| Title: | Meower Power is Valuing Differences |
| Notice: | FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY |
| Moderator: | MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO |
| Created: | Sun Feb 09 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jan 11 1994 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 5089 |
| Total number of notes: | 60366 |
About two months ago we heard a cat crying in a maple tree across
the road from our house. Assuming it was one of ours I went out
to coax it down. The cat came to me quickly and much to my surprise
it was a strange gray and white female, very thin. We fed it but
my huband said we were not going to let it in the house. About
three hours later - during which time the cat sat at the back door
crying - HE let it in. We named her Boots and my husband took to
her more than any of our other cats. She is very affectionate and
very soft to hold and pet. She is also the only cat Don has ever
allowed to sleep on his side of the bed!
On June 28th we went on vacation leaving a neighbor to caer for our
animals. When we returned he told me that he had not seen Boots
the whole time we had been gone, and another of our cats, Dusty,
who adopted us about 4 years ago, had been gone since mid week.
Well three nights later I was sitting by my window reading, and
Dusty jumped up on the outside sill and meowed to get in. Which
was a relief. But still no Boots. Almost three weeks had gone by
since we'd left for vacation and no cat.
We discovered that something was going after our baby ducks and
set up our Havahart trap baited with baloney in the hen house.
Yesterday morning my daughter called me at work - a very skinney
Boots was in the trap. We'd found the duck killer and our missing
cat. She apparently hadn't had enough time to bond with us after
her previous time in the wild and apparently assumed that she'd
been left again. She was very affectionate to us when we came home
from work and ate a whole 12 oz can of cat food (and wanted more!)
Last night she slept first with me, then for most of the night
with Don, and finished out the night with her paws wrapped arround
my hand.
I guess she must be on the third of her nine lives by now. We will
have do do our best to keep her in until the ducks are bigger and
she is bonded to us better. (Not an easy task since the other
cats and the dogs know how to open the doors and my kids aren't
all that great at shutting doors.)
I wonder if she's been on our property all along. We certainly
called her enough but she's still not entirely used to "her" name.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 287.1 | SIMILAR EXPERIENCE...NOT AS DRASTIC THOUGH | SOFCON::MCDONOUGH | Mon Jul 21 1986 12:52 | 31 | |
Sounds like you are in an area where the irresponsible and
inconsiderate seem to feel they can dump unwanted animals. I live
in a rural area and have two cats...One is pure white and she came
to us via the "Stop here, Dear, there's a big house!!" route!! We
had five dogs at the time..but "Miss Meow" has sorta taken over
and has no problem with them. The other one came to us rather
unexpectedly...her mother had her and abandoned her immediately
after birth...my two Dachshunds found her...we nursed her every
3-4 hours (yes--I had to get up at three in the morning for about
4 weeks) and we had a major assist from our half german shepherd,
quarter doberman, in the raising process...to this day "Annie"--as
in "little orphan" still is confused as to whether she's a cat or
a dog...I call her "Bitch-Mew"--cause her 'mew' sounds like she's
'bitchin' all the time...
Yesterday, I was out in my garden, and I hear the most plaintive,
lonely cry coming from across the street in some trees. I called
to my wife that there was a lost cat somewhere and proceeded to
go "hunting"...Sure enough..I'd no more that entered the copse of
trees when i see this cute little red cat about 5 months old. I
knelt down and called to him, and he wakled right up to me and let
me pick him up...and began to "motor" like crazy...Obviously another
IDIOT had dumped him...since he was obviously not a feral kitten
with the affection and lack of fear of me. My neighbor came along
about that time and said "I thought I heard something crying!"--
at which time I said---"do you want him?"---not really expecting
him to say 'yes'!! Wonders never cease...my neighbor had recently
lost one of their two cats to plain old age, and he was very happy
to take the little guy! He got a nice cat!! Red..but not striped
except on the tail...a real unique little guy...and very loving!
JM
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| 287.2 | attracting strays | STUBBI::REINKE | Wed Jul 23 1986 16:18 | 8 | |
re .1
We do live in the country now but we seem to have attracted strays
where ever we live. Out of five dogs that we've owned, two came to
us as strays, and out of 9 cats, 4 were strays that adopted us.
Also one other cat and one other dog were older animals that
their owner no longer wanted. I guess they know where to find a
good home (or as my Dad puts it - they know a sucker when they see
one!)
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| 287.3 | a happy ending | TIGEMS::RICHARDSON | Fri Jul 25 1986 13:10 | 13 | |
Yes, when we lived in the country alot of people drop off kittens...
I couldn't see how anyone could do that without guilt...but they
sleep at night so I guess they don't care.....that's the difference
between you guys and them...your willing to care for an animal and
treat it like your best friend and they throw it out like garbage.
I sure wouldn't want to be friends with anyone like that!
I'm glad Boots returned and I'm glad all the kitties have wanted
homes.
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| 287.4 | More on Boots | STUBBI::B_REINKE | Fri Oct 10 1986 17:09 | 15 | |
Boots has developed an interesting way of getting into the house.
She gets up on the roof and walks around to our bed room windows
and scratches and mews until someone wakes her up and opens the
window to let her in. We thought that she was getting up on the
roof either via a ladder that had been left by the garage or by
an open casement window. However we took care of both of these
and she is still getting up on the first story roof and going from
there to the second story and around the house to our window.
The other cats jump up and hit the door latches or climb on to the
first floor window sills to get in. Boots is the only one who has
figured out how to get in once everyone is in bed. (Interestingly
enough she has to go past my daughters room before she gets to ours
- I guess the girls are sounder sleepers than I am.)
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