The Great Kitten Rescue

Next we park the car just off of the feeder at I-35 and Ben White Blvd., we sprint across the feeder, up a hill, through vegetation, up under the freeway, where we meet Ricky Lee and Bryan. Ricky Lee is a veteran, I think he is blind in one eye, he has a Chihuahua named Jessie, he is working to get an apartment, he is close friends with Barrett. Once, he broke his leg when he got hit by a car on Ben White, friends took him to the hospital where he got a cast placed onto his leg. Ricky Lee was in a wheelchair with a cast for six months. He thanks Barrett for driving him to the hospital to get his cast removed. He borrows Barrett’s phone to call his lawyer about the apartment. Barrett and Ricky Lee have been friends for a while.

Bryan and Ricky Lee crack jokes about Barrett’s Chik-Fil-A shirt..."why is Barrett wearing that shirt? Why aren’t the chicks wearing the Chik-Fil-A shirt?"

Bryan also tells us about his cats, and his four new kittens. He wants to get rid of them. He doesn’t have time for no kittens. The little orange and white striped kittens crawl all over his stuff, they make tiny cries, and their pelts/hair/fur/whatever are soft as velvet. Get rid of them, he asks. I wish I could take a kitten.

We leave Bryan and Ricky Lee, promising to try to find a home for Bryan’s cats....

After a few more stops and after our taco supply diminished, then we went back to Ricky Lee and Bryan. We are here for the cats. After much struggle and flying claws and an angry momma cat and fearful, shaking kittens, we herded four kittens and two large cats into the back of Barrett’s car. We drove them to the Austin Animal Shelter where we received cages and carried them in. The kittens were a surprising adventure that definitely made a mark...on our tender arms.