Feral Cat Behavior

Conducted a phone interview this morning for my next assignment. The article will concern a memorial quilt. The quilt was constructed to honor a 19 year old boy who was struck by lightning in a freak accident. I still need to speak with the boy’s mother which will be difficult because it hasn’t been that long since the accident. I will just take it minute-by-minute and see how it goes.

Working on my book is progressing slowly. It is difficult for me to write about something in detail that comes almost second-nature to me. I have worked with these feral cats for so long, but putting down the process becomes a challenge. I want to be sure that I don’t miss anything.

Fan mail is arriving from my last article. I got tickled in receiving the accolades. Always nice to know that words can move people into proper action and help out a cat in need.

Chloe scared me tonight. The gate blew open and we didn’t know it. I went outside, the gate was wide open, Lei still was in the yard but Chloe wasn’t. I ran out front and I called her name twice, didn’t see her anywhere. Had no clue how long she had been gone. I ran into the house to get Mike so we could go and look for it. When I turned around to shut the screen door, she was running full speed right toward me! Mike said he thought she left to look for us. At least she didn’t get hit on the road. And Lei staying put- that was a definite plus!

Today we have had Chloe with us for fifteen days. She has calmed down a little bit. She still has a habit of being the lap dog, though how she only circles our chairs seven times instead of ten. We are taking both dogs to the dog park every day. She has met several new dogs and although she suddenly stands very tall when they first sniff her nose, and she growls when they get to close to me, she eventually accepts them and plays with them. Man can she run! Lei can pace her, but Chloe is smaller and more agile than Lei and so she doesn’t get run over anymore by Lei ramming into her.

She howls when I am out of her sight. It’s kind of funny and annoying all at the same time, because I wonder if the neighbors think we are chaining her or something. But she is definitely attached to my hip, though slowly she is coming to accept Mike as well.

The cats all love her. She lets them climb all over her, and she is especially gentle with the new kittens. She barely even moves when they start snuggling into her belly. I haven’t taken her to the vet yet. She is still so skittish and nervous. I don’t want to add to her stress.

Cole and Buzzby go to get neutered next week- YEAH! I can’t wait, Buzz has baptized our home many times over. Thank God for the wonderful product Zero-Odor. Without that enzyme killer, I am afraid we would have had to move out of here for a few days till the fumigators came! Man tomcat pee is potent! I think I have found a home for Buzz and the lady is well aware of the spraying problem. She wants him anyway, but he won’t leave here until he is neutered. I learned the hard way years ago that people who “promise” to get the kitten neutered, don’t always do so.

Well I have three article assignments to get on. Wanted to take a moment and update this blog.

Let Buzzby out into major population. Major mistake! Oh, he got along fine with the rest of the cats. He hissed at the dogs and then beat it out into the enclosure where he took the highest post he could and perched there most of the day.

Since there was no fur flying, no blood showing and no ear-splitting shrieks, I thought it safe to leave the house and keep an interview appointment. When I got back to the house and opened the front door, my eyes started to tear, my nose was assaulted by a stench I have not smelled since Mom died and we cleared her home of all the feral cats. Phew!

Under my computer desk, tail upright and vibrating back and forth- Buzzby proudly finished baptizing the front room. I grabbed him up and put him back upstairs in the cat room. On the way down, I retrieved my black light and my Cat Pee Commando box.

Downstairs, I doused the lights and turned on the black light. My stars! I had cat urine everywhere! On the couch, under the coffee table, behind the computer desk, on the ceiling, over the fireplace. Buzz was a busy boy while I was away. Three hours later, no more Zero-Odor left, all Feliway spray bottles used up, I could finally breathe again.

Both Buzz and Cole get neutered next week. I suspect Buzz has mated before which is why he is spraying now. For now, he is confined to the cat room where urine cleanup is a tad easier (tile floors). Even with the enzyme removers, the urine sat long enough that we have to tear out the living room carpet and replace it soon. I haven’t had male spray since we rescued Mr. Velcro. I don’t know how cat breeders do it, the smell is so nasty and potent.

On the dog front, Chloe ran away again. Only this time, I saw her take off and went after her. She came to me after about a 15 minute exploration. I think Lei was being a bit over-bearing for her and she wanted to just go somewhere that Lei couldn’t get to. Because Chloe is so slight, she was able to wiggle through the narrow fence post. We have now fixed her escape hatch.

I finished my article for QHM. Now, I am just going to sleep on it and re-read it tomorrow. If I still like it, then I will send it to the editor tomorrow.

On the canine front- I am now calling Chloe our lap dog. Although she does try from time to time to crawl up on me by her two front legs, I am referring to her being a lap dog because typically, she will make about ten laps around our chairs before she simmers down to sleep. So she is our “lap” dog.

The cats still all love her. They crawl all over her and she just lies there and lets them-

It is so cold here now 18 degrees as I type, that even the barn cats have abdicated the hay barn and taken shelter in the house. Cleo amazed me last night- fourteen years living outside and last night, I opened the back door to go feed the horses, and this manx-cross darted inside! He spent a very nervous night by the back door. I finally just got an old laundry basket and filled it with soft rags. He slept there till this morning and when I just now got up, he was anxiously pacing to go outside. Last night we dipped down into the single digits.

The horses are confined to their stalls. Racer is about lamed up from trying to navigate all the sharp, icy ground. I need to call Clint today and see if he can fit in a trim soon, or Racer will be lame. So for right now, mom is a mean mom and they stay in their soft cushy, sandy stalls. The worst problem right now is water. All the outside lines have frozen. We are keeping the inside lines running by leaving the bathroom faucet on a small trickle. But it sucks having to carry water to the barn for the horses. No easy way to do it, and by morning what we have hauled that they haven’t already drank is frozen solid. Mike tried to help me last night to haul water, but of course he fell. I wish he understood years ago the toll diabetes takes on the body. I guess that is why they call it the silent killer. The people who have it don’t “feel” sick. His saving grace was he fell in a pile of just removed horse manure so it was warm and soft.

It is so strange to still see snow outside. Thought we left Alaska ten years ago?

Chloe is doing great until bedtime. She simply will not go into her cage. I had to lift her in there last night. It broke my heart to do it. She just hates being confined. Living on a chain as a puppy, and then in a concrete kennel for the remainder of her life till she came here, took a toll on her spirit. She even had a hot dog in her bed last night, and this morning it still remained uneaten. She is right next to Lei and I almost let her sleep in Lei’s cage with Lei last night. But, they are still alpha-sparring with their teeth and I didn’t think that would be wise.

Well time for coffee and work- three articles due in 30 days. Need to call Mark today and get some contact information on that one memorial quilt-

I had to really muck the stalls today. We have had such bitter cold weather, I haven’t had much of a chance to really work the stalls. So today the two dogs were loose in the backyard and I was mucking the two stalls. When I got to the point of laying down loose bedding straw, Chloe was in the stall with me. She loved the straw. She was diving into it, rolling over and biting the stems and then she buried herself down into the pile of fresh straw so only her rear and tail were visible. It was hysterical to watch her.

Took the dogs to Pet Smart today, brought Chloe inside the store and left Lei in the truck with Pop. She did pretty good, it was quite crowded, she met a Shiloh Shepherd, an American Poodle and a Lab. She trembled whenever a person wanted to pet her, but she allowed them to do so. It went pretty well for her first crowd experience.

Meet Chloe. Chloe has been at a rescue home since she was 4 months old. She is now about 5 years old. I saw her on the Internet and fell in love with her kind face. We have her now on a 30 day trial period.

She is part German shepherd and part lab (or that is the thought). Someone tied her to a gate when she was 4 months old. She came with a letter attached to her collar. The letter is pretty lengthy and the owner expressed concern about Chole finding a proper home. But, because she is so timid around people, at adoption days she never seemed to mesh with anyone.

Her first day with us has been interesting. She is clearly nervous about being around us, though she is calm as toast around the cats. Lei, in her relentless fashion bothers Chole a great deal when they are outside together. Chole is leashed, Lei is running free. When Chloe has enough of Lei, she starts circling me, then she snaps at Lei.

She is really good on the leash. No pulling or misbehaving. We have already had a bit of a scare. I had fed both dogs, then brought Chloe back inside so that I could make dinner. Mike took both dogs out about twenty minutes later. Suddenly, Mike busts through the back door and told me Chloe was loose!

I grab my jacket and boots and get out in time to see Chloe way back by the creek running like a streak. I hustled out to her and called her, she came toward me, then right before she reached me, she circled and headed back to the creek. I called her again, and this time she turned and ran past me and back towards the house. I yelled at Mike to go and get some dry dog food to bribe her. He went up the steps and the minute she heard the back door open, she streaked up the stairs and into the house. Thank God!

I went over to her, she was in the corner trembling. As I bent down to pick up her leash, she snarled and snapped at me. I backed away realizing she was wound up from her run, nervous about her new place and probably sick and tired of Lei tormenting her in her puppy way. I waited for a few, then walked toward her, stepped on the leash. Avoiding her eyes, I bent down and picked up the leash, then I took her to the kennel and put her inside. I admit to not being brave enough to take off her leash.

She was in the kennel for about 20 minutes, then I brought her back out and she is now lying on the floor of the living room. Lei is in her kennel nearby. Lei is letting us know that she does not like this arrangement. But for now, it is what is working.

Mike slipped on the stairs, and when he did, his arms flew up scaring Chloe and she bolted. Most dogs would have gone like a shot. All she had to do was leap the creek and she would have been gone in the pucker brush. I am so grateful that she has at least connected with us a little bit, and she didn’t run off

Periodically, I get emails from friends who are struggling with issues concerning their cat(s). If it is a behavior issue, I do my best to help out if I can. On health questions, the same applies. If I cannot help them, I try and direct them to others knowledgeable enough to help out. With my association with different cat related groups, I have a wide network base.

Sometimes, it works out and the cat gets better. In other instances, puzzling health symptoms and other problems cloud the path of recovery and the cat dies.

Anyone who rescues on a regular basis, learns early that death is a part of the equation. You receive kittens that don’t thrive, regardless of what you do to try and get them to. Cats presented with mysterious illnesses, fevers of unknown origin, bloody stool with no indication as to why, can simply fade from your life. It is the cost of rescue, to accept death and not fight it. That does not mean that you shut off that portion of your humanity that keeps you compassionate, but it does mean that with each passing, there are lessons learned and filed away and grief to plow through.

Last year, those sweet kittens found in an abandoned hayfield and brought here. Cute babies, days old, all manx crosses. Each one, grabbed the bottle of formula and hung on for dear life till the bottle was dry, but for everything they took in, nothing was coming out. No amount of stimulation worked, all tricks were tried. One visit to the vet brought the answer, the kittens were born without rectums. They had what looked to be a rectum, but they weren’t developmentally correct. As my vet injected them and stopped their heart, my own heart broke.

My heart broke again this morning when I learned that Nakita had been put to sleep. I had been hoping for a different one, a joyous one. Sometimes, no matter how much we want it- the final result is not one easy to accept. My heart is with Katherine and Rob tonight as they spend their first night without their emerald eye girl.

Buzzby has been a real love around here. I do so much love orange and white kitties. They have wonderful personalities and are real characters. I already know that I need to keep Cole since he is a black kitty. Today, I put up ads all over town for Buzzby. I hope to find him a good home soon.

He has an appointment to get snipped at the end of the month, so I will not let him go until the 1st of Feb. after the neuter.

He is really affection starved and deserves to be a home where he is the only kitty, or there is one or two cats already in the home. But here, he might get lost along the masses and that would be a real shame.

There are two kittens that will need a home where they can recover in a few weeks. They have been horribly treated and are at the vet’s right now. If I keep Buzzby, I won’t be able to help these two orphans. And that is my job, to help, not to keep