Years ago a friend in the cat sitting business decided to sell his equipment and get out of that business. I took his cat crates, took the doors off, and use it for storage. My cats decided it was a great place to sleep, so I added a few cat beds on the top of it.
This a.m. as I was walking around doing chores I saw this:
Now none of my cats get along. Let's just say they tolerate each other as long as no one invades anyone's space. There's a lot of hissing and spitting if one gets too close to another. So you can imagine my surprise to see three of them laying so close to each other.
This is Charlie on the left and Lady Grey on the right. Lady grey has seniority. She came to me as a stray from the school my daughter works at. They trapped her and my daughter didn't have to heart to call Animal Control to come pick her up, so I had her spayed and she lives here now.
Charlie is the second to the newest member of my menagerie. A neighbor two houses down died around Thanksgiving last year and a month or so later Charlie showed up here. First time I saw him he was snuggled into the leaves under a rose bush, having made himself a nice 'nest.' Only trouble is, it was raining and the bush offered no protection for him. So I started the befriending process. It didn't take long. He had already been neutered, so a bit of $$ saved there. He's overweight, and really loves his food. . . but a very nice cat.
This is Mr. Kitty. He was one of those that someone took "out to the country" and dumped out of their car. I trapped him and took him in to be neutered. An hour or so later the vet called me and said, "your cat is neutered." I said wow, that sure didn't take very long. And he said, "No, your cat IS neutered!" Why on earth would someone go to the trouble and expense of neutering a cat only to dump it out in the country? I know he was dumped because he was living in the culvert pipe that ran across under the street for a couple weeks before I trapped him.
This one is Spencer. She was feral and had a litter of kittens in the field across the street. Every evening I would see her sneaking into the old house on my property to eat the cats' food. She was skin and bones. I trapped her and 5 of her kittens, but the 6th one was too canny to go into the trap. Don't know what happened to him. Spencer was taken to the vet to be spayed and the kittens were taken to the animal shelter to be adopted.
Oops! How did that 'cat' get in here. (Misty, about 3 or 4 years old)
This is Little Missy Kitty. Another dumped, trapped, spayed cat. She lived outside for a while, but she was so scared of everything, running and hiding at the least little thing, that when my at-the-time-house cat had to be euthanized I brought in Little Missy Kitty to be protected in the house.
Sterling is the latest addition to my cat menagerie. She was another stray that just turned up. The only difference between her and all the others is she was very friendly right from the get go. I didn't have to trap her. I left her alone for a couple weeks, figuring she belonged to a neighbor, and tried to 'scat' her every time I saw her, but she was just too friendly to be chased away. So I took her to the vet to be spayed. I had to keep her in the house for a while because of the stitches, and while in here she developed a terrible eating problem. She just ate and ate and ate, getting pretty fat for such a young (about 6 months) cat. So I took her back to the vet for a blood test to be sure there wasn't any physical reason she was eating so much (thyroid??). The results came back that she has FeLV, which is highly contagious. And she had been living in the house, eating out of the same dish as Little Missy Kitty and using the same bathroom facilities. FeLV has nothing to do with appetite, she just loves to eat. And I figure that extra weight might be helpful later on when the illness causes her to start losing weight and being a sick cat. So. . . two house cats!
Did I mention that I really like cats?
This a.m. as I was walking around doing chores I saw this:
Now none of my cats get along. Let's just say they tolerate each other as long as no one invades anyone's space. There's a lot of hissing and spitting if one gets too close to another. So you can imagine my surprise to see three of them laying so close to each other.
This is Charlie on the left and Lady Grey on the right. Lady grey has seniority. She came to me as a stray from the school my daughter works at. They trapped her and my daughter didn't have to heart to call Animal Control to come pick her up, so I had her spayed and she lives here now.
Charlie is the second to the newest member of my menagerie. A neighbor two houses down died around Thanksgiving last year and a month or so later Charlie showed up here. First time I saw him he was snuggled into the leaves under a rose bush, having made himself a nice 'nest.' Only trouble is, it was raining and the bush offered no protection for him. So I started the befriending process. It didn't take long. He had already been neutered, so a bit of $$ saved there. He's overweight, and really loves his food. . . but a very nice cat.
This is Mr. Kitty. He was one of those that someone took "out to the country" and dumped out of their car. I trapped him and took him in to be neutered. An hour or so later the vet called me and said, "your cat is neutered." I said wow, that sure didn't take very long. And he said, "No, your cat IS neutered!" Why on earth would someone go to the trouble and expense of neutering a cat only to dump it out in the country? I know he was dumped because he was living in the culvert pipe that ran across under the street for a couple weeks before I trapped him.
This one is Spencer. She was feral and had a litter of kittens in the field across the street. Every evening I would see her sneaking into the old house on my property to eat the cats' food. She was skin and bones. I trapped her and 5 of her kittens, but the 6th one was too canny to go into the trap. Don't know what happened to him. Spencer was taken to the vet to be spayed and the kittens were taken to the animal shelter to be adopted.
Oops! How did that 'cat' get in here. (Misty, about 3 or 4 years old)
This is Little Missy Kitty. Another dumped, trapped, spayed cat. She lived outside for a while, but she was so scared of everything, running and hiding at the least little thing, that when my at-the-time-house cat had to be euthanized I brought in Little Missy Kitty to be protected in the house.
Sterling is the latest addition to my cat menagerie. She was another stray that just turned up. The only difference between her and all the others is she was very friendly right from the get go. I didn't have to trap her. I left her alone for a couple weeks, figuring she belonged to a neighbor, and tried to 'scat' her every time I saw her, but she was just too friendly to be chased away. So I took her to the vet to be spayed. I had to keep her in the house for a while because of the stitches, and while in here she developed a terrible eating problem. She just ate and ate and ate, getting pretty fat for such a young (about 6 months) cat. So I took her back to the vet for a blood test to be sure there wasn't any physical reason she was eating so much (thyroid??). The results came back that she has FeLV, which is highly contagious. And she had been living in the house, eating out of the same dish as Little Missy Kitty and using the same bathroom facilities. FeLV has nothing to do with appetite, she just loves to eat. And I figure that extra weight might be helpful later on when the illness causes her to start losing weight and being a sick cat. So. . . two house cats!
Did I mention that I really like cats?
