Saturday night, October 8th, the manager of Flores Restaurant on Highway 290 in Dripping Springs called Thundering Paws to report a cat lying in their parking lot, probably having been hit by a car. We got there around 6 p.m. to find a tortoiseshell cat who could not walk, but who was decidedly not going into the box that a kind family was trying to use to save her.

My life just seemed to decide itself to be devoted to animal rescue. I had seen stories of "crazy cat ladies" being forcibly separated from their kitties because they had gotten so out of control and I really couldn't think of what separated me from them except good health and, therefore, an ability to hold down a job and, therefore, the means to spay and neuter everyone I took in.

Williamson County Rescues.

This is the second most frequently asked question when people find out my occupation. We have taken them out of Town Lake Animal Center and other "kill" shelters. We have taken them from people who can no longer keep their cats. Some have walked up the driveway. Once I was driving down Mopac and saw a cat sitting atop the concrete barrier by the side of the freeway, speeding cars on one side and a fifty foot drop on the other. It was a harrowing rescue, but he let me pick him up. However, the main way we get cats now is through our volunteers.

Jennifer Pospisil, a Thundering Paws donor, called us to ask me to trap a cat in downtown Austin. "Anne, this cat is skin and bones," she said. I know that Jennifer prefers her cats "full-bodied," so I wasn't too worried about the kitty. However, I grabbed a trap and headed for 5th and San Antonio Streets.