6/21/10 – Monday

Attention, those of you in the Baton Rouge area:

I am in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and my husband and I have a cat who desperately needs a good home as soon as possible.

Molly is a sweet and affectionate teenage cat. She is a trusting former stray who brought her three babies to our doorstep a couple of weeks ago. She loves to be petted, brushed, and held. She would make a good pet for someone who wants a cat who is still young but past the wild kitten stage. We have had her spayed and checked out by a vet.

We like her very much, but we need to find her a new home. Our cats and she started off on the wrong foot. Though young and inexperienced, she was a devoted and caring babymama to her kindle, and her maternal hormones and instincts to protect her babies made her and our merely curious cats instant enemies.

We do not have the physical space, resources, or time to keep them segregated while we “reïntroduce them.” Everyone she meets remarks on her friendliness and good nature. She needs a fresh start to show off that friendly spirit. We would hate to put her back on the street. Please let me know if you know someone who could take her in. I would be willing to drive her an hour or so in any direction.

If anyone is interested in adopting this sweet cat or you know anyone who’s interested, please contact Carol at carolrain(AT)cox(DOT)net or email me, and I’ll pass your email along.

 

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So, today I’m fine. My elbow is still sore, and if I twist my back a certain way, it hurts a little. I have a rectangle of road rash on my left hip, and a bruise on my left butt cheek and lower calf, but they’re not nearly as bruised as I would have expected.

I’m lucky that I fell on wooden steps, and that my foot slipped forward instead of back – had I fallen forward, I’m sure I would have broken something.

Luckily, the only cat in the vicinity was Maxi, who was lolling about on the landing. I didn’t fall near her at all, but she vamoosed while I was falling, and I didn’t see her again for a few hours.

I spent Friday on the couch with various cats and kittens . I caught up on the Housewives reunion (Newsflash: Kelly: whack-job), Bethenny Getting Married? (I laughed so hard I cried when they were doing the registry), and then napped for a while on the couch.

Luckily I had Hydrocodone left over from surgery earlier this year, so that helped alleviate the pain for the first couple of nights and also helped me sleep.

Yesterday, Fred and I went up to Dog Days, the flea market in Tennessee. We brought the carrier with us, so as a result didn’t see any turkeys (thank god). We did buy some cantaloupe, cabbage, and onions. Fred also bought a couple of fig trees because they were $5 each and looked super happy.

The one thing I hate about going up to Dog Days (and Trade Days in Lacon) is the cages of kittens. All the kittens at Dog Days were free for the taking, and you better believe I considered taking every last one of those kittens home with me, so I’d know for sure they’d be spayed and neutered and vaccinated and well cared-for and would go to good homes. Fred pointed out yesterday that the kittens are always free, but the puppies never are.

 

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At the bottom of Friday’s entry, I posted a picture of a cat and invited y’all to ponder who that cat was. Some of you suggested the cat is relation to Newt. Is he? I don’t know. He showed up around the same time Roscoe did, but unlike Roscoe this one was a harder nut to crack. It took Fred about three weeks to pet this one, and as soon as we knew we could count on him being present every morning, we made an appointment to have him tested, neutered, and vaccinated.

(Have you ever seen a grown male cat, unneutered? My GOD those things are big!)

I was pretty sure he was going to end up testing positive as Roscoe had, since I was pretty sure they’d come from the same place – they were very clearly friends, if not brothers. I took him to the vet on Thursday when I took the Rescuees to be spayed and neutered, and waited to hear that he’d tested positive.

I didn’t hear anything, so around 3:30 I called, and not only had he tested negative, they’d already neutered him. I brought him home, and he was a little loopy. We kept him overnight in a cage in the garage – which he HATED – and Friday morning Fred let him loose. He disappeared for most of the day and then when Fred checked one last time before bed on Friday to see if he was around, he moseyed up to the porch and demanded to be fed.

So, meet Coltrane.

Seeing as he’s just this side of feral, Coltrane’s not intended to be an indoor cat. But then, Maxi and Newt weren’t intended to be OUR indoor cats, either, and you see how that worked out. He has shelter on the porch and under the side stoop, and he can get in to and out of the back yard pretty easily. He’s been hanging out in the back yard with our cats for a few weeks now, and they hardly even seem to notice he’s there.

Is he related to Newt? I don’t know. He could be – he could be Newt’s father or a sibling. Fred seems pretty attached to the idea that he’s Newt’s father. The vet said that he’s definitely fully grown, so at least two years old, but could be as old as five or six. He has a distinctive high-pitched meow similar to Newt’s. Maybe he’s Lieu’s father! There’s really no way to know.

Could he belong to someone in the area? It’s possible. But he was pretty thin when he showed up and clearly very hungry. He was covered in ticks and probably had fleas (we treated him as soon as Fred could get close enough). He was unneutered. I don’t know what the law says, but in my opinion if your cat shows up on my property looking hungry and is covered in fleas and ticks, is unneutered, and sprays every blade of grass he comes across, I’m within my rights to have him neutered.

He seems to really like Fred but he’s still scared of me. Of course, I’m the one who took him off to be neutered, so I can’t say as I blame him.

So, anyway. I guess we have another cat. SIGH. That gives us an even number, anyway!

 

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On Saturday, I threw open the foster kitten door and let the Rescuees free to roam the house. Except for Lieu, they all ran out the door as soon as I opened it and went to explore. Lieu is a little more reserved than the other four, so he napped on the chair in the foster room until mid-afternoon whereupon he decided that he, too, would do some exploring.

By late afternoon, all five of them were downstairs roaming around, and let me tell you – the Bookworms did NOT appreciate the interlopers. At ALL. Bolitar, especially, is a growly, hissy little monster and has given every one of those little kittens a smart rap on the head. His nose is completely out of joint about this “kitten” thing. Don’t they know that HE is the baby?!

It was actually my intent to confine the Rescuees to the upstairs for a few days before I let them have the run of the entire house, but after I set up the temporary door across the hallway, Jake and Elwood were dying – DYING – to get in and get their paws on those little kittens, so they climbed over the temporary door. The temporary door was held to the wall by a flimsy little hook, and as they climbed over the door, the hook broke, and I got annoyed and just let everyone go wherever they wanted.

(Fred has been told in no uncertain terms that he’ll be coming up with a better solution to hold up that door before the next set of fosters.)

We put them back in their room around 6, and left them in there overnight. Sunday morning, Fred could hardly wait to let them out.

So from now until they go to the adoption center (hopefully before I go on vacation July 3rd), the Rescuees will have the run of the house during the day. They seem to be enjoying their new freedom.

Sweet Sheila.

“Paws up, y’all!”

Franco, mid-scratch.

Despite his propensity for shooting everyone the stink-eye, Gavin is the sweetest little thing.

 

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I love that Jake loves the Bookworms so much – and they love him back!

“Bwahaha! Corbett’s ear is turned back and he looks FUNNY!”

Bolitar and Corbett.

 

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Joe Bob, in the back yard. Such a sweet boy.

 

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Previously
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Needless to say, Maxi’s persona non grata when the chickens are present in the back yard from now on.
2006: The discerning decorator always considers that cats are decor accessories as well as beloved, spoiled-rotten pets and takes into account the decor of their home before adopting said animals.
2005: “If I can make four percoset get me high for the next year, you just might.”
2004: (Don’t lecture me, I KNOW. I swear I’ll wear sunscreen from now on okay, MOTHER?)
2003: No entry.
2002: Hell. O. Dolly. God in heaven, they were SO DAMN GOOD.
2001: Plus I’m taking this newfangled thing they call “pen and paper.”
2000: No entry.