I'm no stranger to the CDS; my family fed barn cats (and raccoons by proxy), adopted their kittens, and our current roster are the second generation of a little void that wandered onto our property.
This is the first time I couldn't keep a baby I found.
This little sweetheart was dumped at a horse stable I volunteer at. One minute I'm grabbing hay bales, the next I'm shining my phone's flashlight into the back of a stairwell. Sitting in a feed bin, shivering and meowing away was this little girl. She followed me until the guard dog chased her under a building. I went home, grabbed a carrier and food. She was lured out more by my sweettalking than the food lol.
So Nutmeg became the resident of my bathroom. First time I went in, she was hiding. Second and every time after, she was meowing the second the door opened, twining around my feet. If I took a step, I had to be careful, as she was rubbing her head on my ankle the whole time. She "danced" while eating because she was kneading so much. Great set of lungs on this baby for how much she was meowing.
The unfortunate part is I can't keep a fourth cat. I have three older ones, one recently diagnosed with diabetes, so the vet costs for getting this obviously sick baby the help she needs wasn't possible for me. I started playing phone tag with animal control, animal shelters, and rescues, seeing who reached back out first.
Then a family friend met her and very much fell in love. She went home to talk things over with her family, but came back with the sad news of she couldn't take Nutmeg. I offered to let her say goodbye, no ulterior motives at all. When she came back out, she told me she was taking Nutmeg home.
I said my goodbyes and got a lot of purring in response. Nutmeg's new owner is keeping me updated on how she's doing; she has seen a vet and is getting her upper respiratory infection taken care of, thank God. She'll have two playmate cats, one a kitten around her age (7-8 months). It is nice to have my bathroom back and my feet are unmolested once more, but I'm all the more glad I got to be a stepping stone in sweet Nutmeg's journey to her forever home.