Hi, I'm never any good at introducing myself.
I'm Taryn. Have 3 indoor cats, Maude, my boyfriend's cat. She's nicknamed Fat Cat as she is on the larger side, built muscular 12 lbs. Think she might have some Maine Coon in her as she is a naturally large cat, more muscle than fat and as I said she is solid, not squishy. She is grouchy and loves to hiss and growl and just be a grouch. She's around 5, I think. Paul got her from the humane society.
I have my 2. Nuts a tabby, he's a Maine coon mix but looks like your normal everyday DSH. He's going to be a very big boy. He's 7 mo old and already 9.2 lbs. He's a little troublemaker, and mean. He bites poor Attitude and makes her cry. Trying to break him of that but he's always been that way, he did it with his other siblings when he was still outside. I honestly think he doesn't feel any pain. I have had to grab him by his tail and lift him(he gets out and goes under the stairs or otherwise have to quick grab whatever part of him I can, you've all been there) and he doesn't even react.He showed pain for the first time today with a broken nail(it wasn't bleeding it was just split at the end) that I was handing looking at but that could have just been him protesting me having his paws cutting his nails. Nuts got his name for being crazy. The neighbor's dog were barking at him and he walks right through the fence at them. Understand the neighbor's dog will kill and eat what he can. He eliminated a nest of newborn rabbits in less than a minute. Mitzi the neighbor thought it was all over but the little 'you know what' ran right back out of the fence.
Attitude is a little sweetheart. She is a white and black Maine Coon mix and she looks like a Maine Coon with the coat and the tail. She also has a kink at the end of her tail. It has been that way as long as I can remember so I think she was born with it kinked. You can see it even with her really furry tail, it's almost at a 90 degree angle. It's just at the tip and it's always been that way so I doubt it will ever give her trouble, the vets have never even mentioned it, except in passing. She was named because she has quite an attitude. She fell into the neighbor's fence, running along it with her siblings and the dogs came out before I could get her back out. Luckily she found a sheltered spot that the dogs couldn't reach. I was trying to get her through the fence and she just wouldn't fit. Mitzi goes to grab her and she hisses at her. I jump the fence and get back to her and she hisses at me. I scruff her any ways and take her back to my side of the yard. She has always had an Attitude so she was called Attitude long before this but this just showed how she is. She is going to be large 2, at 7 months she is 7 lbs.
The story of these 2 is rather long. Last winter(2008-2009) a mother cat with her 4 kittens showed up and we started feeding them since they were hungry and cold. We kept feeding them, but they were feral and kept their distance, the kittens(who were about the same age Attitude and Nuts are now, they were that summer's kittens.) We let one of her 3 black kittens go up the street at a farm that welcomes cats because they want them for their mousing ability. The other 3 stayed. The kittens were a little more curious about us and let us start petting them but their mom was scared of us. It took a long time but she finally let us start petting her as she ate. We finally gainer her trust. Well they knew we were good for food so they stuck around. People dump their cats here when we were done with them. Out resident male had been run over by a car in spring so we had no toms anymore. One day I look outside and see a very fat very tall cat. Well, the neighborhood now had a new tom. It didn't stick around. Well as happens with all unspayed females everyone get pregnant and has kittens. A different neighbor got Callie, a calico and her 3 kittens and takes care of them. The 3 mother cats who we later named Mama(the original mother cat, she's the Maine Coon), Biter(she likes to give 'love bites') and Goldie for her beautiful gold eyes. Well about 4 weeks after Biter and Goldie pop and about 6 weeks after Mama had hers we wake up to find 12 kittens on our front porch, the kittens were ready for solid food so they moved them all here for them to live under the shed. Before moving them here Biter or Goldie brought a little white and black puff ball with no teeth. I guess to make sure we were safe. They let us handle and hold and love on this tiny kitten that they brough over so they were trusting with us. Mama had 3 kittens, they never got used to human being about 2 weeks older than the younger ones. Between Goldie and Biter they had 9 kittens. They all took care of each others kittens and slowly the younger ones warmed up to us. We started getting rid of kittens but I had already fallen for Attitude and wanted to keep her so Paul said ok. WE had gotten rid of 2 of the other kittens. I took Attitude to the vet to be checked and they did the standard leukemia test just because that's what they do with 'street cats', plus to move her in with Maude we needed to make sure she was healthy. It was a simple formality. The vet had mentioned that 50% of all cats with leukemia don't even last a year, he was making small talk. The vet also told me that Attitude was 'definitely male'(she was definitely NOT.) They vaccinate her and sent me to the waiting room for the leukemia results which was going to be negative. They then called me back and told me she was positive for leukemia. It all came crashing in. I fhtye hadn't of vaccinated her I would have told them just to put her to sleep but i now had money invested in this cat that was going to die. Yeah I know that sounds cold but I was trying to distance myself from this stupid cat I had fallen in love with since she was a tiny little puffball with no teeth(yes, they brought Attitude over as the 'test kitten') and is now going to die. I was mad and i was so upset. I was mad but resigned Attitude to being an outside cat. Maude tested negative for leukemia several weeks later so the few hours Attitude spent in the bathroom had no negative effects on Maude who wasn't vaccinated against FeLV, she had had her last FeLV vaccine before being boarded 2 years ago. She was strictly indoor and had refused to even think about leaving after the dog was put down. All she knew was the dog went out the door and never came back.
Paul offered to get me a healthy kitten from the humane society but I just yelled it wasn't about A CAT, it was about THIS CAT, who I watched grow and had gotten attached to from the time she was 4 weeks old. He didn't get it, a member of another bulletin board I belonged to where I had posted all upset about this crushed and in tear(it was bad, I really loved this cat and loved all the others and now they were all going to die and they were all going to die like now. They made the same suggestion Paul had. I posted back angrily and told told them the same thing I told Paul that it wasn't about A CAT, it was about THIS CAT. Mitzi was also upset when I told her(she's a dog person but also fell in love with the cats.) I finally got over it as I watched all of them grow and be healthy. I knew there was no danger of spreading the infection since if there was a cat in the neighborhood they were already infected, not to mention Mama, Goldie, Biter and Callie were all already infected and they were staying here, outside.
She got her restest and i saw nothing so I got excited but the vet said she was a faint positive, I could see it when I looked closely. We had 4 kittens left and I fell in love with Nuts(him and Attitude were 'partners in crime' and decided to start getting him vet care(I couldn't afford care for everyone.) He too was faintly positive so he too would be an outside cat. All was good until Attitude disappeared one day for the entire day. She did show up but I made the decision and chances are it's the wrong one, to move Attitude and Nuts in. Maude has been vaccinated against FeLV and as an adult cat and the fact that she has been vaccinated against it at least 2+ times against it already I decided to take a chance. I just hope I made the right one.
I think I realized looking at all the adults, Mama, Biter and Goldie were still here alive and well. This helped me decide to also adopt Nuts. The thing is Attitude looks like his dad and Nuts look like his grandpa, Attitude and Nuts are brother and sister or cousin but I figure they are siblings. They were very close that is why I brought both of them inside and why I decided to adopt Nuts, I could bare to part them they were too close, 'partners in crime.'
I adopted 2 cats off the street, I got myself 2 'free' kittens, which I have spent well over $1000 already for vet care, premium food, supplements, and everything else that goes with cats. Free cats are never free, or at least they never should be. We got Mama, Biter and Goldie spayed. Callie found a home. No more kittens for them. We never found homes for 3 of the kittens, all black cats, no one wants black cats. Goldie and Biter too are black. Goldie disappeared a long time ago, never to be seen again.Mama is a tortoiseshell and she looks like a full blood Maine Coon. I know she once had an owner I put out a litterbox and Mama knew exactly what it was and it's intended use. One of the black kittens and all 3 of Mama's kittens disappeared(we have coyotes, hope it was painless.) It's just weird, the kitten that disappeared was over 8 weeks old, Goldie was an adult and Mama's kittens were 6-8 weeks old so it's not like they were easy pickings, they all knew how to fight back. One has moved up the road to a farm where they feed and take care of her so she can take care of mice. I'm assuming she is still very wild, she stayed with us for months and never warmed up to us. I had to have one black kitten put to sleep. She had a bad URI and eye infection, I had her tested for FeLV and I had her out down when she came back positive, she was just too sick and not even 2 lbs when the others were 3+, even the runt was bigger than she was at that point.
So we have 6 outside cats. We have Biter, Mama, the 3 kittens, 2 males- Runt(who is anything but a Runt now) and Goldie Jr, and one female- Half-Tail. We had a grey cat show up unexpectedly, another make who we are calling Grey Kitty. They have accepted him so whats another one.
Well that's me and my kitties. I know this is a novel but I knew I had to explain.
Taryn
I'm Taryn. Have 3 indoor cats, Maude, my boyfriend's cat. She's nicknamed Fat Cat as she is on the larger side, built muscular 12 lbs. Think she might have some Maine Coon in her as she is a naturally large cat, more muscle than fat and as I said she is solid, not squishy. She is grouchy and loves to hiss and growl and just be a grouch. She's around 5, I think. Paul got her from the humane society.
I have my 2. Nuts a tabby, he's a Maine coon mix but looks like your normal everyday DSH. He's going to be a very big boy. He's 7 mo old and already 9.2 lbs. He's a little troublemaker, and mean. He bites poor Attitude and makes her cry. Trying to break him of that but he's always been that way, he did it with his other siblings when he was still outside. I honestly think he doesn't feel any pain. I have had to grab him by his tail and lift him(he gets out and goes under the stairs or otherwise have to quick grab whatever part of him I can, you've all been there) and he doesn't even react.He showed pain for the first time today with a broken nail(it wasn't bleeding it was just split at the end) that I was handing looking at but that could have just been him protesting me having his paws cutting his nails. Nuts got his name for being crazy. The neighbor's dog were barking at him and he walks right through the fence at them. Understand the neighbor's dog will kill and eat what he can. He eliminated a nest of newborn rabbits in less than a minute. Mitzi the neighbor thought it was all over but the little 'you know what' ran right back out of the fence.
Attitude is a little sweetheart. She is a white and black Maine Coon mix and she looks like a Maine Coon with the coat and the tail. She also has a kink at the end of her tail. It has been that way as long as I can remember so I think she was born with it kinked. You can see it even with her really furry tail, it's almost at a 90 degree angle. It's just at the tip and it's always been that way so I doubt it will ever give her trouble, the vets have never even mentioned it, except in passing. She was named because she has quite an attitude. She fell into the neighbor's fence, running along it with her siblings and the dogs came out before I could get her back out. Luckily she found a sheltered spot that the dogs couldn't reach. I was trying to get her through the fence and she just wouldn't fit. Mitzi goes to grab her and she hisses at her. I jump the fence and get back to her and she hisses at me. I scruff her any ways and take her back to my side of the yard. She has always had an Attitude so she was called Attitude long before this but this just showed how she is. She is going to be large 2, at 7 months she is 7 lbs.
The story of these 2 is rather long. Last winter(2008-2009) a mother cat with her 4 kittens showed up and we started feeding them since they were hungry and cold. We kept feeding them, but they were feral and kept their distance, the kittens(who were about the same age Attitude and Nuts are now, they were that summer's kittens.) We let one of her 3 black kittens go up the street at a farm that welcomes cats because they want them for their mousing ability. The other 3 stayed. The kittens were a little more curious about us and let us start petting them but their mom was scared of us. It took a long time but she finally let us start petting her as she ate. We finally gainer her trust. Well they knew we were good for food so they stuck around. People dump their cats here when we were done with them. Out resident male had been run over by a car in spring so we had no toms anymore. One day I look outside and see a very fat very tall cat. Well, the neighborhood now had a new tom. It didn't stick around. Well as happens with all unspayed females everyone get pregnant and has kittens. A different neighbor got Callie, a calico and her 3 kittens and takes care of them. The 3 mother cats who we later named Mama(the original mother cat, she's the Maine Coon), Biter(she likes to give 'love bites') and Goldie for her beautiful gold eyes. Well about 4 weeks after Biter and Goldie pop and about 6 weeks after Mama had hers we wake up to find 12 kittens on our front porch, the kittens were ready for solid food so they moved them all here for them to live under the shed. Before moving them here Biter or Goldie brought a little white and black puff ball with no teeth. I guess to make sure we were safe. They let us handle and hold and love on this tiny kitten that they brough over so they were trusting with us. Mama had 3 kittens, they never got used to human being about 2 weeks older than the younger ones. Between Goldie and Biter they had 9 kittens. They all took care of each others kittens and slowly the younger ones warmed up to us. We started getting rid of kittens but I had already fallen for Attitude and wanted to keep her so Paul said ok. WE had gotten rid of 2 of the other kittens. I took Attitude to the vet to be checked and they did the standard leukemia test just because that's what they do with 'street cats', plus to move her in with Maude we needed to make sure she was healthy. It was a simple formality. The vet had mentioned that 50% of all cats with leukemia don't even last a year, he was making small talk. The vet also told me that Attitude was 'definitely male'(she was definitely NOT.) They vaccinate her and sent me to the waiting room for the leukemia results which was going to be negative. They then called me back and told me she was positive for leukemia. It all came crashing in. I fhtye hadn't of vaccinated her I would have told them just to put her to sleep but i now had money invested in this cat that was going to die. Yeah I know that sounds cold but I was trying to distance myself from this stupid cat I had fallen in love with since she was a tiny little puffball with no teeth(yes, they brought Attitude over as the 'test kitten') and is now going to die. I was mad and i was so upset. I was mad but resigned Attitude to being an outside cat. Maude tested negative for leukemia several weeks later so the few hours Attitude spent in the bathroom had no negative effects on Maude who wasn't vaccinated against FeLV, she had had her last FeLV vaccine before being boarded 2 years ago. She was strictly indoor and had refused to even think about leaving after the dog was put down. All she knew was the dog went out the door and never came back.
Paul offered to get me a healthy kitten from the humane society but I just yelled it wasn't about A CAT, it was about THIS CAT, who I watched grow and had gotten attached to from the time she was 4 weeks old. He didn't get it, a member of another bulletin board I belonged to where I had posted all upset about this crushed and in tear(it was bad, I really loved this cat and loved all the others and now they were all going to die and they were all going to die like now. They made the same suggestion Paul had. I posted back angrily and told told them the same thing I told Paul that it wasn't about A CAT, it was about THIS CAT. Mitzi was also upset when I told her(she's a dog person but also fell in love with the cats.) I finally got over it as I watched all of them grow and be healthy. I knew there was no danger of spreading the infection since if there was a cat in the neighborhood they were already infected, not to mention Mama, Goldie, Biter and Callie were all already infected and they were staying here, outside.
She got her restest and i saw nothing so I got excited but the vet said she was a faint positive, I could see it when I looked closely. We had 4 kittens left and I fell in love with Nuts(him and Attitude were 'partners in crime' and decided to start getting him vet care(I couldn't afford care for everyone.) He too was faintly positive so he too would be an outside cat. All was good until Attitude disappeared one day for the entire day. She did show up but I made the decision and chances are it's the wrong one, to move Attitude and Nuts in. Maude has been vaccinated against FeLV and as an adult cat and the fact that she has been vaccinated against it at least 2+ times against it already I decided to take a chance. I just hope I made the right one.
I think I realized looking at all the adults, Mama, Biter and Goldie were still here alive and well. This helped me decide to also adopt Nuts. The thing is Attitude looks like his dad and Nuts look like his grandpa, Attitude and Nuts are brother and sister or cousin but I figure they are siblings. They were very close that is why I brought both of them inside and why I decided to adopt Nuts, I could bare to part them they were too close, 'partners in crime.'
I adopted 2 cats off the street, I got myself 2 'free' kittens, which I have spent well over $1000 already for vet care, premium food, supplements, and everything else that goes with cats. Free cats are never free, or at least they never should be. We got Mama, Biter and Goldie spayed. Callie found a home. No more kittens for them. We never found homes for 3 of the kittens, all black cats, no one wants black cats. Goldie and Biter too are black. Goldie disappeared a long time ago, never to be seen again.Mama is a tortoiseshell and she looks like a full blood Maine Coon. I know she once had an owner I put out a litterbox and Mama knew exactly what it was and it's intended use. One of the black kittens and all 3 of Mama's kittens disappeared(we have coyotes, hope it was painless.) It's just weird, the kitten that disappeared was over 8 weeks old, Goldie was an adult and Mama's kittens were 6-8 weeks old so it's not like they were easy pickings, they all knew how to fight back. One has moved up the road to a farm where they feed and take care of her so she can take care of mice. I'm assuming she is still very wild, she stayed with us for months and never warmed up to us. I had to have one black kitten put to sleep. She had a bad URI and eye infection, I had her tested for FeLV and I had her out down when she came back positive, she was just too sick and not even 2 lbs when the others were 3+, even the runt was bigger than she was at that point.
So we have 6 outside cats. We have Biter, Mama, the 3 kittens, 2 males- Runt(who is anything but a Runt now) and Goldie Jr, and one female- Half-Tail. We had a grey cat show up unexpectedly, another make who we are calling Grey Kitty. They have accepted him so whats another one.
Well that's me and my kitties. I know this is a novel but I knew I had to explain.
Taryn
