Cat Lover's Corner

[Rosalind]

Sorry to hear your kitty is missing. Best advice I can give you is this: Really really look under every bush and garage and crevice a cat could possibly get into, using a really bright flashlight, for about a 1/2 mile radius. Look in the most methodical way you can, and then go back and look again. Best time to look is dusk/dawn, as that's when they will normally hunt. Ask your neighbors if you can poke around their garage/yard--they are not going to look as thoroughly as you will. Do NOT expect that the cat will be glad to see you or will come to you if you bring a can of food.

When they get out accidentally, they become very frightened and their instincts take over. Their instinct is to hide from anything and everything, including their owners. On the plus side, this keeps them safe from predators, but it also keeps them hidden from you.

We used to have a real Houdini of an escape artist. Her favorite spot was under the barn, and it took us a couple of escapes to figure that out. She was the friendliest little cuddle-bug in the house, but whenever we were trying to catch her outside, she turned into a spitting, clawing furry demon.

 

[ole-crone]

Rosalind is so right!

We had some friends who separated and moved and asked us to take care of their cats until things got settled. We had them for a week or more when one of the cats - the one who looked like your Ozzy - escaped and we couldn't find him! After he'd been gone for days, we figured he might have tried to find his way home - in the next state, hundreds of miles away! The remaining cat was picked up but it always bothered me that Butterscotch had been lost while in our care.

Months later, I'm doing dishes and a cat runs across the neighbor's snow covered field. I tell Dh that I saw a cat that looked like Butterscotch - keep an eye out. The next time I see him across the field, I grab the binoculars and sure enough - Butterscotch is out there chasing mice.

The next summer he comes closer to the house but runs whenever we try to catch him. It's a bit funny - he comes when you call - like he remembers you, but when he gets close his survivor instincts take over and runs the other way.

We play this game all summer long. The next winter - a year 1/2 after he ran away, just before a huge snowfall, I'm out feeding chickens and all of a sudden Butterscotch walks up to me meowing. It's like something in his brain turned on to let him know, that's the lady who used to feed me and kept me in her warm house. It's getting cold, let's go back inside.

Poor guy was all beat up. He had a horrible abscess on his head. I don't think he would have survived another winter. We drained the abscess and took care of him the best we could but he had so much infection in his body, the little we could do wasn't helping. I called his former owner - who by now had remarried - and asked her if she still wanted Buttercup. He'd found his way home. She drove the hundred miles the next weekend to come pick up her old cat (the other one had gone to her former partner). She took him to the vet who put in drains, gave him antibiotics and he finally recovered.

I guess I shared this tale to encourage you to never give up hope. Cats are amazing creatures - you never know how their story will end.

 

[ole-crone]

"You know how I feel about boy cats!" my friend said to me the other night.

It's too bad - I've noticed that if you neuter a male cat they are much more docile than a female. We have both males and females and I prefer the guys. They are the ones who want to cuddle the most. The girls are more likely to have an attitude.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Quote:
You are absolutely right about this!!! My one male (neutered) cat was a big snuggle baby....of course he was a ragdoll which helps too. I tend to love the nasty attitude of my girls though.

 

[HorseFeathers]

1 crazy Sealpoint Applehead Siamese, Daisy (aka Shmooperoo). We've always have Siamese- Zorra, Lucy (Lucifer Sam), and now Daisy... She just had her 3rd b-day and now loooves to snuggle. She does this weird thing we call "Halloween cat" where when she wants you to play with her, she arches her back, fluffs out her tail, and hops sideways across the room. She is also PETRIFIED of the vacuum cleaner and will hide immediately. She is intent on smothering herself by sleeping under my bed covers and no matter how many times I kick her out, she comes back in. The reason her nickname is Shmooperoo (or Shmoopie or Crazy Shmooper) is she likes to roll over on her back exposing her belly for you to rub her there, and I call this shmooping. Let's see... she will only eat plain dry cat food, nothing else, and loves to be pet while she's eatig. In fact, in the morning she refuses to eat unless she's had her first mouthful being pet! Oh, and she plays fetch too.

I told you she was nuts. In a good way though.

 

[sunbury chick]

This is Lucky,cute,huh....

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Ahhhh he looks like my Beastie Boy. Don't give up hope, once one of mine slipped out of a loose window screen and she was missing all summer. When the neighbors across the section came home in early fall from custom cutting they discovered her living in their shed. Another neighbor across the road from them knew I was missing one so they called me and I went to see and it was her....I couldn't believe she had survived since she was in the house 100% of the time.

 

[mamaKate]

Quote:
Sometimes a cat will lose its voice from crying too long. It may get better. I'm so glad you found her.

 

[spook]

Mama Kate- you promise (about the siamese losing its voice meowing to long) I have one, Fancy- you go back and you will find a pic of her, she will sit and yawl or cry for me to return when I'm up to the hen house. If I have been on the phone for to long, visiting with anyone for over 1 hour, she is after me, biting etc. UGH. But she makes up for being a brat by the song and love she freely gives.

Oh, I wanted to share this with my kitty/chicken friends. My Fancy is a printer player, with pulling the door down, chasing the ink cartridges going back and forth, I am most careful with her and my printed objects! So here is the link for a video and it came to me through email with "Wonder why your printer doesn't work", so here it is....

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/PerthPurplePenguin/vids/?action=view&current=cvUMHvLZ.flv

 

[mamaKate]

Tubbychicken, when we lost one of our cats a few years ago, I painted a 3x6ft billboard with the info and put it in the front yard. If he hadn't been found by the second day, I'd have added Christmas lights. Some people are less than careful about returning "found" pets. My current group is:Chewbacca 13 -Rules the menagerie, she once put a 100lb wolf hybrid in a corner for getting too close to her kittens.Sherlock and Munchie 12- Their little brain wires don't fully connect because we had a break in when Bacca was pregnant and the guy maced our dog. Belle 10- My dad's neighbor dumped her in his yard because she thought he needed a cat. Marie 9- our neighbor's son wanted a pet so he repeatedly stole them; by the time we found her home, the owners had moved. The two youg'uns are out most of the day, but everybody comes in at night or if I leave.