My Sweet Sugar

One evening in 2005, I surveyed a site for a new condo project. The site, consisting of a motel and two houses, was scheduled to be demolished the following morning at 5:30 a.m.

A white cat was wandering around the site, looking out of place sitting on the tread of a bulldozer. She was muddy and had some goo stuck in her tail. As she wandered through the debris from the abandoned buildings, I tried to catch her, but she wouldn't have it.

She seemed to know her way around and led me into one of the abandoned houses, to the second floor. I found her hiding in an old carpet filled with shattered glass from a broken window. Again, she ran from me when I tried to catch her.

The idea of the mornings wrecking-ball horrified me. So I got a live-animal trap to set at the doomed house. Then I drove back and forth in my pajamas, checking the trap every couple of hours.

At 2 a.m., I found a raccoon in the live trap and released it. I reset the trap for a last attempt.

Finally, at 4:30 a.m., I found the white cat in the trap and brought her to Feline Rescue, a local nonprofit no-kill cat shelter. They cleaned, fed and spayed her.

The developer was so moved that he donated $1,000 to the shelter and declared the rescued cat the official mascot of the project. I named her Sugar because she is white and sweet. I have since taken her home to live with our family.

Jay Anderson
Minnesota

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