The Rose's Grove

The kitty previously known around our house as "Little Dude," turned out, in the course of a visit to the vet today... to be Little Dudette. Yes, after 25 years of cat ownership, I am apparently still not reliably capable of sexing young cats. My one mitigating plea is that she was not cooperative about my attempt to check under her tail, and that she wiggles a lot whenever I tried. Ahem. Anyway. The really great news is, she's healthy, and she was apparently spayed at some point (which is good, because although the vet gave us a really wonderful steep discount for having rescued her, as soon as ninjascript told me "she's a girl," I thought "oh, crap, that's going to make getting her fixed a lot more expensive and please tell me she isn't pregnant, she's way too skinny and malnourished to be pregnant..." She's not. Everything's fine.

She did break her leg at some point, and it healed weird. I'd thought there was something funny about the way she stuck out one leg while she slept, but I've seen perfectly healthy cats with weirder sleeping habits, so I hadn't paid much attention. No harm done, she'll just a bit walk funny all her life.

The Boy also spoke with one of our neighbors while he was taking her out to the zip-car, and they recognized her and said they'd seen her around for a few weeks. A few weeks. In the parking lot of an apartment building right next to one of the busiest streets in Seattle. This poor cat has been starving and living in a dangerous area, and has been ignored for weeks by people who saw her, but apparently couldn't be assed to do a thing about it. Seriously? If you're afraid to deal with it on your own, call the Humane Society. They will send people out with humane traps to catch her, and they'll do their best to take care of her. I can't help thinking it's better than leaving her alone, hungry, and cold on a city street. I did not have a hard time catching this cat, all things considered. It took me maybe 15 minutes of quiet determination and patience. On some level, she wanted to be caught - she was desperate to be touched and petted. I can't believe people saw her and didn't do anything.

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.

( Details of the Slightly Panicked Efforts to Rescue Kitty, and PICTURES of the Resultant Kitty )

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.