Apologies for the long story ahead of time. This has been coming for a while, but I'm having a lot tougher time than I thought I would processing it. I just feel like people should know her story.
When I was 12 years old I lived in a cul-de-sac, last house at the end of the circle. I came home from school one day and heard a small kitten stuck in a tree that overhung the road. My parents told me to ignore it, so I did....for a day. The next day I got off the bus and still could hear her cries. I couldn't ignore it any longer. So, while being very quiet not to alert my dad inside, I snuck a 15ft ladder and a small bowl of cat food up the road. It took her some time, but she eventually came into my arms. As I was walking down the ladder, I was very quickly reminded of why she was stuck in the tree. By the time I was at the base, I was surrounded by 4 neighborhood dogs. She dug in tight to my arms with her claws while the dogs jumped on me. As I tried to kick the dogs away and make it back home, she had had enough and leaped out of my arms. She ran further up the street, with the pack of dogs in tow. I quickly followed while blood dripped from gashes in both arms. I was able to find her in a much smaller tree up the road. Undeterred by the dogs, I grabbed her from the tree, locked her tight in my arms, while she locked her claws into me, and headed home while continuously fighting off the dogs.
When I made it home, my dad was furious. I was pouring blood at this point from both arms and scratched up on my legs from the dogs. He took her out of my arms and threw her out the door. She quickly ran into our neighbor's tree. My dad made sure to let the neighbors know how much he hated her, so they took it upon themselves to shoot at her with a BB gun.
I spent the next hour crying and pleading with him to let me save her, but he wouldn't. When my mom came home, she finally calmed him down and let me go outside. It was too late; she didn't trust me anymore. It took 3 days of talking to her for hours and tempting her with food. She was higher up this time, so the ladder wouldn't work. She had to come down. Finally, she did. At this point, my mom was fully on my side and we got to keep her. I named her Daisy and she lived with us for the next 17 years of her life. My mom has taken care of her since I've moved out and she let me know this morning she finally lost her fight with kidney failure.
Daisy's favorite song was Ice Cream Paint Job by Dorrough(I'm not kidding, she would go crazy). She was very nocturnal and loved to race around the house at night, while stalking corners to jump out and nibble on your foot every. single. night. I've had several cats pass in my life, but Daisy's hurts just a little more knowing how hard she fought to even have a chance.
Thank you to anyone who made it this far.