Princess has a checkered past: running wild and becoming pregnant, presumably by four different fathers. She was a rebel, a loner, until one unfortunate day. Something horrific happened to Princess, and she needed someone’s help.
Psychologist John T. Gossett first met Princess four years ago when she emerged from a creek and peered across the street at his porch.
“When she started coming on the porch, I started feeding her,” Gossett says. “I noticed she was pregnant. She was a tiny, little female, and she didn’t even look old enough to be pregnant, but she was pregnant. She had her kittens, next door, under my neighbor’s porch.”
Gossett nurtured their fragile connection by taking food to Princess and her litter. When the kittens were ready, Gossett took them to East Lake Veterinary Hospital to be adopted, and Princess decided to move in with Gossett. Well, technically under. Gossett lives in a pier-and-beam home, and Princess found the three-foot gap under the house a comfortable spot.
“Always cool in the summer and warm in the winter,” Gossett says.
He spent a year coaxing her, struggling to establish a bond. At first, he couldn’t get closer than 20 feet, but eventually he whittled that down to three or four feet.
Then, about a year and a half ago, something horrible happened to Princess. Gossett came home one Sunday, and his daughter ran up to him.
“She said, ‘Daddy, Daddy! There’s something wrong with Princess! She’s got blood all over her face, and she’s three houses up hiding under a car. We can’t get her out,’” Gossett recalls.
Princess was too fast for them. She sprinted under the house and wouldn’t come out.
“The whole right side of her face had been smashed,” Gossett says. “I thought she’d been hit with a baseball bat or hit by a car.”
For 10 days, twice a day, Gossett crawled under his house with food and water. He couldn’t get close to her, and she was pregnant again. He finally coaxed her out and trapped her.
Princess is a fighter. She healed on her own after just one vet visit, except for her right eye, which was severely damaged. Gossett knew she needed further medical attention, and eventually Princess ended up with Dr. Karen Fling at East Lake Veterinary Hospital. Fling took X-rays and made a startling discovery.
“She called me and said, ‘John, this cat has been shot in the face with some kind of bullet. There are still bullet fragments in her eye socket, in her face and in her chest and shoulders,’” Gossett recalls.
Fling removed Princess’s deformed eye and the healing process began.
“I do think it’s remarkable that she survived,” Fling says. “It really is a testament to the survival skills of some of these creatures.”
Princess recuperated in Gossett’s home for two weeks. When he set her free, he wasn’t sure if she’d stay or not. Today, Princess and five of her offspring live under the house. Princess finally found a home and person to trust. She spends her days lounging peacefully on the porch she wandered up to almost four years ago.
“She’s now a very happy, healthy, comfortable little gal with a very unusual history and kind of a funny looking little face,” Gossett says.
