Congratulations, You Won a Cat

Parent Cafe
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<p>The abridged version is that this lovely, friendly cat was hanging around our back yard for a few days, and once the grad visitors left Friday (allelujah), I caved, and fed it. </p>

<p>I knew it was a terrible mistake the minute I set the food and water dish outside. Somehow I fantasized that the cat would maybe drop by for lunch once a week or so, but, that’s dead on arrival - the cat hasn’t left our rear deck since I fed her the first time on Friday. Bottom line, it’s Tuesday, the cat is still here, and, we already have a cat, and this one wants to come inside very badly, but she (we checked, it’s a she) cannot, because when she sees our resident cat through the windows, she hisses and goes hysterical, and anyway, we cannot care for a second cat. I am traveling most of the summer and D leaves for her new job in another state end of this week. We have a long list of cat sitters, but, these are people who have known our cat for a while, and, the deal was take care of one cat while I’m traveling, not two. </p>

<p>Since Saturday, I have printed and distributed what feels like hundreds of flyers, in English and Spanish, all over - in mailboxes, on car windshields, stores, vets offices, etc. I’ve been to every lost pet site I can find; I’ve placed ads in I cannot even count how many different papers, message boards, etc. We even asked the mail delivery person if she knows of someone who lost a cat. I am certain this is/was someone’s well-loved pet. She’s very clean and healthy, highly socialized, very friendly (well except when she sees my cat - then she loses it…).</p>

<p>So this afternoon, D and I talked for like two hours, and after running through every other possibility - mainly who do we know who needs/wants a pet (no one - everyone is in another city/state/country for the summer) we sort of informally decided to try to have an outdoor cat (what choice is there really) - Humane Society has no room, and the other place has a kill policy, so we won’t deal. We even named her Jackie O in spite of my “no dems on the property” policy (j/k), and, we made her a little bed with soft blankets, etc. But hours after the fact, this isn’t going to work. She is clearly an indoor cat, and she wants to be in the house. I feel sorry for her, she is stuck outside. And she cries when I leave her outside at night. But it’s worse than that - I’m sitting outside on our deck, and she’s curled up in the chair next to me, and a possum came up on deck and tried to eat out of her food dish. </p>

<p>This isn’t going to work, and I cannot figure out what to do next. The only thought I have is that maybe I should mass email my clients something like “congratulations, you won a cat” and then see which of them replies back “great, when can I pick it up”…</p>

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<p><em>ROFL</em> LTS, you darn softie, you!!! ;)</p>

<p>We’ve gotten ALL of our cats this way! :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Our newest addition is baby Phantom (his face looks like the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera!) who’s 8 weeks old…my D adopted him from the Humane Society for me after all of Belle’s kittens died.</p>

<p>I really hope you find your “visitor’s” owners soon. She sounds like a WONDERFUL kitty! :)</p>

<p>~berurah</p>

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<p>If only I hadn’t fed her the first time, I wouldn’t be in this situation…</p>

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<p>LTS,
Congratulations! You obviously have a brilliant, and therefore valuable, cat. How do I know the cat is brilliant? She picked your house!</p>

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<p>My neighbor has something like 7 cats and an obnoxious Basenji (dog) who moved in and promptly starting harrassing the cats. Two of her (inside/outside) cats moved to our house–one full time, the other part time. At first I kept having our kids take them home, and then I finally gave up (once they finally stopped tormenting our dog by sitting just beyond the dog’s invisible fence line). I refuse to let them in, but moved a cozy bed out on the side porch for the one who’s taken up full-time occupancy, and yes, we feed them. Periodically they have through-the-glass experiences with our indoor cats, but basically they are really no effort whatsoever, and I’ve gotten used to having them around (they are friendlier than our own cats!!)…We feed them dry food once a day, so when we’re gone, we have the neighbor feed HER cats (on OUR porch) :slight_smile: I remind D2 to go out and feed Hershey (the choc lab dog) and “the boys”, i.e. the cats.</p>

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<p>That’s how we ended up with our second cat, and at first she didn’t get along with our other cat at all. We ended up shutting her in the bathroom for a few days (until we could housetrain her, we thought, not knowing that she was already housetrained) and just had to keep a watch on them until they started to get along. One thing I did was rub cardboard on each cat’s fur and then give each piece to the other cat to sniff so they would get accustomed to each other’s smells.</p>

<p>My sister and brother-in-law have three cats, two of whom don’t get along at all. One is kept in their bedroom during the day for his protection; then at night they shut the other two in another room and let the bedroom cat out.</p>

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<p>Oh, willow–your sister’s cat shuttling sounds awful! That’s one thing I quickly appreciated about having cats—they really are generally low-maintenance, as compared to the house dogs we’ve had in the past. BTW, your idea of the cardboard kitty smell is very imaginative—I would never have thought of that. Our inside cats are “sisters” – last 2 litter mates left at the shelter. When they were young they were inseparable. Now that they’re adult cats with attitudes, they pretty much stay away from each other, except for an occasional kitty-ruckus now and then (usually in the middle of the night, of course).</p>

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<p>When my mom adopted a cat the suggestion her vet gave her for ending fights between her cat and her dog was to lock them in a room together and leave for a few hours. The vet told her that they would either kill each other or be best friends. They ended up best friends. Maybe if you want to keep the cat you could try that technique.</p>

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<p>You could try posting her as found on Petfinder classifieds. Maybe the owners are still looking but farther away? Cats can travel over 5 miles a day I think so they can get pretty far away in a couple of days. So there still may be a chance the owners are trying to sort through the situation. Is the cat in Miami? What does she look like? There may be some rescues with space although with cats that is hard. </p>

<p>Do you have a crate? Cats don’t mind them so much, actually some like them a lot because they like the small space. You could try crating her in the house, although I guess she could still see your cat. She could maybe stay in one room in the crate? I guess if you are gone all day it wouldn’t work because it would be too long. But overnight it could work out. I know some people who crate and rotate although mainly with dogs who don’t get along.</p>

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<p>Oh, I wish we could take another. I really like the idea of “congrats, you won a cat!” Thanks for the laugh after a bad day. (& I understand you really need to find her a home - good luck, 1 of our dogs and 1 of our cats weren’t meant to stay with us but did - we’re suckers for four legged friends).</p>

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<p>Large cat cages … multi levels, and large enough for a litter box do exist. It’s a possibility.</p>

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<p>No, this isn’t working for me. This morning I found her outside curled up in the chair on our deck where I left her last night. Clearly she hasn’t moved from that chair, so I fed her; she was very hungry. She is clearly used to living indoors and does not know what to do with herself outdoors, and, I don’t like the idea of having cat food out on the deck, which brings bugs and other animals, and, even though the deck is covered, we get tropical storms during the summer, and it’s just not good for her. And I’m totally not into the idea of putting animals in cages/crates, etc., just doesn’t really work for me and I don’t want to do it. </p>

<p>I am going to have to try to find a home for her, and if I cannot find one, I don’t know what to do…</p>

<p>It won’t work trying to integrate her into the house, even if I wanted a second cat - my cat is so clueless that when she’s hissing at him through a window, he doesn’t recognize the threat. Perhaps that comes from living indoors and having everything done for him for 10+ years. I think she would totally dominate, and completely stress out our incumbent cat. But even if they could somehow get along we aren’t home enough and we don’t have time to referee the two of them.</p>

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<p>Latetoshool, I have no great wisdom to share. I just wanted to say that you are a sweet person and have done a sweet thing. I really hope it works out for you. We have 3 cats and a tiny dog, who now get along well. It took about 3 weeks, though. Maybe a gradual exposure for the cats through a screen or a gate of some kind would work? That way they could smell each other and you wouldn’t risk the physical fight. One of our cats is a very large male who is the sweetest most loving being. Once in a while, though, he gets into a mood and stalks our older female and harrasses her. He corners her and hisses and growls. We take a water bottle and shoot him with it to let him know that it’s not ok. You might try that, as well. Good luck! Oh…one more thought. Talk to the vet and see if a tranquilizer for the newbie might make transitioning into the house easier. Seems that your cat doesn’t have a problem. Also, the newbie is very very stressed out, which might explain some of the hissing. If it were more secure and comfortable it might mellow out. I’m glad we have more than one cat. They keep each other company and are so much happier than if we had one. They play together and groom each other all day. (I’ve done it both ways…one and several cats)</p>

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<p>When my mom visits with her two cats, they have to stay in the basement, because they drive my cats crazy. Sadly, we are now down to one cat, but he is 15½ years old and not ready for another right now, or I’d take yours! With my empty nest looming, I am so ready to not have anybody to take care of.</p>

<p>My mom collects animals because she can never say no. She has a big ol’ garage, and when outdoor kitties show up, she lets them live there. When she goes to Florida for the winters, her two indoor kitties come, but someone has to come over and put food out for her outdoor cats weekly. It’s a losing game, though, because the more food she puts out, the more cats she gets. At least with all the cats, she doesn’t have any rodent problems.</p>

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<p>My daughter told me yesterday that she thinks the only reason I’m resistant to taking this one in is that I’m afraid of morphing into an old lady all alone with 20 cats…</p>

<p>She said, “admit it, you LIKE the cat”…</p>

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<p>Actually, Mom is doing good right now - she only has 2 indoor, and 3 outdoor. I think her peak was when we had about 6 indoor/outdoor cats, a bunny, a chicken, and 2 dogs. (Perhaps assorted fish, or gerbils - I don’t remember.) She does not live in a rural area, by the way. The school she taught at was across the street from the Humane Society, and we used to beg her to not stop there on her way home.</p>

<p>(The chicken was the result of her kindergarten class incubators. She did eventually donate her to a local farmer.) Our bunny was indoor/outdoor, too, and thought he was a cat. In our family, it seems each generation has one person who is an animal whisperer. It is definitely my mom from her generation. My middle son is ours. They seem to be able to communicate with animals on a level the rest of us can’t.</p>

<p>One of our cats (actually, the only one left) is extremely timid. A 'fraidy cat. When S2 was in first grade, I had to go check him out of school to help me catch the cat (then a kitten) to take to the vet. It was embarrassing for me, trying to explain it to the school secretary, but I had already spent a half hour or more chasing the stupid kitten around the house! 7 year old S2 caught him in a matter of moments.</p>

<p>Maybe you are your family’s whisperer!</p>

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<p>We have 3 cats. And we’ve brought 20+ Golden Retrievers through our house. My advice: bring the cat inside. Place her in a separate room with food and a litter box. When you have time in a few days, take her to the vet for a check-up and spay (if necessary). While she’s gone to the vet, leave the door to her room open and let your other cat sniff all over it. </p>

<p>When you get back from the vet, place her in her room but leave the door open. The cats will eventually tolerate each other. They may even learn to get along like pals. It will be fine. In a few weeks you’ll be wondering why you ever hesitated.</p>

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<p>been there / done that!</p>

<p>My d. brought home a stray ktten. We already had a cat who hisses at all outside visitors. </p>

<p>No way was I going to keep the second one. </p>

<p>It was so pitiful, however, that we kept it in the garage for a week, nursing it back to health. We were going on vacation.</p>

<p>No way could we keep a second cat.</p>

<p>I ended up bringing it to a no-kill shelter. They never have room, but I just happend to run into one of their volunteers when I brought the kitten to a vet to have it checked. When we returned from vacation, I stupidly went to the shelter to see if it had been adopted. Ha Ha.</p>

<p>We now have a second cat.</p>

<p>We did just as MaryTN suggested. Start very slow. We put the second cat in the garage for a week, then in a room in the house (separate from cat 1), while cat 1 became used to its scent, then in the same room, but in a carrier with a visible door, then in a room together (and us supervising at all times, then in the open. The process took about 2-3 weeks. Cat #1 hissed at every step.</p>

<p>No way was she going to tolerate another cat.</p>

<p>But it didn’t last long. I can’t say they are best friends, but they are definitely tolerant of each other. They share spaces fine. Cat 2 has been a joy. Their personalities are night and day (one is shy, the other is a holy terror), but they are both very people friendly, and even affectionate.</p>

<p>Cat #1 still hisses at all other outside visitors.</p>

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<p>we actually don’t “have” a cat right now.
I also don’t want one- as our dog is getting older and I am expecting the health care costs to be getting more expensive.
( We had two cats who lived into their 20s, the health care of one of them was particulary difficult for me, as she had kidney failure and I was in charge of her care for the last several years of her life- )</p>

<p>There are many cats in the neighborhood- who often come to visit-* H has a fish pond in the back*.
There is even one who we let into the house enough so that our dog no longer reacts :wink:
But I don’t know if I am ready for another cat.
( I am still paying the neighbor hush money to keep from my D the knowledge that * her * neighbor has many kittens)</p>

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<p>EK4 - your post reminded me of this poem </p>

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