just a cat

In reply to triumph7 :

Even if you're not a cat person, time spent with a purring cat is the best time. Sorry for your loss.

In reply to triumph7 :

I'm sorry for your loss, triumph.  But cats sometimes don't show you what's going on until it's too late.

AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to triumph7 :

Even if you're not a cat person, time spent with a purring cat is the best time. Sorry for your loss.

Thanks!  This guy was a big mane coon and acted a bit like a dog.

A few weeks back we lost our buddy Benetton unexpectedly. Had had a minor bit of nasal congestion, saw the vet, had injections for an antibiotic and a steroid, was getting better...  We had no real signs. We left for an overnight trip and when I got home he was laying on the bedroom floor like he was just taking a nap. I didn't realize until I reached down to pet him... He was only 8. Right before we left he was chowing down and actively playing with the other cats. 

He had a few extra pounds, but always came trotting to curl up on the bed with you as soon as you laid down. Just the best kind of lazy guy. 

Making things harder is our kids, 4&6. They were devastated. The younger one doesn't understand. He was the cat that was the most patient with the kids, would let them pet him, even snuggle. 

This took us from 4 cats to 3. 

Well, to help with the boys, we wound up welcoming a new addition. 

Meet Tommel. If you wonder on the name, it's Norwegian for thumb.

He's 3, he's extremely patient with the kids, very playful, good with other cats...  And if you look closely, you will realize he can count to 12 without his hind paws. Yup, polydactyl with 6 claws per front foot.

He can never be a replacement. He has helped with the kids though.

As for our other cats...

Cooper, our old boy at 11, but still a kitten at heart. He's my buddy, usually following me around.

Enzo, 4, who strangely is obsessed with beer. He will try to steal your beer from you, especially blue moon. 

And before Tommel, our most recent newcomer Lilith. About 8 months old and settling in nicely. 

My father died yesterday evening. Ninety. I wish that we could have spent more time together when he was healthy. Here are some cat pictures from this morning.

Oh that is tough. I am so sorry to hear about your father. I lost mine on 12/27/18 and I still miss him every day. So many things I'd love to be able to sit down and chat with him about. Sending love.

So am I. Mine passed away at eighty-nine. It's a very deep loss, but it seems we all have to go through it unless we die first, which is something I wouldn't wish on any parent.

Just don't let anyone tell you how you "ought" to feel or grieve. And don't forget what an amazing community we have here, if you should happen to need anything.

In reply to triumph7 :

Sorry, its awful when they go

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Oh , Man, you have my condolences

My condolences. My Dad passed in 1990, a few months before I turned 24. I'm 58 now. It never doesn't hurt, but it gets better.

Thanks for the thoughts. Dad lived a good life. If you get to 90, there's no complaining. I'm going to miss his random/accidental phone calls. His thoughts would drift, but he always knew who I was and had something good to say.

In cat news, a friend's son found an injured cat by the side of the road and brought it home. He texted and said he's got another stray for me. I don't think he realized what he has.

I've offered to foster it for a day or two until we can get it to wildlife rehab. If I do take it, it's going to be in the dog crate and handed with welding gloves, regardless of how gentle it seems.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

I assume its name is Bob?

BoxheadTim said:

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

I assume its name is Bob?

Bob the Murder-Kitten.

Sorry for your loss Jon, I went through that myself about 2 months ago.   

Thanks for your contiued work with your local kitty colony.  Those are the best fed ferals I have ever seen!

Here are our two, Senna and Checo, adopted as sisters from the local shelter in March 2024 at 6 months old or so then, here they are now, pretty clearly related.  These two actually came home in our Boxster. 
 

Follow-up on the bobcat: My friend kept it in his shop overnight in a dog crate. It was quite lively and unhappy in the morning. Another friend brought it to a wildlife rehab ranch where they evaluated it. It had a mild head injury, but was recovering quickly. It was still young enough that it needed to be with the mother. The choice was to care for it at the ranch for about six months or return close to where it was found, where the mother will very likely find it. It was returned. "It ran out of the carrier, swam across a stream, then climbed a cliff. It looked back for a moment, then was gone."

Smokey was waiting for me when I came home from night shift this morning. Time to feed 'The Wilds'. Most of them aren't truly feral anymore. It's common for Bobbie, Tom, and Smokey to wait for me at the back door now.

I decided to try trapping Rita or Sasha today. They have been very wary of the trap, but Rita has become more bold with me over the last month as I toss her treats at feeding time.

With the trap set, all of the cats initially stayed away. Patrick was the first to come back to eat. As he did some of the others cautiously gathered by the spring to watch. While he ate his fill, Big Tom (who has witnessed most of my trappings) placed himself on the cord - a safety to my trigger.

Finally Patrick had his fill and Tom stepped off the cord. Rita circled the trap once, then went to the food bowl. She remained fairly calm when the trap dropped and was easy to transport to the vet. I'll pick her up this afternoon. We may keep her inside over the weekend for recovery. The weather is forecast to turn cold.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Great job you are doing. Are you tagging your herd with chips so that you can keep track of their vaccinations and when they are due and who got what and when?

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

With the last two cats, I stopped doing rabies vaccination. Re-trapping the cats to get their annual booster is not practical. I did trap Fluffy a couple times when he had a bad eye infection and it took over a month of near daily attempts to get him back to the vet. There are a few cats that I can probably handle now and I might start bringing them back annually.

At first, I didn't plan to name cats. I didn't want to get attached and start thinking of them as individuals more than the birds that eat at my feeder. That didn't last long. When I started taking them to the vet, they always wanted a name to put on their file, so that's when I started giving names to each of them and taking several identifying pictures to keep track. The vet doesn't like to cut their ears, so he started tattooing them. Unfortunately he has not been very consistent with it. From the last two females forward I am specifically requesting that the vet tattoo their suture line area when they are spayed as a future indicator that they have been done.

For records, I started with a notebook with dates, names, and a few details when they were trapped. Now I keep it online here: Census - Captured Cats  I have a box where I keep all of the certificates, tags, and receipts. I also often refer back to this thread as a resource of chronological info. I have been taking pictures of these guys for two years now and have data folders on two computers with named pictures. There are some that have been hard to differentiate at first. There were three 'Sylvesters' that I originally thought were one cat. With pictures it was easy to find differences. Most recently I was having trouble identifying Terry, Patrick, and Little Kim. If they were together I could spot differences, but alone it was hard to know who was who. Now I know them on sight.

With Rita trapped now, Sasha is the only cat in the territory that I'm claiming left to spay.      ...Good luck with that. There's a cluster of kittens that are sometimes seen crossing the street northeast of my house and a new cat sneaking to the food at the cul de sac after my regulars have left. There will always be more.

think frogger wants a Chevy

gixxeropa said:

think frogger wants a Chevy

think frogger watches VGG

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Seems like he's only interested in VGG, too. Normally he doesn't pay the TV any mind 

Four times now I've tried to post in this thread and every time I lose what I've typed when I try to upload a pic.

This guy, Mr. Kitters, came to us from our nephew when he moved to Italy. Like most of our animals, we agreed to take him because nobody else would. In the  ten years we've had him he's become almost exclusively my cat, and doesn't bother with anyone else, including the other cats. He was nine when got him, so he's approaching twenty, and only occasionally gets a burst of energy now.

 

There will be more. 

Here's our cat Senna, bottom left on my wife's lap, quite enthralled with watching the show, Senna, on Netflix last night.   

This is Alatar. He was a rescue, found under a porch malnourished and scared. He's a very useful cat. He doesn't want any attention, maybe occasionally letting you pet him, but he doesn't really trust anyone. That deer in the headlights look? He only looks at us like that, because nobody else sees him. Ever.

He is all business, this guy is a killing machine. If there's anything in near the house that wants to come in you don't need to worry as long as he's around. When you live in a porous old farmhouse a ways back from the road, a cat like him is invaluable.