Taking In Our 6th Stray Cat

"Helen Miles" wrote in message
news:824962123dc8b029b8d862da855f11be.76411@mygate .mailgate.org...
"Phil P." wrote in message
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Hiya Helen,

I love to watch how differently the cats in the shelter formed their
little
community from my feral colonies. I can't really say there're any true
alpha cats. They just seem to time share the center seat. lol

Still working with FS Grampia?

I'm not working with F.S.Grampia in the field at the moment - I'm in the
process of starting a new project. We're looking into something to do
with skull morphometrics next year.


The African Wildcat seems to be facing the same threat of extinction through
hybridization as the Scottish Wildcat. Its very sad. What hurts
the most is that I just don't see how it can be prevented other than by the
impossibility of neutering every domestic and feral cat on the continent or
fencing in a huge sanctuary.



I'm currently on feral trapping mode
as spring is on its way!


Its getting harder and harder for me to release the cats after neutering. I
try to convince myself that they're happier in their colony.

I haven't recovered from last kitten season. Last year's kits are now a
year old and even harder to home. And now another kitten season is right
around the corner.



The one thing I find fascinating about my house crew, is the fact they
all have their defined "spots" and time share a favourite bed or
favoured spot. For example, in the morning Pandora is in her spotted bed
on the sofa in the morning sun. In the afternoon, Robbie has the bed and
the afternoon sun. Cleo has her bed under my bed in the bedroom, and no
other cat shares it. Tiger has his bed on the bookshelf and no one is
allowed to use it, but the bed next to it is used by everyone else at
different times - kind of like a comunal bed. And each cat is fed in a
different spot in the kitchen, and if I try to swap them around and feed
them at soemone elses spot, they leave that dish and wait in their
special place.

There are definite dynamics within the household.

Helen M

I bought one of those pyramid beds- Three of my ladies started using it so I
bought another one and then another so each cat would have her own. But
Jadeomine and Chatter didn't want their own bed. Noooooo, they want
whichever bed Titi is sleeping in. lol

Phil

"Helen Miles" wrote in message
news:d509fe755361376bcc607d6038e1dd84.76411@mygate .mailgate.org...
"Phil P." wrote in message
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"Buddy" wrote in message
oups.com...

What about naming her Sugar?

Sugar is a great name for a white female:


http://maxshouse.com/Ours/sugar-5-12-05-4.jpg///

Wasn't Sugar your lass with the pee-ing problem because some a$$hole
declawed her and then threw her away when she developed "inappropriate
behaviour"?

She's gorgeous!


....and a sweetheart, too.

She was returned to another shelter twice. She had all sorts of problems
when I adopted her- she was clearly abused. The only reason the other
shelter didn't kill her after the second return was because she's beautiful.
The personality that has emerged in the last few years is even more
beautiful than her looks.

I don't believe there is such a thing as a naturally 'bad' or evil cat- just
bad or evil owners.

Phil

Well, I wish I could say things are going well. Dh is at the Urgent
Care Center right now having his bitten hand looked at. Beginning
Friday night, the cat began allowing him to get near him, actually
coming out of her carrier, rubbing up against him, purring and allowing
him to pet her.

Yesterday things were going along the same. He goes in and checks on
her every hour or so. He sits on the floor and waits for her to
approach him. She began rubbing up against him and purring, make a
fuss, allowing him to scratch under her chin ... all the same stuff as
the night previous. Then CHOMP!

We washed the hand well, put anti-bacterial ointment and hoped for the
best. When he awoke this a.m. his finger is all swollen and red
extending up into his hand...

I went into the room late afternoon oh say an hour or two after this
happened and sat on the floor and read a book for 25 minutes. She
totally ignored me. Trying the same this a.m. and I received the same
reaction...no reaction...

Gosh, maybe she was trying to see what kind of reaction your husband
would have? Strange. I hope he is ok, please let us know.

Maybe she just needs more space right now. This has to be very
traumatic for her.

Thanks Buddy for your concern. Dh was glad he went to see a Dr. The
swelling just kept getting worse this a.m. and he developed a fever.
Dr. prescribed 10 days antibiotic and of course gave dh a tetanus shot.

Snowy on the other hand is very lovey dovey! Like night and day...When
we enter her room she is now talking to us and greets us by coming
directly up to us, rubbing up against us, holding her neck up for
scratching, she is even rolling over for her belly to be rubbed!!! I
would never have believed all this without seeing it with my own
eyes...we'll have to begin thinking about how to expand her territory
while limiting the exposure to the 5 boys. When we move on to that,
life is going to be REAL interesting.

I hope to post some pics of her tomorrow. She is a real beauty with
some extremely interesting patterns of stripes and spots!

Thank you for the update!! I am so happy she is doing well.
Gail
"Arubalisa" wrote in message
oups.com...
Well finally have a couple of pictures of Snowy
http://www.hoosierkitties.com/boys/snowy.htm

She is doing well, spending most of her day sleeping on top of the bed,
but of course underneath the covers! Last night she did a short
exploration of our second floor and made her way back to "her room".

Two nights ago after we said good night to her and went to bed she
began meowing. I ended up sleeping in her room and she was fine the
rest of the night. She slept at the foot of the bed, waking me up twice
for some lovin's :-)

From here on in, my daughter happily volunteered to sleep with Snowy.

Dh and I were hanging out with Snowy tonight when one of our boys,
Blackie snuck in the room. He is pretty easy going and gets along with
everyone except our special needs cat.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that Snowy was not too phased by
him. Blackie approached slowly to get a sniff and Snowy only replied
with a little hissing. Thanksfully NO raised paws! Blackie was a
prefect gentleman, but if Snowy had raised a paw, Blackie would have
struck back.

This weekend we'll gather the 5 boys upstairs in two of the bedrooms to
get some more exploration time in for her. Especially downstairs (only
bedrooms upstairs where Snowy is now) where we spend most of our waking
hours.

Just our luck, tonight, a brand new stray who I have never seen before,
showed up meowing at our backdoor. One of the opussums scared it off
before I could think about what to do...I swear we either have "sucker"
written on our foreheads or they are out there taking numbers :-)

Dh says no more cats. He said no after number 3, he said no after
number 4, he said no after number 5...now we have number 6 and he has
said no more cats...we shall see...
__
http://www.hoosierkitties.com Resource Links for You About Your Cat

"Arubalisa" wrote in message
oups.com...
Well finally have a couple of pictures of Snowy
http://www.hoosierkitties.com/boys/snowy.htm

She is just lovely. And the way she is looking at you! She seems to really
appreciate being taken in.

Arubalisa wrote:

Two nights ago after we said good night to her and went to bed she
began meowing. I ended up sleeping in her room and she was fine the
rest of the night. She slept at the foot of the bed, waking me up twice
for some lovin's :-)


That is just too sweet!

This weekend we'll gather the 5 boys upstairs in two of the bedrooms to
get some more exploration time in for her. Especially downstairs (only
bedrooms upstairs where Snowy is now) where we spend most of our waking
hours.

With our last arrival, we kept him in a separated area for a couple of
weeks, then started bringing the other cats in one at a time. It was
interesting to watch his reaction to each one and theirs to him. Our
oldest, friendliest cat walked over and licked him on the head on the
first meeting. Now Abernathy always presents his head to him like "okay,
you're supposed to lick me now" and usually he does. There were still
some squabbles when he finally came out of the room, but nothing
terrible. I think it helped that he knew who they were and vice versa.

Good luck with your new guy.

Rhonda

Just our luck, tonight, a brand new stray who I have never seen before,
showed up meowing at our backdoor.

The neighbourhood cats obviously told them which door to meow at!

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs