Yardley

A few days ago when I posted the picture of Honeynut, Morgen suggested I tell the story of another cat I once had, named Yardley.
I found Yardley when she was a small kitten, while visiting my parents one afternoon. She looked pitiful, and she was injured. Her right front leg had been badly mangled by something. My mother wondered if it was one of the neighbors' raccoon traps. (ouch). I felt so bad for the poor little kitten. My dad, who is not exactly a cat person, wanted to take her out back and SHOOT her "to put her out of her misery."
Well, that's when I took a stand and decided I was going to adopt her and nurse her back to health and pamper her and try to make up for whatever past injustices fate had dealt her.
But first, her leg needed immediate medical attention. The wounds were severe, and they were festering.
So I made an emergency, after-hours call to the vet, who said to bring the kitten over right away. She was in the veterinary hospital overnight. They weren't able to save her leg, and had to amputate. I took her home and that's when she began her new life as an indoor pampered kitty.
I named her Yardley, because there are THREE FEET in a YARD...
She had no mobility problems at all; she could run and jump and play and use the litter box and all the other things cats do. I noticed sometimes she'd try burying her poop with the paw that 'wasn't there' anymore, and kept trying, and trying... sometimes Honeynut actually went in afterward and buried it FOR her. :)
But somehow the kittenhood trauma must have shortened her lifespan, because one day just a few years later I came home to find that she had passed away. She'd curled up in her favorite spot between the window and the rocking chair, and apparently died peacefully. I buried her in the flower bed next to the garage. (Which actually has more weeds than flowers now, but hey...)
So that's the story of Yardley. I'll always admire her self-sufficient spirit; she didn't seem to care whether she had 3 legs or 4, and constantly proved that she could do anything any other cat could.
Except bury her poop.