Integrating a Stray - HELP!!

If you've been reading the "other" cat group, you'll already know we have a
new stray hanging around. Here's a recap...

The neighbor's female cat has never been spayed, ergo every 4 - 6 weeks we
see toms hanging around. We call the female "Socks" even though the
neighbors call her "Nibbles" - they don't count because they don't care
enough to spay her or feed her regularly. Socks very often comes begging at
our back door because she gets the "good stuff" - leftovers from what our
cats don't eat (we quit feeding our clowder dry so we had a lot of Science
Diet dry left for hand-outs). A little over a week ago she came scratching
at the back door for food. We put some out, but she backed away and an
orinj-stripey tom came up to the dish looking spooked but almost starved to
death (I swear she did it on purpose just to get *him* a meal - she's a
smart little cookie). We could just about see the outlines of every bone in
his poor little body. He was so pitiful looking we thought he might be
dying of FIV or some other dreadful disease.

We kept filling the outside food bowl (he'd skitter away when we opened the
door, but hurriedly came back again for more). He ate three large bowls
full of food before he seemed (temporarily) satiated. I'm sure he over-ate
just to get as much food into his body as he could in case he never got the
chance to eat again. Always the suckers for hungry animals, especially
cats, we made sure that the outside food bowl was always full for him and
that he always had fresh water from then on. After about a week he started
to get *much* more filled out and he got very friendly (to the point of
rolling over on his back so we could rub his belly). When we were able to
get closer we found that he was very healthy looking, very young, and now
that he's fed, very playful. He's been so preoccupied with filling his
belly that he's even given up on getting a little bit from Socks (that and
the fact that much older, bigger, and meaner toms are disputing his claim).
I'm almost positive that he is very young - maybe 5 - 6 months old, and was
probably dumped in our neighborhood when somebody's unspayed cat had
kittens. We call him "Garvin".

We've decided that we may try to add him to our current clowder (I know,
we're nuts, who has SIX cats?) I called about 5 or 6 of our credit cards
for balances and finally found one that has a little bit of available credit
left on it (gawd knows how we'll pay the extra balance, but we'll worry
about that later). I'm going to take him in to the S.N.A.P. clinic for
shots worming and testing for any diseases, and then we'll bring him in to
their surgical clinic for neutering. I'm not sure how we'll physically go
about this, I just know we're going to give it our best shot this Saturday.
If he tests positive for FIV we're going to let him live in the back yard as
he's currently doing; if he tests negative we're going to give him his own
room until we can integrate him with our other five. [Right now we keep a
bottle of "Purell" at the back door so we can disinfect our hands before
touching one of our clowder - I'm hoping that's enough to keep from
transmitting disease, does anybody know about this?]

He is friendly enough to allow us to pick him up, but I don't know about
getting him into a carrier. Right now his biggest motivator is food, food
and more food. He looks like he thinks he's died and gone to cat heaven
already, and he doesn't even get the good food (when the Science Diet ran
out we were broke and could only get Purina Cat Chow for the outside feeding
bowls). I think he would even take on one of the big toms for a dish of
Fancy Feast.

Anyway, to end this novel, I'm looking for advice - as much as I can
possibly get. How do we get him into the carrier? Should we get him inside
the house first and let him get used to it, or just get him to the vet first
and then give him his own room?

Here's pictures of the boy: http://www.possibleplaces.com/CatNipped/Garvin/

And here's a video of him "pussy-footing" (when he's really happy he'll
first pick up his left paw and curl it then put it down and pick up his
right paw and curl it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4cMU_pcNDc

Again, any and all advice would be much appreciated.


--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

I'm going through exactly the same thing right now. We caught our stray
with a live trap and kept her in a large dog cage for about a week before
taking her to get vetted. As far as getting her into a carrier to transport
to the vet, my DH was able to pet her and then gently put a towel over her
and scooped her up and put her in the carrier. It helped that we have a
top-loading carrier. Made it much easier.

As far as should you take Garvin to the vet first or put him in a room
first, honestly, I don't think it would matter. Maybe keeping him a room
first for a little while would help make him more comfortable with you. And
then getting him in a carrier might be a little easier. But it sounds like
Garvin has already started warming up to you.

Also, if it's any consolation to you....I have friends that have 6 cats and
2 dogs! They keep taking in strays. :-)

Good luck.

S.
--
**Visit me and my cats at http://www.island-cats.com/ **
---
"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
If you've been reading the "other" cat group, you'll already know we have
a new stray hanging around. Here's a recap...

The neighbor's female cat has never been spayed, ergo every 4 - 6 weeks we
see toms hanging around. We call the female "Socks" even though the
neighbors call her "Nibbles" - they don't count because they don't care
enough to spay her or feed her regularly. Socks very often comes begging
at our back door because she gets the "good stuff" - leftovers from what
our cats don't eat (we quit feeding our clowder dry so we had a lot of
Science Diet dry left for hand-outs). A little over a week ago she came
scratching at the back door for food. We put some out, but she backed
away and an orinj-stripey tom came up to the dish looking spooked but
almost starved to death (I swear she did it on purpose just to get *him* a
meal - she's a smart little cookie). We could just about see the outlines
of every bone in his poor little body. He was so pitiful looking we
thought he might be dying of FIV or some other dreadful disease.

We kept filling the outside food bowl (he'd skitter away when we opened
the door, but hurriedly came back again for more). He ate three large
bowls full of food before he seemed (temporarily) satiated. I'm sure he
over-ate just to get as much food into his body as he could in case he
never got the chance to eat again. Always the suckers for hungry animals,
especially cats, we made sure that the outside food bowl was always full
for him and that he always had fresh water from then on. After about a
week he started to get *much* more filled out and he got very friendly (to
the point of rolling over on his back so we could rub his belly). When we
were able to get closer we found that he was very healthy looking, very
young, and now that he's fed, very playful. He's been so preoccupied with
filling his belly that he's even given up on getting a little bit from
Socks (that and the fact that much older, bigger, and meaner toms are
disputing his claim). I'm almost positive that he is very young - maybe
5 - 6 months old, and was probably dumped in our neighborhood when
somebody's unspayed cat had kittens. We call him "Garvin".

We've decided that we may try to add him to our current clowder (I know,
we're nuts, who has SIX cats?) I called about 5 or 6 of our credit cards
for balances and finally found one that has a little bit of available
credit left on it (gawd knows how we'll pay the extra balance, but we'll
worry about that later). I'm going to take him in to the S.N.A.P. clinic
for shots worming and testing for any diseases, and then we'll bring him
in to their surgical clinic for neutering. I'm not sure how we'll
physically go about this, I just know we're going to give it our best shot
this Saturday. If he tests positive for FIV we're going to let him live in
the back yard as he's currently doing; if he tests negative we're going to
give him his own room until we can integrate him with our other five.
[Right now we keep a bottle of "Purell" at the back door so we can
disinfect our hands before touching one of our clowder - I'm hoping that's
enough to keep from transmitting disease, does anybody know about this?]

He is friendly enough to allow us to pick him up, but I don't know about
getting him into a carrier. Right now his biggest motivator is food, food
and more food. He looks like he thinks he's died and gone to cat heaven
already, and he doesn't even get the good food (when the Science Diet ran
out we were broke and could only get Purina Cat Chow for the outside
feeding bowls). I think he would even take on one of the big toms for a
dish of Fancy Feast.

Anyway, to end this novel, I'm looking for advice - as much as I can
possibly get. How do we get him into the carrier? Should we get him
inside the house first and let him get used to it, or just get him to the
vet first and then give him his own room?

Here's pictures of the boy:
http://www.possibleplaces.com/CatNipped/Garvin/

And here's a video of him "pussy-footing" (when he's really happy he'll
first pick up his left paw and curl it then put it down and pick up his
right paw and curl it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4cMU_pcNDc

Again, any and all advice would be much appreciated.


--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
If you've been reading the "other" cat group, you'll already know we have
a new stray hanging around. Here's a recap...

The neighbor's female cat has never been spayed, ergo every 4 - 6 weeks we
see toms hanging around. We call the female "Socks" even though the
neighbors call her "Nibbles" - they don't count because they don't care
enough to spay her or feed her regularly. Socks very often comes begging
at our back door because she gets the "good stuff" - leftovers from what
our cats don't eat (we quit feeding our clowder dry so we had a lot of
Science Diet dry left for hand-outs). A little over a week ago she came
scratching at the back door for food. We put some out, but she backed
away and an orinj-stripey tom came up to the dish looking spooked but
almost starved to death (I swear she did it on purpose just to get *him* a
meal - she's a smart little cookie). We could just about see the outlines
of every bone in his poor little body. He was so pitiful looking we
thought he might be dying of FIV or some other dreadful disease.

We kept filling the outside food bowl (he'd skitter away when we opened
the door, but hurriedly came back again for more). He ate three large
bowls full of food before he seemed (temporarily) satiated. I'm sure he
over-ate just to get as much food into his body as he could in case he
never got the chance to eat again. Always the suckers for hungry animals,
especially cats, we made sure that the outside food bowl was always full
for him and that he always had fresh water from then on. After about a
week he started to get *much* more filled out and he got very friendly (to
the point of rolling over on his back so we could rub his belly). When we
were able to get closer we found that he was very healthy looking, very
young, and now that he's fed, very playful. He's been so preoccupied with
filling his belly that he's even given up on getting a little bit from
Socks (that and the fact that much older, bigger, and meaner toms are
disputing his claim). I'm almost positive that he is very young - maybe
5 - 6 months old, and was probably dumped in our neighborhood when
somebody's unspayed cat had kittens. We call him "Garvin".

We've decided that we may try to add him to our current clowder (I know,
we're nuts, who has SIX cats?) I called about 5 or 6 of our credit cards
for balances and finally found one that has a little bit of available
credit left on it (gawd knows how we'll pay the extra balance, but we'll
worry about that later). I'm going to take him in to the S.N.A.P. clinic
for shots worming and testing for any diseases, and then we'll bring him
in to their surgical clinic for neutering. I'm not sure how we'll
physically go about this, I just know we're going to give it our best shot
this Saturday. If he tests positive for FIV we're going to let him live in
the back yard as he's currently doing; if he tests negative we're going to
give him his own room until we can integrate him with our other five.
[Right now we keep a bottle of "Purell" at the back door so we can
disinfect our hands before touching one of our clowder - I'm hoping that's
enough to keep from transmitting disease, does anybody know about this?]

He is friendly enough to allow us to pick him up, but I don't know about
getting him into a carrier. Right now his biggest motivator is food, food
and more food. He looks like he thinks he's died and gone to cat heaven
already, and he doesn't even get the good food (when the Science Diet ran
out we were broke and could only get Purina Cat Chow for the outside
feeding bowls). I think he would even take on one of the big toms for a
dish of Fancy Feast.

Anyway, to end this novel, I'm looking for advice - as much as I can
possibly get. How do we get him into the carrier? Should we get him
inside the house first and let him get used to it, or just get him to the
vet first and then give him his own room?

Here's pictures of the boy:
http://www.possibleplaces.com/CatNipped/Garvin/

And here's a video of him "pussy-footing" (when he's really happy he'll
first pick up his left paw and curl it then put it down and pick up his
right paw and curl it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4cMU_pcNDc

Again, any and all advice would be much appreciated.


--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/




He's so adorable! I love the way he curls his feet--he's a happy cat!
Thanks for taking him under your wing! We've had several strays we've
brought into our house. A couple of them were mellow enough we were able to
carry them into the house without a carrier. We had already set up a
bathroom with all the necessarys and just put the cat in there. They seem
to be more comfortable in a smaller space, with a box or even the carrier to
hide in. You might try leaving the carrier outside and feed him in the
carrier til he's comfortable in it--don't know if it would work in your
situation. Will he let you pick him up?

I wish you the best of luck--I've always enjoyed having lots of cats. We're
"down" to five from seven last year and the house does seem a bit empty!

Bonnie

"22brix" wrote in message
news:_IqdnQpOKN3Bl27anZ2dnUVZ_uuonZ2d@pacificinter net...

He's so adorable! I love the way he curls his feet--he's a happy cat!
Thanks for taking him under your wing! We've had several strays we've
brought into our house. A couple of them were mellow enough we were able
to carry them into the house without a carrier. We had already set up a
bathroom with all the necessarys and just put the cat in there. They seem
to be more comfortable in a smaller space, with a box or even the carrier
to hide in. You might try leaving the carrier outside and feed him in the
carrier til he's comfortable in it--don't know if it would work in your
situation. Will he let you pick him up?

I wish you the best of luck--I've always enjoyed having lots of cats.
We're "down" to five from seven last year and the house does seem a bit
empty!

Bonnie

Yes, he let's us pick him up. Right now he is just so deliriously happy to
have a constant food source that I think he'd let us do just about anything
(for some reason that just makes me want to cry). If you could have seen
him when he first came you'd see why - I swear he had to be close to death
he was so skinny (you could see the outline of every bone in his body - we
though he as dying). His coat is still rough and shedding a lot, but I
think that will change once his body gets used to regular meals.

The only snag now is the money to do what needs to be done. I finally found
a little extra on a credit card then DH and I woke up this morning to find
that the ceiling in the guest bedroom had caved in. Apparently the A/C unit
in the attic had frozen up and overflowed causing the ceiling to collapse
and flood the carpet in the second story. ; Oh well, such is life (our
life, anyway, which is why we're always broke ;).

Hugs,

CatNipped

In article ,
says...
Anyway, to end this novel, I'm looking for advice - as much as I can
possibly get. How do we get him into the carrier? Should we get him inside
the house first and let him get used to it, or just get him to the vet first
and then give him his own room?

Here's pictures of the boy: http://www.possibleplaces.com/CatNipped/Garvin/

And here's a video of him "pussy-footing" (when he's really happy he'll
first pick up his left paw and curl it then put it down and pick up his
right paw and curl it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4cMU_pcNDc

Again, any and all advice would be much appreciated.




What a handsome cat! He is young, and he's got Red Mackerel Tabby
markings too like my Angie.

As far as getting him in a carrier it's simple, set one out there with
some blanketing and a his food. Let him get used to it and then when
he's in there close the door and off to the vet he goes.

In article _IqdnQpOKN3Bl27anZ2dnUVZ_uuonZ2d@pacificinternet ,
says...

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
If you've been reading the "other" cat group, you'll already know we have
a new stray hanging around. Here's a recap...

The neighbor's female cat has never been spayed, ergo every 4 - 6 weeks we
see toms hanging around. We call the female "Socks" even though the
neighbors call her "Nibbles" - they don't count because they don't care
enough to spay her or feed her regularly. Socks very often comes begging
at our back door because she gets the "good stuff" - leftovers from what
our cats don't eat (we quit feeding our clowder dry so we had a lot of
Science Diet dry left for hand-outs). A little over a week ago she came
scratching at the back door for food. We put some out, but she backed
away and an orinj-stripey tom came up to the dish looking spooked but
almost starved to death (I swear she did it on purpose just to get *him* a
meal - she's a smart little cookie). We could just about see the outlines
of every bone in his poor little body. He was so pitiful looking we
thought he might be dying of FIV or some other dreadful disease.

We kept filling the outside food bowl (he'd skitter away when we opened
the door, but hurriedly came back again for more). He ate three large
bowls full of food before he seemed (temporarily) satiated. I'm sure he
over-ate just to get as much food into his body as he could in case he
never got the chance to eat again. Always the suckers for hungry animals,
especially cats, we made sure that the outside food bowl was always full
for him and that he always had fresh water from then on. After about a
week he started to get *much* more filled out and he got very friendly (to
the point of rolling over on his back so we could rub his belly). When we
were able to get closer we found that he was very healthy looking, very
young, and now that he's fed, very playful. He's been so preoccupied with
filling his belly that he's even given up on getting a little bit from
Socks (that and the fact that much older, bigger, and meaner toms are
disputing his claim). I'm almost positive that he is very young - maybe
5 - 6 months old, and was probably dumped in our neighborhood when
somebody's unspayed cat had kittens. We call him "Garvin".

We've decided that we may try to add him to our current clowder (I know,
we're nuts, who has SIX cats?) I called about 5 or 6 of our credit cards
for balances and finally found one that has a little bit of available
credit left on it (gawd knows how we'll pay the extra balance, but we'll
worry about that later). I'm going to take him in to the S.N.A.P. clinic
for shots worming and testing for any diseases, and then we'll bring him
in to their surgical clinic for neutering. I'm not sure how we'll
physically go about this, I just know we're going to give it our best shot
this Saturday. If he tests positive for FIV we're going to let him live in
the back yard as he's currently doing; if he tests negative we're going to
give him his own room until we can integrate him with our other five.
[Right now we keep a bottle of "Purell" at the back door so we can
disinfect our hands before touching one of our clowder - I'm hoping that's
enough to keep from transmitting disease, does anybody know about this?]

He is friendly enough to allow us to pick him up, but I don't know about
getting him into a carrier. Right now his biggest motivator is food, food
and more food. He looks like he thinks he's died and gone to cat heaven
already, and he doesn't even get the good food (when the Science Diet ran
out we were broke and could only get Purina Cat Chow for the outside
feeding bowls). I think he would even take on one of the big toms for a
dish of Fancy Feast.

Anyway, to end this novel, I'm looking for advice - as much as I can
possibly get. How do we get him into the carrier? Should we get him
inside the house first and let him get used to it, or just get him to the
vet first and then give him his own room?

Here's pictures of the boy:
http://www.possibleplaces.com/CatNipped/Garvin/

And here's a video of him "pussy-footing" (when he's really happy he'll
first pick up his left paw and curl it then put it down and pick up his
right paw and curl it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4cMU_pcNDc

Again, any and all advice would be much appreciated.


--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/




He's so adorable! I love the way he curls his feet--he's a happy cat!
Thanks for taking him under your wing! We've had several strays we've
brought into our house. A couple of them were mellow enough we were able to
carry them into the house without a carrier. We had already set up a
bathroom with all the necessarys and just put the cat in there. They seem
to be more comfortable in a smaller space, with a box or even the carrier to
hide in. You might try leaving the carrier outside and feed him in the
carrier til he's comfortable in it--don't know if it would work in your
situation. Will he let you pick him up?

I wish you the best of luck--I've always enjoyed having lots of cats. We're
"down" to five from seven last year and the house does seem a bit empty!

Bonnie




The curving feet, if you ever get him close enough to you I guarantee
he's a kneader. He was separated from mama cat too early.

"CatNipped" wrote

Yes, he let's us pick him up. Right now he is just so deliriously happy
to have a constant food source that I think he'd let us do just about
anything (for some reason that just makes me want to cry). If you could
have seen

I can understand. Perhaps, for now though that should be the main aim?

The only snag now is the money to do what needs to be done. I finally
found a little extra on a credit card then DH and I woke up this morning
to find that the ceiling in the guest bedroom had caved in. Apparently
the A/C unit in the attic had frozen up and overflowed causing the ceiling
to collapse and flood the carpet in the second story. ; Oh well, such
is life (our life, anyway, which is why we're always broke ;).

Having gotten myself in some serious debt and finally dug lose, I know that
feeling. Resist using the credit card. Instead, call the local SPCA and
tell them you want to adopt a homeless cat but need help with the money for
shots and such. I bet they have a program where you are like mine, that
helps with such. The meds are the same quality.

Although I am not using this route with my 2 rescue pets, it is because I am
fairly out of debt now and can afford it. In fact, adpoted one of the 2
knowing he's gonna be quite expensive due to heartworm damage.

If you would not think it rude, you are free to email me for how I sensibly
finally undug from debt. No, this is no marketing schema. Just a method I
used to pay off my bills and get ahead. It took 3 years and used no income
other than the one I had already. You can ask here too if no one else
minds. Free advice but I do not want to push it on you.

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
"CatNipped" wrote

Yes, he let's us pick him up. Right now he is just so deliriously happy
to have a constant food source that I think he'd let us do just about
anything (for some reason that just makes me want to cry). If you could
have seen

I can understand. Perhaps, for now though that should be the main aim?

The only snag now is the money to do what needs to be done. I finally
found a little extra on a credit card then DH and I woke up this morning
to find that the ceiling in the guest bedroom had caved in. Apparently
the A/C unit in the attic had frozen up and overflowed causing the
ceiling to collapse and flood the carpet in the second story. ; Oh
well, such is life (our life, anyway, which is why we're always broke
;).

Having gotten myself in some serious debt and finally dug lose, I know
that feeling. Resist using the credit card. Instead, call the local SPCA
and tell them you want to adopt a homeless cat but need help with the
money for shots and such. I bet they have a program where you are like
mine, that helps with such. The meds are the same quality.

We're not on government assistance, so going through S.N.A.P. is the
cheapest we can get - not too bad at $128.00 for shots, worming, testing and
neutering.


Although I am not using this route with my 2 rescue pets, it is because I
am fairly out of debt now and can afford it. In fact, adpoted one of the
2 knowing he's gonna be quite expensive due to heartworm damage.

If you would not think it rude, you are free to email me for how I
sensibly finally undug from debt. No, this is no marketing schema. Just
a method I used to pay off my bills and get ahead. It took 3 years and
used no income other than the one I had already. You can ask here too if
no one else minds. Free advice but I do not want to push it on you.

Yeah, I'd be interested how you did it (if you'd rather email, my addy isn't
munged). I don't want to use one of the credit counselors though (I looked
into it and even though it gets your balances down they take a lot off the
top and it still ruins your credit.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote
"cshenk" wrote in message

Having gotten myself in some serious debt and finally dug lose, I know
that feeling. Resist using the credit card. Instead, call the local SPCA
and tell them you want to adopt a homeless cat but need help with the
money for shots and such. I bet they have a program where you are like
mine, that helps with such. The meds are the same quality.

We're not on government assistance, so going through S.N.A.P. is the
cheapest we can get - not too bad at $128.00 for shots, worming, testing
and neutering.

No, not at all bad there!

If you would not think it rude, you are free to email me for how I
sensibly finally undug from debt. No, this is no marketing schema. Just
a method I used to pay off my bills and get ahead. It took 3 years and
used no income other than the one I had already. You can ask here too if
no one else minds. Free advice but I do not want to push it on you.

Yeah, I'd be interested how you did it (if you'd rather email, my addy
isn't munged). I don't want to use one of the credit counselors though (I
looked into it and even though it gets your balances down they take a lot
off the top and it still ruins your credit.

Ok no harm in adding it here. Folks in this echo seem pretty sane and i do
not mind showing where I made mistakes and got in trouble, and how I got
out.

I bought a house. This was a good thing. I also bought well *under* the
price the agents and banks were willing to loan me (another good). My
mistake was to let the 'I wants' control my spending so I was getting all
sorts of things I didnt really need. Then house repairs hit and i didnt
have the money. I started using the credit cards more and more. It didnt
seem like much each time, but I was no longer paying off the same as what I
had charged each month.

One day I realized, I was spending 1/2 my income on just the interest for
the credit cards. Sure, I could 'charge more' but it was getting really
ugly fast. I was 40,000$ in credit card debt and needed a roofing job. I
was real dumb to let it get that bad.

What I did to dig out, was 2 things. One isnt usable if you do not own a
home. I took a credit card rollover and home improvement loan and shifted
11,000$ credit card debt to that while having the roof fixed. I get a tax
deduction for this. The rate isnt great, but it was far lower than the
credit cards. I still owe about 6,000$ of this now. This is the only debt
I owe now and i have more than that in the bank.

I then took a really good look at where I was spending my money and what
mattered to me. I loaded up a real simple spreadsheet and plugged in some
of the amounts for the 'not totally essential things' like paper towels and
TV dinners or 7-11 Hot dogs. Silly it may be to you, but yes I actually was
spending a good 75$ a month in the end on such.

What I did was put every credit card we owned, in a safe and stopped cold
turkey using them. I found out that without that in my hand, I was more apt
to check the checking account balance before purchasing. I found out 7-11
hot dogs suit me but we didnt need'em that often. I found out I almost never
need a paper towel but if they are here, my husband and daughter will use up
a roll in 3 days to wipe their hands etc. I found out with many items that
sometimes the cheaper brand is not as good and lasts less time (scott toilet
tissue is a classic for this. Costs twice as much per roll but lasts 3
times as long so you get a net savings).

I let that money build then started writing bigger checks to the credit card
companies. First one was the one with the highest interest until it was
paid off but all got a bit more than 'owed'. If you only pay what is 'owed'
each month, you never pay it off.

I took my bonus money from sea duty (Navy here) and put it all down each
month on credit cards. At 500$ a month, this can make a major difference.

If my monthly payment was 40$, I'd send 80$. Since i was no longer adding
to them, this has a slow but very sure effect. Just as the pyrimid built,
it crumbled. That 40$ 'bill' was hitting 20$ and I was still sending in
80$. Every penny you send in over the amount they bill you, comes right off
the top owed. Warning: If you have also cash advanced, and the rate is
higher for that, they take that amount off *last* so you have to pay off the
lower interest rate stuff first.

Was it painful? Yes at first. I was constantly aware of money and my
spending for the first time and I didnt like it one bit. Over time though,
the freedom from debt felt really good.

Today? That 80$ I had to 'spend' on a credit card, is in my pocket. I'm
almost as spendy now ;-) but I tuck a few 20$ bills in the bank to join the
others.

Where specifically did I cut? Impulse spending for the house, fast fixes
for food (hot dogs and such as take out chicken), and silly stuff at the
grocery store that we didnt really need. I'm not saying we did it all by
cutting out paper towels, but we ate well on fresh meats and veggies instead
of prepared microwave stuffs. Oddly, I found out it takes little longer to
cook a decent meal without all that and my stuff tends to be better.

Anyways, not sure if any of that will help you but if the grocery bill is a
big one for you, I can send you reams of good stuff to make in 15 mins or
less, most of which are about 1-2$ per person. The key element s take that
'extra money' and put it on a credit card bill in excess of what is owed.
Dont buy new curtins with it ;-)

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
"CatNipped" wrote
"cshenk" wrote in message

Having gotten myself in some serious debt and finally dug lose, I know
that feeling. Resist using the credit card. Instead, call the local
SPCA and tell them you want to adopt a homeless cat but need help with
the money for shots and such. I bet they have a program where you are
like mine, that helps with such. The meds are the same quality.

We're not on government assistance, so going through S.N.A.P. is the
cheapest we can get - not too bad at $128.00 for shots, worming, testing
and neutering.

No, not at all bad there!

If you would not think it rude, you are free to email me for how I
sensibly finally undug from debt. No, this is no marketing schema.
Just a method I used to pay off my bills and get ahead. It took 3 years
and used no income other than the one I had already. You can ask here
too if no one else minds. Free advice but I do not want to push it on
you.

Yeah, I'd be interested how you did it (if you'd rather email, my addy
isn't munged). I don't want to use one of the credit counselors though
(I looked into it and even though it gets your balances down they take a
lot off the top and it still ruins your credit.

Ok no harm in adding it here. Folks in this echo seem pretty sane and i
do not mind showing where I made mistakes and got in trouble, and how I
got out.

I bought a house. This was a good thing. I also bought well *under* the
price the agents and banks were willing to loan me (another good). My
mistake was to let the 'I wants' control my spending so I was getting all
sorts of things I didnt really need. Then house repairs hit and i didnt
have the money. I started using the credit cards more and more. It didnt
seem like much each time, but I was no longer paying off the same as what
I had charged each month.

One day I realized, I was spending 1/2 my income on just the interest for
the credit cards. Sure, I could 'charge more' but it was getting really
ugly fast. I was 40,000$ in credit card debt and needed a roofing job. I
was real dumb to let it get that bad.

What I did to dig out, was 2 things. One isnt usable if you do not own a
home. I took a credit card rollover and home improvement loan and shifted
11,000$ credit card debt to that while having the roof fixed. I get a tax
deduction for this. The rate isnt great, but it was far lower than the
credit cards. I still owe about 6,000$ of this now. This is the only
debt I owe now and i have more than that in the bank.

I then took a really good look at where I was spending my money and what
mattered to me. I loaded up a real simple spreadsheet and plugged in some
of the amounts for the 'not totally essential things' like paper towels
and TV dinners or 7-11 Hot dogs. Silly it may be to you, but yes I
actually was spending a good 75$ a month in the end on such.

What I did was put every credit card we owned, in a safe and stopped cold
turkey using them. I found out that without that in my hand, I was more
apt to check the checking account balance before purchasing. I found out
7-11 hot dogs suit me but we didnt need'em that often. I found out I
almost never need a paper towel but if they are here, my husband and
daughter will use up a roll in 3 days to wipe their hands etc. I found
out with many items that sometimes the cheaper brand is not as good and
lasts less time (scott toilet tissue is a classic for this. Costs twice
as much per roll but lasts 3 times as long so you get a net savings).

I let that money build then started writing bigger checks to the credit
card companies. First one was the one with the highest interest until it
was paid off but all got a bit more than 'owed'. If you only pay what is
'owed' each month, you never pay it off.

I took my bonus money from sea duty (Navy here) and put it all down each
month on credit cards. At 500$ a month, this can make a major difference.

If my monthly payment was 40$, I'd send 80$. Since i was no longer adding
to them, this has a slow but very sure effect. Just as the pyrimid built,
it crumbled. That 40$ 'bill' was hitting 20$ and I was still sending in
80$. Every penny you send in over the amount they bill you, comes right
off the top owed. Warning: If you have also cash advanced, and the rate
is higher for that, they take that amount off *last* so you have to pay
off the lower interest rate stuff first.

Was it painful? Yes at first. I was constantly aware of money and my
spending for the first time and I didnt like it one bit. Over time
though, the freedom from debt felt really good.

Today? That 80$ I had to 'spend' on a credit card, is in my pocket. I'm
almost as spendy now ;-) but I tuck a few 20$ bills in the bank to join
the others.

Where specifically did I cut? Impulse spending for the house, fast fixes
for food (hot dogs and such as take out chicken), and silly stuff at the
grocery store that we didnt really need. I'm not saying we did it all by
cutting out paper towels, but we ate well on fresh meats and veggies
instead of prepared microwave stuffs. Oddly, I found out it takes little
longer to cook a decent meal without all that and my stuff tends to be
better.

Anyways, not sure if any of that will help you but if the grocery bill is
a big one for you, I can send you reams of good stuff to make in 15 mins
or less, most of which are about 1-2$ per person. The key element s take
that 'extra money' and put it on a credit card bill in excess of what is
owed. Dont buy new curtins with it ;-)

Wow, that was really smart to do it that way. I'd like to be able to do a
roll-over loan, but we've only been in the house for 4 years and don't have
the equity to make a loan on it. We've already put the charge cards into
our safe deposit box, but that's locking the barn door *way* after the
horses have left (I am taking one out to pay for Garvin's visit, but as I
said it's only another $128 - that doesn't seem like much on top of the
$12,000 already charged to that card alone! ;).

Our problem is that we seem to live from one disaster to the next. For
instance, we bought our house and I was laid off 2 weeks after we closed -
had to take a job making 1/2 what I was making (on which salary we based how
much house note we could pay). Then, two days after we moved in the drain
pipe leading to the outside main clogged and flooded the entire first floor
of the house - the location of the clog precluded using home owners or the
house insurance (technicalities that can kill you). Then our home owners
insurance company said they'd cancel the policy unless we put a 6' fence
around the property because of the outside spa (which wasn't even working at
the time - and what the heck did the previous owners do without a fence!!??)
A series of disasters like that, one after another, wiped out our entire
401(k). Every 3 months or so some other financial disaster happens - the
latest was our 3-year-old refrigerator dying and we had to get a Best Buy
credit card to replace it - more debt.

But I do appreciate the advice and will follow it as much as we are able -
it's just hard to pay extra when just the bare minimum payments takes your
whole paycheck. We're in a holding pattern (at least I hope we can hold it)
until we do have enough equity to do a roll-over loan and maybe then we can
start digging out.

Hugs,

CatNipped