Speaking of Cats

We talk about how nice it would be to not have them, to not have to leave them at home when we leave home. We even talk about getting a travel trailer so we can take them with us.

But, I don't believe we will ever be catless. You know how some folks seem to have a sign hanging out, "Strays Welcome Here." That's us. When we bought at the lake we brought our city strays with us.

Now, since we live in a county whose animal policy is Dump 'Em, we have accumulated our lake country strays. They come during the winter, spend it under a heatlamp in the garage, and wind up living in the house the next Spring.

This winter a bunch of longhairs showed up. Two of them picked us, and one of them picked me. This one is an unusually friendly stray, already loving a good hug and a lap, mine. So, add one more to the mix.

The sign is hanging out for the wildlife, too. Each day we have hundreds of birds (and squirrels) at our feeders. At night our raccoons visit us: Dad and Mom (Rocky and Racquel) and last year's two siblings (Coony and Coony). You would think a raccoon is just a raccoon, but I can assure you, they all have their own personalities and we know them on sight. Rocky is mine, or I am his, and we can sit together on the back deck without fear of each other.

Then there's the possum, Paul, who was joined last night for the first time by Paula. All these critters sit at out patio door and stare at us. Now, how many of you would not give them a bowl of food? (Ol Roy from Wal*Mart)

We have had a number of 'possums and 'coons come to our back yard. But one spring we had a family of gray foxes (not red). They are quite different and can climb trees! But we've not seen them since. ---Ken
p.s. Cats and raccoons get along OK. The cats think raccoons are strange-looking cats; the raccoons think cats are strange-looking 'coons. I don't know what they think a 'possum is.

Absolutely, they mingle on our deck and sleep together and take cover from storms under our shed. Possums, too. We assume the cats and coons figure the possums are just strange looking, period.

nicklinneh said:

p.s. Cats and raccoons get along OK. The cats think raccoons are strange-looking cats; the raccoons think cats are strange-looking 'coons. I don't know what they think a 'possum is.

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Kal,

Everything pretty much tastes like chicken when you get down to it...I would expect my cats to have been more like very greasy duck meat from the fat they had.

JLB,

Animals have a great sense of who is "good people". Thus your collection. I think it's just great. Both the wife and I grew up with numerous rescued pets and they always give more love than they ever ask for. Maybe someday we humans will evolve to their level of love, honesty and caring.

Keep up the good work!

John

Thanks for the enjoyable read, JLB. You are an writer who should share your gift more often.

I too love my cat, and my dog, and what ever 2 or 4 legged person who I happen upon. When nothing else will, a fur-kid will put a smile on my face.

Diane

Accidental Cat.

We were catless there for a while, once Cleopatra reached the end of the trail after 17 years & we buried her out in the back yard. (Home is where the family pets are buried, eh?) But now we have Buffy -- sometimes also called (mainly by me) Buffy Wuffy Catsky Watsky.

Buffy is our "accidental" cat. Some years ago, our nephew's cat ran away. The Chief Of Staff volunteered to check the animal shelter in search of an overweight buff-colored declawed male cat with extremely long & fine-textured hair. There he was, penned up in the shelter. How many exactly like that could there be? So The Chief Of Staff bailed him out & took him over to our nephew's house.

The newly rescued cat was checking out the premises as cats do. Our nephew looked him over & after a while said, "You know, that cat does look very much like mine. But I don't think he's my cat." Nephew was right -- his real cat came home in a few days, leaving the family with 1 extra overweight buff-colored declawed male cat with extremely long & fine-textured hair.

We persuaded a little old lady in the neighborhood to take him. She named him Buffy. She said, "What will become of Buffy if something happens to me?"

We said, "Don't worry. If anything ever happens to you, we will take good care of Buffy."

The little old lady loved & pampered Buffy for 5 years or so, then passed away year before last. So now we've got Buffy. He is gentle & has good manners & has good sandbox training, & is hardly any trouble -- except for shedding big clumps of his fine-textured hair all over the place. We got him a full-body crew cut last year, then bought our own eBay electric pet clippers to try keeping him trimmed. The result is that he looks pretty scraggly most of the time. But he's just an old cat & he doesn't care, so there you are.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

Scruffy Buffy Catsy Watsky has an appointment at the Vet tomorrow.

Thanks (blush).

I guess no one told you that you should not encourage me.

DianeH said:

Thanks for the enjoyable read, JLB. You are an writer who should share your gift more often.

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He's there now. They tried to hit us up for around $250. We got them down to $120.

Why is it that in so many cases doing the right thing is the hardest course? In a county whose animal control policy is there isn't one, it would be nice if the few of us trying to make difference got a break.

In about an hour we can go pick up our groggy cat, and give him some lap time.

JLB said:

Scruffy Buffy Catsy Watsky has an appointment at the Vet tomorrow.

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Timeshare Cats.

Hanging around the shrubbery outside the Pembroke Building of HGVC Sea World during our Orlando vacation in September 2005 were some stray cats pretending they were starving. By & by the animal lovers among the resort guests started offering the strays leftover morsels of chicken, fish, hamburger, etc. According to resort staff, the animal control people round up the timeshare cats periodically, but before long more cats come along. Cats are smart, however, sensing which people to mooch from and which to avoid.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

After college, I ended up with 2 cats and 2 dogs. The dogs were "orange dot specials" meaning that the shelter would put the animals with orange dots on their charts "down" at the end of the day.

The cats were "saved" too--one from their "parents" shipping off to Scotland with the military (the quarantine being too much for them to want to put her through) and the other being a second generation stray that just ended up at my door one day.

My cats (Rachel and Katie) lived to be 17 and the one dog (Max) lived to be 12 before they had to be put down for various age appropriate health reasons (and beyond painful for that lowly pet/adoptive parent left behind). Minnie is still going strong and I've brought on Sam, who I found at the SPCA (and Sam now rules the house!!).

I know that not everyone loves animals (one of my best friends is one of those people) but I'm grateful for everyone who does love them and helps them out.

Heidi

more timeshare cats

Every resort we've ever stayed in in the Caribbean - timeshare or not - seems to have its own cat colony. The last was at the RIC La Plage in SXM - great black and white cats - they were all pretty skinny but also pretty well fed by the guests...In my next life I think I'd like to come back as a ts cat!

make sure your cat is only trained to use the kitty litter box because this is what can happen


http://www.newsletters.decorate-redecorate.com/water-leaks.html

Buffy Wuffy Catsky Watsky ("Accidental Cat")

Being adopted by a cat

Trying to help out can get you in more trouble!! There has been a cat that has "hung out" in our neighborhood for the past four years or so. He is an unnuetered male that has left his mark in more ways than one. No one on my street really knows if this fellow has a true home or not. He is certainly healthy as he eats breakfast every morning at my house and gets his supper across the street at the neighbors. So far he has impregnated two of my registered Napoleons (A new breed of cats that have short legs and persian type coats) causing one of them to have to be spayed due to complications from the unintended pregnancy at an emergency c-section on a holiday weekend. My cats are inside cats, never go outside, this rogue slipped into my house to do the dirty. Very, very expensive, still we can't bear to see him placed at the pound, he is not a very attractive cat, skitsy as all get out inside, so he remains outside. So far, in the last year, two of my neighbors have taken him to the vets to get basic shots in preperation for neutering, neither one knowing the other had taken him. Then the cat gets skitzed out and will not allow himself to be put in a carrier to be taken for the return trip.

The last incident involved my 22 year old neighbor, who has moved in with her grandmother, putting the cat in the basement of their house the night before the lets make him less of a man visit, so she could crate him and take him to the vet the next morning. The cat is not an inside cat and during the night somehow climbed up the wall and preceded to knock down the majority of the ceiling tiles and all the accumulated dust and debris into the basement the day before out of town guests were coming. Huge mess and expense as there was more damage than just to the ceiling. Still no one has the heart to take him to the pound. Personally I think we are all crazy, but, crazy we will be.

And, according to Dr. Cat Snipper, strays have a 22% chance of having feline leukemia, and can easily infect cats you already have.

We lost one adopted stray to it, and it is tough.

Another possibility of taking care of strays: When we lived in the city, one had advanced as far as living in our shop, with a pet door. Stray Ray Shop Kitty Baby.

When we missed him for a few days, we called animal control. He had been hit and killed by a car, and animal control had picked him up and disposed of him. They sent us the bill.

Hi. My first visit to the lounge . I am a sucker for a stray cat story though...

Here is mine. We had a cat that just liked hanging around our house. Always sunning on the back deck. She was fearful of us and always ran away when she saw us. After about 6 years I started actually looking closely at her and although she always looked cared for and fed, I still wondered. So I got out the food (we had just lost one of our 2 cats to illness) and put out the bowl. Sure enough, she was hungry.

So the hunt began. Slowly I got her to come on the screened in porch and eventually just picked her up.
She freaked and purred at the same time. Eventually she admitted that she loved being held and cuddled.

18 months later.....she has a name, Lucy. She sleeps in the house about 18 hours a day (she is in all night and only goes out during the afternoon). She has seen the housecall vet and had her shots. He examined her (that was not pretty, she is a feral cat) and said that she had been spayed by an organization, hence the 'clipped ear'.

Fortunately she does not know what a littler box is (my other cat does though) and she always goes out to go to the bathroom. We have a pet door, so she comes and goes as she pleases.

If any cat lover wants the most wonderful cat experience, adopt a feral cat. To watch the growth that cat has done in 18 months is astounding.

JLB said:

He's there now. They tried to hit us up for around $250. We got them down to $120.

Why is it that in so many cases doing the right thing is the hardest course? In a county whose animal control policy is there isn't one, it would be nice if the few of us trying to make difference got a break.

In about an hour we can go pick up our groggy cat, and give him some lap time.

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There are some small non-profits that can help or at least refer for lower fees on stray adoptions. My latest "accidental" adoptee was found on the double yellow line on a busy road. "Cougar" is my avatar here on TUG. He is going in for his nuetering & rabies shots on Wednesday. Cost because he was a foster through "Care About the Strays" is $50.

Same Cat -- New Name.

Old Name = Buffy.

New Name = Buffington.

Much more dignified, wouldn't you say?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

My neighbor said she saw a bobcat on our street this past week. Guess I won't let our kitty out at night or during the early morning. We live in the city but have all kinds of wildlife: rats, birds, deer, racoons, skunks, moose, coyotes (rare) and now a bobcat. My cat even brought a baby mallard into the house one spring.

AwayWeGo said:

Old Name = Buffy.

New Name = Buffington.

Much more dignified, wouldn't you say?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

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Yes, the Buffy name was too fluffy sounding. Buffington, definitely finatly more dignified. And what a beautiful cat!

My DH got our last two boys (I asked him to give us some breathing room but...) from a shed in the back of an abandoned property. He looked in a pail and there were all these kittens. He took two of them to the vet and the vet said that I, read I again lol!!!, had taken such good care of our late cat (died of feline aids) that he was sure I could raise these 12 day old kittens. Well, I don't know if you realize that 12 day old kittens barely have their eyes open. Once taken from the nest they can't be returned (quickly yes but not after a vet visit). I fed them with a Tiny Tears (remember that doll) bottle 4 times a day including heating the formula under warm water. I had to teach them to use the litter box (had to help them go over the sink by rubbing their rears with a warm cue tip) when they were old enough. Figaro died after he got cancer from a shot at the vets (caused a carcinoma) a few years ago. Blackie (very original name that) is lying under the lamp next to the computer snoozing. He is around 20 years old but is still truckin'. I've asked my DH to give it a break when this boy dies but I doubt he will and I'll love them just like I've loved all my pets. Linda

My wife has always had a soft spot for stray cats, even though she's more of a dog person. But as I'm very, *very* allergic to them, they have to stay outdoors. Mostly, they end up living on our deck.

We've lived in our present house for 12 years, and in the previous one for 13 years. For those 13 years, from 1983 thru 1995, we had such an adopted stray, who we named Mariah. Mariah was funny -- she'd show up regularly for a week or two, especially if we ran out of cat food and fed her tuna; then she'd be gone for 2 or 3 weeks. But as she always looked well fed, we assumed she was OK.

This went on for 13 years! When we were preparing to move, she disappeared, this time for several weeks. Finally, as moving day approached, we happened to be out in the neighborhood. We started talking to neighbors that lived behind and a couple of houses down from us. People who we knew passingly, but not very well. As we were talking, we spotted Mariah. But they called her by a different name, and she responded.

It turns out that Mariah had no fewer than 3 owners! I think she decided on who to visit based on what was for dinner. The other 2 households had a suspicion that there was a 3rd owner, but didn't know for sure until this event.

Ah, that Mariah. She had quite a personality; and, as it turns out, a pretty good life.

Blues said:

It turns out that Mariah had no fewer than 3 owners! I think she decided on who to visit based on what was for dinner. The other 2 households had a suspicion that there was a 3rd owner, but didn't know for sure until this event.

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Doesn't sound like she had three owners but rather three personal chefs!