“Rockie, Simba and Cougar Enjoy a Snack”
Photographs © CatsHope™
Tami: Lost and Found Part 1 –The Family That Came Home: Page 2
A Conversation I Did Not Expect
As I questioned Mr. P about what had happened, the conversation became increasingly troubling. He told me that he had previously had as many as twelve cats over time, and that they had either died or gone missing.
He also told me that CWS had previously taken away a cat—or cats—that had been allowed to roam and had not been sterilised, and that, according to him, CWS had refused to return them.
That was when I became much more direct. There had been clear conditions when I entrusted Tami and her babies to him. They were to be kept within the grounds.
They were to receive the medical treatment they needed. The kittens and Tami were to be dewormed, treated for mites and sterilised. These conditions had not been fulfilled.
When I confronted him about the lack of veterinary treatment, he told me that he had enough money for their annual medical check-up.
I lost my patience but still kept a civil tone. I was not talking about an annual medical check-up. These were young cats requiring ongoing care, including deworming, treatment for mites and sterilisation.
Meanwhile, two males and two females were being allowed to roam freely. It was a ticking time bomb.
At that point, there was no question in my mind. The adoption was over. The kittens were coming home with me.
“Tami, All Greyed Out.”
Photographs © CatsHope™
What Hunger Did to Tami
Perhaps one of the most painful things for me to learn was what had happened between Tami and her babies. Tami had been proud of her kittens. She had cared for them, watched over them and raised them. But now the kittens were hungry.
They tried to nurse from their mother.
Tami was hungry too. Under the stress of inadequate food and her own hunger, she began fighting them off when they tried to nurse. Eventually, she rejected them.
The three kittens stayed together. Tami began going out in search of food. And somewhere along the way, she stopped coming back.
The mother who had once watched so proudly over her babies was now separated from them, trying to survive on her own.
Piecing Together Tami’s Journey
What happened after Tami disappeared remained a mystery for a long time.
Only much later did we begin to understand her journey. We spoke with the adopter, the neighbours and others who had seen Tami during the months she was missing. Each person knew only part of the story, but together their accounts painted a remarkably consistent picture.
From what we learned, Tami had probably begun slipping out of the property during the cooler hours of the early morning or after nightfall in search of food. At first, she appears to have found her way back to the house. Over time, however, she wandered farther from home until one day she did not return.
A neighbour who often held barbecues recognised her roaming the neighbourhood and regularly left food for her. That simple act of kindness most likely helped her survive.
Another family came to know Tami as one of the neighbourhood cats. Believing she was homeless, they placed a collar with a little bell around her neck and cared for her as one of their own. At some point, Tami disappeared from the neighbourhood as well. At the time, we had no idea what had become of her.
We only learned the rest of the story much later.
Looking back, we realised that many people had unknowingly become part of Tami’s journey. The adopter, the neighbours, the family who cared for her, and those who later helped us piece together her story had each witnessed only a small part of what had happened. None of them knew the whole story, but together they helped explain how Tami survived until she finally found her way back to the family that had never stopped looking for her.
“Tami—When I was Lost”
Photographs © CatsHope™
But Where Was Tami?
I took Cougar, Simba and Rockie home. But Tami was still missing. And by then, I knew that she had already been gone for some time.
We searched for her. We looked along the streets, around the neighbourhood and through the drains, calling for her and trying to find some sign of where she might have gone.
It was a hot day. Eventually, we concluded that perhaps Tami was hiding somewhere out of the sun. I had found her babies. But I went home without their mother. I could not leave it there.
On another day, I went back. This time, I returned in the evening, when the day was cooler. I called for Tami.
And she came. She came to me. I looked down and there she was at my feet. But when I saw her, I almost did not recognise her.
The Tami standing before me looked shell-shocked. Even her colouring seemed different to me. The cat I remembered seemed to have turned grey. She looked like a cat who had been through something I could not fully know. But she had heard me. She had come when I called. And finally, Tami was coming home.
“Kimi, June 2021”
Kimi was rescued while Tami and her three remaining kittens were away. She was pulled from a storm drain after the heavy iron grate was lifted. At the time of her rescue, she was found with a male ginger kitten, whom we presumed to be her brother. Kimi was estimated to be about three months old. This photograph was taken in June 2021.
Photographs © CatsHope™
Home, But Not Yet Home
Bringing Tami and her babies back did not mean that everything immediately returned to normal. The cats I brought home were not the same uninhibited family I had sent away.
They hid. They went under cupboards and shelves and did not want to come out. Mostly, they emerged when it was time to eat. And sometimes, when they looked at me, I felt as though I knew exactly what they were thinking.
“You tried to give us away.”
It was a hurt look they gave me. I had tried to find them what I believed would be a good home. Instead, they had come back traumatised. It took many months before Tami and her babies began to return to their old selves—before they relaxed, trusted again and became the uninhibited cats I remembered.
During the time they had been away, another abandoned ginger kitten had come into my care. She was roughly the same age as Tami’s babies. In time, she would become part of their family too.
But that is another story.
“Tami, After Her Return in June 2021.”
Photographs © CatsHope™
Tami in One More Discovery
There was still one more thing I did not know about Tami’s missing months.
Because the veterinary care agreed upon at the time of the adoption had never been carried out, I eventually took responsibility for arranging treatment, vaccinations and sterilisation for the cats.
When it was Tami’s turn, I brought her to SPCA to be sterilised. We expected it to be a routine procedure, just like the others.
Instead, it revealed the final piece of the puzzle.
After the surgery had begun, the veterinarian discovered there was no womb to remove. Tami had already been sterilised.
Suddenly, the pieces fell into place.
The conversations I had had with Mr. P., the neighbour who had fed Tami after his barbecues, and the family who had cared for her while she was missing all made sense. They had each known only a small part of her story. It was only now that those separate pieces came together.
I felt terrible thinking about everything Tami had gone through.
She had once belonged to someone before being abandoned. I had found her beside a drain, brought her home and watched her raise her five kittens. Believing I had found them a good home, I entrusted the family to another household.
Instead, hunger drove Tami to search for food. She became separated from her kittens and disappeared into an unfamiliar neighbourhood.
While she was lost, kind people helped her survive. One neighbour regularly fed her after his barbecues. Another family believed she was a homeless cat. They cared for her, placed a collar with a little bell around her neck and arranged for her to be sterilised, never knowing she already had a family searching for her.
Even after Tami had returned home, I was still discovering pieces of her journey. It took conversations with the adopter, the neighbours and the unexpected discovery at SPCA before I finally understood what had happened during those missing months.
After everything Tami had endured, I could not bear the thought of trying to rehome her again. Her search for a permanent home was over.
The younger cats might still have the opportunity to find suitable homes of their own. But if those attempts failed, they would always have a home to return to.
For Tami, however, there would be no more journeys, no more uncertainty and no more searching.
She had been abandoned, rescued, become a mother, rehomed, gone hungry, become lost and finally been found again.
She was home.
And this time, she would stay.
After the surgery, SPCA tattooed her ear so that there could never again be any doubt that she had already been sterilised.
Article by Tiffany Argent,
CatsHope™ Ambassador
Coming in Part 2: Why Tami’s Story Matters
Not every adoption succeeds.
In Part 2, we reflect on what Tami’s experience taught us about responsible adoption, feeding and caring for growing kittens, timely veterinary treatment, sterilisation, and why CatsHope™ believes pet cats living in an urban environment should be kept safely indoors or within a secured property—not simply because of the law, but because of the dangers that can await a cat once it is allowed to roam unsupervised.
To be continued…
Next: Tami: Lost and Found Part 2 – Why Tami’s Story Matters: The CatsHope™ Perspective
