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summer_jackelOk guys, get your hankies. I have a genuine Heartwarming Cute Cat Story, right here right now. A weird one, but nonetheless full of d'awwwwwwwwwww.
And if you don't want the whole long story, have any of you ever had a cat who had brownish discoloring in the whites of its eyes? I've seen it in some friends' older cats over the years but never asked. Is it an age thing? Possible sign of liver or other organ dysfunction? The cat's iris is unaffected, but the stain is around its edge in the white part.
So, there is an ex-stray cat in my bathroom right now. A couple of weeks ago, Kyn and I were having a romantic dusk walk, feeding crickets to large orbweaving spiders along the bike path that runs between her suburban neighborhood and the Petalumariver creek, when we noticed a couple of adorable semi-longhair tuxedo kittens, around 7-8 weeks old, lurking under a bridge. Upon closer inspection, those turned into a solid black shorthair mom with a litter of five. Mom was very sweet and approached me when I sat down and coaxed her, with all the kittens lurking behind and approaching me only when I was stroking her. I was able to catch her, and because Kyn and I are bleeding-heart suckers, she went home to get a carrier.
Momcat got upset when put in the carrier with the first kitten. After we got the biggest kitten (which was scratching and biting the heck out of Kyn's poor hand) into the carrier, it didn't latch properly and the three of them escaped. I was able to catch two of the remaining kittens, which have been living in Kyn's bathroom ever since. The plan is to spay/neuter and rehome them, so if you want one, let us know.
Kyn caught mom and one more kitten this Wednesday. The fourth, scratchy one has gone totally feral and the fifth was brought into a local pet store fatally injured, so that's the lot accounted for. Kyn has all three kittens and I offered to take the mom.
This cat, now installed in my bathroom, is very scared, tense and hidey, but has never offered to hiss or scratch and seems to like touch. Last night, I pulled her out of my (formerly, ew) clean towel cupboard and spent some time brushing, to which the cat responded with the joy of a backpacker enjoying a shower for the first time after weeks in the woods. Here's the weird bit.
I noticed again what I'd noticed the first time I saw them...the cat has a very strong jawline and nose for a female. More peculiarities became apparent---the teeth are somewhat worn and discolored. Magic's teeth look about like that at 15, and 10 year old Trucker's teeth look much worse because of poor care and lots of kittens throughout her life. This cat, assuming a hard life and poor nutrition, still couldn't be any younger than four, and if homelessness was fairly recent, could conceivably be much older. There are also the aforementioned brown spots on the whites of the cat's eyes, which I've only ever seen in older animals. I was confused. Most feral momcats are much younger (they just don't tend to last more than a couple of years), and most pet cats are spayed by the time they get that old.
So I checked and it turns out that this cat, which I have been calling the mom, is in fact a neutered male.
I checked again a few more times and the next morning, until he started to get a little crabby at me. Still distinctly a boy. I'm totally confused and I'm going to have Kyn double-check, but I do know how to sex cats.
I'll mention at this point that Kyn, before catching him, had seen him carrying and washing the last kitten. At our first meeting, all of the kittens were crowding behind him when I was offering to pet, watching what he would do before they got close to me. He was acting like a mom. This is, to say the least, weird...in my experience and from what I've read, neutered males will be casually friendly at best with kittens, and intact toms usually kill them (which is probably what happened to the injured kitten from this litter). I've never heard of a boycat, much less a stray, caring for a litter to the degree we witnessed.
Of course, passerby had been feeding these kittens under the bridge, and the cat, who seems too lean and dirty to be someone's pet, would naturally have gravitated to food regardless of the presence of a litter of kittens. I would expect such a cat to at least drive them off the food, but he was, again, acting so like mom that I'm still utterly floored that he isn't.
So, we have what appears to be an incident of an older stray neutered male, taking care of a litter of orphan kittens. (We've had no sightings of other cats that might be mom, so I assume the worst). I've never heard of cats doing this. How strange. How unusual. How rare and sweet and kind. What a NICE cat.
I'm calling him Bagheera as he's quite pantherly, and if any cat deserves the name it's this one. Since he's friendly and seems like he's been a pet at some point, we're going to put up found cat fliers in the appropriate places. Barring anything coming of that, my plan is to vaccinate him, clean him up, let him calm down in my house and then, post-Halloween, start trying to place him. I'll be keeping him on until that happens. It's unusual to stumble across one of the odd little mysteries of the non-human world and have it be so unexpectedly and touchingly gentle. Thanks, cat.
And if you don't want the whole long story, have any of you ever had a cat who had brownish discoloring in the whites of its eyes? I've seen it in some friends' older cats over the years but never asked. Is it an age thing? Possible sign of liver or other organ dysfunction? The cat's iris is unaffected, but the stain is around its edge in the white part.
So, there is an ex-stray cat in my bathroom right now. A couple of weeks ago, Kyn and I were having a romantic dusk walk, feeding crickets to large orbweaving spiders along the bike path that runs between her suburban neighborhood and the Petaluma
Momcat got upset when put in the carrier with the first kitten. After we got the biggest kitten (which was scratching and biting the heck out of Kyn's poor hand) into the carrier, it didn't latch properly and the three of them escaped. I was able to catch two of the remaining kittens, which have been living in Kyn's bathroom ever since. The plan is to spay/neuter and rehome them, so if you want one, let us know.
Kyn caught mom and one more kitten this Wednesday. The fourth, scratchy one has gone totally feral and the fifth was brought into a local pet store fatally injured, so that's the lot accounted for. Kyn has all three kittens and I offered to take the mom.
This cat, now installed in my bathroom, is very scared, tense and hidey, but has never offered to hiss or scratch and seems to like touch. Last night, I pulled her out of my (formerly, ew) clean towel cupboard and spent some time brushing, to which the cat responded with the joy of a backpacker enjoying a shower for the first time after weeks in the woods. Here's the weird bit.
I noticed again what I'd noticed the first time I saw them...the cat has a very strong jawline and nose for a female. More peculiarities became apparent---the teeth are somewhat worn and discolored. Magic's teeth look about like that at 15, and 10 year old Trucker's teeth look much worse because of poor care and lots of kittens throughout her life. This cat, assuming a hard life and poor nutrition, still couldn't be any younger than four, and if homelessness was fairly recent, could conceivably be much older. There are also the aforementioned brown spots on the whites of the cat's eyes, which I've only ever seen in older animals. I was confused. Most feral momcats are much younger (they just don't tend to last more than a couple of years), and most pet cats are spayed by the time they get that old.
So I checked and it turns out that this cat, which I have been calling the mom, is in fact a neutered male.
I checked again a few more times and the next morning, until he started to get a little crabby at me. Still distinctly a boy. I'm totally confused and I'm going to have Kyn double-check, but I do know how to sex cats.
I'll mention at this point that Kyn, before catching him, had seen him carrying and washing the last kitten. At our first meeting, all of the kittens were crowding behind him when I was offering to pet, watching what he would do before they got close to me. He was acting like a mom. This is, to say the least, weird...in my experience and from what I've read, neutered males will be casually friendly at best with kittens, and intact toms usually kill them (which is probably what happened to the injured kitten from this litter). I've never heard of a boycat, much less a stray, caring for a litter to the degree we witnessed.
Of course, passerby had been feeding these kittens under the bridge, and the cat, who seems too lean and dirty to be someone's pet, would naturally have gravitated to food regardless of the presence of a litter of kittens. I would expect such a cat to at least drive them off the food, but he was, again, acting so like mom that I'm still utterly floored that he isn't.
So, we have what appears to be an incident of an older stray neutered male, taking care of a litter of orphan kittens. (We've had no sightings of other cats that might be mom, so I assume the worst). I've never heard of cats doing this. How strange. How unusual. How rare and sweet and kind. What a NICE cat.
I'm calling him Bagheera as he's quite pantherly, and if any cat deserves the name it's this one. Since he's friendly and seems like he's been a pet at some point, we're going to put up found cat fliers in the appropriate places. Barring anything coming of that, my plan is to vaccinate him, clean him up, let him calm down in my house and then, post-Halloween, start trying to place him. I'll be keeping him on until that happens. It's unusual to stumble across one of the odd little mysteries of the non-human world and have it be so unexpectedly and touchingly gentle. Thanks, cat.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 03:31 am (UTC)Great story :)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 03:57 am (UTC)This is my best ever crazy cat story. If I end up with five cats because of it, I can at least say that I went down gracefully, right?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 11:43 am (UTC)A little miracle that alot of us are sorely in need of lately.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 07:06 pm (UTC)What a sweet foster-dad cat! I'm glad you were able to rescue the kittens! Thanks for the story!
no subject
Date: 2010-10-16 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-18 05:10 am (UTC)Observe her approval.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 12:27 am (UTC)