Pet related mini-drama... put your animal stories here.

Discussion in 'BOARDANIA' started by Hsing, Sep 17, 2009.

  1. Hsing Moderator

    So, I'd been a candidate for several dogs to walk. We can't have one in our flat, and I'd been in contact with animal welfare and visited the shelter two times, also accompanied their main dog person when walking a few dogs. Unfortunately a small war broke out between our -city owned- shelter and the animal welfare society, and it was the animal welfare society which managed the dogs being walked by volunteers.
    It's all a bit complicated. Silly, actually. But it means right now, no dogs are being walked, for bureaucratic reason. I understand that there are insurance questions to be taken care of, especially when there are dogs the guy from animal welfare introduces to me like this: "Watch out, he doesn't mean bad, but if he gets hold of your arm we're not going to get him off you again." There was a certain, "You have to be really tough to walk our dogs. Are you man enough?" - mentality... So, no dog walking right now. :(


    Then there's the cats. Ours had gone missing for a week. It turns out the poor thing wasn't "cheating", it had been locked up in a repair shop that had been closed temporarily.
    We heard her howl after we'd been looking for her for an entire week, when my daughter walked down the street with me calling for her randomly, out of sheer despair. I'd walked up and down that street at all times of the day myself - nothing. But there was a cat howling, loud enough to be heard over the traffic - not loud enough so we could locate her, though. We returned later in the night, my husband, my daughter, me, and our neighbour, with lamps and two ladders.
    (Another neighbour met us and must have thought that we're either the A Team or crazy.) The rest went smoothly: my daughter called the cat again, the cat answered with howls of hungry, hoarse despair, and I climbed into the huge yard of an auto repair shop that was owned by a neighbour, hoping he doesn't keep Dobermans around. I quickly found the cat locked up in a garage, she'd gotten so skinny she would have been able to just fit under the gate a few days later and was sticking out her paw through a small gap, trying to reach me. A few hours later, in the middle of the night, a very nice and sympathetic garage owner who wasn't disturbed at all that I had trespassed onto his estate full of expensive oldtimers not only locked up the garage for me way past midnight, but also gave useful tips on how to treat a dehydrated cat! I carried her home and we've been happy ever since.

    On to my last cat anecdote: When looking for the cat and being insomniac anyways, I strolled the streets of our quarter at all times of the night between 22.00 and four o'clock in the morning. I met a lot of cats, and learnt some interesting tidbits about their habits. In particular, I met one very small cat that was the doppelganger of ours at night, but had a different colour in the light. I recognized her from one of the search ads from the shelter and knew the adress of her owner, who had lost her in June. I gave her some bits of cat food -she was too shy to just be picked up and carried home - and informed him I'd seen her. He lives right across the street from us. One evening I lured her off the yard of another repair shop and sat there, feeding her tuna, when her owner came along and identified her and seemed very glad to see her, but decided not to try to catch her right now. The thing is, he now knows she's still around, she's relatively well after three months, but not quite his tame little kitten anymore, and she's loosing a bit of weight every week. I still meet her; she lets me stroke her, but not pick her up.
    And then, one time, I lured her right in front of his door with a can of tuna where she then sat and ate; I ringed the bell and informed him that she was there and he just said that he had a visitor right now and would maybe check later wether she was still around. That was a week ago, she's still outside and getting skinny, despite me feeding her every time we meet.

    Result: I am thinking of catnapping for the first time in my life, because he doesn't take care. She's not even vaccinated or neutered, it's getting cold, and he can't even be bothered to just come down the stairs and lure her in. She likes to be stroked after a few warming up minutes, and would be well off with a family with some cat experience. What do I do now?
  2. Hsing Moderator

    Just to illustrate:

    [IMG]

    And now, for comparision:

    [IMG]
  3. jaccairn New Member

    It might be a time for bluntness Hsing. Calmly ask him if he's not interested in the cat anymore and if not you'll try to find a new home for it.
  4. randywine Member

    As a dog owner the "How happy my dog is to see me" graph is so, so true :).
  5. spiky Bar Wench

    Take the cat. Tell the guy you've taken the cat and if he actually wants it back he knows where it is.

    My pet story...

    In one memorable visit to the dog park Jackson pissed on the head of a grey Staphy called Neddy. Neddy's owner had to pick him up and stick him bodily under a running tap to deal with the mess. What do you say to people who your dog has just pissed on their dog (in mitigating circumstancing their dog does have an unholy fascination with humping Jackson)

    On the same day Jackson was T-barred by another dog into a park bench after which he was a bit sore and became the most affectionate dog in the world.
  6. Hsing Moderator

    The neighbour's cat isn't tame enough yet to be taken in after three months outside - and after falling out of a third floor window back in June in the first place. But she comes 2 out of three times I call to give her some food.
    So, as soon as she lets me pick her up or follows me home I will probably do one of the things you suggested.

    Spiky, I don't know what dog etiquette there is, really, but maybe apologizing to the dog owner for having to give the dog a shower? Sure, his dog was a stalker, but that hopefully didn't cause any damage. I guess you're always required to apologize for what your pets did... I don't even want to know what our cat did during her week in that repair shop, where she still likes to visit even after her stressful imprisonment, but I'll go back and offer a thanks and a cactus anyways. (Cactus because it seems that particular repair shop is the neighbourhood cats' in bar currently, and cacti are the most likely to survive a cat, and apparently it closes down for a few days occasionally, and you can leave most cacti alone for a week.)
  7. Hsing Moderator

    Update: The cat loves us now, comes running hightailedly when I call her and is as cute as a button.

    We can't take her in though because we found out she's hiding three kittens somewhere under a pile of wood and trash in the yard of a stovebuilder in the neighbourhood.

    Maybe she'll introduce her family and we can take them in. I am pretty sure by now her former owner won't turn up. Then we'll look for a new home. It should be easy with the mama cat, she's small, remembers how to use the toilet, is small and cute and extremely cuddly and child friendly.

    The yard owner also has my phone number in case he needs to remove their home pile, so I hope he doesn't go the traditional way to get rid of his blind passengers.
  8. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    I'm surprised you haven't posted any pictures of your new found friend yet, Hsing You said it yourself, everyone loves a cute cat photograph.
    Hope you manage to find the kittens and a good home for them.
  9. Hsing Moderator

    Okay - you provoked it.

    Here she is:

    [IMG]

    She looks a bit strange in this one. She's small with a very round head, which makes her look cuter in real life, sort of.
  10. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    What a little beauty she is. I love that deep mahogany colour with the black.

    It's easy to forget that underneath all cats are a malevolent bundle of evil wrapped in fur. (Granny Weatherwax?)

    How do you do it, Hsing? Every single photograph you post is captured in bright sunlight. If you're bottling the stuff up and saving it for dull days I sure could do with a few litres. :)
    We've had rain for so long our two cats are developing orange-brown streaks in their otherwise grey fur. I think it might be rust :D
  11. spiky Bar Wench

    She is a cutey. As to the sun its supposed to be spring here but winter has made a return trip with rain, hail, sleet, wind and a balmy 3C... summer better show her face otherwise I'm going to have to go to the underworld to slap her out of her stupor...

    In other pet related news I'm minding my sisters 2 dogs, another lab and maltese cross thingy. making for a crowded house of 3 dogs and 2 adults, which would be fine if we had a decent sized back yard and better weather. Cos its semester break I get to work from home so the 3 of them are sharing 2 beds inside but I wouldn't want to do this all the time.
  12. Hsing Moderator

    Sounds like you're building up a pack of your own, Spiky! Your house is probably the one with the least likelihood of being broken into in your neighbourhood.

    Joculator, I just tend to go outside (with the kid) as soon as the sun comes out, and we do live in a part of Germany that's known (to "insiders") for either having very good weather or proper rain, but not so much of the grey mishmash inbetween most other German landscapers know so well.

    We located mama cat on the same area where our own cat up locked herself up at a few weeks ago. That is, on the huge yard belonging to the repair shop where our little black one was locked up in a garage. I'm glad for it, because the owner is very animal friendly and will call us when the pile of wood the cat lives under has to be removed. She definitly has young ones, most likely under that very pile, too. She seems to have started out in a much less cat friendly environment -next door, at a different site, under a pile of rubble, where I was a bit afraid the owner might just get a bucket instead of me when they find the kittens- but now I'm pretty sure she'll be fine for the time being and until we can convince her to move inside.


    PS: We have an unneutered tomcat in the neighbourhood. I'm curious to see wether any of the kittens, or the kitten, is a red tabby - people! Neuter your cats! Early! In the case of tomcats, it's not even that much of an op! Gods. *sigh*
  13. randywine Member

    :shock:
    Yowch, though I totally agree, only a woman could write that line.*

    Randywine.

    *Please don't kill me.
  14. Hsing Moderator

    *lol*:lol:
    Well, you don't have to cut their bellies open, and they recover more quickly because of that.

    Which could lead to so many other related ouch-lines only a woman could write, like, "There are situations when it is convenient that male cats carry their reproduction organs outside." etc, but I shall stop there out of tact. :razz:
  15. spiky Bar Wench

    I do find it amazing that people don't cut the business bits off... I was watching "Its me or the dog" and there's all these guys who think its a personal reflection on them if they get there dog's bits done. One guy even went so far as to say he wouldn't want it done so I don't want it done to my dog...

    Know your own species! Men can keep their bits (although I know lots of men who's bits probably should have been removed for their own safety) dogs / cats can't.
  16. Hsing Moderator

    (Just to illustrate why, one of the kittens that wouldn't exist if the cats' owners had taken care was introduced to me today. There used to be three though from what I was told, which means that two of them died in the meantime and probably still lie there somewhere.)
  17. Hsing Moderator

    *sigh* Another (soon to be?) mom cat turned up. She just sat under our kitchen window and when I came out to check which cat was calling -in case it was ours- she just jumped into my arm as if she'd known me for years and missed me terribly.

    It's like in that short story from Neil Gaiman. I am starting to get a bit worried. I think the first one we helped out put a sign on our door.
  18. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    You could install some (scratching) poles and open an original 'Pink Pussycat Club' :lol:
  19. Hsing Moderator

    Oh, if they would pay, that would make a difference. Although the neighbours are already complaining about the paw prints all over their cars. Seriously, once our cat shot back into our kitchen, all drenched, after our neighbour just put on the windscreen wiper when she was walking over his front window even though he was already in the car.
  20. Hsing Moderator

    They're with us now... puh... the kitten is scared and the mom is tame and both are as cute as buttons. Name suggestions?
  21. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    A photograph may help stimulate the brain - please.
    Not worth calling a cat Sooty if it's almost white :D

    With the mother being so red maybe 'Carrot' (Karotte)
  22. Hsing Moderator

    The mother is Luzi - imagine something like "lou tsi".

    Only the child is as of yet nameless, and unfortunately camera shy. But it looks like a clone of her mother, tortoise shell, except for one leg with a ginger boot that looks like it belongs to a different kitten altogehter - it looks so funny! And chocolate brown eyes, something I rarely see in a kitten. It's a "she", by the way.
  23. Hsing Moderator

    Here she is (the kitten, that is. Don't be confused, she looks almost exactly like her mother.):
    [IMG]
  24. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    In that case, keeping the Pratchett theme how about Igor's pet named Scrapths (Scraps)
  25. Lyia New Member

    This isn't my story but I think it's worthy to post here I do have pet stories but I like this one better.. Its from the AARP Bulletin. Written by Sue McCresky.

    Three years ago my husband and I helped rescue two dozen malnourished and abandoned dogs. Many were young enough to recuperate, but one older male, a white huskey mix, was destined for euthanasia. “Champion” was filthy, sick with heart worm and kidney infections and at least 15 pounds underweight. He had lived his life bound to a tree by a six foot chain. Flies had eaten off the tips of his ears, he had lost a middle toe and his teeth were worn from chewing on his chain. He looked weary with life.

    We first thought that death would be a kindness, but I patted his head and he licked my hand, we had to try. So Champion spent spent a month undergoing rigorous treatment. The clinics staff praised his gentleness and affection.

    At home he took easily to walking on a leash. He slept in my bedroom on his own bed. When he moaned from bed dreams he responded to my pats and words of comfort. He loved riding in the car, his bright eyes staring at the sights as if making up for lost time. He became family.
    We later fostered a liter of pups that had to be bottle fed. Champ sniffed and licked the pups. He became a surrogate mother, abiding the pups as they crawled on him and chewed his tail.

    One day I saw Champ on his back, wiggling like a puppy. He grinned and murmured sounds of satisfaction rolled over and grabbed a toy. This big snow white dog was acting like he’d never known a day of mistreatment. He was reveling in life.
    Champ taugh me that youth lies in endurance, the appreciation of respite of family. He’ll spend the rest of his life in gratitude and I will try to do the same.
  26. spiky Bar Wench

    Not really a pet story but a continuation of the fun that my dad and brother-in-law have with whales... Yes it happened again...

    [youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HOrc0UehCPo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HOrc0UehCPo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]
  27. Hsing Moderator

    They really seem to attract them...
  28. spiky Bar Wench

    This happens to my brother-in-law all the time apparently, it just doesn't get recorded. We call him the whale whisperer. He should write books.
  29. Hsing Moderator

    Does he, somehow, work on a ship?
  30. spiky Bar Wench

    No he just takes his tinnie out fishing a lot. Maybe the boat has attractive power over whales...
  31. Hsing Moderator

    I bet it displays the ideal waist-hip-ratio of a female whale when looked at from underneath. :)

    Here's another look at the cats, which are now healthy and in top condision, vaccinated and, the grown up, castrated.

    And still looking for a home, especially the older one. If anybody knows a nice German household looking for a cat not as an ingredient, but as a charming house- or flatmate - let me know!

    YouTube - Die zwei Pflegekatzen
  32. Katcal I Aten't French !

    I'll say again what I said earlier on Twitter for a completely different reason: If there was a TV channel that just showed cats and kittens playing, 24:7, I would totally watch it. Thanks Hsing, that made me smile!
  33. randywine Member

    Me too also.

    Attack the tail. Lose interest. Attack the tail. Lose interest.

    :)

    R.
  34. HerFatalPinkness New Member

    Mr. Lebowski & The Neighbour Cats

    Mr. Lebowski & The Neighbour Cats

    Since I brought a cat home and called him Mr. Lebowski, I’ve been keeping track of his social life through my kitchen window (1st floor, during summertime always open) whenever I have a hangover or am bored.

    When he was about a half-year old, a new sweet red female kitten came to live across the street, and Lebowski went out to investigate. Soon they became great friends, even to the point that Aang (as I called the girlfriend) came up to the kitchen window and stood there mewing until Lebowski awoke from his slumber and they both went outside to play, hunt leaves and whatnot.

    Also in this time Lebowski became friends with a street tomcat I named Schooier (which is Dutch for bum). I learned later on that this was bad news for me, because now Lebowski was learning the arts of getting into locked houses and how to get food from everyone in the neighbourhood (seriously, he even has appointments with different neighbours, the student on the 2nd floor after dinner so he can lick the plates, and on Sunday afternoon he is downstairs with a lonely elderly woman to sleep in her lap while she gives him anything he wants, I only learned this after I got to meet these people while walking the cat, which is a whole different story).

    So, about a year later Aang was grown up, and turned into a lovely beautiful redhaired dream. Of course, Lebowski wasn’t interested in anything but playing, ‘cuz he’d been clipped by that time, actually he was a bit gay, which meant that he spend most time with Schooier running around.

    But then, I noticed a new cat! A black and white BIG tomcat, who was watching Schooier and Lebowski playing, and some days later Lebowski and Aang fighting leaves.
    Then, one evening I heard the familiar noise of catfight incl. Lebowski.
    So I walked outside to check if he wasn’t badly injured. As I called out to him I heard a really faint ‘mew’ from under a car, and there he was, all pathetic-feeling. When I walked up to the car, I saw the black and white tomcat (now called Hitler) running away after Aang while growling. So I took Lebowski inside to recover from his beating and a few hours later I went to do some shopping. Guess what! Hitler was being ‘lovely’ to Aang, while she didn’t want to (or was playing hard to get). So I sort of interrupted the affair, and went shopping, but Hitler didn’t take it nicely, ‘cuz he was at it again for the next 2 nights as well.

    After that Aang and Lewbowski took some time apart, but became friends again later and included a young black and white tomcat I called Young Hitler.
    But after some weeks, Aang had gotten fat. Turns out she was pregnant!
    Offspring that came from that horrible Hitler!
    So as you can guess, when the kittens came, (three of them, so só utterly cute!) Aang would not let Lebowski come close and the poor boy was totally flabbergasted about the little ones.

    Two of the offspring are now fully grown but Lebowski and Aang never got together again (not yet anyway). Schooier also disappeared, but now there are new neighbours moving in, and guess what: they bring two cats! It also seems that Lebowski is bullying another streettom I called Cyclops (he has only one eye) but further investigation is necessary...
  35. Hsing Moderator

    *lol*

    Great reading.

    (But still, I want to catnap people's cats and get them neutered sometimes. Cudos for clipping Lebowski. And, cool name for a cat.)
  36. HerFatalPinkness New Member

  37. Hsing Moderator

    Soooo.... and to finish the story off, the cats moved into their new home, together, a few days before Christmas! Unless things don't work out there, happy ending for two strays. (The little one is now almost her mom's size, and still loves to play with mom's tail. Only now, if momcat doesn't comply, the "little" one just sits on her mother and plays with her tail anyway.)

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