The story of Mr. Bailey

Everyone has a shop or store that is dangerous to enter. By that, I mean dangerous to the budget because you know that even though all you went in for was X, you will leave with at least X,Y, and Z, and maybe a bit of A through W as well. Some of my friends say Target department stores are like that, and one friend is like that at shoe stores.

Our dangerous store is Complete Petmart. We like to buy our animal essentials there because they don't sell animals (a BIG plus in my book) and because they always have a cat from a local rescue in the store for adoption. Plus, the manager orders the cat litter we like as a special order. We're REALLY good cat litter customers. So every time Jim or I goes into Petmart we stop and visit the current cat. Usually, we only see a cat there for a week or so and they are gone to a new home. Enter Bailey...

On one of his routine visits, Jim stopped to pet Bailey, who seemed like a very sweet , laid back cat. Bailey had been found in an alley with other cats,all believed to be feral. They, including Bailey, were captured in order to be spayed or neutered, then would be released. As it turned out, Bailey was very human friendly, so he was taken in for adoption. Like all strays, Bailey suffered the risks of roaming, as his tail had been injured and was infected. It was too far gone to save, so he had a tail-ectomy and his healed tail is a stump. Sweet cat with a sad past = very adoptable. A week later, I stopped in for something- probably litter-and met Bailey, who seemed like such a nice cat that I commented about him to Jim. Neither of us, having met him, could understand why he hadn't been adopted yet. A week later he was still there and that's when the danger really started because my heart has a very loud mouth when it feels like it, and it was saying things like "No cat should have to beg for weeks for a home."

As I'm sure the end of this story was clear from the beginning, Bailey and his stump tail became a member of our family in June. He never had any trouble fitting in- even Nell, who would like to be an only cat, tolerates him. And we think Sam, our manx, is happy to have a tail-less brother to play with.