Category: Cats

Pictures of Lily

Posted on by chappyshi

Here are a couple of pictures of Lily, the cat who I am “fostering to own.”  I think the own part is happening, as much as one can “own” a cat.  Lily is a rescue cat who is likely to have been abandoned before she had been spayed, got pregnant and was found by someone when she came around w/ her kittens.  The kittens, when they were ready to be adopted, were snapped up immediately.  Lily meanwhile was languishing in a room by herself, because she doesn’t like other cats, in a home of 30 some cats.  Because of that and possibly abuse, she wasn’t showing well. After a year of that, the rescue agency was ready to put her on a cat farm.

I was willingl to take a chance on her and asked to meet her.  I met her at the house of 30 cats which was a nice, big house but, despite probably lots of care and cleaning, still was obviously a cat house.  It was a bit before Kristen could get Lily down from her perch but when she came down, I put my hand out to let her smell and rub her face on it if she wished and that’s what she did.  We hung out in the room for about 20 minutes at which point I felt I was ready to bring her to my apartment for a test drive.  We filled out some paperwork regarding the fostering, packed up a couple of Lily’s toys and, after considerable difficulty getting her in a cat carrier, I headed home w/ her.

Kristen and Pam, the owner of the pet rescue company, suggested I put Lily in a small room like the bathroom by herself for a few days to let her adapt.  How that was supposed to help escaped me but they are the pros.  NTL, I let her out of the carrier, set up the cat litter and food, and let her roam.  As cats will do from my experience, she checked out almost every corner of my apartment, found the cat box and the food, and settled in. She was all over me looking for attention and within hours was up on the sofa with me and at night in the bed w/ me.

 

Memorial To My Cat Spooky, RIP 20151027

Posted on by chappyshi

My girl Spooky passed away on October 27, 2015.  She was only seven but had a serious heart condition, diagnosed just this past April.  Her heart was surrounded by and her lungs were full of fluid.  Her breathing capacity was seriously reduced and her heart very strained by the condition.  I believe she passed reasonably comfortably of a heart attack.  I found her dead on the floor of my apartment when I came home from work.  She didn’t look terribly distressed.  I am still sad.

She was a very cheerful, loving cat who I got in July of 2012 through a friend who works at a veterinarian hospital.  Spooky, nee Pookie, had been in a house fire, dropped off at the hospital, and abandoned.  Her ears and her paws were slightly burned in the fire.  I think that the family lost their whole house and their dog on the fire.  I guess I can understand, to a certain extent, abandoning the cat.

Pookie, who I had to rename Spooky, and I bonded immediately.  I was told by the vets that she was seven years old and spayed.  I came to realize that she had not been spayed because she was crazy in heat every four weeks.  When I took her in for her year after checkup, another vet told me she definitely had not  been spayed and, by the looks of her teeth, only four years old.  I had her spayed and we moved on.

The things I will remember most of her are the way she behaved when she was in heat.  Her bodily contortions were hilarious.  Early on, she could jump higher than any cat I have known.  I caught her on top of the bathroom door once.  In general she loved to have her head and ears rubbed…the ears I think because of the burn scar tissue.  Even up to the very end, she would meet me at the door when I came home, her tail upright and quivering in anticipation of that first caress.  In her last few months, she would get right up on the bed when my alarm when off, lie down stretched out along my arm by my head and wait for me to scratch her head.

Spooky never wanted any special toys.  She would play in a box and/or with any kind of string forever.  The laser pointer was a special favorite.  One thing I never understood and have had explained to me was how unstable she could be her hind legs.  Just a light push on her hips or a sleep on my leg or the arm of the sofa and her back end would fall over.  Yet she could still run and jump all over the place.  I miss you Spooky.  You’ll always be in my heart and in my prayers.

Spooky in the House

Posted on by chappyshi

I adopted a shelter cat today.  A friend works at an animal hospital in Fairfax,  knew I was  looking for a cat, and hooked me up.    She’s a gray tabby, the cat that is, and was injured in a house fire.  The house was totally destroyed and sadly the family could not afford to pay for the cat’s care.  The folks in the animal hospital took care of her and she stayed at one of the vet’s house while they looked for a permanent home  for her.

So, barring unforeseen circumstances, Pookie, who I think I am renaming Spooky, has found a permanent home at my place.  She certainly seems easy going.  She has been exploring my apartment extensively for that last hour or so and is now dozing on my couch.  What a sweeties!  Here she is….

Snotty Tears Run Down My Face

Posted on by chappyshi

I am not quite sure why I rented  “Marley and Me” through Netflix but it was not the best movie to watch less than three weeks after I put my my cat and friend of 19.5 years, Hamlet, to sleep.  While it was a movie, and the circumstances were not exactly the same, there were many similarities in the downfall of Marley and of Hamlet.  The loss of energy, the deterioration of vital organs, the look  on their faces….

I felt a horrible deja vu as Owen Wilson said his goodbyes to Marley who laid helplessly on a table in the vet’s  examining room.  He made a decision, as did I, that it was better to put the dog down.  I will wonder forever,why I thought I had the power.  He held Marley close as I did Hamlet, thanked him for all  the love and joy he had brought him  and his family and wished him well in in the afterlife.  He stayed close, as did I, as the doctor injected the death potion into the IV.

He caressed Marley…as  I did Hamlet, as within less than twenty seconds, his eyes closed, the doctor checked for a heartbeat, and declared his friend of so many years dead.  Except Hamlet’s eyes never closed and he twitched and occasionally expelled air from his lungs for five or six minutes after he was declared  dead.  If there is a kitty heaven, Hamlet deserves to be there.

I lingered for some time with him until I wondered what else I was supposed to do.  What could I do?  It was over.  I still hope that I did the right thing.  Sure it was only a movie, but as I think about Marley, helplessly lying in the cold and compare him to Hamlet helpless convulsing in a diabetic seizure, I think I did the right thing.  Even so, I am not sure I will sleep too well tonight.

Fleas’d Again?

Posted on by chappyshi

Not really again but…  My cat got fleas, I believe since we moved into the new apartment, which really chaps me.  The place looked in great shape, freshly painted with new carpet.  My vet, who charged me $66 to deflea my cat (I guess I was fleeced again…) said that all kinds of people from my apartment complex come in there with flea problems…on their pets that is.

So Hamlet got dipped and I sprayed the apartment.  I should have bombed but am still in the process of putting things away and the bombing just sounded to onerous.  Apparently I will know within 21 days, the gestation period for the eggs, whether or not the debugging process worked.