Conference misery::feline_v1

131.0. "kikitties,kitties everywhere" by VAXWRK::DUDLEY () Mon Aug 19 1985 16:56

I have 2 adorable kittens that need a good home.  Let me tell you how
I 'acquired' them.  We moved into our new house last October.  There
were 2 neighborhood strays that hung out on my front steps a lot so I
decided to accept responsibility for feeding them, especially as win-
ter was approaching.  I named them BRUTUS, because he was the big brute
of the neighborhood, and CRYBABY, because she was always 'crying' at me
when she saw me.  They were together all the time and CRYBABY was al-
ways nuzzling BRUTUS, though I don't know what she saw in him.  They 
were definately a "couple".

BRUTUS was big and yellow with a white underbody and very beat up looking.
I use the past tense because BRUTUS disappeared several weeks ago.  Quite
a few neighbors had complained to the animal control officer because he
had beaten up on their cats and I think he was finally caught.  Poor BRUTUS.

CRYBABY is a beautiful multi-colored cat.  She looks calico, but I'm not
sure if she's a true calico.  Neighbors told us that CRYBABY and BRUTUS
had a litter last year and 'dad cat', as well as 'mom cat', looked after
the kids.

Anyway, last week CRYBABY appeared one evening with a kitten that was the
spitting image of her!  When we went outside to check it out, the kitten
ran and hid under the next door neighbors porch and would not come out. 
The next day, she appeared carrying a kitten that looked just like BRUTUS!
It appears that she was in the process of relocating them to our garage,
where they have remained since.

I don't know the sex of the kittens since they have been slow to acclimate
to humans.  "Little Brutus" is smaller than "Little Crybaby" but I'd guess
their ages to be 5 or 6 weeks old.  They are not completely weaned but I've
noticed that they seem to be nursing less and eating (cat food) more this
past week.  I'm taking very good care of mom and kids but I don't want to
see them become strays like her.  I'd love to keep them myself, but we have
2 indoor cats and my mate is not amenable to increasing our current cat
population.

We have friends that have expressed interest in adopting one of them.   They
currently have 1 indoor cat that needs some company.  They might come by some
night this week to take a look at the kitties.  I'm reluctant to let them 
have one of the kitties.  They are very good and loving pet owners BUT, not
only did they declaw their poor kittie's front paws, but the back ones as well.
He put a barely noticeable groove in their bed's headboard so they decided the
back ones had to go as well.  ( I think that if he had had his front claws to
hang on with, he probably wouldn't have put the groove in the headboard.)


I'd prefer that potential owners not declaw at all but the most important thing
is for kitties to have a responsible, loving owner. I realize that declawing
will have to be at the discretion of their ultimate owner but at least leave
back claws in place, please!!

If anyone's interested, I live in Natick, Ma.  You can respond in this notes
file or send mail to either SHADOW::DUDLEY or VAXWRK::DUDLEY.

Donna.