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Murphy- Our Latest Addition to the ClanThe Saturday before Thanksgiving we were leaving for the in-laws in NJ. Horrible timing but a cat showed up outside our door on Thursday. He walked off and came back mid-afternoon to sunbathe beneath one of our bird feeders. Mentioned it to dh and he ignored me. Smart guy!
Friday comes (the day before we are leaving) and the same cat appears, same time, same place. Hung around a little longer, so this time dh got to see kitty himself and said "nice cat, yeah, probably small enough to be a kitten". I wanted to see if the cat belonged to anyone so went outside to see if I could
sweet talk it or preferably it would run off. Didn't do either.
Walked towards me but not close enough. dh was watching and heard the poor thing meowing through the sliding glass door so went and got some dry food. That got kitty's attention and she (small and petite like Snowy, so I am guessing here) was soon up on the patio chowing down. dh came out and stood there while I crouched down trying to get her to come to me. Just couldn't do it, though she was purring. ...Wouldn't let me get close though and finally walked off into the woods, meowing all the way :-(
The 3 of us sat down to eat dinner a short time later and all of a sudden Rocky is hissing at the sliding glass door. I looked and there is this cat meowing and HEAD BUTTING the glass door as if to say, "let me in please"! What to do? Could put a box out with blankets, but the food gets eaten by the opossums and raccoons. So the food can only be out day time and we won't be home. New cat sitter was coming once a day, but we were very leery about asking her to feed an additional mouth for fear of MORE additional charges. LOL on that one later!
Dh and I went outside to the patio again, this time with wet food, trying to see
if we could get close enough to the poor thing. We talked it over while the cat, who by this time we determined to be a kitten and dd determined to be a female :-) played hide and seek,with us in the butterfly bushes surrounding the patio. Kitty also took advantage of the water basin on the ground on the patio for the birds, opossums and chipmunks. Luckily I had put out some fresh water right before kitty showed up that afternoon. Obviously thirsty, so hunger and thirst pretty good clues that it was a stray. We did not want a 7th cat, so I said to dh perhaps someone at school would like a kitten?
Talking it over, we did not have much choice in what to do, so dh dragged the hav-a-heart out of the garage and stuck the wet food in. Back in the house to finish dinner and one slice of, by then, cold pizza later, the kitten was in the trap. Put her out in the garage to keep her overnight. Every other time we have just taken the cat, trap and all, to the vets in the a.m. This time we got the not so bright idea of transferring it into one of our many carriers. Fixed up the carrier with a shoe box with litter, nice thick towel, food and water to be added...in the transfer the kitten got loose in the garage and immediately high tailed into hiding. After a half hour of searching dh found it curled up in the wheel barrow which was tilted up on it's side. Tried to grab kitty, I know, what the heck was he thinking? Cat took off again like a flash. I was on the opposite side so didn't see where it went.
By this point dh was beside himself, trying to do the right thing and this was how it ended up. I told him leave the wet food set in the hav-a-heart, we would go in the house and hope that sometime between then and the time we have to leave for the airport in the a.m. that this cat would be trapped and it goes without saying, not end up under the hood of either of the cars where we had just finished searching. dd took her turn searching. No one wanted to listen to what I had to say, the cat will get hungry and go into the trap. It was starving before and with the small amount it had, would still be starving. We will never know why it would not stop meowing at me outside that afternoon and night, but I am betting hunger. :-(( Kitten was dumped and still didn't have the hang of hunting???
Dh and I racked our brains. Where was the warmest spot in the garage? Near our freezer which is in a little room off the garage where the water heater also is. I said to him the cat has to be in there somewhere. Behind the freezer? After stewing on the couch for an hour and a half and trying to figure out what the heck to do, dh decided yeah, well maybe the cat IS by the freezer. Well she wasn't behind it, she was curled up in a ball in the back of A CAT CARRIER!!! stacked on top of the darn freezer!!! He had checked it once prior during the search, but kitty being so light, he hadn't nudged it hard enough to notice the difference. So anyway, he shut the door to the crate and voila! One captured kitten.
Smarter from our previous mistake, we took the crate into the bathroom off the kitchen to transfer the kitten from the small crate it was in to the more luxuriously appointed one we had arranged earlier. Back out to the garage overnight with food and water. She meowed for a short time and then I would like to think fell asleep. Dh felt better knowing that the kitten would be safe and warm that night for the first time since??? C. couldn't understand why the cat could not come in the house where it was warm. Explained the whole FIV thing and she understood that. So we crossed our fingers and prayed for the best. As it turned out the temperature that night went down to 23 degrees and we already knew, either way, we had done the right thing.
Next thing to pray for was with the holiday, that the vet was not full for boarding. Tiggy had his appointment months before but not this one. Only God knew what we had in store the next a.m. if our vet wouldn't take her. Given the incentive that kitty most likely needed to be spayed and they would be adding yet another client to their list...would like to think that she/we would get preferential treatment, but our vet is not the owner, so you just never know.
As it turned out, yes there was room in the inn. She was a "he". Coccidia, roundworms, starvation, and 4-6 months old, the vet does not think he would have survived much longer in the great outdoors. So we spent 6 nights in NJ and the new kitty was medicated, wormed and neutered while we stuffed our faces in the north lands. Vet bill with boarding came to about $300. Thus, I ask people NOT to email to take their neighborhood strays. WE are our own best charity!
Came home and kitty is now known as Murphy. Home since last Saturday, yesterday
he received a clean bill of health. He has been quaranteened in dd's bedroom. She of course could not be more thrilled having her "own" kitten, finally, at last. I suppose you could call this her Thanksgiving wish. We have now graduated to a doggie gate with blanket and Blackie and Rocky have begun playing footsies with Murphy. Murphy is a very adorable, playful kitten, but is still sleeping under the bed. All in all he should be an excellent housemate just like the rest of our clan.
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Our Georgia Peaches- Rocky, Murphy & Snowy & Strays All Over the World |
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07/01/2008
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