- Joined
- Oct 16, 2013
- Messages
- 4
- Purraise
- 10
Hi there,
Just wanted to introduce my self and my beasties. I have five cats (in addition --- sigh ---- to seven guinea pigs and a rabbit) at the moment, up from my regular three, the number I've had for most of my adult life. I also volunteer as a feral feeder for a local feral cat group --- I do some T/N/R also, but mainly go out every Tuesday with a friend and leave food and water at 12 feral cat colonies. For the last two years, I have also had a feral feeding station and shelter in my own back yard.
My original three cats are Lexie, an 11 year old Siamese Cross, Isis, a 9 year old silver tabby and Willow, a 6 year old orange tabby. Willow came in as a foster, but by the time she reached my house, she had been bounced around to four different foster homes (several of which had far too many cats) and had just plain had enough. Unfortunately the strategy she decided to adopt to ensure she could stay with me was to lay claim to the house by peeing on upholstered furniture, NOT a habit that was likely to endear her to potential adopters. She got what she wanted, but I have yet to convince her she can stop peeing on my living room chairs now, despite trying many different methods (clicker training, Feliway, etc.).
The first unplanned addition to my original trio was Sam, a huge two year old black guy formerly owned by my lovely 97-year-old mum who passed away in March. I was hoping someone else in the family would take Sam, but when no one else did and none of our attempts to find him another home turned up anyone good enough, he ended up at my place.
Then a few months ago, a ratty-looking long-haired black cat started coming to my back yard feeding station. He was very shy and nervous and would bolt if he saw me watching from the window, but from what I could see, he seemed to have only one eye. Since he was black and usually came at dawn and dusk, I could never get a good enough look to tell whether the eye was missing or just swollen shut by an infection, so I decided to trap him so I could have a vet check this out in case he needed medical care.
I caught him within 12 hours of setting the trap in my garage, and by the time my friend and I got him transferred from the trap to a carrier, I realized this was definitely not a feral cat. In the waiting room at the vet clinic, he just sat calmly in the carrier, watching the other people and animals, and was already inviting me to scratch his chin. It turned out the eye was completely gone, but the injury was well healed and not causing him any distress, so he was neutered and shaved down to get rid of some humongous fur mats and was back at my place the next day. He was covered with scars from fights, but the vet figured he was less than two years old.
Today, Hugo's fur is grown back and he is quite a handsome boy, but he is definitely the wild card in my cat community. He's not mean but is easily bored and very high-spirited --- his idea of amusement is often to start a friendly ruckus with one of the other cats, who are never quite sure how to take him. When Sam lived with my mum, he was an inside/outside cat and a bit of a neighborhood bully, but he does not mess with Hugo. I had originally intended to put Hugo up for adoption on the feral cat group website (like most feral cat groups, we get many tame strays showing up at the feeding stations, looking for food, and we currently have over 100 of these cats in foster homes and posted for adoption on our website), but I'm hoping to get him a bit more settled before that happens. As I keep telling him, he LOOKS like a cat but behaves more like a baboon, so I'm not quite sure what I have on my hands!
So that's the basics of my story --- I stumbled on this group when I was doing a search for carageenan-free canned cat food (Lexie seems to get diarrhea from carageenan) and I'm so happy to be here!
Pat
Just wanted to introduce my self and my beasties. I have five cats (in addition --- sigh ---- to seven guinea pigs and a rabbit) at the moment, up from my regular three, the number I've had for most of my adult life. I also volunteer as a feral feeder for a local feral cat group --- I do some T/N/R also, but mainly go out every Tuesday with a friend and leave food and water at 12 feral cat colonies. For the last two years, I have also had a feral feeding station and shelter in my own back yard.
My original three cats are Lexie, an 11 year old Siamese Cross, Isis, a 9 year old silver tabby and Willow, a 6 year old orange tabby. Willow came in as a foster, but by the time she reached my house, she had been bounced around to four different foster homes (several of which had far too many cats) and had just plain had enough. Unfortunately the strategy she decided to adopt to ensure she could stay with me was to lay claim to the house by peeing on upholstered furniture, NOT a habit that was likely to endear her to potential adopters. She got what she wanted, but I have yet to convince her she can stop peeing on my living room chairs now, despite trying many different methods (clicker training, Feliway, etc.).
The first unplanned addition to my original trio was Sam, a huge two year old black guy formerly owned by my lovely 97-year-old mum who passed away in March. I was hoping someone else in the family would take Sam, but when no one else did and none of our attempts to find him another home turned up anyone good enough, he ended up at my place.
Then a few months ago, a ratty-looking long-haired black cat started coming to my back yard feeding station. He was very shy and nervous and would bolt if he saw me watching from the window, but from what I could see, he seemed to have only one eye. Since he was black and usually came at dawn and dusk, I could never get a good enough look to tell whether the eye was missing or just swollen shut by an infection, so I decided to trap him so I could have a vet check this out in case he needed medical care.
I caught him within 12 hours of setting the trap in my garage, and by the time my friend and I got him transferred from the trap to a carrier, I realized this was definitely not a feral cat. In the waiting room at the vet clinic, he just sat calmly in the carrier, watching the other people and animals, and was already inviting me to scratch his chin. It turned out the eye was completely gone, but the injury was well healed and not causing him any distress, so he was neutered and shaved down to get rid of some humongous fur mats and was back at my place the next day. He was covered with scars from fights, but the vet figured he was less than two years old.
Today, Hugo's fur is grown back and he is quite a handsome boy, but he is definitely the wild card in my cat community. He's not mean but is easily bored and very high-spirited --- his idea of amusement is often to start a friendly ruckus with one of the other cats, who are never quite sure how to take him. When Sam lived with my mum, he was an inside/outside cat and a bit of a neighborhood bully, but he does not mess with Hugo. I had originally intended to put Hugo up for adoption on the feral cat group website (like most feral cat groups, we get many tame strays showing up at the feeding stations, looking for food, and we currently have over 100 of these cats in foster homes and posted for adoption on our website), but I'm hoping to get him a bit more settled before that happens. As I keep telling him, he LOOKS like a cat but behaves more like a baboon, so I'm not quite sure what I have on my hands!
So that's the basics of my story --- I stumbled on this group when I was doing a search for carageenan-free canned cat food (Lexie seems to get diarrhea from carageenan) and I'm so happy to be here!
Pat
