The Rescued Interviews: Maxine

Meows from Mudpie!

Back in 2015 Angel Truffles started interviewing the cats featured in Rescued: The Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes, an anthology of rescue cat stories compiled by Janiss Garza, who writes the Sparkle Cat blog. She was unable to see it to completion but I was more than honored to continue the series once I settled into my forever home and took full reins of our blog. Now Rescued Volume 2 is on store shelves and it's my goal to interview as many of the kitties as possible once again! (If you missed our review, it can be found here.)

Each author featured in the book has nominated a cat rescue and was assigned a month to promote the book, with a third of the profits from that month going to their rescue. November's spotlight is Maxine, a cat so determined to escape from her rescuers that she ended up losing a leg in the process!

Welcome Maxine! Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. Could you start by introducing yourself to us and telling us what made your story such a good fit for the Rescued anthology? 

Hello, Mudpie. I’m Maxine (or Max), resident Calico Manx of the Carson City Catmandu Adoption Center and Sanctuary and sometimes the volunteers refer to me as their favorite “tripod” due to my missing hind leg. Between living as a rescue at a rescue and recovering from the violent loss of my leg, I suppose my story hits both themes of Rescued 2 several times over.

You were so determined to escape your life at the shelter that you ended up experiencing something quite horrific. What made you so desperate to leave? 

Losing my leg was horrific, but so was being separated from my family and the only home I’d ever known. I suppose with age and distance I can admit the Topaz wilderness wasn’t the best place for us, but that doesn’t mitigate the terror I felt at the time or the fact I still don’t know where my mother and siblings ended up. I never want to feel that powerless again.

The title of your story in Rescued is "Feline Road to Recovery". What was your road to recovery like, and do you wish you had made a different decision on the day you made your great escape? 

It was long and pitted. I didn’t know at the time crawling inside cars when it’s cold isn’t a new idea for our kind or that many don’t survive injuries like mine, let alone enduring bungled medical procedures on top of it. If I had the chance to do it over part of me wants to say I would not crawl under the fan belt. I certainly would’ve saved myself a lot of physical torment that way, but realistically I probably wouldn’t have made it home. I also wouldn’t have come around to Linda and the other volunteers because I never would’ve agreed to go back in the trap. I’m pleased with how my life is going right now, so given the circumstances I think my choices played out the best way they could.

How have you adjusted to life minus one leg? Has it slowed you down in any way? 

I run sideways now, but that’s a minor change to my routine (and I’m still too fast for Camille to snap a photo of me scaling my cat tree, try as she might). The biggest obstacle to life without a back leg is scratching an itch on my neck or behind my head. Have you ever tried not scratching an itch? Awful! And when someone does scratch those places for me, the muscles vibrate in the area where my leg used to be.

What is life like for you today? 

I’m still at Catmandu, but unlike most other residents, it’s by choice. Linda tried to send me home with someone exactly once. I didn’t know the woman and she didn’t know me, so I unzipped her carrier on the way out the door and hid on the Catmandu property for over a week. Linda eventually came outside and literally promised if I agreed to go into the trap she would never send me home with anyone unless I chose the human myself. That’s all I wanted to hear, so I went into the trap the same night. I do have my eye on a man named Mark, but there’s already a cat living at his house, so for right now I’m perfectly content staying at Catmandu. I’ve even decided to begin writing a column for Catmandu’s newsletter, which should be out this month.

What shelter have you chosen to receive your proceeds from the book this month and why? 

Catmandu is both my shelter and my home. Some might say that’s self serving, but between the physical property and Catmandu’s foster homes there are over a hundred of us here (and it’s not even Kitten Season). I think most would agree they’d rather be here in a free roam former daycare than locked up in tiny metal cells.

What do you hope people learn from your story and what would you like your lasting legacy to be? 

Number one: I hope humans remember to check their cars when it’s cold. Give the hood a couple thumps before you start the engine. For that matter, check the wheel wells too. I never climbed in wheel wells myself, but I’ve seen neighborhood felines who have and I’ve heard horrible stories.

Number two: not all of us can be extroverts—some of us need gradually built relationships. When you’re expanding your family, it isn’t wrong to take your time. I’m certainly taking mine.