15 posts tagged “cat”

I wrote in my earlier post that I hadn't seen OC since last night.  That would be because my little Outside country Cat didn't survive 24 hours in the suburbs.  We found her lying on the side of the road.

My tears just won't stop.  I keep thinking:  If we hadn't moved her she'd still be alive.  She spent her last 24 hours feeling lost, scared, and miserable.

I'm so sad.

We've spent the last few days moving.  It took three trips in the 26 foot U-Haul truck to bring it all down to the new house.  I was bound and determined to be out of Winfield before 2009.  We did it with only a minute or two to spare.  We brought 2009 in going down the highway with the last of our possessions firmly tied down in the back of the U-Haul.

Now to unbox and put away.  ~sigh~  This is a job that I've been planning for five years.  I'm going through every box and every knick knack.  If I can't find it a home, it is going in a garage sale and if it doesn't sell during that, then it is going to GoodWill or Salvation Army.  I'm even going to go through all of my Christmas decorations and clear out those that aren't used any more.  This is going to take many days/weeks to do.  I keep thinking that if I spend just an hour a day or maybe even just a box a day that I will make some headway.  But first I have to unpack the essentials and get a new life going here in T-Town.

OC is not happy.  I brought her down yesterday morning.  She spent the whole trip sitting in her crate meowing and mewing her unhappiness at being boxed up.  I set the crate down in her new backyard, opened it up and she walked out, sniffed a time or two and then walked back into the crate and curled up in a ball.  She didn't come back out all day.  Last night, I fed her and spent a few minutes petting her and such trying to get her more accustomed to the new place.  This morning she didn't show up for breakfast and she hasn't come when I called.

Darcy on the other hand is in doggie heaven.  She loves being able to go out into the back yard and being able to just run around w/o a chain in her way.  Baron keeps getting fussed at because he goes into the back yard and proceeds to bark at the dogs in the other yards.  Chris has said that he would rather be the neighbor that gets mad about other dogs than be the neighbor that everyone is mad at because his dog is barking.

Okay.  Rest time is over.  Time to go find a box and unpack it.

Happy 2009!!

She is doing so remarkedly better!
She was on the front porch this morning demanding her breakfast!  She ate the whole (small) can of gooshie food and nosed at the crunchy.
She's finally given herself a really good bath.  Now her eyes are clear and muck-free.
She's still limping quite a bit, but she is able to get up and down from the porch w/o too much trouble.
She ignored Baron while he was on the porch with her just a little while ago.
She ate a little crunchy food this afternoon.
She sensed I was unhappy and came over to try to love on me as I sat brooding on the porch.  She did the head butt thing a couple of times, and she did the 'extend the paw until it contacts the thin pants, and flex the claws until they puncture holes in the material, and gently prick the skin' thing....many times.

And her purr motor has been running non-stop from the moment she lays eyes on me.

This is most likely the last update unless she happens to take a turn for the worse.

=^.^=
   ~~

When we got up this morning she was not on the porch, but that was not really a surprise.
More of her food was gone, which made me smile.
We had to go to T-town again today so I wasn't able to keep an eye on her and baby her like I wanted.
I got home from work and she wasn't in any of her usual afternoon 'haunts', so I went to look for her.
I headed to the place we found her yesterday and found her as she was limping out to meet me all tail flipping and meowing.
I tried to get her to follow me all the way to the house: about a 100 yards, and she made it about half-way, then laid down and mewed and flipped her tail at me.
I took Baron with me just so the little guy could get some exercise off the chain. 
OC's never given Baron a second glance as she is bigger than he is.  Now she is so shook up about dogs that she could not stand for Baron to be behind her.  This makes me sad.
I carried her the rest of the way to the porch and brought out fresh gooshy food for her.  She has eaten about 2/3's of the can in bits and spurts.  (one of those small sized cans similar to Fancy Feast, but not FF.)
I had to come in and wash up/change clothes; while I was inside she got off the porch and was 'sunning' in the monkey grass---mostly hidden from everyone and everything.
I went back out to check on her and she came up onto the porch; but her leg is bothering her so much she almost didn't make it up the steps.  ~sigh~ 

I do believe after a few more days of recouperation she will be okay.

I couldn't concentrate on work.  So right after Jordan got home I put on some grungy clothes and went to crawl under the house.  I got down on my hands and knees; flashlight in hand and opened the crawl space.  I could NOT make myself crawl in there.  So, I thought I'd walk around the property a bit to see if maybe she was holed up somewhere else---while I screwed up enough courage to crawl under the house.  Chris and I were looking at the scrub brush when Chris decided it was too dangerous to enter (snakes, ticks, sticker bushes, etc..)  He started to walk away towards some other tall grass when I happened to catch a spot of white.  I found OC, she was hiding under a green bush in the middle of some sticker bushes.  She meowed at me when she saw that I had spotted her.  So, I crawled through the stickers and pulled her out.

I carried her to the front porch and she purred the entire way.  Acted thrilled to be found and like she felt safe and secure in my arms.  I ran into the house to get her a can of gushy food; when I came back out she was at her food dish trying to eat, but she couldn't pick any of the hard food up in order to chew it.  When I offered her the canned food she immediately set about lapping up all the juices, but she never did actually 'eat' the chunkier pieces.  I tried to look in her mouth to see what kind of wound there is, but she wouldn't let me open it up.  She has a limp now, too.  She's favoring her right back leg.  But, she never protests or meows or gets ticked when we run our hands up and down her leg, and make it bend and stuff.  When she got through lapping at her food, she proceeded to lay in the sun.  We showed her the crate again and left her alone.  She laid in the sun until it got cool.  Right now she is curled up in the crate all comfy and cozy.

I had to take a shower because I was wheezing and swelling....but that's okay.  She's home and hopefully she's going to be just fine with time and healing.

Thanks everyone for all of your good thoughts!

Are you tired of hearing about my kitty?
I hope not...although I am weary of having nothing to report.
We've been home for over three hours and no sign of her.
She has not made her evening appearance asking for food.
She has not made her evening appearance in the kitchen window.
She has not been seen since we left for work this morning.

I'm hoping she shows up in the morning meowing for something to eat....

Yesterday I posted about my kitty cat being attacked by three dogs.

She spent the night in Darcy's crate.  I didn't sleep well listening for her to meow asking to be let out; but she never did.  She was in the crate for over 15 hours, never once asked to get out, only had a little sip of milk, let her food alone, ignored the tuna, and never went potty.

We had to go to T-Town to the office today, so I had to transfer her out of Darcy's crate and into Baron's.  I added her blanket, and then I put her in the crate and set it on the front porch with fresh water and fresh food---the door is open so she can get out to go potty or find another warmer, safer, whatever spot.

I'm really worried about her.  Chris keeps saying that we can't do a big vet bill.  I know we can't afford a big vet bill, but OC is our responsibility.  When we adopted her from the pound we took on the responsibility of vet bills and such.  Yes, she is an Outside Cat, but she is still much loved and much wanted.

If she isn't acting more 'normal' tomorrow I may have to make him really mad and take her to the vet anyway.  Poor kitty.

As I was laying in bed sound asleep as a body should be at around 2:15 in the morning.  I was suddenly awakened by a woman screaming outside my house.  I jumped out of bed, snatched my glasses and was running towards the front door as the sounds I was hearing finally registered as my cat screeching and growling at something that was obviously attacking her.  When I snatched the front door open and ran out onto the porch two decent sized dogs ran off.  I hollered at them to leave my cat alone and was just about to walk barefoot into the yard to find OC, when a third yet smaller dog ran off.  Just when I thought my heart was going to burst from fear for my kitty, she took off like a white streak towards the back of the house. 

I tried to find her but I was barefoot, it was dark, and she was scared.  So, we all went back to bed.

When I put Baron out this morning he was practically immediately attacked by the same two bigger 'dogs'.  But being a Dachsund means that he thinks he is bigger than he is; so he held his ground, raised his hackles and proceeded to run them off as far as the chain would let him.  So, I chased them off.  I'm sure the kids on Jordan's bus are now scared of me....stomping through the grass in my slippers, my hair still up in a towel, yelling and screaming at those 'dogs'.  The dogs didn't run far so, I brought Baron in and put Darcy out.  Darcy is bigger and half German Shephard.  I figured just her size would keep the dogs away.  But, nope, they came running up to her to 'attack' her.  This is when I realized that these 'dogs' are half-grown puppies.  Okay.  Fine.  They probably can't hurt Darcy as she is twice thier size---but they could put a serious hurt on Baron or OC. 

Chris and I figure these dog/pups are new to the area as a new house was built just across the highway and I believe the people moved in over the weekend.  These two dog/pups are going to grow and be mean---they look like they have some Chow or some PitBull or something else mean and viscous in their blood.  Maybe they are just Curs (is that a specific breed or is that another way of saying 'mutt'?).  Anyway.  They need to leave my cat and my dogs alone.

I haven't seen or heard from OC since she was attacked.  I've looked and called, Chris has looked, called, and even whistled.  But no OC.  Poor scared and possibly hurt kitty cat.  ~sigh~

Edited to add:
She showed up!  She looks pretty terrible, no outward scratches, bite marks or blood and we gave her a pretty good all over, pat down/squeeze.  Since she didn't do anything but keep purring and being limp we are assuming that she was just good and scared---maybe a little mauled but w/o injuries.  She's definitely not acting her normal 'pet me pet me pet ME!' self.  She was just laying on the ground all limp and sick looking.  I took one of her winter blankets that I had already put up for the year and put it on the corner of the porch and wrapped her up in it.  She didn't even wriggle a little to get more comfortable....she just kept her eyes closed and her putt motor running.  She's filthy, with grass, sticks, a touch of blood (but not from her) and it looks like she's been rolled in some ashes.  I'm hoping she will feel safe enough to take a good long warm snooze and then clean herself up.  I'm even thinking of giving her one of those small cans of tuna I have in the cabinet.

Here's a pic of her that I just took.

 

Update #2:
So, shortly after I took this picture I went outside to check on her and she was not in her little nest.  She remained hidden for the better part of the day.  Darcy alerted me to her presence about thirty minutes ago.  I immediately got the can of tuna, opened it up and put it on a plate.  I took the plate of tuna out to the shed where OC was hiding out.  She didn't acknowledge my approach until I was less than two feet from her.  She smelled the tuna and then jerked her head like the tuna was nauseating to her.  I made Chris come outside to check her out.  Again, no acknowledgement of our approach until we touched her.  Chris picked her up and proceeded to give her another once over.  She has not cleaned herself or tried to put herself in any kind of order.  We decided that, even though I am very allergic, we would bring her in the house and put her in Darcy's crate so she could sleep in comfort, safety, and warmth.  This is where she is right now, she didn't really move after Chris put her down, but pretty much stayed right where he laid her.  The plate of tuna is in the crate with her.  I don't know what else to do.  She has no obvious injuries, we can pet, pat, poke, and gently squeeze and the only response we get is more and louder purring.  Chris thinks she just got a real good scare and spent most of the night awake and scared----she just needs to recover from her scare and her exhaustion.  I hope so.

Update #3:
She has been resting comfortably in Darcy's crate for about four hours now.  She's rolled over, and stretched a tiny bit a time or two.  She totally refused the tuna, I tossed it.  I gave her a sip of milk which she lapped up about half.  Then a few minutes ago I saw her yawn.  She's missing her bottom right 'fang'.  It's gone.  As far as I can tell the whole thing is gone as there is a gaping hole into her gum line.  ~sigh~  I don't know what to do.  Can she survive outside while missing one of her major protector teeth?

The weather in Alabama in February is unpredictable at best.

We had snow:

 

 

I know....some of you are laughing, but this is a big deal here in Alabama.

 

 

 

 

Following the snow we have some of our Spring flowers in bloom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jordan watches for the bus every morning.  Some mornings he gets help from Darcy:

 

 OC (Outside Cat) was interested in the camera while I was out taking pictures of the flowers.

 

We had company from India on Friday night.  I showed her how to bake cookies: she did a batch all by herself.

 

That was pretty much my February.  Nothing overly exciting.  I do, however, need to write up a post about what we saw while we were in Rome and Pompeii in January.

I love feeding the birds and squirrels.  I really love to stand at the window and watch the birds and squirrels scamper and hop around while eating.  I've even been known to ask for bird/squirrel feeders for a present.  So, the last few weeks I've been tossing out some bird seed for the little birds and the squirrels.  They come every morning and gather outside the office window and eat breakfast until it is time to fly somewhere else for the rest of the day.

Chris saw OC trying to catch one of my little bird friends this morning.  ~sigh~  I didn't think that feeding the birds would lead to OC trying her paw at catching them.  I can't remember ever seeing her with a bird...she catches mice and moles; I can only hope the birds and the squirrels are to fast for her.

~sigh~