When my kids were home we had, at one point, 1 dog, 2 cats, 2 parakeets, 1 dove, a cherry-headed conure, a dozen goldfish and 4 adult and 19 baby bunnies. The cats, the dog and the birds left their residue throughout the house. Everyone who came to our house left with fur on their black pants, and sometimes a feather on their shoulder.
Over time, the kids moved out, the pets passed on, the bunnies were sold to nice families, and I became pet-free! I discovered it was kind of nice to not have to turn on the light in the hall to be able to navigate over the possible messes on the way to the kitchen in the middle of the night. I could walk into my home without sniffing to check if one of the cats had peed in the heater vent. Friends didn't mention it, but I know they probably appreciated it when they left our house sans fur on their clothes.
Nevertheless, I miss sitting with a kitty on my lap, stroking it's head, or having my darling collie, Lillian, look at me soulfully with her head on my knee. When I'm out and about lately, I am drawn to most animals that I come across.and love to pet them. It's my pet fix, I say, and the dog's owners never mind, in fact they love it! They love sharing their joy!
This wasn't exactly on topic, was it? ....the situation I have now, is no indoor pets. A few years ago, my husband and I decided not to adopt any more pets, since we like to travel. So.....one of the neighborhood feral cats started to come around and we began buying food for it, but didn't let it come in. Actually, one time it sauntered in the door, and when it realized it was inside, it ran around the living room frantically, via the mantel and the drapes. We figured she wasn't a candidate for domestication. A few months later, I discovered a couple of kittens coming from a tiny opening in the side of the garage. She had had a whole litter of kittens in our garage, and we never even knew it! (Well, we hadn't used the garage for much more than storage for a couple of months).
That was the day that we decided we should try to get the mama cat fixed. (Later the kitties were found homes.)
We went on the web and found out how to capture a cat in a "have-a-heart" trap. We bought one, (a huge version of the one for mice), read the instructions and followed them to the letter just to see how it worked. Then we went inside the house. We weren't actually ready to to capture a cat that night, since we were about to leave for the weekend. It suddenly dawned on us that we shouldn't have left the trap set. Looking out the window, we saw the gray and white mama cat sitting in our trap!
It was 4 p.m. on a Friday and we tried calling all the cat rescue places we had gotten advice from, but all of them had rules like "capture the cat on the 3rd Saturday of the month and bring it in for the lottery at 7 a.m. to see if we have time to spay it."
Meanwhile, the cat was howling, backed into the corner of the cage, her fearful eyes accented by the white peak of fur between them.
Finally a vet's office in San Pablo said they were about to close, but they would spay her for $75. if we could bring her now and leave her overnight. They agreed to keep her till Monday when we came home from camping.
After being out of cell phone range for the weekend, we turned on our phone and listened to messages. The vet's office had called several times to tell us that the cat had already been fixed, which they could tell by it's notched ear, and it was a male! We had absconded with someone's cat for the weekend, and almost had it undergo surgery! As we sheepishly appologized to them, they thought it was funny, and didn't even charge us for the room and board.
Darned if that cat didn't look like our mama cat! Well maybe the white peak wasn't quite as big as hers...
When we brought the cage up to the yard and opened it, I never saw a cat run so fast. Mama cat, however, looked up at us from next to her empty bowl and meowed.
Over time, the kids moved out, the pets passed on, the bunnies were sold to nice families, and I became pet-free! I discovered it was kind of nice to not have to turn on the light in the hall to be able to navigate over the possible messes on the way to the kitchen in the middle of the night. I could walk into my home without sniffing to check if one of the cats had peed in the heater vent. Friends didn't mention it, but I know they probably appreciated it when they left our house sans fur on their clothes.
Nevertheless, I miss sitting with a kitty on my lap, stroking it's head, or having my darling collie, Lillian, look at me soulfully with her head on my knee. When I'm out and about lately, I am drawn to most animals that I come across.and love to pet them. It's my pet fix, I say, and the dog's owners never mind, in fact they love it! They love sharing their joy!
This wasn't exactly on topic, was it? ....the situation I have now, is no indoor pets. A few years ago, my husband and I decided not to adopt any more pets, since we like to travel. So.....one of the neighborhood feral cats started to come around and we began buying food for it, but didn't let it come in. Actually, one time it sauntered in the door, and when it realized it was inside, it ran around the living room frantically, via the mantel and the drapes. We figured she wasn't a candidate for domestication. A few months later, I discovered a couple of kittens coming from a tiny opening in the side of the garage. She had had a whole litter of kittens in our garage, and we never even knew it! (Well, we hadn't used the garage for much more than storage for a couple of months).
That was the day that we decided we should try to get the mama cat fixed. (Later the kitties were found homes.)
We went on the web and found out how to capture a cat in a "have-a-heart" trap. We bought one, (a huge version of the one for mice), read the instructions and followed them to the letter just to see how it worked. Then we went inside the house. We weren't actually ready to to capture a cat that night, since we were about to leave for the weekend. It suddenly dawned on us that we shouldn't have left the trap set. Looking out the window, we saw the gray and white mama cat sitting in our trap!
It was 4 p.m. on a Friday and we tried calling all the cat rescue places we had gotten advice from, but all of them had rules like "capture the cat on the 3rd Saturday of the month and bring it in for the lottery at 7 a.m. to see if we have time to spay it."
Meanwhile, the cat was howling, backed into the corner of the cage, her fearful eyes accented by the white peak of fur between them.
Finally a vet's office in San Pablo said they were about to close, but they would spay her for $75. if we could bring her now and leave her overnight. They agreed to keep her till Monday when we came home from camping.
After being out of cell phone range for the weekend, we turned on our phone and listened to messages. The vet's office had called several times to tell us that the cat had already been fixed, which they could tell by it's notched ear, and it was a male! We had absconded with someone's cat for the weekend, and almost had it undergo surgery! As we sheepishly appologized to them, they thought it was funny, and didn't even charge us for the room and board.
Darned if that cat didn't look like our mama cat! Well maybe the white peak wasn't quite as big as hers...
When we brought the cage up to the yard and opened it, I never saw a cat run so fast. Mama cat, however, looked up at us from next to her empty bowl and meowed.
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