Friendly Kitty Needs a Home

[Jim Kyle]

About two weeks ago, as I came home from a meeting on a Sunday afternoon, I saw something moving in front of the car as I opened the garage door and drove into my garage. I didn't get a clear look at first, but it was furry and I thought that my 8-year-old indoor cat might have sneaked in when my wife had the door from the house open.

However after I got out, the critter came up to me, cautiously, and began to purr. It appeared to be a half-grown kitten, maybe 8 or 9 months old, but was obviously used to humans and not one of the feral colony that comes to our back porch for breakfast almost every morning. My wife came out and picked it up, discovering that it was almost starved. We took it indoors, put it up in a room that we could close off to quarantine it, and gave it a plate of cat food and a bowl of milk.

Next morning we took it to our vet for a checkup, and discovered that it was an older kitty, possibly 10 to 12 years of age, and that it had a moderately serious respiratory virus infection but except for that seemed to be in good health. It weighed only 5 pounds and was less than half the size of our current kitty. Since the virus was probably highly contagious, we left her with the vet for a week to either recover or succumb. She made full recovery, and a week ago we brought her home.

While we had no burning desire for a second kitty -- the current resident offers enough challenges although she pays her way in purrs -- we didn't have the heart to turn her out, since she seemed to be so friendly and has a clear desire to be with people.

Unfortunately, it turns out that she and the long-time resident don't get along at all. The newcomer appeared to be quite confident and not at all agressive, but Current Kitty (who had, as a kitten, been dominated by two previous feline family members) seemed frightened by her presence. We kept the newcomer quarantined all last week, and Current Kitty seemed to accept her presence in a closed room -- but refused to go into that end of the house. By the weekend, though, we felt it might be safe to let the newcomer explore, and to allow Current Kitty to make her acquaintance.

For a day or so, they avoided each other although Current Kitty began to act fearful again. Then yesterday, the conflict erupted into a full-fledged cat fight for no visible reason. The newcomer attacked Current Kitty after a 10-minute standoff during which Current Kitty growled continually and the newcomer simply stared at her. The fight lasted only a few seconds before Current Kitty broke away and darted for the top of a display case some 7 feet high, with the newcomer in hot pursuit.

I led the newcomer back to the quarantine room; she followed willingly and i shut the door. She's still there, getting food and water but not allowed out. Current Kitty stayed on the display case for hours but finally deigned to come down to eat. Then she returned to the heights, not coming down until bedtime.

My wife and I cannot tolerate such aggressiveness, so we need to find the newcomer a home where she can be the only resident cat, and she can be with the humans whose company she so obviously craves. While we're adamantly opposed to euthanasia of healthy animals, that's the only option we see unless we can find her such a home, since the no-kill shelters all seem to be filled to capacity.

As I said, she's tiny -- no bigger than most "teen-age" kittens. She's beginning to fill out, with food, though her bone structure is still obvious. Our vet assures us that she's past the age of reproduction. She does appear to have some dental problems, but they don't keep her from eating canned cat food and occasional bites of dry food between meals. Her color is a ruddy tabby pattern, and it's obvious that she's worn a flea collar in recent months. The vet applied Advantage during her convalescence so she's free of fleas at this time.

If you've read this far and can offer her a comfy home in which to live out her remaining years, send me a private message or reply to this thread and we'll work out the details. If you know of anyone who might help, put me in touch with them. We hate to keep her confined, so her time with us is limited, but I'll hold off on any irrevocable action for a while in hopes of your responses...

[turnpup]

Jim, it sounds as though you've spent a lot of time and money caring for this little cat. Sorry it didn't work out with your existing cat. If I can think of anyone to adopt her, I'll put a good word in. Thanks for being so kind to an animal in need!

[Pete]

Wow, good on 'ya for taking such good care of this critter.

It's hard to bring cats together when both are grown, unfortunately. If one is young, they usually work things out pretty easily.

Hope you find a home. Cats are under-rated IMO (this coming for a huge dog lover).

[MsProudSooner]

Have you checked with any local cat rescue organizations?

[Jim Kyle]

I've got an email message sent to Free To Live but have not yet received a reply. A close friend does volunteer work at SpayWay once a week and has inquired there but so far no leads. Still looking for contact information for the others in the OKC area.

[Jim Kyle]

It's hard to bring cats together when both are grown, unfortunately. If one is young, they usually work things out pretty easily.

We anticipated a bit of a problem, since when Abby came into the family as a half-grown kitten we already had two others, both adult. One of those two came in as an adult after the other was mature, but we never noticed any open conflict. Both of the older cats totally dominated Abby, but they both passed on (several years apart) leaving her as the sole feline in residence.

In 57 years of married life, I don't think there's been more than three months total when we were cat-less -- and that's broken into two periods many years apart. This is the first time there's been significant open violence!

[Pete]

I used to breed Abyssinian cats. I got a female as my dog substitute because I didn't have a yard for the longest time.

I didn't know anything about cat breeds, but a friend introduced me to her Abyssinian and I found it to be very dog-like: active and very engaged. They follow you everywhere, love to play and demand your attention.

I had my one female, Sunny, and after she had a couple of litters, I kept one of her kittens and named her Venus. They were very close for a long time, then suddenly they started fighting. Like a couple of bad, draw-blood fights.

That kind of evened out but they would still really scrap every once in a while. I considered giving one of them away but it never got to be a bad enough situation. For the most part, they were always around each other but never super close.

When Sunny died a couple of years ago, Venus went into deep mourning. She cried out for her for weeks... It was totally heart-breaking. And a bit surprising because of the tension between the two of them.

Since that time, Venus has been absolutely velcro-ed to me; I have to shut the door to my home office or she's in my lap constantly.

Cats are so complex; I've come to see that as endearing rather than off-putting.

[turnpup]

Nearly four years ago, a neighbor rang our doorbell to tell us that there were two tiny kittens in our front yard behind the shrub. Somebody had obviously dumped them, perhaps thinking we'd give them a good home. At the time I was NOT wanting any cats, but grudgingly allowed them to stay, so long as they were outdoor cats (but we have a nice shed with an igloo cat house that has a heated bed). I figured they'd be feral and eventually run away. Not so.

Our beagle puppy, Stella, was about the same age as the kittens. They all grew up together, and continue to roll around and wrestle in the back yard. I think the cats think they're dogs. My daughter (4 at the time) named the cats Black (the male) and Grey (the female). We got them spayed and neutered when the time came, and vaccinated. They have turned into the best cats! They eat on the windowsill outside the kitchen sink window. We feed them once in the morning and once in the evening. If we're late, they're both sitting up there meowing at us through the window.

When we go outside, they both show up and hang around us. When we walk, they follow us at least halfway around the block. They have killed many mice and a few rats, keeping them away from our house, garage and shed. Even my husband, who isn't into animals, thinks they're pretty cool.

[Mel]

Jim, give Pets and People in Yukon a call. I've volunteered there before to walk dogs and play with cats.

[Dubya61]

While it's not the best possible solution, you might consider taking her to the OKC AWD at SE 29th and ... Grand? Bryant? If you live in OKC proper they'll take her. This time of year, they're low on cats (forgive me for referring to them as a commodity) and will very possibly have good luck in finding her a home. Don't wait much longer, if you're thinking about this, though. Nature is about to turn on the spigot and flood us with kittens.

If you don't live in OKC proper, you "can't" take her there. They have an after hours operation where you put the animal you need them to take in a cage and shut the door. During these "after hours" periods, no one checks your address.
Genuinely sorry I can't help, Jim. Bless you for doing what you can.

[mkjeeves]

Good luck finding a home.

We took in a stray over the winter. One of our two older cats gets along with her fine. The other old cat goes after her if she can and the stray attempts to run away and hide. We are able to split the house by closing a door in a hallway so we do that when she is around, letting the stray have part of the house and the back door and the older cat the part of the house where she likes to hang out and another door. Our friendly old cat moves between the two areas. It works out okay so far, the stray comes and goes and sometimes will be gone 24 or 48 hours. I fear she might get bored and start exhibiting some bad behaviors being somewhat alone on her end of the house but she is far less defensive and more amiable since we started letting her inside, feeding her and giving her some attention.

We've had many cats over the years.

[TheTravellers]

Good luck, Jim, almost no organizations in the city have room or foster homes for cats, we've tried since we're semi-housing 2 strays that were dumped (a female for over a year and a male for about 6 months, the female was already spayed, and we neutered the male). We already have 2 indoor cats and can't take 2 more inside, so they sleep in the garage at night and hang around outside during the day - if anybody wants our 2 extras.....

[Dubya61]

Good luck, Jim, almost no organizations in the city have room or foster homes for cats, we've tried since we're semi-housing 2 strays that were dumped (a female for over a year and a male for about 6 months, the female was already spayed, and we neutered the male). We already have 2 indoor cats and can't take 2 more inside, so they sleep in the garage at night and hang around outside during the day - if anybody wants our 2 extras.....

It's a miserable situation, to be true. Do you ignore the life you can save? or find a way to inconvenience yourself? Y'all are saving those two lives to be sure. Thanks. I would add, though, that almost all of the organizations that would or at least say they would find homes for cats would almost always let you continue to house the cats and take them to the (almost weekly) outreach events they hold trying to find homes for "their" animals. If they don't have foster homes for cats, I bet you could become their foster home for the cats you've come across. It might be worth investigating.

[Jim Kyle]

Jim, give Pets and People in Yukon a call. I've volunteered there before to walk dogs and play with cats.

Thanks for the tip. I did contact them, and they're full up at this time. They also tell me that the OKC shelter executes 100 cats a day, which seems a rather high figure to me. I know that it's trying to reach a no-kill status but keeps running out of room to keep the animals...

My youngest son used to rescue strays and take them to Pets and People, but that's been at least 15 years ago.

[Jim Kyle]

While it's not the best possible solution, you might consider taking her to the OKC AWD at SE 29th and ... Grand? Bryant?

That's our last-resort plan; for one thing she would have at least a chance at being adopted, and for another it wouldn't involve another vet bill (we've already spent more than $500 on her, but I feel it's worth it if we can give her a few good years. I just don't want to add to her bill, especially to have her put down).

She seems to be getting quite bored with the quarantine routine. For the last couple of days she's quit going to the litter box to urinate, but fortunately the room has a tile floor over the slab with no carpet, pad, or wood, so there's no permanent damage. She shows no sign of illness, so I'm pretty confident that she's just expressing displeasure with the situation... She IS using the box for other needs.

[zookeeper]

Jim, I'm impressed with your obvious love for animals. It's easy for human beings to become arrogant and think earth is here for us - period.
Good work and THANK YOU for your time, your money, your heart, and your desire to help those little ones. In a very strange way, reading of your actions is very moving to me.

[RadicalModerate]

The moment that I see/read the phrase, "Friendly Kitty" . . . I can't help but immediately be concerned about The Feral Cats of Lake Hefner (c/o turnpup?). And just after that, various cats my mom has enjoyed and loved. Side Note: An old hobo symbol was a smiling cat on a rock. The implication apparently was: Kindness Lives Here. Kudos for that, amigo.

[TheTravellers]

It's a miserable situation, to be true. Do you ignore the life you can save? or find a way to inconvenience yourself? Y'all are saving those two lives to be sure. Thanks. I would add, though, that almost all of the organizations that would or at least say they would find homes for cats would almost always let you continue to house the cats and take them to the (almost weekly) outreach events they hold trying to find homes for "their" animals. If they don't have foster homes for cats, I bet you could become their foster home for the cats you've come across. It might be worth investigating.

We will check it out further, but since we can't really foster them inside, not sure if we'd meet their criteria (I'm assuming they'd want the fosters inside and healthy, not running around outside getting into all kinds of crap), but we'll ask and see, thanks...

[Jim Kyle]

Unfortunately, her health problems worsened and we couldn't find her a permanent home, so she made her final trip to the vet yesterday.

It was a difficult decision, but the only one left to spare her a slow death among the ferals. Our vet agreed.

Perhaps she'll find her original loving human at the Rainbow Bridge (https://rainbowsbridge.com/poem.htm)...

[Dubya61]

Jim, I'm incredibly sorry to read this. Thanks for seeing this through. Maybe she'll wait at the bridge for you, too. We've taken in strays over the years. Some of them we simply provide hospice for. Sometimes that's all you can do. Thanks for what you have done. JWH

[turnpup]

You're a good guy, Jim. Sorry about all you had to go through.

[Jim Kyle]

Maybe she'll wait at the bridge for you, too.

I think I've got a whole pride of felines waiting there for me, and my wife has even more. Over the years we've enjoyed the company of several dozen -- but seldom more than three at a time (not counting the months back in 1963 when we attempted to establish a cattery, and had 17 purebred persians living in our bedroom; that venture ended when we had only one kitten survive out of several litters -- and when we saw far too much of the ugly underside of "the cat fancy").