Sunday, June 15, 2008

in which this dog person muses about cats

For someone who considers herself a "dog person", I've been engaged in a lot of feline activity lately. 

1. My neighbor across the street found a litter of kittens in his garage and asked for some guidance on caring for them. He didn't want to take them to the Humane Society because he was sure they were just going to put them down because they were feral cats. I was able to convince him that young kittens can be socialized and make good pets, that the HS has made a commitment to being a no-kill shelter, and that young kittens are usually adopted within 48 hours. I'm glad that I was able to convince him to take the kittens to the shelter, because he was going just to put an ad on Craigslist. Nothing wrong with that, except that by taking the kittens to the shelter, they would get vet care and be spayed/neutered. His wife brought them by yesterday (they didn't want to go to the shelter) and the kittens were just the cutest things. They were younger than I thought, so something must have happened to the mother. The family did a good job of caring for them and socializing them because they weren't scared of us at all. 

2. We had let Stray Cat outside the other night. Before, he always hung around the yard but this time he didn't come back. I really goofed up when I introduced Stray Cat inside. Since he'd hung around the yard, and Sasha and Maggie were cool with that, even sleeping next to each other on the cat bed outside, I thought it would be ok to let Stray Cat in the house, without having to seclude him and introduce him to the house gradually. That was a mistake. Sasha does not like Stray Cat on his turf and has taken to bullying him inside and out. Last night, I found him at a neighbor's house and brought him back. I've secluded Stray Cat in the office now, and I hope things will work out all right. Maggie and Sasha had some spats right after we got her but now they are just fine together.  I posted an ad on Craigslist under lost pets and will call the HS tomorrow to see if anyone has reported him missing. 

3. I almost forgot about Kat's cats last night. I am caring for them while she and her husband are out of town. I've been going over during the evenings, and last night almost forgot because we had to take our dog Kate to the pet emergency clinic. We were clipping her nails and clipped on too far and it bled. A lot. I've clipped the quick on a dog's nail before but I've never seen that much blood. We tried alum powder, ice, pressure...nothing stopped it. So we took her in and got her bandaged up properly.  I didn't get to Kat's house until 10pm, and her cats finally seemed happy to see me. Day 1, they were a bit anxious. Day 2, completely indifferent. Day 3? "Ohmygodyouarehere!GiveuswetfoodNOW!" 

4. Kate's fine. We took off the bandage this morning and it was soaked with dried blood but thankfully, the bleeding had finally stopped and had started to heal.

5. Oh, and the sun finally came out this weekend and it actually feels like spring/summer might make an appearance. Yay!

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