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A Tail Of Nine Lives
Yeah....Right!
Well, what started out as nine...has now grown to eleven.......
well...maybe 12....
And along came LIGHT!
Formerly known as Princess, then Prince, and finally Light....
He was schedduled to be gassed and an Angel Vet with SNAP rescued him.
We agreed to foster him as he was sick for months and having once again, failed fostering...he has a home here
where he constantly delights us with his antics and we are slaves to his obsessive compulsive retrieving of balls..
He has BIG " Orphan Andy" eyes!
Computer LIGHT
One of the dangers of doing rescue work is that at times we fall victim to an animal that tears at our heartstrings. And so it was with all of these guys...but, Harvey, started out as an attempt to foster a cat to save it from the local shelter. He had been in a cage quite a long time.
Harvey was accepted into Maine Coon Rescue by the awesome lady there and due to various and fateful reasons, was fostered by us for a few weeks. We failed fostering and Harvey remains.
He has been... and is... a definite challenge at times. He bites and scratches and plays havoc with most anyone or anything around him..but he is getting better and learning to be picked up without biting! He is cute as he can be and maybe one day...he will be a good boy! In fact, Harvey is settling into becoming a very sweet, good boy!
Harvey
In our house, we have a sign that says, “This house is maintained
entirely for the comfort and convenience of the cats” and certainly
they think it’s true!
All of our cats were either rescues or adopted as very young feral cats.
We all know about the unwanted cats found at shelters, or by the roadside,
but feral cats are a
different ballgame. Feral cats are just that – feral, or wild – and
have usually had little or no contact with humans and are often too poorly
socialized to be placed into an
adoptive home. They behave differently and have different problems, which
we will talk about in a few minutes.
Jazz (aka "Stinky") A number of barn cats had come and gone, mostly due to the female we called “Mama
Cat”, who was a true feral. She wanted nothing to do with us – oh,
she would eat
the food we left, but if we were foolish enough to try to pat or grab her,
we were oh-so-sorry – she had the fastest claws of any cat we had ever
seen. She chased off all
comers and despite our efforts to trap her, she remained free --- and unspayed.
 Mama Cat and Blue 
Lily
Three weeks after we trapped Lily, we were at the
barn when Sister came walking out of the culvert, whining about having
been on her own for so long. She is still quite independent, sophisticated,
and occasionally very talkative. She is also known as Sister Baby Noodle
Perfecto, or “Baby Perfecto” for short. She is a short-haired tabby with
lovely grey/green eyes, and she “tolerates” the other cats. She
is far too dignified to play with the riffraff.
 Noodle Mama Cat's Second Litter of Kittens"Three Little Kittens"
Grady Brown
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Skippy Louise
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Jack
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It was now crucial to trap Mama Cat. We had been baiting the trap with shrimp,
mackerel, flounder, steak and chicken breast (Mama Cat was eating better
than we were!)
but she was always able to snag the food without setting off the trap.
We were getting desperate. Then Dana’s cousin Amy gave us the suggestion
that finally, after two
years, did the trick: tie a chicken drumstick to the plate in the trap. It
worked! We had Mama Cat! Rushing to the vet, we were met by a receptionist
who was obviously not
a cat person. She had no idea what feral meant, and when we attempted to
explain, she assured us loftily that they could handle our “sweet wild
kitty”. We reluctantly left
her and returned home and later got the call: one of the techs had opened
Mama Cat’s crate to get her out and was torn and bloody, and Mama Cat
had trashed the clinic – broken glass all over the floor of two rooms, everything scattered
wildly – they were not pleased. They had to sedate her even just to examine
her, then had quickly
finished the spay, and wanted us to pick her up. They scheduled us to come
when Mama Cat was just waking up enough to show she was alive, but before
she was
awake enough to cause trouble when being placed into the crate. Ooops, timing
was off, and we had to wait while she was re-sedated (through the bars of
the cage)
before getting her into the crate and rushing her home, where we placed her
in BJ’s bathroom (he was away for the weekend).
Whenever we came into the hallway, she would start a very convincing growling
sound that increased in volume and menace as we approached the bathroom door.
Discretion being the better part of valor, we had a pair of long, heavy,
fire-proof gloves that we used for stoking the woodstove, and we wore those
when we had to open
Mama Cat’s cage to change her litterbox or give her food and water.
We decided to place these about a foot and a half from the cage, so that
she could smell them and
become more familiar with us.
The next morning we went in – and she had somehow gotten hold of the
gloves. One was shredded and one was being used as a litter box. The towels,
the toilet paper,
the bathroom rug – all shredded and covering the inside of the cage.
The wallpaper – shredded. The side of the wood cabinet -- splinters.
How she managed to reach
the unreachable is still a matter of discussion. However, when her three
days of quarantine were up, we were not all that sorry to let her out – which
involved opening the
outside door first and then the bathroom door, and holding our collective
breaths as we gingerly eased the cage door open.
And did she feel more kindly toward us after this? No she did not! She was
so mad, she would hide in the barn at face level and wait for one of us to
walk by
unsuspectingly – and launch an attack. Our reflexes improved markedly – and
rapidly. She was one feral kitty, and she taught us a lot. One thing we learned
is that if
you get the kittens at a young age (experts differ on how old is too old)
you can socialize them fairly well. Our ex-ferals are very loving and affectionate
cats.
We moved to a new house, found a wonderful new vet clinic, and eventually
lost our elderly cats to various illnesses (Rosie lived to the ripe old age
of 20), Dana went to
pick up some medications and visit our beloved (but sometimes evil) vet,
Dr. Redfern, who had the beloved (but sometimes evil) staff casually bring
out a homeless
orange and white kitten. She had been brought to the clinic with a fish hook
embedded in her mouth at the age of about 4 weeks by two young boys who never
returned.
When I called to say, through gritted teeth, that they should have known
better than to show Dana an orange and white cat, as she has a particular
weakness for them, the
staff responded that Dr. Redfern had shared this information with them while
they were all plotting how to get us to take the kitten! So Zoe Redfern came
home with us,
and we were smitten – and I mean, lost.
Zoe Redfern (aka "Na") Zoe Redfern, who shortly became “Na” or “Na Rabbit”,
was quite standoffish, which somehow made her even more special as we
groveled for her attention. Na is mostly orange with a little white, has
amber-green eyes, and can do no wrong. She is as round as
a ball and has no neck and a hunchback and we are absolutely nuts about her.
She climbed to the ceiling (up the beautiful, grass-
cloth wallpaper – or rather, the former beautiful grass-cloth wallpaper)
and took down most of the other wallpaper in the house. “That’s ok,” we reassured her – “we’d
rather have painted walls anyway.” She decided that the forbidden kitchen
island counter
would be her boudoir, and the other cats were appalled – didn’t
she know about squirt guns? But we had met our match. Squirt
guns, scarey noises, being put down each time she got up there, upside down
duct tape – nothing fazed Na. So we caved, and she
goes where she pleases (We get to dress her up in return!). She walks like
a little bulldog with her ears pinned to her head,
throwing evil looks at one and all – and we still can’t get enough
of her. She is our first totally indoor cat, as we had decided that any
new cats would not be allowed to roam outside.
Curry Next, one of the sometimes-evil staff at the vet clinic (where we are certain
they are building a wing in our honor) knew of an
elderly lady who had literally dozens of strays – and when the animal
control officer went to round them up, she too went
over and nabbed the “best one” as a playmate for Na. Curry, as
we call her, is an affectionate, long-haired, pumpkin
colored cat who was feral and looks a lot like a fox. She was in heat when
she came (thanks a lot) and sick, so she spent
her first several weeks with us shuttling back and forth to the clinic. Of
course, Na was horrified at the sight of her. (At least
then she bonded somewhat with the other cats, although in an “us-against-the
new kid” sort of way.) We had months of
hissing, growls and tussles, but eventually they came to be great buddies.
That, unfortunately, didn’t last, as the same
sometimes-evil conspiracy went to work again, and we got a call about Dylan.
Dylan Dylan was found in a local parking lot in the engine
compartment of a moving van, squalling his head
off. (Actually, the squalling is what saved him.) He was dropped off unceremoniously
at the clinic and shortly thereafter he
was home with us. Dylan (Bob Dylan Thomas, and dubbed “Hellion” by
Dana) is very cosmopolitan, and has no trouble
getting along with everyone – dogs, cats, people, it’s all the
same to Dylan. He is interested in everything and everybody and
every noise and every bit of food and what you are doing….you get
the picture. He is a light grey-and-tan tabby with the
longest tail we have ever seen on a cat. He is quite hyperactive (still)
and so sleeps in the bathroom at night so that the rest
of the household can get some sleep. He became inordinately attached to the
very patient Curry, and Na has still not
forgiven Curry completely for this betrayal
And then...there were ten! We now have a lovely orange and white cat that Emmy rescued via the cyberworld:) He was abandoned by his family in December 2005 and left to fend for himself. Thanks to a Good Samaritan named Jodie, he now has a home at our house. He was in ROUGH shape but is now starting to feel well enough to skitter around the house and meet the others. His name is Buddy, but we are not convinced this is what he wants to be called...he adores classical music, so we are thinking of something along the lines of this genre.
. . . and the point of the story is . . .
There is a lot more to say about our cats (as cat people already know) but
we can ramble and brag and laugh some more at another time. The whole point
of this is to
talk about homeless cats.
The United States has an estimated 60 million homeless cats at any given
time. They are dumped and abandoned every day, sometimes in very unkind ways.
They
languish in shelters, behind dumpsters, in alleys, under fallen trees in
the woods, in culverts, beside roadways, in abandoned cars – they are
everywhere. They are
usually somewhat wary of humans, and who can blame them? Some are fed by
people, but often they contract diseases from other stray cats (like feline
leukemia or
distemper) and their lives are difficult and short. Some studies suggest
that homeless cats have a life span of less than three years.
Obviously, responsible cat owners (and dog owners) will give their pets
not only food, water, and shelter, but also love and affection. Responsible
owners will take their
pets to be spayed or neutered, or be responsible about not letting them breed. If we choose to
share our lives with our pets, we take on the responsibility to help them
to be the best they can be – which won’t happen if they are in
poor health, are under-nourished, or
are neglected.
However, what about the 60 million homeless cats who live in our communities?
Many stray cats live in loose colonies, which can be pools of disease and
parasites.
Pet cats can easily contract diseases from the local “colonies”.
One way to deal with colonies of feral cats is the Trap, Neuter, Release
program. Studies have shown
that if 50% of the stray cats in an area are euthanized, within five years
the cat population has actually expanded – yet if the cats are spayed
and neutered instead, they live
longer, healthier lives, and there is no increase in the cat population.
Trap, Neuter or Spay, and Release. Many communities
have vet clinics that assist with the
financial and physical aspects of it. Your local humane society or animal
shelter would know of the programs in your area. Several resource links are
located at the
bottom of this page, and tons more are available on the web.
We strongly support Trap/Neuter or Spay/Release programs. And of course,
we advocate adoption! There is not a one of our cats we don’t dearly
love, and we cannot imagine
our furry family without any of them (at least, most days!)
Important Links and Causes
Our local TNR group for Feral Cats!
Alley Cat Allies
NC Pet Foster Network
www.petfoster.org
Feral Cat Coalition
San Diego, California
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