Wally the Wal-Mart Cat--A Rescue Love Story

It was cloudy, cold, and misting on that fateful night of November in 2004. Me and my husband had went to the Super Center Wal-Mart at Bell Isle to do a little grocery shopping. The wind had picked up and the chill went straight through your body. The parking lot was very crowded as it was the Christmas shopping season. We were winding through the maze of cars, when I heard what I thought was a meowing. I turned to my husband and "said did you hear that"? He shook his head no. Then I heard it again and it was a mewing that sounded urgent. Before I knew it, here comes this poor scrawny kitten that stopped me in my tracks. He had been crying so much he sounded hoarse. He had bounded up to me and my husband. I was in total shock, the poor little guy had a rubber band on his neck which I promptly took off. I was so astounded at the cruelty of someone just leaving him there in that busy parking lot and so was my husband. We put him in our warm car and ran into the store to get a few things. When going back to the car we were careful to open the door slowly. He was sleeping on the seat, and I gently put him on my lap. He purred all the way to our house. I carried him in to inspect him in a good light, I took him to the bathroom and shut the door. To prevent our other cats in scaring him. The first thing I seen was his fur was filthy and he was covered in fleas. First thing I did was to give him a warm bath with a flea killing agent. I could have swore the fleas numbered a thousand, I just gently kept washing him until they were all gone. Then with a warm towel I gently dried his fur, then I brought him some warmed canned food. He was a gorgeous tuxedo kitty, and his fur gleemed after the shampooing. We had 4 other kitty's at the time. We was wondering about keeping him and if he was going to get along with our other kitty's. After thinking it over and knowing he actually chose us that night, our decision was clear. The next day my husband took him to the vet to make sure he was healthy, he did have a cold from the weather and his meower didn't work for a long time after that night. The vet gave us some antibiotics for him and gave him a bill of clean health. My husband asked what we should name him, I said Wally since we found him at Wal-Mart. Wally was so precious as he grew into such a handsome kitty, it looks like a Hershey's kiss was planted on his nose. Well he intergrated with the other kitty's just fine. After awhile a couple years later we got him a baby brother, which he is named Beaver, which actually came from the TV series, Leave it to Beaver. They reminded us how those two brothers was always getting into troube and their funny antics. Wally is different from the other cat's in our household. He is very protective of our home, he goes to the door and if he thinks a stranger is out there he will growl. Every night he makes what we call his patrol, he looks out the front window and will cry for us to open it so he can check things out. Also, his favorite word at night is bedtime. When we say bedtime he will run and jump on the bed. His favorite sleeping spot is on my knees, he uses them as his pillow. Sometimes he will lay down beside me and just purr. Wally is kind of a James Bond cat, he has his tuxedo on all the time and grooms himself as if to show us how handsome he is. He knows he is truly loved in our home, I think he is protective as he knows we rescued him that night.