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 More cats [message #595571] |
Wed, 11 September 2013 14:52  |
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Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9105
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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Senior Member |
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I've been spending the last week trying to catch cats day and night and take them to the veterinarian. So, far, 1 neutered, 1 spayed, 1 at the vet being spayed today, 1 I got into the house, but can't catch him to get him in the carrier, and 1 I got into the house but he ran back out before I could close the door. The last one was the tomcat. The others are his kittens that are about 5 months old now. I try to get them into the house whenever I can, call the day before to see if there is an appointment available, then take away the food at 11 p.m., get some sleep, drop them off in the morning, then pick them up in the afternoon, then repeat with the next one. On top of that, they all seem to have some minor upper respiratory congestion and have to receive oral antibiotics twice daily for the next 2 weeks. The neighbor is also trying to catch the tomcat.
[Updated on: Fri, 13 September 2013 04:32] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: More cats [message #595714 is a reply to message #595571] |
Fri, 13 September 2013 00:47  |
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Kevin Meade
Messages: 2103
Registered: December 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
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Senior Member |
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Oh Barbara, good luck with the cats. But I have a story you might want to hear.
About 10 years ago my wife decided that there were too many cats in our neighborhood. She mentioned this to the vet on one of our checkup visits to which the vet replied, Oh... no problem... we have a new program called CATCH/FIX/RELEASE. You catch them, we fix them (we give you a discount on the cost of course ... (naturally I thought as I was listening to this conversation, what a deal, getting a 10% discount to fix cats that are not ours. Man how moronic is that, getting a volume discount from your local vet))... [vet continuing] then you release them back into your neighborhood. They can't make more cats but they keep new ones from coming into the area and they still keep your local rodent population down.
My wife got very excited about it and decided to do it (its all in the sell I suppose). At first I figured what the hey... she works too. Its her money so she can spend it any way she wants I guess. I love my wife dearly but it was almost laughable to see how she would try to catch these feral cats and get so frustrated when she failed. Blanket and cup of food... NOPE. Bait them into the entry way and close the door.. NOPE. It was funny, till she got massive scratches and bites from one particularly nasty fellow. I half grinned till I saw the emergency room bill. But after that the wife was more determined to continue so feeling afraid I got her a fine pair of heavy welder's gloves (strong leather that goes half way up the arm) to protect her, along with some have-a-heart traps. Now she was getting successful.
This is when I learned of the flaw in the vet's program. The program is called catch/fix/release. But we have two girls who at the time were 11 and 13. So how the program really works is catch / fix / give them a cute cuddly name / keep. Hey wait a minute, what happened to the release step? Well the reality is once they get a name they can't very well go back outside into the rain and snow can they? And two little girls are quick to learn the special traits of each animal; a cute face, fancy double paws, unusual color pattern, funny way they meow, how smart they are because they know their name (no Dad!, this is Poe over here, that one is Miss Mini-Poe (oh how silly of me, sorry Miss Mini-Poe)). At our peak we had 18 cats (along with a dog, two ginnie-pigs, and a hermit crab named Beef Jerky). Had to be against the law but what could I do, was out numbered 3 to 1. And with only three litter boxes she wondered why I started working late.
If you are in the mood for advice, mine is: don't give them names. Good luck.
--update: line removed for confidentiality, jw
Kevin
[Updated on: Fri, 13 September 2013 02:27] by Moderator Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: More cats [message #595723 is a reply to message #595714] |
Fri, 13 September 2013 01:52 |
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Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9105
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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Senior Member |
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That is exactly what is happening.
My vet gives us senior citizens a 10% discount on everything, but it is still expensive, especially when there are so many. He neutered one last Thursday, a week ago, spayed one on Monday and spayed another on Wednesday.
I have another male inside my house. I was so happy when I got him into the carrier this evening, but right after I got him into the carrier, I went to put a water dish in the carrier with him and he got out. I have chased him around the house several times, resorting to using a broom to get him out from behind the refrigerator. Now I am sitting at my desk, hoping that he will calm down and go to sleep somewhere, where I can sneak up on him, grab him, and put him back in the carrier, then leave it closed until I get him to the vet tomorrow. He is now lying in a kitty bed that I can see from desk and is easy to get to, so I am waiting for him to go to sleep.
I have a trap and leather gardening gloves, but have not used them yet this time. In the past, the trap has repeatedly just caught one neighbor's cat or rooster, but not any of the cats I am trying to trap.
As to the names, it is too late. I call the tomcat Beau and the mother cat Mama Cat and the six kittens (about 4-1/2 months old I think) Freddie (neutered and living inside while receiving antibiotics), Isis (spayed and living inside while receiving antibiotics), Sylvia (spayed and living inside while receiving antibiotics), Sylvester (running loose inside, has an appointment to be neutered tomorrow, provided that I can get him in the carrier and get him there), Bossie, and Owl. There is also a one-year-old female from last year's litter that I call Belle. The mother cat also has a new littler of kittens that I think are about a month old, but I don't know how many there are. I have got to put a stop to this. I still have no idea who owns the mother cat or tomcat and I have asked all the neighbors that I know.
[Updated on: Fri, 13 September 2013 02:18] by Moderator Report message to a moderator |
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| cats [message #595750 is a reply to message #595571] |
Fri, 13 September 2013 04:21 |
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Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9105
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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Senior Member |
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I snuck up on Sylvester while he was sleeping, grabbed him by the fur on the back of his neck before he knew what happened, and he is now in the carrier with a wee-wee pad on top of a towel and a bowl of water in the corner. The plan is to avoid opening the carrier door and deliver him in it tomorrow morning (6 hours from now). The carrier is a large size, big enough for a dog, so he has plenty of room to move around. The reason for putting him in the carrier hours ahead is that he has to not have food before his surgery. He is busy trying to claw his way out of it. With the others, I have put a sibling with them to keep them company overnight, then removed the sibling in the morning, but I am not going to risk opening the carrier to do that with him. Hopefully, he will discover it is a comfortable place to rest and settle down.
[Updated on: Fri, 13 September 2013 04:31] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: cats [message #595830 is a reply to message #595775] |
Sat, 14 September 2013 03:48 |
John Watson
Messages: 8974
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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Kevin Meade wrote on Fri, 13 September 2013 14:52Well John, my life seems dull compared to yours. Must have been a wonderful experience Europe/Africa and whereever else you have been. Makes me envious. London to Johannesburg is 9070km, about the same as Boston to Honolulu which is 8177km. I suspect that the degree of cultural difference may be similar, too. And you can do that without leaving your country!
With my very limited experience of America, I am continually astounded by the fact that you have so much better homogeneity than Europeans, and treat distance so casually. Simple things, like you can use your cell phone in New York or Los Angeles (3935km) without paying roaming charges, never mind more complex ones like currency. For me, traveling that distance from where I am right now in England would take me beyond Damascus (3539km), over at least ten countries and probably as many languages. Possibly the same number of people, though
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| Re: cats [message #595852 is a reply to message #595830] |
Sun, 15 September 2013 00:06 |
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BlackSwan
Messages: 26766
Registered: January 2009
Location: SoCal
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Senior Member |
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This morning I started at home near San Diego, CA & am typing this from near Bangor, Maine; a distance of over 3200 miles (5000+km).
They speak a little funny up here, but I can still understand them.
Tomorrow we head for
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campobello_Island
and on the way I get to visit the last of the four corners of Continental USA for me.
Most folks do not realize that San Diego is EAST of Reno Nevada & Reno is hundreds of miles from the Pacific Ocean.
[Updated on: Sun, 15 September 2013 00:13] Report message to a moderator |
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