …. and besides, what’s a big ol’ Victorian without a bunch of cats anyway?