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If it’s not one cat, it’s another

jack

Jack didn’t come home last night. This is a big deal because, tomcat though he is, he never disappears for more than a couple of hours.

Mr and Mrs Numpty here were out at Stupid O’ Clock in the morning with flashlights yelling “heeeeeere kittykittykitty” into the hedges and under cars. I went to work feeling like death warmed over. We’ve had to call the neighbors to apologize today, in case anyone caught the performance.

He turned up this morning unsteady on his feet, with junk in his fur and a limp. We reckon he fell out of a tree or something. He’s slept all day. No blood on him and nothing seems broken, but he is definitely dazed and shocky. We’re going to watch him for twenty four hours before we decide on the vet.

I am Tired. And I would Like A Drink Now. Have a good weekend, everyone, and look out for your assorted fuzzbutts and furbags!

Comments


Comment from Gromulin
Time: February 3, 2017, 9:54 pm

“He turned up this morning unsteady on his feet, with junk in his fur and a limp.” Sounds like the last time I went to Vegas.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: February 3, 2017, 10:13 pm

When I thought my dog had been hit by a car, the vet said to press on her gums and see if they blanch and then quickly pink up. If they dont, it is a sign of internal bleeding.

Do they make kitty gps collars? Next dog I get is going to be chipped, lojacked, have a gps collar and a go pro. I want to know what they are doing 24/7 mostly because I’m curious. 🙂


Comment from Crabby Old Bat
Time: February 3, 2017, 10:38 pm

Oooh, I know the feeling. We adopted a street cat who had survived in a neighborhood loaded with coyotes and feral dogs – he knew how to look out for himself. He had fairly regular routines and schedules, however, and when he was late by more than an hour or two, panic and dread would fill my soul until he dragged his butt home. One thing did help – we “clicker” trained him with tuna rewards, and clicking around the neighborhood at 3 a.m. seemed less awful than bellowing his name. (Usually brought him home, too, although if not, the dread ratcheted up to painful levels.)


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: February 3, 2017, 11:23 pm

Well, remember all places are alike to a cat


Comment from Niña
Time: February 4, 2017, 1:23 am

I’ve had a couple of cats who would disappear for longer and longer intervals until they stopped coming home altogether. I hate that.

Hopefully Jack will be better in the morning!


Comment from gromulin
Time: February 4, 2017, 2:34 am

Honestly, and sorry if this sounds heartless (I swear I have one, it’s just desiccated and shriveled with age) but the tendency of outdoor cats that I grew up with to ‘go silently into that sweet night’, is a feature, not a bug. When their time comes, they just tended to go find a quiet place and expire. I grew up in a suburban house with cats, dogs, hamsters, ducks, doves, rabbits, red-racers, salamanders…you get the idea. Mom was an animal person, I recall nursing a gopher back to health and releasing it in the schoolyard across the street. I swear there is a cat network. As soon as one stray would fail to return after a few days the word seemed to get out to the others – ” Vacancy at Barb’s house! First to meow at the screen door gets a sweet gig!” Much less traumatizing to a kid than that last one way trip to the vet.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: February 4, 2017, 3:17 am

Stoaty & Uncle B: Heard there is a vegetable shortage. Shall we ship you some lettuce? Broccoli? Eggplant?


Comment from Niña
Time: February 4, 2017, 4:31 am

Grom, we have a stray who hangs around our place. I don’t mind in the hopes that any outdoor vermin get gobbled up. We do provide her with a warm box and some food, because I have a soft heart.


Comment from catnip
Time: February 4, 2017, 4:59 am

Jack may have read your previous post regarding nagging concerns for Charlotte’s health, and decided on a way to direct your attentions to hisself. If he’s played his cards right, he’ll feel perkier tomorrow, the high cost of Charlotte’s veterinary services providing a disincentive to your hauling away another marginally symptomatic purrson so soon to the vet clinic.


Comment from dissent555
Time: February 4, 2017, 5:25 am

Weasels and Badgers and Jackie, oh my!

Recuperative rest for everyone, y’hear!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 4, 2017, 11:43 am

I don’t know if you’ve been around here long enough to remember, grom, but I had a two-year-old cat disappear in Rhode Island before I moved over. I went a little nuts for a while and took the blog with me. He never came back.

Yeah, I can see having an old cat wander off to die being better than the grim alternative, but it ain’t natural in a young ‘un.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 4, 2017, 11:44 am

OH, and Shithead the Cat seems much improved this morning.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: February 4, 2017, 12:43 pm

Yes, Ric Fan, the newspapers are full of ‘lettuce panic buying’ stories.

Hurrah! Says I. Expensive way to buy water, in any case. Foul stuff. Let ’em rot!


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: February 4, 2017, 2:52 pm

Cats – I once thought I wouldn’t care because I’m mostly lergic to the little dears. Visit a house with cats and I’m the first one they all zero in on for pats.

Then November 3 years gone a little moggy she-lion took up residence in our boxwoods, and what with all the dreadful 50 degree winter nights here in Texas was in the garage by Christmas, and into the house a week after New Year.

Having kitty HIV the vet asked that we not allow her to mix it up with other cats, so she’s housebound now. But that doesn’t mean the little minx doesn’t slip away now and again. It’s a game of cat and yankee to see if she can slip past me on the screenporch and out the door.

and take one guess who goes out looking for her and calling kitty when she goes on these adventures. It ain’t Mrs Durnedyankee.

Glad Madjack is back, and hope he’s okay. I hates it when stuff happens to animules.


Comment from gromulin
Time: February 4, 2017, 8:24 pm

Yep, Stoaty. I’ve been lurking around here since those days and before. Hate it when a young one goes missing, but just got used to the older ones just not coming back one day. There were always 3 or 4 in the house, along with the rest of the menagerie. Where we live now, the coyotes are probably the biggest reason for “missing cat” posters, but we haven’t had a cat since we moved here in 2013.


Comment from catnip
Time: February 4, 2017, 10:04 pm

Excellent! All’s well, then.

After resting up from his overnight adventure, Jack will be better prepared for the next one. Even though they can’t fully participate, neutered males keenly enjoy the fellowship offered by the Vernal Cat Convocation, scheduled to take place between late March and mid-April, exact date dependent on weather conditions.


Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: February 5, 2017, 12:08 am

If you need some downtime, try Egg Inc. It’s kind of silly, but fun.


Comment from Smootch
Time: February 5, 2017, 3:42 am

Man am I glad I’m a dog dude. Neighbors go thru the same here kitty routine every other day. Sorry for your kittyscare


Comment from Bob B
Time: February 5, 2017, 5:34 am

I have dogs. At the time this happened, I had a pair of big huskies that I kept in the back yard. One day I noticed they were camped out underneath the olive tree in the back corner. They ignored their food and worshipped the tree. I thought maybe there was squirrel and it would eventually make it over to the wires. The afternoon of the second day, I went out to look. It took a while, but I finally spotted a white kitten with a red collar hiding in a crook way the hell up there.
Thinking to do a good deed, I dragged the dogs away to the kennel and got a ladder. And climbed the tree as high as I could. I could barely reach the kitten and it didn’t want to come down but it couldn’t go any higher. Finally I got a grip on it and it clung to my hand with its claws. Not fun. I climbed down the tree and pried it off and it jumped and ran to the neighbor’s yard. No gratitude at all. And the dogs wouldn’t speak to me for several days. So much for good deeds. I console myself that perhaps the owner was relieved to have kitty back.


Comment from OldFert
Time: February 5, 2017, 5:12 pm

Bob B — I read somewhere that there’s no need to rescue a kitty from a tree. As the comment went, when’s the last time you saw a cat skeleton up a tree?


Comment from Steve Skubinna
Time: February 5, 2017, 8:06 pm

I have to wonder why the Brits, animal lovers that they are, never nationalized veterinary services the way they did with medical ca-

Oh wait. I already answered the question. They’re animal lovers.


Comment from Bob B
Time: February 5, 2017, 8:35 pm

Old Fert– I rescued the kitty from the dogs. If kitty came down the tree on her own, the dogs would have killed her.


Comment from Pupster
Time: February 5, 2017, 9:29 pm

I’m glad Jack is back, good kitty.


Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: February 6, 2017, 3:28 pm

My two furry thugs are strictly indoor cats. The older, age 9, a white-and-black Siberian male, prefers it that way. He peers out the door and the windows, but he’d have to really nerve himself up to go out.

Wolf, the huge black longhair (age 7.5), would love to go out and kill some squirrels — but I suspect he really doesn’t want to leave either. A few times in the last 6 years he’s slid out the door. I call him, and he comes back. One evening he got out when workmen were in my place. I went out and called him, and he ran to me, squeaking happily. (Probably helped that it was just before dinner.)

He also spent some time outdoors after his previous people abandoned him when they were evicted. So he may remember it ain’t that much fun out there. He likes his comfortable life and regular meals.


Comment from I LIKES CATS
Time: February 7, 2017, 10:03 pm

Cats
I’t what’s for dinne’r

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