Conference vaxcat::friends

    
    He's an old cat.
    
    He's blind in one eye.
    
    His coat is grey and white.
    
    He's un-neutred.
    
    His name is "Mickey", or so we're told. Neighbours had him 8 years ago,
    but they sold up their house and left him behind ..to fend for
    himself.. so he's scavenged about the neighbourhood every day since
    then.. appearing ghost-like to swallow down food left for other cats,
    and scarpering off at the first sound of a person's footsteps coming
    close.
    
    Some people have sprayed him with high pressure waterhoses; others have
    called him every filthy name under the sun. He looks so bedraggled and
    scrawny.. almost ferile.. an ugly sight.. the born loser as cats go.
    
    Yet, despite everything, we observed during one recent wet night, that
    although he is a relative stranger, none of our four cats will lift a
    claw to hunt him off the premises, as they so immediately do with any
    other alien cat which ventures onto our property. Our cats have some
    inner respect for this lame old codger.. and so, at length, we've
    decided to "accomodate" him.. to make room for him ..and do what the
    Golden Rule saus we should not.. to feed him regularly.
    
    And so we now have 5 cats here.
    
    Could anyone take ME in?
    
    Don
    
    P.S. He's looking much better now.. like a crumpled old Rumpole of the
    night.
    

	Awww... Don, your story made my day :-))) nice to know there are 
	other people that love cats.

	Tracy

    
        Boy oh boy Tracy!!!! boy, must you like me then because I like
        allllllllllll animals! small and big! ;-)))))))
    
        hehehehehe! ;-)
        m. ;-)
     

    
    I still think dogs are better than cats.. ;->>
    
    We have two dogs... one of them we saved from severe cruelty.. :-<
    
    The the young couple who lived next door but one from me in Leeds were
    always arguing... they would argue at all hours of the day & night... 
    It was not a happy marriage.. :-(
    
    Anyway, finally she left him & moved back to her parents & he was left
    alone in the house. Unfortunately, just a few months before hand they
    had decided to buy a Jack Russell puppy... God knows why cos they'd had
    two other dogs... and both of those had been run-over etc... 
    
    One Sunday afternoon.. my dad was outside messing around with his motorbike when
    this puppy came running upto him... It was all skin & bone.. poor
    thing.. it looked like it hadn't been fed in ages.. it had hardly any
    muscle & was dying for a drink of water.
    
    So we took it in & gave it something to eat.. we had to decide what to
    do with it.. there were three choices.. 
    
    		i) take it back to the owner..something we didn't want to do... 
    	
    	  	ii) take it to the RSPCA where it would have probably been
    		    put down.. :-(
    		
    		iii) See if we could keep it.. but since we already had a
    		     dog.. we really didn't want another one.
    
    After much deliberation... and arguing about all the looking after it
    would take.. cos it needed house training again + all its injections &
    spaying.. not cheep by any means... we decided that we would try & keep
    it.. :-)
    
    We asked the guy if we could keep it.. and he said yes... but we asked
    if he could keep it until we could get ready to take it in... When my
    mum took it back she found that he was keeping the dog in a metal bird cage
    it barely had room to turn around in.. :-< ... Needless to say we
    organised how we were going to look after it in double quick time... &
    finally got it the following week. 
    
    It looked like she had been beaten pretty badly cos she cowered down
    whenever we tried to stoke her & she didn't even know how to play with
    a ball etc.. it was really heart breaking.. :-( 
    
    Patch... thats what we call her cos she's all white except for a black
    patch over one eye has been livinq with us for a year now... she's back
    to full strength.. just rippling with muscles.. and full of life.. :-)
    We've managed to get her to play & she also plays with our other dog
    Fergie.. although thats another story within its self!! ;->
    
    I'm glad we decided to keep her.. its the best decision we ever made..
    :->>>>
    
    
    Rick
    
    

Don,

Maybe they say not to feed them, but I'm feeding about 10 cats outside now...
they must all tell each other where to get a free meal! I don't mind at all, to
me it's better than a bird feeder.  Everytime I look out the window, there's
another cat eating at the bowl!  I think you're doing the right thing!

Rick, what a sad story.  Patches is very lucky to have you!!  Don't know about
dogs being better than cats though :-)  I love all animals, but cats fit much
better in my lifestyle, with no one around all day and several overnights away
from the house.  The cats do just fine on their own for a couple of days.

Guess we've got alot of real animal lovers in this notesfile!

Hugs,
Lola

P.S. Don, what's a "ferile" cat?  Can't find it in my dictionary...

    
    Lola, We sure do! ;-)))) must be why we all get a long so well too! 
    We're all of the same nature I guess! big hearted! ;-)
    
    m. ;-))))))
    

    
    
    
    re: lola
    
    	Ferile cat sounds like a wild cat to me (born in the wild, raised
    in the wild). We have a saying at the place I shoot at once in a while,
    "Ferile children will not be tolerated!"...;*)
    
    
    chico

    
    I can't abide cruelty and like all animals (well apart from those beasties 
    with 8 legs)..but like Lola, a puss-cat fits in better with our
    lifestyle.
    
    Good on you guys for rescuing these poor souls.  :-)
    
    Jackie        

    
    re: chico!
    
        We have a shoot at our sayings tooo! ;-)))))) 
    
        does this apply to woman too? ;-))))) they are probably more
        dangerous holding a gun than children! hehehehe ;-)))))))))))))      
    
        m. ;-) 
    
        ....I better get out of here now!!!! hehehehehehe ;-) 
        Lets see if it's good fishweather today! ;-)))) Anyone biting
        yet???
    
        m. ;-))))))))))))))))))))))))

Chico,

What you described is a "feral" cat, like my cat Gypsy...I'm wondering if Don's
word is something else...actually I'm really just ribbing him!!!

Lola

    
    
    	yeah, feral, that's the ticket.....:)
    
    
    chico

    "open the curtains honnnnnnneyyyyyyyyyyyyy" ;-))))))
    
    m. ;-)

Let the sun shine in..... even though it is already sound asleep now....
The sun is always in our hearts and souls.

This here is the last entry for me for today, for this week. I will
NOT return before Monday morning.

And because I love it so much, let's end this glorious week ....

   with....
      a......
       giant.....

       B I R T H D A Y  S N A A R F F F F !!!!!


;)
Martina

    
    	happy b-day kiddo....see ya when you return...
    
    
    cheeks

    Hello Cheeks!
    
       thank you for the birthday wishes, but.......
       it was not really my birthday, I just........
       snarffffffed the "day of month of my birthday", which is the 13th.
       ;)
       I let you know when the real birthday comes.
    
    ;)
    Martina

    Let the sun shine in on me.....
    
    Paula
    (brrrrrrrrrr)

    
    Well it's over a year since that last note was put in & it's definitely
    shining in on me now, weather is gooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgeous!