Say Hello to Dinah

Winter has finally settled in here in Connecticut. Its been blustery cold ~ but the snow has been falling without apology all week. On and off of course, mixed with rain ~ and flooding. It's really kind of ridiculous.
Your never really sure what the roads are going to bring...will it be ice, slush, snow, or that wet mixture of salt and whatever else the city trucks spray down. Regardless, its winter in New England at its finest.
On Saturday as I showered to get ready to go out to a friends house later that evening the kids come in the bathroom and announce "there's a cat outside".
If your like me your initial response is Big Whoop. There are lots of cats outside what's so exciting about this one? I think it was Abi who came in first to let me know of the mystery
kitty. She told the story about how there was a cat out there and it has a "demented" ear and its eating the food they put out. Well, i finished up in the shower and threw on my clothes. After getting to the side door I look out and see this tiny little gray cat with concave sides and a wad hanging off her ear.
OH THAT'S A KITTEN! Bring her inside i exclaim. Lucky for this cat I did indeed believe it was a kitten or I may not have been so quick to bring her in. We sat her on the table with her bowl of food and she commences to eating as if she hasn't seen food in years. And from the looks of her... its certainly been a while.

I call Kate and ask her what to do, because of her unknown whereabouts she advises me to
isolate her from the other cats and don't let the kids touch her! She might have rabies. Kate will stop in tomorrow after leaving Rhode Island and take a look.
Upon closer examination I see that her ear has more than a wad hanging off of it, its filled with a red mass. It looks almost as if someone has filled her ear canal with a cherry tomato. Because of the mass poor kitty's head is tilted, she's walking crooked, and keeps falling over. :o( Poor thing. She's as sweet as can be though... even John can't help but comment on her mild nature and his only question is "how much is this going to cost us"? He never once made any mention of getting rid of her and I think the deal was sealed.
Kate came by on Sunday where she confirmed my suspicions, the mass in her ear was going to need surgery (and we both assume she will need to be spayed) oh and by the way this cute tiny kitten with a half of a tail... is not so much a kitten as a full grown adult cat. :-O Now I've had some small cats but never anything so small that it would convince me at a glance it was indeed a kitten.
Anywho--Kitty spent the remainder of the weekend living in a crate in the spare room where she would eat, drink, poop and sleep. I would visit her daily and allow her time out of the crate to walk around, sit on my lap and be loved like she deserved. It is my theory that after her ear reached new levels of grossness her previous owners discarded her like dirty underwear. I brought her into the vet on Wednesday morning. Bright and early me and Kitty made the trek to the vets office in hops of hearing the good news that it was operable and most likely not a big deal. Dr. Chace was able to deliver this news with very little examination ~ which for me was promising because I knew he wasn't too concerned with what was growing in her ear. Boy was I relieved. I left her there and new that when I picked her up the next day I'd be $700 poorer and she would be ours forever.

I wouldn't let anyone name her until I found out what was going on with her ear. We are serious animal lovers and while she had spent minimal time with us, it would be just long enough to break a few hearts in my house. Not allowing them to name her would allow me to keep them somewhat disconnected if the outcome was bad.
After receiving the news that the mass was removed and she was successfully spayed I let my mind work and settled on Dinah. Anyone who knows me well knows that Alice in Wonderland has always been one of my all time favorite movies, and not for the Disney aspect of it. With the previews of the new Alice in Wonderland bombarding the television constantly the movie is fresh in my mind. So I thought Dinah was cute and fitting (and I probably should mention that Dinah is the name of Alice's cat in the movie, just in case you didn't already know that).
She's a dainty bit of a cat, barely 5 pounds. And from head to tail she looks more like a 5 month old then a one year old kitty. She has beautiful green eyes and pink pads on her feet, but a black triangle nose. Her tail is shorter than normal although there is some discrepancy as to if she might've been born like that or had trauma along the way. I tend to believe owners who wouldn't pay for an ear surgery or spay would most likely not bother to fix a tail had it been broken at some point, but who knows. Maybe they spent all their money on that and after injury two happened they decided to get rid of her rather than put another dime into her.

Anyway, this bit of a cat has a spirit as big as can be, and while she does not like the dog she is certainly not afraid of them. She hisses at them but holds her ground, not even bothering to puff up. Remy puts his tail between his legs and runs for the hills when hissed at. I'm glad to have her and as soon as she settles in I think that Stanley and the dogs will also be glad she has arrived.
I'll keep you posted on how she manages to get along here in Farm Webster.