Conference misery::feline

    
    I brought home "Shamrock's 1, 4 and 5" (leaving behind 2 and 3, one of
    whom was spoken for, but 4 kitties would have been just too many) from
    Pat Brody's, and am forever glad I did (though I do wonder what
    happened to the little black kitten who was fated to be left without
    a sibling...)
    
    len.
    

    ...cleaning the poop out of the litter pans!
    

    ...getting the cat hair off the furniture!
    

- cleaning the poop out of the bathroom sink first thing in the AM (Simon
  was letting me know the condition of the boxes :^( - okay, so I'm not  
  meticulous...)

- sitting down to breakfast/dinner and seeing/hearing Hannah backing around the 
  living room going urrrrk, gaaak, urrrrrk, gaaak, gaaak...... and *knowing*
  was was about to (re)appear...

    Watch your step:
    
    1. Stepping barefoot on a hard piece of clay litter.
    2. Stepping on kitty hairball barf barefoot in the middle of the night
    3. Stepping on kitty dingleberries anytime!
    
    Carl

    ... having not to be able to help anyone who lost a furry friend...
    
    Nat

    
    
    	UTI's...
    
    	I don't like my house constantly smelling like cat pee.
    	Especially after I've cleaned the boxes and washed the floors
    	and it *still* smells!
    
    

    ...watching my babies grow up and then finding them a home....
    Karen

    
    ..My stray cats who are now SO spoiled they put their nose
      up to cat food.   
    
    ..and my husband who insists on opening every type of catfood
      to find one the strays will eat!!!!
    
    
    

	Treating a bad case of earmites - yucky!    
    
	Heather

    V(ery) LFT: the nerve of some people.. when told that my poor babies
    had a minor problem.. they told me to take them back and dump them at
    the shelter... one guy even said he would do me a favor and put them in
    a weighted sack and dump them in the river, if I couldn't do it myself!
    
    How can people be so damn heartless???????

    LFT1:  people like M-L described in .11.  Unbelievable!
    
    LFT2: Well, this is kind of mixed feelings.
    
    Waking up at 2:00 am with a kitten sleeping behind your head with his
    head on yours, his nose almost IN your ear, and him purring away!  It's
    sweet, but not at 2:00am!!
    
    Holly
    

    
    
    	Having Sasha attack Chloe last night and having it scare
    	the beejeezus out of Audrey who was sitting in my lap at
    	the time....I had the skid marks on my legs to prove it.  =(
    

    
    re .12 - these is "not welcome" but tolerable considering their intent: 
    Rocky's washing my face in the wee hours of the morning, with special
    attention to my mouth, so that his tongue sneaks through my lips.  ("Do
    you know where that thing has been?  No, don't tell me, I don't want to
    know.")  Robin's settling in for the night on my chest, revving up her
    purrbox (which is much louder in one direction than the other), and
    drooling all over my face.   Rocky's insistence that he sit on top of
    whatever it is I'm doing, lately the PC keyboard, so he can chase the
    cursor across the screen and capture those dangerous pop up menus before
    they get away...  
    
    len.
    

Taking care of young kittens at the vet's who've had head injuries (like caught
in a closing door) as they often are blind and deaf as a result. We have one in
now who isn't even weaned yet. Just sits in the corner of the cage and shakes.
Even worse when you pick them up and they purr and you know what's probably
going to happen to them in the end...

Trace_who'll_be_spending_some_extra_time_"off the clock"_tonight_at_the_clinic

    
    Owning a feed store, and listening to some of the things customers
    say about their pets....
    
    Like the other day;  "Well, I don't have enough money, so the
    cats will have to eat dogfood or go hungry"
    
    Or the numerous litters they let their cats have.  We were asked
    if they could bring in the kittens for us to give away....
    
     

    
    
    	Lynne,
    
    	Sounds like The Grain Store in Hollis.  During the spring and
    	summer they're always giving away kittens.  People ask them if
    	they'd mind finding them homes and the people at the store 
    	can't bear to turn any of them away.
    
    	JJ
    

    Suffering kitties...
    
    It is always so sad... sometimes I wanna cry when I read about them,
    cuz I know how much I love my cats...
    
    [sound of idea generation]
    
    Can we start a Praise! or Good News! note or something for all the
    times when we take the cats to the vets and they're doing healthy/great?
    it's easy to forget that cats are *not* the most sickly creatures on
    earth.
    
    (to people with sick/hurt cats: I'm not complaining about you guys, its
    the people with healthy cats that I'm complaining about :-) go ahead
    and write - that's one of the points of this notesfile:
    sympathy/help/prayers/etc
    I just get all worried that my new kittens are going to get sick/hurt cuz
    that seems like all I hear about, except for things like the wonderful
    stories from Len & Rocky, and Merlin, and Blueberry, and I forget the
    other one...)

>Taking care of young kittens at the vet's who've had head injuries (like caught
>in a closing door) as they often are blind and deaf as a result. We have one in
>now who isn't even weaned yet. Just sits in the corner of the cage and shakes.
>Even worse when you pick them up and they purr and you know what's probably
>going to happen to them in the end...
>
>Trace_who'll_be_spending_some_extra_time_"off the clock"_tonight_at_the_clinic
    
    So sad!  This conjured up an image for me that was so vivid that tears
    welled up and I wanted to get on a plane right then to go and take care of
    this little sweetie.  God bless you, Trace.  Give that little one some
    extra lovin' tonight.  I wish I could be there to give it myself.
    
    My LFT?  Kitties that suffer because some dumb human, either through
             ignorance or downright meanness causes them injury
    My MFT?  People like you, Trace, that give their time and hearts to try to
             bring love and comfort into the life of a suffering little kitty
    
    Carl

    Speaking of the Grain Store in Hollis.  I was there 2 weeks ago and 
    saw 12 kittens in one cage with a litter box, a bowl of food, and
    a bowl of water.  They were laying on top of each other!  Then, there
    were 3 kittens in another cage with goopy eyes, laying there looking
    lifeless.    I reamed the kid at the store about the 3 kittens looking
    like they had conjuntivitis.  He told me that they had a vet check
    all the kittens out and they were giving them medication for the
    conjunctivitis.  
    
    Well, I felt so bad for them, I cleaned out all their eyes and I ended
    up taking home one of them.  She ended up having an upper respitory
    (sp?) infection, loaded with worms, and conjunctivitis.  Her eyes
    are all better, she's still sneezing alot, but we're giving her
    an antibiotic.  We have to give her pills for her worms. 
    
    She's doing great though!  She's raising hell, so I know she's 
    feeling much better!  I just wish I could take all those kittens
    home!!  
    
    Melissa

    
    
    	Hi Mel....I wouldn't get too mad at the guys at the Grain Store.
    	I talked with a couple of them the last time they had kittens
    	there and people dump kittens off there ALL the time.  The Grain
    	Store keeps them there and tries to adopt them out, out of the
    	goodness of their heart.  So I wouldn't put too much blame on
    	them.  With the amount of kittens I've seen that get dumped off
    	there, I would suspect they can't afford the medical bills for 
    	all of them.....
    
    	JJ
    

    
    
    	I'm glad you took one home though!  How did Joe react?  =)
    
    	

    
    A definite LFT happened to me last night.  I was sitting on the
    floor, reading the newspaper, (with the normal 4 cat company),
    with the paper half on the floor, and the other half being held
    up by my hand, when Pepper walked across my lap, backed up to
    the paper, and SPRAYED the section I was holding up!!!
    
    I was shocked, to say the least!  Once or twice I had thought I
    had smelled "cat"but thought I was imagining it. Now I know who 
    the culprit is......and I'm not a happy cat owner right now....
    
    Lynne

    
    Hi Judy!  Well, I didn't get TOO mad at them.  After I found out 
    that a vet had been by, I calmed down.  Well, Joe wasn't receptive
    at all, but she captured his heart!  When he woke up and found her
    on his chest purring, his heart melted!  She's a doll and we love
    her very much.  My two other furfaces didn't like her too much.  One
    of them as warmed up to her, but not the other one.  She's definitely
    a scream and keeps us laughing every minute!  
    
    Mel

    
    
    	Boo.....that's cute!
    
    	Tell Joe I said he's nothing but a big mushball.  =)
    
    	I'll have to take a drive up and look at the babies and
    	play with 'em a bit.....  =)
    
    	JJ
    

    LFT: Flea busting!
    
    Lori B.

    
    Least Favorite Thing:  Kitty who confuses litter box (both boxes are
    the same except for contents) with drained/used motor oil box in dark
    garage.  Oil all over house.  Kitty who gets 1/2 way through bath
    and has a nervous breakdown.  Coworkers who think it's cruel that 
    I stayed up all night patting and soothing and feeding kitty treats
    to Snoopy so he wouldn't lick the soap/petroleum off so I finally
    got him to settle down so I could clip away some of the worst 
    sections of fur.  Grumble.  Grumble.

    LFT: When you've been editing a program for over an hour, and your
    workstation has a heart attack and reboots at random, and doesn't even
    have the decency to leave a .JOU file so I can recover! :-(
    
    Yonee (who is pouting like crazy, and on a regular terminal! 8-{) ;-)

    
    
    	sigh...
    
    	After 2+ months of a urinary infection and 3 types of medication,
    	Chloe is *still* sick and has to go in for X-rays....to the tune
    	of $236.  What little money I have been able to put aside is having
    	to go towards my taxes so I have no idea where I'm going to come
    	up with the money to pay for this.  But I can't *not* do it because
    	it'll drain on her health and I'm tired of washing my floors every
    	day.   And there's no guarantee that they'll find anything after
    	doing the X-rays.  *OR* they could find that she needs surgery
    	which will be another few hundred dollars that I don't have.
    	1994 is note starting off well for me......  =(