Sigh.. stray cat finding

OK, this morning I found this adorable black kitty outside of my mom's house. She is really friendly, and ran right up the porch steps to me, and I grabbed her and put her in the hallway. Seems, according to Mom, that some people across the street moved last month and left the cats at the house. Who even knows what they have been surviving on? This little girl is really, really thin.
I had to put her out in the garage because my mom has two dogs who are pretty wild around cats. I gave her some food, water, and a little litter box to see if she even knows how to use one. You shoulda seen her go for that food; she must have been freaking famished.
I plan on taking her home tonight when the boyfriend gets outta work, but my cat at home HATES other cats, so we may have a problem. But I can't bear to let her out again and let her try to live out there; it has been getting COLD at night, with worse weather coming. And the SPCA's around here are full, including their foster homes, so they are euthanizing any new arrivals.
I have a friend who is looking for a cat though, and her ahd her husband may be interested in taking her.
Please wish me luck! I am still in a rage after finding out that these white trash idiots moved and left not one, but three cats to fend for themselves. The other two vanished, but this little kitty needs help.

I definitely wish you luck. The last house I lived in came with a cat that had been left behind by the previous occupants nearly a year before (and of course she was pregnant to boot). People can be such jerks. I hope the little kitty is healthy despite her abandonment and that your friends will decide to take her.

She is sleeping right now; I spied through the door. I think she was just starving hungry. You should see how thin the poor thing is! But she is really active and friendly. I don't want to upset her stomach so I am waiting a few hours before feeding her again. I really hope she uses the litterbox.
Seems that these people moved out.. get this.. over a month ago. So the three cats have been living off of god-knows-what for that month. Probably other people's garbage or something.
Our friends are lookin for a cat though; they have a huge mouse problem at their house, and were thinking of adopting one, so this could be the perfect fit. :)

I have a question Marla. You have multiple cats I see. How hard is it to introduce a new cat to an established one? Our cat is pretty nasty to other animals (like when our friends bring their dogs over) and he is pretty "aloof and territorial". If it comes down to it though, I will try introducing the two cats, but I don't know exactly what's the best way. Our cat is a neutered male, and this is a female.

poor kitty! i just hate how people can be sometimes. i'm glad you found her. hopefully your friends will take her in. a friend of mine has rescued a bunch of strays--she has 8 of them right now. the best thing she has found is to put the new kitty in a room by itself for about a week to let it adjust. the other cats can come up and smell it under the door and they get used to eachothers scents that way. after a week she opens the door and supervises while either the new cat ventures out or some of the established cats venture in. many times there is a bit of hissing and whatnot, and sometimes the new kitty needs a few more days in the separate room with small supervised amounts of time together with the other cats until they are all adjusted and comfortable with eachother. so far that method has been successful in introducing each of the new cats into the family. i hope it works out for your little kitty. keep us updated!

Quote:

---

You should see how thin the poor thing is!

---

Quote:

---

Our friends are lookin for a cat though; they have a huge mouse problem at their house, and were thinking of adopting one, so this could be the perfect fit.

---

Not to hurt the cat's chances of getting a new home, but this kitty dosent seem like it's a mouser if she is this skinny. Dosent sound like she is very good at fending for herself when it comes to finding food. I hope you can find her a good home.

Quote:

---

How hard is it to introduce a new cat to an established one?

---

I dont know how everyone else does it, but here at the Phillips Phunny Pharm we just bring the new critter home and let them do the introducing themselves. Seriously.....we just add the new critter (not face to face) and just let them explore and eventually they will bump into each other. At times the established cat may not like the new addition and will show his/her dislike but that is all. Never had no blood curling fights, just a swat and a growl here and there. After time they either learn to get along, or they learn to stay away from each other. Have two females right now that hate each other, but they allways keep their distance from each other.

Quote:

---

I really hope she uses the litterbox.

---

I hope she does also. I allways thought that a litter box was second nature to all cats. Not so...there is allways the exception. I had one very loving enjoyable cat that I wanted to keep inside, but she would never use the litter box. So...now she has to use the huge outside litter box....the yard.

I have 5 cats, and we found one near a McDonalds and he was soo skinny, but we took him home and fed him a LOT, and now he's pretty chubby. It's a good thing my mom can't help seeing a homeless cat.. but there was some problems with the other cats, but there have always been problems with them. When we got one of our cats, not this one but one before it, the big buy started peeing on everything.. Marking his territory I guess, and it smells SO bad, but he doesn't do that anymore and they all more or less get along.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ginevive

I have a question Marla. You have multiple cats I see. How hard is it to introduce a new cat to an established one? Our cat is pretty nasty to other animals (like when our friends bring their dogs over) and he is pretty "aloof and territorial". If it comes down to it though, I will try introducing the two cats, but I don't know exactly what's the best way. Our cat is a neutered male, and this is a female.

---

I've pretty much always had cats, and there is definitely a period of adjustment when introducing cats to one another. Most of the time, if they aren't both males over a few months old, they'll be fine together after a week or two, and sometimes the males will be fine too. Jezebel wouldn't be on the same side of the house with PCBH when we first brought her home, but just the other day I had one cat resting on each leg and they were just fine.

I've always done like Carl said, and just let them introduce themselves, but if there's a big size difference or one seems particularly aggressive, I'd separate them when no one would be home to prevent serious injuries.

Good news! Our friend and his wife have decided to take the cat. They have wanted a cat for some time now (and oddly enough, they were looking for a black one.) They have a dog (fat black labrador) but she gets along great with cats, and this kitty does not appear to be afraid of my mom's dogs at all. And they treat their dog really well (as evidenced by her healthiness and fatness, hehe) so I know they'll give her a good home. And we visit them often, they're good people.
Thing is, they live in a really wooded area and this kitty comes from the "mean streets" (well, if you could call Buffalo a mean city, lol.) But she'll be kept in their house, so it really does not matter.
I geuss she is really not That skinny, but she is definately not what I consider to be optimal weight. Incidentally, I am about to go out and feed her again.
:D

EDIT: Yay, she went in the litter box! My day has been made. :)

Thats great Gin! We found a stray on our street a while ago. I would've kept it if it wasn't for the fact that cats fly at my house. I'm not a big cat fan per-se, but that one was more like a dog than a cat. We found a home for it with some one from the place where we board our horses.

Glad to hear she has a nice new home. It's funny how those things work out sometimes -- when we got PCBH, I was thinking of getting a kitten, but only if it was a grey female with a small mother, and sure enough, that is exactly what was offered to me. :)

Great news Gin! I'm glad that the poor kitty will be taken good care of :D

I am happy about this outcome too. If for some reason her being at her new home does not work out, I'll make every effort to get Inky (my bratty cat) to accept her at our place.
I would love to take in all the strays I see, but then my house would look like something from Animal Precinct! (just kidding.) But most strays will run from you; this little lady ran to me! So even if her old owners were jerks for leaving her, at least she is used to people and not too scared. not to mention litter trained!

This is apparently an older thread that I somehow missed. I'm glad you got the kitty a new home. I acutally got Nebula from the animal shelter. She is exceptionally friendly, and is doing quite well now. If she hadn't been adopted, she would have died. I got her in janurary, and she picked up a respiratory infection in animal services. She's fine now, it just took a couple weeks of giving the cat antibotics..(which mean forcing a pill on her, but it wasn't that hard). She's a great people person cat, and she's never hissed or bit me (on purporse..I let her play bite, but that's my decision). I hope they got the cat to a vet and had her checked out okay.

I've never had a stray cat that didn't use the litter box. I've had a stray cat who used the litter box and the potted plants though. We eventually trained him to stop using the potted plants as a batheroom (this were really big pots, so he'd bury it in the soil).

I should call my dad and see if they managed to place the kitten that was living across the street. the kids across the street are monsters and would only abuse the animal.plus they have like 3 kittens, not spayed or nuetred, running free). I'd take the kitten, but I'm only allowed one cat.

People can be really stupid when it comes to pets. The best field dog my mom ever had was one they "stole". The people lived next to friend of my stepdad's. They went on vacation (or just left..there were gone for more than a week, I think), left the dog tied up in 90+ degree summer heat, with no water, and no food. He was covered in ticks. The friend called us and my stepdad took the dog the next day. This dog would even stay with the horses when my mom and stepdad went trail riding.

Quote:

---

I would love to take in all the strays I see, but then my house would look like something from Animal Precinct!

---

I know what you mean, but as I type this I may be adding a new cat to the phillips phunny pharm. My daughter is on her way to the vet at this very moment taking a stray black kitten that we found the other day. I tried my best to ignore the little fur ball with eyes matted completely shut and liquid coming out of his nose but my youngest daughter pulled one over on me and snuck it into the back porch last night knowing that I would get up in the morning and see him and decide to do something more than just ignore it. She knows that I am partial to all black male cat's, and sure enough....all black and male. I sent strict instructions for the vet that if the kitten was to sick to save (50/50 chance or less) he was to euthinize it. I dont like it but I cant afford to spend a lot of money on an animal that has a good chance of not pulling through. But if the vet feel's that there is a good chance of him pulling through with medications, then it look's like I have another mouth to feed. There are very few shelters/rescues around here and the ones that are available have no room. So....didnt mean to bum anyone out if this did. Just thought I would let you all know and ask you to send some good kitty vibes this way.

Well...just got a call from the Vet herself. She wanted to let me know that she felt that the kitten has a very good chance of pulling through with medications. She also suggested, which I agreed, that wormming and de-fleaing was needed to help the kitten pull through. So it looks like I have a new cat.
Now I need to figure out a way to keep these strays from showing up at my house....Hmmmm.....get rid of youngest daughter...Well....cant do that so it looks like im stuck being an animal lover. Maybe I ought to just start a cat and dog rescue.

Awww Carl here they are ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good luck to da kitty!

Hey Ironhead, how's that new kitty doing?

Gilligan is doing very well if I say so myself, he still has a strange wheezing sound early in the mornings that go away after he has been awake for a while. He is almost done with his meds. Had trouble getting him to eat anything solid the first 4 days or so and would only take liquids via a medicine syringe while being held. 4 days ago he started eating canned cat food with assistance while being held but am proud to announce that as of yesterday he started eating un-assisted. Still have yet to see him drink on his own and still have to assist with liquids. He is still pretty scrawny, feels like a furry skeleton, but has deffinetly put on some weight. Will be borrowing my Dads camera here in a few days and I will get some pics of him on.

Thanks for asking.

Good to hear she is doing well Ironhead!

Thank's Carson.

I forgot to mention how joyful it is to get woke up early in the morning to a hungry kitten that just wont quit meowing. lol Good thing is once he gets done feeding he is asleep and quiet for the next 3 or 4 hours until he is hungry again.

Just like having a baby in the house! Be glad meowing is all he's doing though. In the last three weeks, between 5 and 6 AM, my kitten has bitten my nostril, slashed my palm, bitten my lip, and bitten right under my eye. I guess she's bored with everyone asleep, but sheesh!

Quote:

---

my kitten has bitten my nostril, slashed my palm, bitten my lip, and bitten right under my eye.

---

Ninja Kitty!

This kitten has attempted to latch onto my nose and lip a few times while being held close to the face but have been able to escape the onslaught thus far. lol Now my right hand is a different story. Since Gilliagan was having to be hand fed at first I would lay him on his back with his entire body in the palm of my left hand. He would start slashing at my right hand and wrist immediately, knowing that food was on it's way.

Yep, yep. My right hand is definitely my most frequently wounded body part, I guess because I'm right-handed. If I'm awake, at least I can defend myself (or pass her to a kid ;) ), but no fair with the sleep attacks!

Another reason that monkeys make better pets! ;) :D

Quote:

---

Another reason that monkeys make better pets

---

Oh no......Monkeys like to fling doo, well at least the spider monkey we babysat many many moons ago did. I would rather be slashed and gashed then flung with dung. lol

Quote:

---

I would rather be slashed and gashed then flung with dung.

---

Great slogan for Carl's House o' Critters! ;)

Hello....you have reached Carl's House o' Critters.....

Thank you Marla. Now I know the next message going on my answering machine.

"Carl's House o' Critters, where we'd rather be slashed and gashed than flung with dung!" Hee hee. I once had an answering machine message along the lines of "You have reached Marla's Home for Wayward Women and Delinquent Dogs," when I kept ending up with more friends and critters to take in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marla

Quote:

---

I would rather be slashed and gashed then flung with dung.

---

Great slogan for Carl's House o' Critters! ;)

---

Carl's House o' Critters! Now that sounds like a good title ;)

Congrats on the kitty, Iron. I am really glad to hear that she should pull though.

I have great news about the stray who I started this topic about. The couple I am friends with have really fallen in love with her. They got her taken to the vet and she is healthy as anything could be. Her belly was kind of swollen when we found her, but we think it was either dur to starvation and malnourishment or possibly even worms, which she has been treated for.
It is such an AWESOME feeling to know that you saved a life, isn't it? :)

Gin....sorry I hijacked your thread. Im so glad that your friends fell in love with the kitten and that it is doing well. It is an awesome feeling knowing that you have saved a life.

Here is a pic of the one that I rescued from sure death 2 weeks after finding him. He is doing pretty good, still cant quite get rid of his wheezing. Pardon the foot in the picture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...r/51fb20ae.jpg

aaaaw, he's just a tiny little fuzzball! i love them with they have kitten fuzz. what a cutie! :aww:

FOOT :shock:

He is pretty cute Ironhead.

According to my vet, sometimes a URI with a cat can be really pesky to get rid of. He's cute. Hopefully he wil "grow out" of the wheezing after a while. I missed most of the adorable kitten stage with my cat, but she's still a manic fuzzball.

What a cute little kitty, Iron. Don't worry about taking over the thread; it's all about the same thing.
Black kitties are the best. :)