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- Dec 20, 2005
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Hi Everyone,
I'm a relatively new cat owner - just stumbled across this site while doing an internet search on how to help my old neighbor move her cat. Our baby, Buddy, is a female calico, somewhere between 2-5 years old. We're in CA, where it's relatively warm year round, so she's about 30% outdoors (while we're at work) and 70% indoors (while we're home or running errands).
Here's the story on Buddy:
We adopted what we thought was a stray female calico kitten we call Buddy this past summer. We had been living in our house for about 6 months and had seen her around the front yard a few times. She was EXTREMELy friendly affectionate. One day we were having a BBQ in the backyard and she walked right up to us and ate a scrap of chicken that had fallen on the ground. Two days after that, she still hadn't left our backyard! She was there in the evening, and there in the morning. I thought something seemed strange about it, so I bought her some cat food and decided to make some signs to put up around the neighborhood to see if anyone was missing a cat.
Weeks passed and no on had called on the signs, and she had not left our backyard at all. I started to notice that there were some strange things about her - she walked with stiff back legs, and her back knees were close together with her feet pointing outwards (not sure what to call that - opposite of bow-legged). I had also never seen her once jump up on a fence or anything. If I would sit down on the patio in the backyard, she would crawl right up in my lap, starved for attention.
My husband and I decided we would keep her if we couldn't find her original owners. I took her to the vet for a check up and some advice. Turns out she's probably at least 2-5 years old (vet judged based on her teeth) and she had already been spayed. She's just a very small cat (only 7 lbs). I told the vet i was concerned about how she walked and how she didn't jump/climb up on anything. He said chances were she was hit by a car at some point - she also has some teeth missing. We got her the necessary shots and took her home.
About two months later, I came home from work and she wasn't in the backyard. I didn't panic, but after she didn't come home the next day, I was worried. My husband took the same flyer we had used when we had found her, changed it to "lost", and put it on the doorsteps of a few of our neighbors houses. We figured she couldn't have gone too far not being able to climb fences.
A neighbor two houses down from us called a couple hours after and said she had our cat in her house. My husband went to retrieve her, and here's the story we were told ... Apparently, Buddy was originally this neighbor's cat. These neighbors are a little hard to read. They are very hard to talk to, and don't make you feel comfortable at all. The woman said Buddy had "gotten out" a couple months prior and they didn't know where she was. She said that Buddy didn't get along with her other cats and that we could keep her if we wanted. My husband asked if Buddy had been hit by a car or sick at one point. Buddy had had what looked like a seizure once in our backyard, and he asked her about that. She said that yes, Buddy does sometimes have seizures and that's another reason they didn't want her - she could be dangerous around their babies (they have twin 2 year olds). My husband left with Buddy as soon as he could without asking more questions because in his words, the woman was "crazy."
I had a real issue with the fact that first she said that the cat "got out" and then she said that she didn't want the cat around her kids because it could be dangerous and didn't get along with the others. That seems more like she booted the poor cat out, knowing perfectly well that it wasn't really capable of fending for itself.
The long story continues ... a couple hours later the woman's husband came to our house when my husband was working in the garage and said that he just wanted to let us know that Buddy was given to him by his mother who works for a animal rescue group. He wanted to make sure she was going to a good home. Buddy was part of a litter of kittens that all had distemper and died - all but her. The distemper affected the development of her back legs, and somehow affected her brain, so she has seizures. My husband still didn't ask any questions about her age or her original name (Men!), but we at least had some more info.
Now I was even more upset - this man's mother works for an animal rescue place and he kicked a poor diabled cat out on the street! Grrrrr...
Anyway - Buddy is ours now and we love her. She's only had 3 seizures that we've known of in the 6 months we've had her, and the vet doesn't think they're a real concern.
Thanks for reading my story! I look forward to chatting with you all!
kate
I'm a relatively new cat owner - just stumbled across this site while doing an internet search on how to help my old neighbor move her cat. Our baby, Buddy, is a female calico, somewhere between 2-5 years old. We're in CA, where it's relatively warm year round, so she's about 30% outdoors (while we're at work) and 70% indoors (while we're home or running errands).
Here's the story on Buddy:
We adopted what we thought was a stray female calico kitten we call Buddy this past summer. We had been living in our house for about 6 months and had seen her around the front yard a few times. She was EXTREMELy friendly affectionate. One day we were having a BBQ in the backyard and she walked right up to us and ate a scrap of chicken that had fallen on the ground. Two days after that, she still hadn't left our backyard! She was there in the evening, and there in the morning. I thought something seemed strange about it, so I bought her some cat food and decided to make some signs to put up around the neighborhood to see if anyone was missing a cat.
Weeks passed and no on had called on the signs, and she had not left our backyard at all. I started to notice that there were some strange things about her - she walked with stiff back legs, and her back knees were close together with her feet pointing outwards (not sure what to call that - opposite of bow-legged). I had also never seen her once jump up on a fence or anything. If I would sit down on the patio in the backyard, she would crawl right up in my lap, starved for attention.
My husband and I decided we would keep her if we couldn't find her original owners. I took her to the vet for a check up and some advice. Turns out she's probably at least 2-5 years old (vet judged based on her teeth) and she had already been spayed. She's just a very small cat (only 7 lbs). I told the vet i was concerned about how she walked and how she didn't jump/climb up on anything. He said chances were she was hit by a car at some point - she also has some teeth missing. We got her the necessary shots and took her home.
About two months later, I came home from work and she wasn't in the backyard. I didn't panic, but after she didn't come home the next day, I was worried. My husband took the same flyer we had used when we had found her, changed it to "lost", and put it on the doorsteps of a few of our neighbors houses. We figured she couldn't have gone too far not being able to climb fences.
A neighbor two houses down from us called a couple hours after and said she had our cat in her house. My husband went to retrieve her, and here's the story we were told ... Apparently, Buddy was originally this neighbor's cat. These neighbors are a little hard to read. They are very hard to talk to, and don't make you feel comfortable at all. The woman said Buddy had "gotten out" a couple months prior and they didn't know where she was. She said that Buddy didn't get along with her other cats and that we could keep her if we wanted. My husband asked if Buddy had been hit by a car or sick at one point. Buddy had had what looked like a seizure once in our backyard, and he asked her about that. She said that yes, Buddy does sometimes have seizures and that's another reason they didn't want her - she could be dangerous around their babies (they have twin 2 year olds). My husband left with Buddy as soon as he could without asking more questions because in his words, the woman was "crazy."
I had a real issue with the fact that first she said that the cat "got out" and then she said that she didn't want the cat around her kids because it could be dangerous and didn't get along with the others. That seems more like she booted the poor cat out, knowing perfectly well that it wasn't really capable of fending for itself.
The long story continues ... a couple hours later the woman's husband came to our house when my husband was working in the garage and said that he just wanted to let us know that Buddy was given to him by his mother who works for a animal rescue group. He wanted to make sure she was going to a good home. Buddy was part of a litter of kittens that all had distemper and died - all but her. The distemper affected the development of her back legs, and somehow affected her brain, so she has seizures. My husband still didn't ask any questions about her age or her original name (Men!), but we at least had some more info.
Now I was even more upset - this man's mother works for an animal rescue place and he kicked a poor diabled cat out on the street! Grrrrr...
Anyway - Buddy is ours now and we love her. She's only had 3 seizures that we've known of in the 6 months we've had her, and the vet doesn't think they're a real concern.
Thanks for reading my story! I look forward to chatting with you all!
kate
