random cat: we haz one

[rivendellrose]

So! Today after class, ninjascript (aka The Boy) and I got a ZipCar and went out to Ikea for some shelving units to outfit the office and living room. We stopped off at Fry's, too, to get thumb-drives. After that, we pulled into our parking lot to pick up some boxes we'd promised to nekokoban for her upcoming move... when we saw a tiny, skinny grey cat dart out from under the truck next to the ZipCar spot. We stopped, kitty zipped back under the truck... and I began to panic. Our apartment building, particularly the side that part of the parking lot faces, is on a very busy city street, and this kitty had no collar and looked like he hadn't eaten in days, if not longer. I got out of the car to try to see if I could see him, and he walked toward me, cried, and then walked away... and then walked back, crying again. Definitely no collar, but definitely not feral, and we definitely couldn't leave him there.

We tried to tag-team him from opposite sides of the truck for a little bit, but even though he was friendly enough to let me pet his head, he wouldn't let me grab him or wrap my sweater around him or anything. After a little while ninjascript ran up to get some kitty treats and the carrier to see if we could entice him out... and while he was gone, kitty decided he was more interested in getting petted than he was in staying out of my reach. At first I was too scared to really send him running to take advantage of that, but after a little while I decided I'd have to take my chance, and grabbed him. Poor thing didn't give me more than a token scratching attempt, and as soon as I started petting him again was rubbing against me almost as much as he was trying to wriggle out of my hands, so I was able to hold him tight until The Boy got back with the carrier.

Click the thumbnails below for full-size.





So now we have a teenage-kitten-type-cat in a little carrier in our bathroom with little bowls of food and water. He's crying on and off, but he quiets down whenever I go sit with him for a while, so I think it's more that he's upset about the cage than anything else. So far, we think he's eaten a few of the treats but not the actual food. Unfortunately, we're at our cat limit for the apartment, so he's going to have to go to the shelter tomorrow. I'm relieved to know he'll be off the street, but I can already tell it's going to break my heart to hand him over to a shelter - he's a gorgeous little guy, still almost a kitten, and he's so desperate for love and attention.

I'll be good of course. Can't have an illegal kitty in the apartment, no matter how cute he is. I just really hope he finds a good home. He looks like a really great little guy.

Important Question, though: I've never had to keep a cat overnight if they weren't... you know, my cat. We've given him food and water, but I don't know how we're going to give him a litter box. I think we're going to want to keep him in the bathroom, so we'll need to be able to go in and out without letting him out (or our cats in), so to me that sounds like Kitty gets to stay in the carrier. But what can we possibly use to give him something to use the bathroom on in there?

Problem solved. I gave up on keeping him in the carrier and gave him a shallow cardboard box with litter in it... in which he immediately flopped over to beg petting. I think that had more to do with being desperate for petting than not knowing what the box is for, but we'll see. And he has a towel in the carrier, now, for him to sleep on.

Comments

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Do you have a small cardboard box lying around? You can cut it down if it's too tall and sprinkle in some litter in there. I don't know if that would conceivably work with the carrier, but it's a thought.

Poor kitty. He looks a LOT like our first cat, only skinnier.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's a great idea! I've done that (turned out we had one I just had to cut the top off of), and I did end up letting him out of the carrier. Immediately he climbed right into the box... and flopped down to be petted. *headdesk* So, not sure how well that'll work as a litter box, but at least he likes it. And I put a towel in the box, since that's still his "safe place" where he can lay down.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Awesome, I'm glad it worked out in part. :D That's what we did for my brother's cat, who we had to foster for a couple weeks before my brother and his wife moved into their house.

[nekokoban]

I said "awwwwwwwwww!" out loud, and GUESS WHO came to beg for attention.

That said, kyaaaaa, he's so cute, I hope he gets a family soon. :(

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

You mean "AWWWWWWWW" isn't your cat's name? I would never have guessed. &Hearts;

Me too! He just tugs my heartstrings.

[parhelion-spark.livejournal.com]

Depending on how big he is, like..if you have a disposable roasting pan lying around, or anything like that.. old pie-tins if he's super-tiny, and just fill that with litter? Cardboard shoe-box lined with a plastic bag might work too. Large ..you know the things, with the lids, they're plastic and for stowing things? The name escapes me. YES, those work awesomely as well.
If you absolutely cannot let him out of the little carrier.. pie pan, if it fits? Honestly, IMO you're better off with supercareful fielding of doorways while traveling in/out, and letting him free-roam in the meanwhile. It seems mean to keep the little guy cooped up if he'd be basically sleeping on his waste.

He's beautiful. Boo that you can't keep him. I know about cat limits though (or..don't, some would say, our total being 10 now), and I can only imagine how awful it is to give him up.
Please tell me you have a no-kill shelter there? O.O;

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeaaaah, I lasted about fifteen minutes or so on the whole "not letting him out of the carrier" thing - he's out in the bathroom now, and (I should really update my entry) has a nice litter box made out of a shallow cardboard box. He flopped right down in it like it was a bed, but I think that might've been more to do with wanting petting than anything else, as he got back out and went to lay on a towel I'd put in the carrier when I stopped petting him.

We do indeed have some no-kill shelters, although I'm going to have to call around a little to figure out who'll take him. A lot of the shelters around here appear to only take cats that aren't from Seattle proper. There will be a lot of phone calling tomorrow, I think.

[parhelion-spark.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, well at least he's happy? Poor guy, he seems really cuddle-deprived.

Hooray! At least..er..potentially. Hopefully everything works out ok. That's kind of an odd restriction, any idea why they do that?

Down here we have like..the absolute worst animal protections laws in the entire country, and ..ugh. It really inspires quite a lot of loathing for humanity. Someone can literally come into your house and steal your pet.. and it's a felony.. but if they murder your pet, it's classed as a misdemeanor. SMH, southern US. SMFH.

Someday the universe will give Lex and I hideous lots of money so we can set up the most gigantic shelter EVER. On an island.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

He totally is. The instant you touch him he pushes his head into your hand and starts doing full-scale kneading-assault on whatever is underneath him.

Admittedly something of a guess, but I think the restrictions have to do with population density (and presumably therefore pet density) - the nice shelters out in the suburbs don't want to be overrun with all the feral populations and abandoned animals from the city. Which, IMHO, is a bit appalling... but not much to be done for it.

Honestly, after spending a little more time with the little guy and talking it over, we think we're probably going to keep him for a few more days while we collectively harass everyone we know in the effort to find him a home. I feel responsible for him - I told him when I grabbed him that I wouldn't let anybody hurt him (the things you say when you're trying to calm an animal down...), and now I feel like I'd be breaking that promise if I didn't make every effort to find him a good place. So yeah. If we had our own place, I'd probably be making the "three cats isn't really that many..." argument. As it is, I'll work the networking. :)

[parhelion-spark.livejournal.com]

Bawww.. he sounds like such a little sweetie. Yay that he's getting cuddles! <3

That.. man, that's depressing as hell. I thought the Seattle area was pretty good on the animal rights thing? Although i guess it's not really related to rights, and money issues -do- come into it.. still. Poor feral populations.
Curious, though, why not just..well..lie about where he was found? He lacks ID, it's highly unlikely the shelters have access to CCTV or anything.. or do they go by your own address?

The limit is 2? :O
3 isn't many at all (says crazy cat lady), but I guess if your landlord doesn't agree.. I guess he'd probably have a hard time coping with an established dynamic if he's that attention-hungry, anyway. How old are your other cats OOC?

Good luck finding him a loving forever home! If no one you know can take him, maybe look into older folks homes too, or therapy-pet programs? I know some places have their own 'house cat'; I don't know if that's legal up there, or if there's anything like that set-up, but it could be worth checking out.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yes! <3

So... I get the impression that Seattle is, in general, not bad when it comes to animal welfare. We have a lot of no-kill shelters, and the regular shelters try very hard and have generally good conditions (I got my cat from the regular shelter, and they microchipped, neutered, vaccinated and all that), but Seattle proper... is a moderate-sized city, with a lot of the problems that's heir to. You don't see many strays and ferals, but they're definitely there (I used to feed one on my university campus, 'cause he was always in the same spot on my walk home from work in the evenings), and the economy isn't as bad here (thank goodness) as it is elsewhere, but it's still not great, so there's a lot of surrenders right now. And it's kitten season, of course, so that puts an extra load on the shelters.

Like I said, I don't know that population density is the issue with the suburban shelters, that's just my best guess. But I can see how they wouldn't want to be overrun with animals from out of their area.

The address thing... yeah, I'd thought of that. Technically, we could lie. Or I could borrow a friend's address, or something like that. The reason I'd originally discounted that idea was that we thought he might have a person looking for him, and giving a false address where we found him would confound their efforts to find him again. Now that we're probably going to take him to the vet and try to find a home for him ourselves, that's not really an issue... but it also temporarily negates the shelter issue at all, so... *shrugs* We'll see. If we can't find a home for him in a reasonable period, I'll do some more research and talk to friends who volunteer with some of those places to investigate the options.

I've lived with up to nine cats before (they belonged to my aunt), and one thing I noticed then was that one cat inevitably becomes the scapegoat. I think that becomes more likely the more you have. And given that both our existing cats are large, mature, and given to heavy rough-housing... I'd hate to subject this underfed little guy to that. Plus, our apartment complex has a penchant for occasional inspections with only the minimum legal notification, so keeping him much longer than a few weeks is right out, unfortunately.

I'm not sure why the pet limit in our place is 2, but that does seem not terribly unusual in the city here. One of the downsides of living downtown seems to be that there are more stringent rules than we'd find in the suburbs, is my impression.

As for our other cats, one is about 8 or so years old, and the other... probably about 6 or 7. Theoden, the 8 year-old (in the icon) is mine, and was adopted from the local shelter, and Random (The Boy's cat) jumped in his window at the apartment he lived in when he first moved to the city, and more or less made it his home. He'd been abandoned by his previous owners when they moved, from what neighbors said. I wish I could say that was unusual around here, but my family briefly got a dog that way when I was a teenager (we ended up having to give him away to another family, unfortunately, because we just weren't home enough to deal with a part-border-collie's needs), so... yeah. It makes me want to ring peoples' necks when they treat animals like that.

And another good idea on the house-cat type thing! I'll keep my ears open on that, and do some research. :)

[parhelion-spark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, at least you have no-kills there. Seattle sounds to be far ahead of most places I've been re: animal welfare, so no judgments! The idea of people surrendering just kills me though. Poor kitties.

Good points, all.

Oh, I wasn't trying to talk you into keeping him, lol.. I know people can be pretty strict on those rules, and it's hard to take care of your kitties when you've nowhere for them to live, not to mention yourself.
Funny thing, when we had 9, the balance was PERFECT until we moved, and then it all went awry. Once Jack entered the equation, this tiny little underfed (who cries like a baby elephant, it is so tiny and mewly!) kitten took to terrorizing every thing else in the house. I have no idea why the rest of my cats (huge things, with giant claws) put up with him.

I wonder if it has to do with fear of hoarding, or worry about litterbox odors. Or possibly some misguided impression that a mere 2 kitties cannot completely pee-drench a place if so inclined? Although, now that I'm really thinking about it, I suspect it's something to do with fire-codes, or insurance or something.

Aww, he is lovely. And so fluffy! Seems to know it, too.
Poor abandoned kitty. Least he's got a loving home now.
I have to ask.. is Random named after the Amber character?

Good luck!

[sigelphoenix.livejournal.com]

Awww, poor sweetie. Good on you for picking him up - I just think about myself in that situation, and I fear I might've psyched myself out thinking all the reasons I *couldn't* take him into my home (breaking the cat limit rules, worrying my boys would freak).

Anyway, I hope you find a shelter that can take him - I'm sure there are important practical reasons that certain shelters can only take cats from certain areas, but I really wish you could just put him in the care of PAWS, where I know he'd have a good shot.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I did think of that a little, but in the end it turned into a "I can't leave him here, he has to go inside," decision. We're not keeping him, but I can't just abandon the little guy, either. And apart from sitting outside the door all the time staring, Theo and Random have been pretty cool about the whole thing.

About an hour ago, the plan was for me to spend the morning on the phone to shelters... but after spending more time in the bathroom with him, both of us have decided that we would feel better taking at least a few days to try to find a home for him instead. I'm a tad leery of that because of cat limits and all, but... honestly, it was looking like we'd have limited shelter options, and with this being kitten season I don't like our options very much.

So... know anybody who wants a cat? XD

[sigelphoenix.livejournal.com]

I will rack my brains! It seems like everyone I know who wants a cat is at their apartment limit ... I know miss_arel wants to get a cat when she gets to a cat-friendly apartment, but that would require you keeping him for much longer than a few days.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm having that same problem, including thinking immediately of miss_arel and then remembering she's still at the no-cats place. And yeah, we can't keep him that long. I think we might still be able to come up with somebody, though.

[snakewhissperer.livejournal.com]

If i lived closer, i'd have him in a heartbeat.well if I could.