During my last volunteer shift at the shelter, one of the kittens fell asleep on my lap.
I had other cats to visit so I couldn’t stay there all day but I was also hesitant to move and wake him up. Since I had already been in that pod for quite some time before he fell asleep, I decided to let him sleep for five more minutes but then I had to move on.
I was looking through photos and found this one taken at the shelter two weeks ago.
I believe this was the same kitten that was playing with my shoelaces.
I volunteered at the shelter a week ago and, just like the week before that, I found a kitten that loves to play with shoelaces.
My wife and I were on the catio with the cats yesterday afternoon when we heard the sound of a cat crying. I saw that there was a kitten in a tree next door so Rose started talking to the kitten. Upon hearing her voice, the kitten decided get down from the tree and come visit us.
Unlike the last two visits from cats, this one was not tolerated very well by Frankie.
I had to get up and stop Frankie from tearing at the screens because I was worried he might get through and attack the kitten. I guessed this kitten was a male because of Frankie’s attitude compared to the last two cats.
Frankie did settle down a little bit when he knew I didn’t like what he was doing. There was a little hissing and growling but I have heard much worse. Perhaps because he was a kitten he wasn’t much of a threat.
He was indeed a male because the neighbor came out and we talked to her about him. Rose asked if that was her cat and she said “It looks like he will be.” She had already given him a name like Sugar Plum or something with sugar in it. She was calling his name trying to get him to come back to her side of the yard because she didn’t want him to annoy our cats. Like a typical cat he didn’t pay much attention to her but he did eventually listen and went through the hole in the fence back to his side.
It was very good to know that at least one of the stray cats around here is going to have a home.
I mentioned before that there were a couple of older kittens that came around our house. One of them returned yesterday evening while my wife and I were out on the catio, without the cats.
I put my hand up against the screen and the kitten was rubbing his head on it. We talked about how bad we felt because we wanted to give him some food but we didn’t want to get him used to it because we are leaving in less than a month. Instead, I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I went outside and pet him for a while.
After a short time my wife decided to throw caution to the wind and brought out a plate of food. At first he didn’t want the food. He seemed to want attention more, but after a while he started eating.
The next door neighbor was outside at the time and I overheard my wife talking to her. According to the neighbor, the kitten, along with at least one other, are being cared for across the street from us. She also said the neighbor doesn’t want the kittens and is looking for homes for them. I wish we could take this one in because he, or she, is so cute and friendly, but we have a one cat limit in Florida and traveling with three cats is hard enough.
I thought this photo would be a good one to caption.
I did not include this one in my recent post about Frisky Cat Café in St. Augustine because I thought it was good enough to stand on its own. I came up with several ideas for a caption but settled on the simplest one. Just for fun, write a caption for this photo and then look here to see what I came up with.
This cute little gold kitten was at the Largo, Florida SPCA on Monday afternoon. Since they are closed to the public on Monday and Tuesday, he is likely still there if anyone is interested.
Volunteering at a shelter is hard work but someone has to do it.
This is a story about a cat I called Lucky. At the time I did not realize how wrong I would be about choosing that name and also how right I would be.
It started on a Saturday Night, October 8, 2005. Our neighbor across the street, Doug, called and said there was an injured kitten under my wife’s car and it was hissing when he tried to get close. Of course, the last thing we needed was another cat (we had six then) but we couldn’t leave it there.
I went outside and tried to coax the kitten out from under the car but she was not going to budge. I didn’t know the sex of the kitten at the time but we found out later it was a female. Her front paw looked broken and she had a hard time moving. She hissed at me a few times, probably because she was scared, but she never tried to bite me.
I put some dry food near her and she ate it all, so I gave her some wet food and a little water. She was very hungry and thirsty. Since I couldn’t get her out from under the car, I decided to move the car. I very carefully backed it up while Rose and her son’s girlfriend watched for any movement. Rose threw a towel over her as soon as the car was clear and we very carefully moved her to the garage.
We got her into the garage and put her on a couple of towels. That’s when we noticed a chunk of skin about the size of a quarter, maybe bigger, missing from her hind quarter. She also had cuts on one of her ears and it looked like her jaw was slightly out of alignment. We suspected right away, but we knew then, that a car hit her.
Rose put some antibacterial ointment on her wounds and we moved her near the door and made a make-shift barricade around her so she wouldn’t hurt herself further in the garage. I gave her some food and water and checked on her a few times before we went to bed.
At the time we were raising two boys and six cats and did not have money to spare so a large vet bill for a stray cat was not in our budget. Because of that, we decided to bring her to the SPCA in New Port Richey, Florida, which opened at noon the next day. We got there when they opened and they turned us away before we even got to the door. They said they had no vet on duty and they were full. Vet or no vet, full or not full, they were still in a better position to help an injured cat than I was and should have done something. Since then I have not been a fan of the SPCA, even though I know I shouldn’t judge because of one incident.
Rose was very upset and said to the person at the SPCA, “What are we supposed to do, put him back on the side of the road?” They did give us a list of vets in the area and I called a place called Little Animal Hospital, which was named that because they were on Little Road. They told us to bring the cat in, which we did.
When we got there they took the cat in the back while we waited in the front. We noticed there was a big window showing a room full of cats that needed to be adopted. It was nice to know that they cared enough to do that. A few minutes later we were called to the back where we spoke to the vet.
She told us her foot was broken and would need to be amputated. There was also unknown internal injuries. We didn’t even ask about the cost because we knew that the surgery, combined with all the other rehabilitation costs, as well as the costs of getting her spayed and immunized would be way more than we could afford. Our other choice was to have her put to sleep. I didn’t like that idea but there seemed to be no other choice so we agreed to that, paid the $73 bill and left feeling horrible.
On the way home I told Rose we made a mistake. This little kitten needed us to save her and we failed. We should have arranged to make payments or something. Rose agreed with me but it was too late.
Around the same time, Rose’s Mom was looking to adopt a cat so Rose told her about the cats at the vet’s office that were for adoption. She found a Maine Coon cat there that she adopted and named Monkey.
She also came back with a story that we were very happy to hear. Our little girl lucky was not Euthanized. The vet decided to try to save her. They did not amputate her paw either. She did require a lot of rehabilitation. Just using the litter box required human help for many weeks until she healed. I do not know what happened to her after that but I was very glad that the story had a happy ending.
My son recently moved into an apartment with a female roommate that is not his girlfriend (further Stymieing my desire to have a grandchild). His roommate recently got a black kitten that she named Binx after the cat from the movie Hocus Pocus. When he told me about the kitten I asked where he was but he didn’t know. “He’s around somewhere,” I was told.
We talked for a few minutes and then the kitten showed up. I was amazed at how small the kitten was and I asked if he was old enough for adoption. “He is almost eight weeks old,” Chris told me (My son, coincidentally, is also named Chris). He said his littermates were twice as big as him.
I suppose he is right about his age because he gets around very well. He uses the litter box and goes up and down the stairs with no problem. I will be interested to see how big this little fellow gets.
Recently, friends of ours lost both their cats not too far apart from each other. After a short break, they decided to adopt a kitten named Carter. A couple of weekends ago they went away and needed a cat sitter. My wife immediately volunteered, even though she was going to be out of town, at least for the first visit. That meant it was my job to take care of the little fellow.
It turns out Carter is a very affectionate kitten with a loud purr and it was a pleasure to spend a little time with him.
He seemed to take to me like he knew me his entire life.
Very few cats can be so intimate with a stranger. It is one of the appealing qualities Chris had that made me want to adopt him.
How common is this? Do you have a cat that likes strangers?
Bad Cat Chris 