I have been feeding this lovely kitty for over eight years now. She initially would only show up at night, a ghost of a kitty in the shadows. I didn’t even know for certain until yesterday, what sex she was at the time. She would never even let me get close. There is a woman who lives back behind our creek right off Liberty Road who routinely feeds strays and I assumed she belonged there. But she kept becoming a regular here in the yard and at the feeders, so I had no clue where she came from.

She is a beautiful long-haired black and white kitty- more of a cow kitty than a tuxedo. She favors wet food over dry but that’s about all I could tell you about her.

Last night, I was late in feeding the strays by the shop, so I didn’t get out there until midnight. I was dumping wet food onto the trays when I felt a bump against my ankles. I thought it might be Bentley who often follows me on my rounds so I went to pet the ankle bumper and it turned out to be Mystic. I was amazed that she allowed me to touch her- and as I stroked and lifted her tail- I found that she is indeed a girl- so thankfully, she has been spayed. We had a few moments of petting before she scampered away. Felt like an early birthday gift (my birthday is tomorrow) Best present ever!  Of course this morning, when I went out to feed, she steered clear of me. Two steps forward, three steps back.

Previously, in my blog, I mentioned that behind the scenes it was getting quite stressful for us. For a recap- we discovered that we had a leak in our house, but because this house was built in the 30’s. The people before us instead of taking up old tile when they put down new, they just layered the stuff on top of each other. When it got down to it, there were five layers of tile down on our floors and the water was leaking under the third layer! So we didn’t notice it right away.

When we finally noticed the water, it was on our living room carpet, right at the edge of the kitchen. Initially, I thought Kota had slipped up and peed there, so I just sprayed, blotted it up, dried it up and thought how strange, because he doesn’t pee in the house. But the stain was too big to be a cat pee stain, unless said kitty was in full renal failure.

The next morning, there it was again! So I did the same thing, only this time, I did the sniff test and it didn’t smell like pee. It smelled like mildew! I mentioned it to Mike, and he suggested that I put a board over it to see what happens. So I did, and when we removed the board the following morning (after I had cleaned up the stain) there it was again. Very puzzling, so I called the plumber.

The plumber came and located four small leaks way in the back of the kitchen sink and fixed them. then he went away. But the next morning, the stain was back again so he came back and this time, he found a leak in the bathroom sink pipes and fixed those. But these were such small leaks. It didn’t make sense to me that they would cause that much water to appear. I was right, and the following morning the stain appeared again this time wetter and bigger.

One more time, the plumber was called and I was pretty upset. He isn’t cheap labor and he was missing something I was pretty sure. He finally took the front panel off our dishwasher and he couldn’t see under it- but I could hear water running, so he stuck his cell phone under there to video it- and it was running like a small brook! He pulled the dishwasher out and fixed that leak. He felt responsible (or so he said) so that visit cost us nothing. I showed him the bathroom where the floor was starting to buckle. I had already torn up the layers of tile in the kitchen and hallway, but the tile in the bathroom, when I started to tear that up- it was full of dry rot.  This flood had been happening a long time apparently by the look of things.

I quizzed him about the possibility of the shower or the toilet also leaking and he assured me that the way the floor was “behaving” this couldn’t be happening. He did check the floor and said it was “dry” and “nothing to worry about.” Then he left and since that time (it has been a month) the floor has continued to buckle and cause concern.

So then we called the contractors and they came, and they looked, and they went under the house, and they promised to get back to us. No one ever did. It was frustrating to say the least. We had a dozen men come here to look at the job.

Last Monday, a guy came out from another area and he was really nice, he looked at the “job” said he would work out an estimate and “be in touch.” Before he left, I cornered him and just asked him why no one was getting back with us on this? It was getting to the point where I was afraid Mike was going to crash through the floor in his wheelchair! He looked at me and said “Ms Miller, I will be honest with you, the job is too small. No one wants it, including me!” Then he left.

Meanwhile, our floor is getting worse and in our good days, Mike and I could have fixed this ourselves in a heartbeat. So yesterday, I went to a lumber yard where the guys know me quite well. (They give me discounts on lumber when we are working with the cat buildings). I was pretty stressed and started telling them my story and I couldn’t hold it together any longer, I just had a meltdown right there in front of God and everyone..

One of the guys handed me a slip of paper that had two numbers and two names on it and said- “Call these numbers, one of them will help you. I swear it.”

I went back to the truck, got myself under control and called the first number which was answered by a human and not a machine. Instead of being told that he was slammed busy and couldn’t even come for weeks to look at the job, he instead told me that he would meet me at the house in 20 minutes with his brother, and we would go from there! I drove home, but I have to say, I was skeptical he would show up.

Well he did show up, and told us the job was going to be a bugger because of the dry rot and  water damage. He would have to gut the entire bathroom as the shower and the sink were now sinking down. Plus there was a leak in the ceiling that was also old (he pulled some ceiling tiles down) and when he told us how much this gutting would cost, our hearts sank. We didn’t  have that kind of money, not even close.

His brother went outside, he made one phone call and came back in and told us that it would be okay. It was all “handled” someone had made arrangements to donate all the material needed for the job, and he and his brother are not going to charge us for their labor! I was flabbergasted! I kept expecting them to say it was all a joke, and walk away like the dozens before them had- but they are on the level. It is not going to cost us a dime and while they are fixing and finding the leak (they suspect the shower is leaking) they are also going to widen the door so that Mike can at least get his wheelchair somewhat in the bathroom instead of just in the hallway. The doorway should be 32-34 wide and it is only 20.

I’d gotten the point where I had just given up believing in people anymore. I wasn’t sleeping much worrying about this situation and other financial concerns. I just wanted our bathroom to be safe to use and no one seemed to want to touch it at any price. Now, these guys are going to donate their time and effort and a home improvement store will be donating the material needed to make our life here so much easier and I am floored! (no pun intended).

They have three jobs they are working right now, but when those are done- we are next in line to have a new, functional bathroom! This is such a random act of kindness for us and we will be paying it forward in the near future.As for Mike and I, we are doing a happy dance (although his looks a bit funny being performed in a wheelchair!) 🙂