I make a kitty nest of pillows and blankets every morning before I leave for work. It is appreciated.
Aug23
Tag Archives: cats
Apr30
Return to Piggy Peggy
So, I’ve been off work for nearly a year and a quarter. I’m back now, and easing up from half days into full time.
Today, my old friend found me!
She is looking good! Her ears are clean as is her fur, and no parasites that I could see.
She was happy to see me, and remembered me right away. I didn’t even have food but I got to give her lots of cuddles and even some lap time.
Unfortunately, she still hasn’t been spayed. She shows signs of yet another recent litter. I’m also concerned because the houses I believe she ‘lives’ at have For Sale signs out front.
In any case, it made me happy to have a visit with my old friend Piggy Peggy today.
May22
Lokii on the Prowl
Lokii turned ten this month. He is super healthy and only has the tiniest flecks of white on his ears.
He also has suddenly become…brave.
He wants to go outside for the first time in his life! Used to be, if I even held him by the window or back door he would get stressed or show no interest. Well.
Him this evening, looking like the king of the world on the roof of our car. He is just fine until a moving car comes close or a human appears, then he gets scared.
I’d love to see what he thinks of the cows next door!
May16
Litter-ally Considerate!
I saw the most amazing thing yesterday! Siamese Lokii went for a pee. When he started to come out of the box, he put both front feet on the edge at first; then he put each foot back into the box, one at a time, and shook the litter off!
As he stepped out, he shook off each back foot as well.
I’ve had cats all of my life and have never ever seen this behaviour.
What a gentleman!
Eh, mam. Please, I was only sleepy…
May3
Everyone Needs a Friend Like This
Jan13
Lumi Cutie
It’s been pretty rough here lately, hence me not being around much. I need to post something fun to cheer me up, and what better than my kitten/no longer kitten Lumi?
Christmas Cat!
He climbed in here behind my back, it’s a sack for firewood.
He has a skull on his shoulders!
Still loves his ‘brother’ Lokii.
And loves his ‘daddy’, too.
Nov4
“I Know We Will Love Him”
Iggy went home with his new family today! Friends of ours, they are a man and woman with a little boy and girl.
These are kind, intelligent, thoughtful, artistic people – Iggy couldn’t be in better hands. He has already made himself at home and loves having four sets of hands to pet him!
Best part is I can visit with him when I want to (but of course I will let him settle in and bond with his new people for a while first).
Thank you to everyone who followed his rescue with me. iDJ and I are quite relieved he is safe now – and I bet Iggy is, too.
Oct21
Iggy Update
We visited with Iggy kitty today. He is completely relaxed at the Vet’s office: nothing seems to get him upset. Doc mentioned how chilled out he is with a bit of surprise or admiration, not sure which!
His face is still leaking from the abscess but it is healing. He made sure to rub goo and drool all over me and hubby. My chin was a bit crusty afterward – Iggy loves to be held close and give sloppy headbutts.
Of course, he is still full of love and cuddles – he didn’t want me to set him down! Quite the drool machine, too, and got so excited to see me he did nip a little, but not hard. The excitement overwhelmed his little kitty circuits at first.
They are letting him heal for a bit longer and will do the neuter on Monday. He can go to a new home on Monday evening, if I can find one. I have a new coworker who is interested, and he got permission from his mother, but I’m a little concerned as I don’t know him well. Iggy needs to be kept inside as he has no sense of danger, it seems. I don’t know if this guy has really understood that, yet. I sent him a text yesterday but had no reply, which doesn’t speak well to his dedication to the idea of taking Iggy in. Or on. I expect Igs will be a bit of a challenge.
He is using the litter box in the cage no problem – we saw him do it!
Doc N agrees that our two-cat one-dog household is very stable, especially with how Lumi loves all over the dog and Siamese Lokii. He thinks that introducing another cat would be a bad idea for our current happy family. We showed him pictures of Lumi cuddling with Lokii and hanging out beside the dog. The first thing he said was, ‘Don’t mess with this, it’s rare and easily broken.’
Going to be about €150 if he goes home somewhere Monday evening; if he stays longer it is €15 a day.
Oh, and he needs a bath still. He’s rubbish at the washing up. I’d make a joke about him being the typical male, but none of us believe in stereotypes or think they are funny! I’ll save that one for the work lads.
No new pictures, I didn’t think of it and the doc was closing up for the evening. Here’s a blurry older one.
Oct19
Iggy’s Adventurous Day
Yes, I named him. Since he comes when I call for Peggy (and just to confuse things further, I call Piggy Piggy Piggy when I’m looking for her), I chose a rhyming name. Iggy it is.
It rained nonstop from when I got to work until 1:30 when I went to lunch. First thing I did on my break was get soaked while walking around the building calling and looking for him. No sign of him, or Peggy. To be expected in the rain, really, but it worried me for my plans.
I sat in an open doorway and ate my lunch, looking for him and hoping he would come to where he last saw me the day before…nothing. Just as I was about to go back to work, my phone rang. It was my favourite coworker.
“Get in here, quick! Your cat is in the warehouse! The managers are all right here, they will freak out!”
I bolted for the area Iggy was in, wrapped him up in a moving blanket and took him back outside. I gave him a can of tuna, closed the door, took all my stuff back to my workbench and went back out to see how he was….no cat.
He was already back in the warehouse, as comfortable as he could be. Shit!
Another coworker was bringing her carrier in, but she was still at lunch. Shit shit shit.
I couldn’t leave him in there. He followed me everywhere. It is a crazy busy place, not safe for little kitties! Not to mention getting me in big trouble for encouraging him.
Another of my favourite lads said that there was someone in the office who wanted him. So I went and got her. Iggy-to-be loved all over her…but also tried to bite her twice. She is very young, still lives at home, and had to ask her parents if she could bring him home that night. To make the hours I waited shorter, the answer eventually was no. Well, maybe for the best. Iggy never tried to bite me.
Eventually the carrier arrived, and I popped the remainder of the tuna inside. I’d also brought in a tee shirt of mine as bedding and to hopefully make him feel safer when caged – familiar smell and all. He went right in. Door closed…tuna gone…the howling commenced. I covered the carrier with the moving blanket, but he was going a bit berserk, pulling the blanket into the carrier. And noisy? Oh yeah.
He calmed down a bit, but not before one of the aforementioned managers said I should move him to an outlying building in case the Big Boss heard him. So I did.
I rang hubby to give the update, and he suggested I ring the vet and ask if I could bring him in tonight. It would be a huge favour. I work until 6:30 and the vet we love is 45 mins away from where I work, even when someone drives as fast as I do. The doc on duty said he would wait for me. This is why we love this place!
I made it in 35 minutes, due to very little traffic. Iggy was incredibly good in the car, I have to say! I covered the carrier again, and that may have helped. He did pee on my shirt, however. I don’t blame him one bit.
On arrival, he came out of the carrier not in a rush but happy to be free and happy to see me and be loved on again. Doc Richard squeezed the abscess and it…fizzed. Like spit bubbles. He said it was oxygen generated by the bacteria festering in Iggy’s cheek. Iggy didn’t complain or try to get away, either. Instead he rubbed the bacteria juice on me, yay!
Doc said he is between 2 and 4 years old, and has been indoors before by his behaviour. Not just in a warehouse, but a real house. He gave Iggy an antibiotic shot which was huge and only hurt him toward the end of the syringe. It was a lot of cc’s. Doc Richard also pointed out that the small wound by Iggy’s ear is the other side of the bite that caused the abscess.
Best of all, Richard thinks that Iggy will easily adapt to being an indoor cat and toilet train himself quickly. Doc also scanned for a microchip (none of course) and agreed that Iggy ‘is a lovely fellow.’
I’ll ring tomorrow and see how he is doing, of course. He might need a few days to heal before being neutered, too. It’s okay, I’ll figure something out for him. Everyone who met him thinks he is just lovely, and he is.
Pic of him roaming the warehouse. You can see how swollen the left side of his face is.
Oct18
Saving a New Friend
I have definite plans to bring the new work-cat home tomorrow and then to the vet Friday morning. Circumstances are perfectly aligned to make it quite manageable, if I can get him into the car…
He is really, really lovely. Unlike Peggy, he loves to curl up and stay on my lap. Unlike Peggy, he has no problem at all with being picked up and carried long distances.
This was today. Once I stuffed him full of tuna and chicken, he hopped up on my lap, curled into a ball, tucked his head under my jacket and purred. He also has a weird, hitching breathing style that worries me.
He also, unlike Peggy, is absolutely filthy dirty. I rubbed a damp paper towel over his back today, and pure black dirt came off of on the towel. He definitely does not have a clean place to sleep. People might be feeding him, but no one thinks of him as their cat – the main reason I’ve not catnapped Peggy yet.
Incredibly dirty and a bit bald around the ears. Also in centre of the frame is a small scab under his ear. He doesn’t mind me poking at this one.
I know he is a much more desperate case than Peggy. Especially when I noticed he had some difficulty eating today’s chicken. I took the first chance to have a closer look, and yes, he has a swollen left cheek and what looks like an open abscess. I likely encouraged him to rip it open by scratching his head so much yesterday.
I wasn’t about to grab his face and make him show me the wound, of course. The dark spot is wet fur and the orange crust is likely pus.
The plan tomorrow is to catch him and bring him home, but not inside the house. Maybe in our shed overnight, as small and junky as it is. In the morning, a run to the vet and leave him there with all the info I can give them. Fix the abscess. Worm him. Check on that odd breathing. Neuter him. All of this; if he doesn’t have a horrible, deadly disease that is going to kill him anyway.
After that? I don’t know. I don’t know if I can take him home – hubby points out rightly that one indoor outdoor cat and two indoor only cats will cause havoc. I’ve also realised he is about 1/3 the size of Lumi – like having a housecat meet a Lynx he rightly could be terrified. Of course we have a big dog also, and he could be scared of dogs. And…he knows how to spray to mark territory, I saw him do it in a very inappropriate place. I think being in our house with two other male cats would likely make him pee on everything.
He needs a warm safe place with cuddles and laps, access to the outside, and fewer cars as he has no damn sense around them. I don’t want to see him dead on the road and know I could have prevented it.
I’ve never asked before, but if you want to donate to helping so-far-nameless kitty, you can send a donation via PayPal to my blog email address, heretherebespiders @ gmail . com (spaced it out so maybe the spam bots won’t find me, hahahah).
heretherebespiders 