IBKFergus is leaving ;-(

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
I don't want to do this, but don't have much choice. For no reason i or
Joel
can fathom, IBKFergus just ripped my thumb to shreds. Its that bad, i
can't
use my right thumb to type.

I am so very sorry. Sometimes we do everything right and it turns out wrong
anyway.

I KNOW how you feel. And can't imagine how you will explain this to Cary
but you will.

IBKFergus, youse blew it, but I'm thinking you know it and just couldn't
help it. I'm sad it happened. Now gather up what is left of your nine
lives and hang in there. Vicki and Joel and Cary have done all they can.
Now its gonna have to be your turn to work stuff out. I know they will give
you as much help as possible.

Purrs and doggy drool and prayers that this works out for you all. And know
that as awful as sending Cary's cat away feels, keeping him and having this
happen to Cary would feel even worse. Keeping him and thinking it could
happen at any time would be intolerable.

Jo

"Helen Miles" wrote in message
news:08e37799a6a925530245d824c685c910.76411@mygate .mailgate.org...


First, many, many purrs that this is resolved in the best interests of
IBK Fergus. However, to take her back to work and dump her there is
grossly unfair. Firstly, she'll have inital problems being introduced to
the colony as they won't recognise her and there will be fights.
Secondly, she has not developed the "awareness" of a permanent living
*outdoor* cat as she has known the safety of a home.

Can you pin point *any* reason why she might have reacted in this way?

Purrs that things work out.

Helen M


Just echoing what Helen Miles says, in that it wouldn't be fair to dump IBK
back at work and the good idea of trying to figure out *why* IBK reacted
this way.

My ex-feral (Marble) has been a bit err... quick with the claws over the
years but as long as *I* remember to keep his claws clipped, there is no
problem. Thing is - said feral is a lamb when it comes to clawclipping time,
so it's easy for me. I just use ordinary nail clippers and they work a
treat. I found the way with claw clipping is to make sure said feline
understands I'm the boss and this *is* going to happen. Once Marble worked
that out - no problems clipping his claws.

Being a mum, I can understand the worry as regards Cary: truly. Think about
giving claw clipping a go - it does need to be done regularly though.

Hope you can work this out.

helen s

Yowie wrote:

Tonight, sadly, will be her last night here.

Where is she going after that?

As others have said - please don't dump her as she isn't a feral cat,
and she will die, and please hold out for a home for her, either via the
Cat Protection Society, or in a farm or stables environment, which would
be ideal for her. No doubt the CPS would take her as soon as they can
but being in a similar group here, foster spaces don't appear at the
drop of a hat. Can you borrow the crate again or give IBK a room to live
in as a temporary measure? If I wasn't halfway round the world, I would
certainly take her.

*Something* must have triggered her to go for your thumb, she surely
didn't just leap out of nowhere and go for you?

I have a *very* touchy rescue cat called Cocoa - Helen M has met her!
and the way we have to treat her is to ignore her physically unless she
actively seeks attention, and then to give very cautious and brief
scritches until the first sign she is getting touchy, and then to leave
her alone. She does have a screw loose caused by some trauma in her
young life before I adopted her, but if we respect her boundaries,
everyone is happy. If she growls when she is on our laps and we aren't
doing anything, she gets turfed off by the lap owner immediately
standing up so she has to leave. She has learned over the years that we
don't harm her and we also won't take any nonsense if we haven't
provoked her (which we don't). She's 13 now and I've had her since she
was about 1-2. She also amusingly answers back if you tell her something
she doesn't like, and she has a thing against black footwear which
inevitably gets karate-chopped and cursed, which can be amusing but is
also sad as she is obviously scared of it.

Is Cary really too young to learn to leave IBK alone when she has had
enough? Is that not a better lesson to learn, than to get rid of IBK
because she scratched? (and yes, I do appreciate it was a bad injury)

Flame away, folks... :-/

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

"Debbie Wilson" wrote in message
...
Yowie wrote:

Tonight, sadly, will be her last night here.

Where is she going after that?

As others have said - please don't dump her as she isn't a feral cat,
and she will die, and please hold out for a home for her, either via the
Cat Protection Society, or in a farm or stables environment, which would
be ideal for her. No doubt the CPS would take her as soon as they can
but being in a similar group here, foster spaces don't appear at the
drop of a hat. Can you borrow the crate again or give IBK a room to live
in as a temporary measure? If I wasn't halfway round the world, I would
certainly take her.

*Something* must have triggered her to go for your thumb, she surely
didn't just leap out of nowhere and go for you?

I have a *very* touchy rescue cat called Cocoa - Helen M has met her!
and the way we have to treat her is to ignore her physically unless she
actively seeks attention, and then to give very cautious and brief
scritches until the first sign she is getting touchy, and then to leave
her alone. She does have a screw loose caused by some trauma in her
young life before I adopted her, but if we respect her boundaries,
everyone is happy. If she growls when she is on our laps and we aren't
doing anything, she gets turfed off by the lap owner immediately
standing up so she has to leave. She has learned over the years that we
don't harm her and we also won't take any nonsense if we haven't
provoked her (which we don't). She's 13 now and I've had her since she
was about 1-2. She also amusingly answers back if you tell her something
she doesn't like, and she has a thing against black footwear which
inevitably gets karate-chopped and cursed, which can be amusing but is
also sad as she is obviously scared of it.

Is Cary really too young to learn to leave IBK alone when she has had
enough? Is that not a better lesson to learn, than to get rid of IBK
because she scratched? (and yes, I do appreciate it was a bad injury)

Flame away, folks... :-/

Deb.

No flames from me. What you've said is a measured, sensible response. To be
fair to Yowie - I can understand her worries about Cary, but no, it really
would not be fair or right to dump IBK. But, again, being a Mum, I can
understand the initial reaction. I hope that once Yowie has calmed down she
can work something out that is fair to all. I'd find it very difficult to
believe she would really dump IBK. The Yowie we know & love doesn't do that
sort of thing, as she's much too sensible and caring.

Cheers, helen s

"Debbie Wilson" wrote in message


More eloquently said than I could have.

I have a *very* touchy rescue cat called Cocoa - Helen M has met her!
and the way we have to treat her is to ignore her physically unless she
actively seeks attention, and then to give very cautious and brief
scritches until the first sign she is getting touchy, and then to leave
her alone.////

Biting the bullet and wading in behind Deb...Cocoa is no different to
many other cats, including Andrea Fullers Flo, and my Robbie & Cleo. I
didn't say this before, as I was trying to remain tactful and "on the
fence", but 95% of cats behaving like this are doing it not because they
are "vicious", but because they are "fear agressive". Regardless of how
much you said that Fergis seemed to enjoy playing with Cary, the truth
is that he was probably a little rough with her and she treated him as
another kitten. When i see how Lily nails HRFL Tiger in play, it makes
me glad I'm not on the recieving end of those claws and teeth!!

Try isolating IBKFergus in a space of her own, and assessing her in a
quiet environment away from Cary - keep her confined to one room, ignore
her, and let her approach you. You've had her since she was a tiny
kitten, and it is not common for feral kittens who are socialised
properly to become *vicious* without a bloody good reason behind it.
Then start to reinstigate play. The majority of times I have seen the
same behaviour as IBKFergus exhibited by other foster cats, is when
people have played with them completely inappropriately and they have
not learned boundaries.

I'm probably going to be aoutrageously flamed for this, but to be
brutally frank, if Fergus is sent to either Cats Protection or the
humane society and labelled as "vicious", you have pretty much signed
her death warrant. You may as well take her to the vet and have her put
to sleep yourself, because at least it will be with someone she knows
and trusts then.

As Deb said, flame away,

Helen M


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

My aunt has a rescued Persian cat, Blue, that cannot be trusted. She even
wanted to have her put down after she put my uncle in the hospital with a
nasty bite. Their vet refused to euthanise an otherwise healthy cat so they
reconsidered and kept her.

When she bit, she was being petted at her request and just turned and sunk
in her teeth. Now she pretty much lives under my aunts bed. She does not
come out for strangers and friends know not to touch her even if she seems
to ask. No one is really happy with the situation, but she is doing as well
as she would anywhere. They have a second Persian they rescued at the same
time, Sunshine. He is a lover and he is company for Blue

There is no way Blue could be trusted around children, and she is a risk
around frail adults.

Jo

"Debbie Wilson" wrote in message
...
Yowie wrote:

Tonight, sadly, will be her last night here.

Where is she going after that?

As others have said - please don't dump her as she isn't a feral cat,
and she will die, and please hold out for a home for her, either via the
Cat Protection Society, or in a farm or stables environment, which would
be ideal for her. No doubt the CPS would take her as soon as they can
but being in a similar group here, foster spaces don't appear at the
drop of a hat. Can you borrow the crate again or give IBK a room to live
in as a temporary measure? If I wasn't halfway round the world, I would
certainly take her.

*Something* must have triggered her to go for your thumb, she surely
didn't just leap out of nowhere and go for you?

I have a *very* touchy rescue cat called Cocoa - Helen M has met her!
and the way we have to treat her is to ignore her physically unless she
actively seeks attention, and then to give very cautious and brief
scritches until the first sign she is getting touchy, and then to leave
her alone. She does have a screw loose caused by some trauma in her
young life before I adopted her, but if we respect her boundaries,
everyone is happy. If she growls when she is on our laps and we aren't
doing anything, she gets turfed off by the lap owner immediately
standing up so she has to leave. She has learned over the years that we
don't harm her and we also won't take any nonsense if we haven't
provoked her (which we don't). She's 13 now and I've had her since she
was about 1-2. She also amusingly answers back if you tell her something
she doesn't like, and she has a thing against black footwear which
inevitably gets karate-chopped and cursed, which can be amusing but is
also sad as she is obviously scared of it.

Is Cary really too young to learn to leave IBK alone when she has had
enough? Is that not a better lesson to learn, than to get rid of IBK
because she scratched? (and yes, I do appreciate it was a bad injury)

Flame away, folks... :-/

Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com

"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield

On Sun, 21 May 2006 22:01:29 +1000, "Yowie"
yodeled:

I don't want to do this, but don't have much choice. For no reason i or Joel
can fathom, IBKFergus just ripped my thumb to shreds. Its that bad, i can't
use my right thumb to type.

Now I've wrestled with Shmogg all his life and I've had my fair share of
scratches and bites, but never this deep, and never without severe
provocation first.

The deepest cut extends right from the base of my thumb all the way around
to the thumb to the knuckle - about two inches of deep cut, with other
scratches parrellel to it.

This *cannot* happen to Cary, who, being a 2 year old boy, does provoke her.
If it was Cary's thumb, he'd behaving reconstructive surgery to have it
reattached about now. the clawing is *that* severe.

I'd like her to go to a home with people used to ex feral and feral cats. A
home that doens't have children, a home that won't make her the nervous
skitty cat she is here. She is an *excellent* hunter and would be most
suited to barn life rather than a house cat or pet, She has never been
intered in receiving any affection from us, althogh will occasionally
discover how much she likes it if we 'force' it on her. She does, however,
answer to her name.

The Cat Protection Society might take her - theres a lady here in my suburb
that lean me a crate when IBKFergus first got here. If not, I'll try the
Humane Society. Failing that, I'll take her back to work where the rest of
her family is. I don't like the idea of dumping cats, but she'll have a
better chance there than at the RSPCA. The RSPCA do a great job in many
ways, but if I say that she's vicious, and I feel duty bound to mention it,
they'll deem her 'unadoptable' and just euthanise her because they can't
home her forever. And I don't want her euthanised.

Please purr she finds a home more suitable to her wild nature (if you know
of one around Wollongong, Australia, please let me know). Every extra hour
here increases the risk she might severely hurt and/or maim Cary, so she's
got to go ASAP. Tonight, sadly, will be her last night here.

Even though my thumb is throbbing, and I know that this is what we have to
do for Cary's sake, I am *heartbroken*. I just hope she can find a home that
will be able to provide her with whatever it is she needs to become a lap
fungus. I feell like *such* a traitor, a failure, a bad parent etc etc.

And then I have to explain to Cary why his fursister and Evil Overlord is no
longer around.

in tears,

Yowie



I hear you. When my brother and I were children, we had a little wild
thang around called Charcoal, who was the demon cat from hell. He
liked to pounce on people's heads from above, but the really bad thing
was he attacked bare feet. He slashed my little brother's foot open
almost to the heel bone. But my brother and I cried so much when my
parents proposed to get rid of the little monster, that they
compromised and had him declawed. We didn't know as much then about
how harmful the practice is. But what a shame about IBK Fergus-- we
are purring that she finds a good home, and quickly. And for Cary to
feel better soon.

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

Make Levees, Not War

Yowie wrote:
I don't want to do this, but don't have much choice. For no reason i or Joel
can fathom, IBKFergus just ripped my thumb to shreds.

Did he just come up and attack or were you petting him? If you were
petting him he probably did it because you didn't notice the warning
signs that he had too much so he attacked. If this is the case it is
possibly to learn to avoid this in the future. Now as for Cary I and
this happening I have no advise if he is too young to explain this to.

I'd like her to go to a home with people used to ex feral and feral cats. A
home that doens't have children, a home that won't make her the nervous
skitty cat she is here. She is an *excellent* hunter and would be most
suited to barn life rather than a house cat or pet, She has never been
intered in receiving any affection from us, althogh will occasionally
discover how much she likes it if we 'force' it on her. She does, however,
answer to her name.

The Cat Protection Society might take her - theres a lady here in my suburb
that lean me a crate when IBKFergus first got here. If not, I'll try the
Humane Society. Failing that, I'll take her back to work where the rest of
her family is. I don't like the idea of dumping cats, but she'll have a
better chance there than at the RSPCA. The RSPCA do a great job in many
ways, but if I say that she's vicious, and I feel duty bound to mention it,
they'll deem her 'unadoptable' and just euthanise her because they can't
home her forever. And I don't want her euthanised.

Please purr she finds a home more suitable to her wild nature (if you know
of one around Wollongong, Australia, please let me know). Every extra hour
here increases the risk she might severely hurt and/or maim Cary, so she's
got to go ASAP. Tonight, sadly, will be her last night here.

Hiopefully if he does have to be rehomed he finds the perfect home!


Even though my thumb is throbbing, and I know that this is what we have to
do for Cary's sake, I am *heartbroken*.

That is because you really don't want to do it.


And then I have to explain to Cary why his fursister and Evil Overlord is no
longer around.


If you can explain this to Cary then perhaps you could explain how to
handle IBK properly?

Good luck in any case with whatever happens.

Yowie wrote:

Please purr she finds a home more suitable to her wild nature (if you know
of one around Wollongong, Australia, please let me know). Every extra hour
here increases the risk she might severely hurt and/or maim Cary, so she's
got to go ASAP. Tonight, sadly, will be her last night here.

Why the rush - can't you segregate IBK away from Cary for a while - at
least until you find a proper home for IBK?