(Sorry this is going up late – I thought I’d scheduled it to go up at 6 am, buuuuuuuuut apparently not!)
I have a question for you as well – have you ever had a cat that doesn’t clean their bottom very well? One of my cats seems to have started letting this slide lately and she HATES it when we clean it (just with a makeup pad soaked in warm water) – she even growls and hisses at us which she never does, ever. I am hoping that either you or maybe one of your readers has had this issue and came up with a solution? The vet has checked her out and there doesn’t seem to be any physical reason for it (except maybe losing a bit of mobility in her old age – she’s 11).
We do have this issue on occasion, especially with Elwood, who has some problem reaching his back end. Every now and then Fred will clean Elwood’s back end with an unscented baby wipe. Usually Fred starts out by petting Elwood (who is really a big lovebug), and once he’s happy and purring (Elwood, that is. Fred doesn’t purr.), Fred makes a few swipes with the baby wipe, and is done before Elwood knows what’s going on.
How about the rest of y’all, anyone got any suggestions for Jess?
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Adorable pics and wonderful captions as well! Maybe Gracie is the go-between getting the Noms to eat real food since she’s physic and all.
“Psst, Newbery I heard that Robyn thinks you don’t eat real food yet”
“Whaaat? I’m a big boy. I’ll show her!”
“Psst Darwin, Razzie and Newbery are all into eating the food. Robyn says you just eat litter.”
“I do not! I am not a baby!”
“Shhhhhh. Don’t be telling my secrets. I’m going to train those kittens to bring me snacks!”
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What do you do with all those eggs? And the duck eggs? Do you sell at a local market or something? Nothing beats a fresh egg. Nothing. We have no idea what an egg really is supposed to be like.
The noms are getting SO BIG. Will they go to new homes soon or will you keep them??
Whatever eggs we don’t eat ourselves (and we eat plenty of eggs!), we sell to friends or Fred’s coworkers or the regular customers we’ve come to have over the past few years. On the rare occasion we have a large number built up, we have a sign that we put out at the end of the driveway (we sell the eggs for $2 a dozen), and usually sell them all within a day or two. We don’t have to put the sign out very often these days, luckily.
The Noms and Emmy will be separated from each other around the middle of May – we’ll move the babies down to the guest bedroom – when they’ll be around 10 weeks old. We’ll take Emmy off to be spayed, and put her back in the foster room to recover, and then when the Noms are about three months old, we’ll take them to be spayed and neutered as well. Once the babies are spayed and neutered and up to date on their vaccinations, they’ll go off to Petsmart, where they’ll hopefully be adopted quickly. Emmy will stay here for at least a little while longer while we work with her and determine what her personality is like when she’s not worrying about her babies!
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How long will Emmy tolerate nursing the kittens? Will she eventually shut down the milk bar, or will the kittens just get tired of it?
Emmy’s been showing more willingness to walk away from the babies while they’re nursing, but I suspect that she’s like Maggie was last year – as long as the babies want to nurse, she’ll probably let them, right up until the point we separate them from her!
When Maggie and her babies went to Petsmart last Summer, the babies were just over four months old, and they were still nursing. I put her in one cage and her babies in another, with a note on their cages saying that they could be out together, but not to let them nurse. Lisa reported that she let Maggie and the babies out, and in an INSTANT one of the babies had Maggie down and was nursing.
Babies need a mama with a firm hand who’ll cut them OFF, and neither Maggie nor Kara (who was our first pregnant mama) were inclined to do that.
In fact, here’s a video of Maggie’s babies (and the Spice Girls), taking her down as she tried to walk across the kitchen:
And here’s Kara and her babies, who were 16 weeks old at the time:
And while I was looking for those, I found this. A lot of you might not know about the Siamese-mix litter I had back in… 2009? I think? I named them after cookies (TimTam, Hydrox, Keebler, Milano, Lorna Doone) and called them (of course) The Cookies. Laurie’s current bunch – the Lamms – remind me of them. They were bottle babies, and I got some video of them at three weeks old.
UGH, they were SO FREAKIN’ CUUUUUUUTE!
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I saw this video the other day and thought immediately of you!
We SO need to teach our ducks to fetch, don’t we? I think maybe we waited ’til they were too old, though, we should have started when they were babies!
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There is actually a book on crafting with cat hair (apparently there’s a blog too) I actually halfway considered with the 18 kitties in the house.
I’ve heard of that book! I don’t imagine that I’d be very good at doing anything too complicated with cat hair, though. Rolling it into balls so it’ll stay together is about the extent of my crafty skillset, I think.
My only suggestion would be to save up a lot of cat hair and do it all at once, rather than doing it my way, which is why I have three small cat hair blobs that the kittens love to play with, instead of one big one that they fight over. Um. Not that I’m wishing they’d fight over it, of course. (That’s a lie. They’re way too cute and funny when they fight over toys.)
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By the way – any ideas you or readers might have for this situation: I caught my last outside kitty – big orange male – I actually have his brother and sisters inside but it took me more than a year to catch him. Like the dolt that I am, I didn’t take him to vet right away – instead I let him into the quarantine room out of the live trap. I highly doubt I’ll get him in the trap again, but well, he’s not happy. He cries most of night – and he hisses at me – tries to pop me if I get too close. I don’t try to touch him and I just kneel down so he can see me and talk to him. Sometimes i let one of the older cats in and he talks to them, but never comes out to say hi. I’m just at a loss of how to get him calm enough – I need to get him checked out and dewormed and neutered. never had one this stubborn.
Is he hiding under a piece of furniture, is that where he won’t come out of? Because I’m thinking that if you could get a big carrier into the room and then remove whatever furniture he’s hiding under, he may opt to start staying in the carrier – which you could then shut and carry to the vet? Is that a possibility at all?
Readers? Suggestions? Spill ’em!
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I just noticed the link for the thermal cat beds (the blinding beauty of Miz Poo distracted me!) Norman travels from sun spot to sun spot. I’m sure he would love one. Just wondering if any of the humans at Crooked Acres have given them a try? After a roller blading accident several years ago, I’d sleep with a heating pad nightly if I weren’t worried about the danger. I don’t need it for pain anymore, just addicted to the warmth.
I was going to say that I haven’t tried the thermal bed myself, but actually – when I lay on the couch in the evenings while we’re watching TV, I put my feet on the thermal bed, and they get pretty toasty! Basically there’s something inside the bed (so it does make a crinkly kind of noise – it doesn’t bother me or the cats) that reflects your body heat back at you. Now I’m wondering if something like that would work better on my bed in the winter!
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Is it just me, or does “Fred Furminated Emmy” sound like an old-fashioned swear? Imagine stubbing your toe in front of your grandmother – you start with the “fffff” sound and then quickly shift from the Very Bad Word you were going to use, and instead holler at the top of your lungs, “ffffred Furminated EMMY!”
Just me, then? Okay…
It TOTALLY does!
Also, someone who lives in this house (who, ME? I’d never!) might have recently taken to telling the other adult in the house to go Furminate himself (I can’t help it, I’m a dork who is far too amused by herself).
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And finally have figured out that Corbett from last year, (or 2009) is Corbie!?! Right? And he IS a beautiful boy… my kitty colors to be sure! Thanks for the posts… you stop me every AM before I can go out, with kitten love and begin my day!
Corbie is indeed Corbett from The Bookworms, who were our fosters back in 2010. In fact, here’s Corbie from March 2010:
Gorgeous then, gorgeous now!
But this reminds me that not everyone has been reading for years and years, so I think that starting next week, at the end of each post I’ll put up a picture of a permanent resident and how they came to be part of our family – starting with the oldest and working my way down to Alice Mo. That’ll be fun, right?
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Did Emmy see you leave with Logie, or was her attention elsewhere?
Emmy was busy eating her snack – and Fred was sitting between Emmy and the door – so she didn’t see me pick up Logie and walk out with her. I don’t know that she would have been too worried if she’d seen Logie go with me, because as long as the babies aren’t screaming, I can do whatever I want to with them, and she doesn’t bat an eyelash. She was just all “I WILL KILL YOU” because Logie was clearly distressed and screaming about it.
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I love the current header, just as I loved the old header. I suspect I’ll love any new header Robyn makes. I have to admit my all time favorite photo is the one with the kitten wearing a ‘crown’. Don’t remember which kitten it was…
That was Maddy! She was my very first bottle baby and for the first few weeks I had her, I thought for sure I was going to mess up and she was going to up and die on me. I was lucky, though – she was a fighter (still is!) She was our foster right after we bought this house, and we’d bring her here with us while we were working on the house. That picture up there was actually taken in the foster room, before we pulled the carpet up! And that yellow “crown” she’s wearing may very well be the same toy that Darwin was playing with in the pictures I posted on Wednesday.
This is what Maddy looks like now:
Or rather, what she looked like in 2008, when I went to visit Nance in Pennsylvania!
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Remember this picture of Emmy from before she had her babies?
Same idea, almost two months later:
I love this picture both for Emmy’s closed eyes (“God give me strength…) and Newbery in the background, all “What’s going on over THERE?!”
“This just does not seem to be working out for me… Logie! Come over here and let me stand on your head!”
“Newbery, you are not coming up here. There’s no room for you.”
“You can’t tell me what to do!”
“GET OFF MY CAT TREE!” (Please note the big ol’ back foot, hooked over the side of the condo. Cracks me UP.)
The interloper vanquished, Razzie heads back up into her tower.
I love Razzie’s little curved partial tail so very much.
“This bed isn’t very comfortable. Also, it smells like food.”
All four monkeys in their tree. Left to right: Darwin, Newbery (back), Logie, Razzie.
Nap time for Newbery (left) and Darwin.
“What?” I love the kitten action in the background.
Darwin (I think) in the box. I actually had to remove this from the foster room because they were spending a lot of time hiding out in it, and I wanted them out in the room where I could reach them and where they could be social.
Everybody loves a LogieSnuggle.
“What you doin’ over there?”
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“Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!”
“Can’t a man get a little privacy?”
Corbie likes to help Sheriff Mama keep an eye on things.
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Previously
2011: “My paw smells funny.”
2010: “They’re gonna take a sample of what from my where, now?”
2009: “Hey, Mister, you sure smell purty!”
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
I think I have found the solution for my chronic insomnia. The videos of the babies nursing has got me doing the head-drop thing, where your eyelids get heavier and heavier and then your chin hits your chest and you try to bounce back up and shake it off, but 15 seconds later you’re nodding off again. They’re just so blissed out!
Oops, my comment might have come out wrong. I don’t mean the video’s boring; it’s just so relaxing and their contented relaxation is terribly contagious. (c:
Heh, I knew what you meant! 🙂
Emmy always looks either super relaxed or exhausted – I don’t remember seeing a wide eyed photo of her since before the kittens were born.
Maggie was such a good momma. I will never forget putting my foster Pippa in with her for a little while at Petsmart. Pippa had a routine at my house of running up the cat tree to find her Aunt Maggie (my tortie girl) who proceeded to give her foster niece a bath, which Pippa loved. Your Maggie started doing the same thing to Pippa that day in Petsmart and Pippa LOVED that.
Maggie was absolutely the best! 🙂
I had to skip past the whole entry because I knew the cute would distract me and I would never make it all the way to the comment section to answer Jess.
Jess: I have had 2 obese Maine Coons (one has since past)that could not reach to clean their back side. Both were wonderful about letting me wash them though. My beloved Lucy would use the potty then sit and bellow until i came to wipe her. I would say “Let me wipe your Boo” and she would roll onto her back and throw her legs wide open. I always used an unscented baby wipe & warm water and I still do with my fatty Mcfatty Sammy. Sammy loves to be brushed so every single time I go to the bathroom she will run in and demand that I brush her. I have learned to sit on the toilet while brushing a cat is a huge time saver! Get 2 duties out of the way at once (pun sorta intended.) Anyway the point of that whole long spiel is to say maybe you could get her to relax (the way i do Sammy, who is a high strung bitch of a bitchy cat) by first brushing her then using warm water. She will now come to me several times a day and like Lucy roll on her back, throw open her legs and let me wash her. (Of course I am not 100% sure that Sammy is not a lesbian and thinks I am her lover and we are having an affair.) Good luck. A cat with a dirty booty is surly odd but I would rather have a stinky butted cat than no cat at all ; )
I wish I had a suggestion about the kitty with the rusty butt. I’m going through some poop issues with one of my kitties, and it’s driving us all crazy.
Niko is a 12-year-old longhaired Siamese mix. I’ve had him since he was about 3 months old. I adopted him and his orange tabby brother Oscar (who looked very much like Sugarbutt) together. We lost Oscar just after Christmas 2010; he stopped eating, and by the time we realized how sick he was, he’d gone into organ failure and had to be euthanized.
Niko reacted by becoming very, very poor in his grooming habits (I never had to brush him before, and now he’s constantly dreadlocked and matted), and a couple of months ago he started having severe diarrhea.
I said a couple of months. I’m not a bad cat mama. He’s been to the vet multiple times, had blood drawn, had fecal labs done, and they can’t find any evidence of parasites. He eats constantly but loses nearly all of it to vomiting or diarrhea. He’s very thin and I’m getting very, very worried about him.
We thought he couldn’t make it to the litterbox, but now we see he doesn’t even try; he’ll squat in the hallway or in a laundry basket and let go. There’s an explosive element to his squirts; he sounds like one of those automatic bathroom air fresheners.
It’s truly awful and my husband has just about lost all patience with Niko and wants to crate him at night. I don’t know what to do other than bathe Niko every day and possibly shave his fur, as he’s constantly got “dingleberries.”
Sorry for the lengthy post, but if anyone has suggestions I’d surely be open to them. Niko remains a very sweet and loving cat, but it’s hard to love on a kitty when they jump up on your bed at 3 am smelling of poop.
I am not anything even close to an expert, but you said Niko’s issues started after Oscar passed away. (I lost my Mr.T the same way; please accept my condolences for your loss as I know it’s an awful feeling.) Since he’s been with Oscar since they were tiny, could it be that he’s grieving and lonely? Do you have other cats or dogs (or ferrets or whatever) that he can go to for mutual grooming and comfort? I wonder if that might help – or if perhaps some kitty Prozac (or whatever they give cats for things like separation anxiety and such) might be beneficial.
You might also consider seeking a second opinion with another vet – not to imply that there’s anything wrong with your regular vet; it’s just that sometimes “fresh eyes” help spot things that others miss; also, sometimes a certain illness or pattern of behavior will remind a doctor (be they a doctor for humans or animals) of some other patient they had who had a similar problem and responded well to thus-and-such a treatment.
Animals do grieve, I am convinced, and given the timing, I wonder if Niko’s depressed and missing Oscar, and that – combined with his own advancing age – is causing him problems. (When I am very upset about something, my guts turn to water and I can’t keep anything down or in. Maybe Nico’s got a “sensitive stomach” that is triggered by stress, too.) For the meantime, shaving his butt is probably not a bad idea (though I won’t volunteer to help, lol) – it will at least help some in terms of keeping furniture, etc., clean, which in turn will help lessen the risk of re-contamination if he does have some sort of infection the tests didn’t pick up on.
Finally, I also second Monster’s comment – if you haven’t already, maybe see if a different brand/flavor/type of food helps. (But remember that if he’s been eating the same food for most of his life, a sudden change could actually make things worse. Best to gradually introduce the new stuff.)
I hope he gets better soon. xoxo
Thank you for the suggestions. I ran across a photo of him that was taken in 2007 or so, and he was so beautiful and fluffy that he hardly looks like the same cat. It’s heartbreaking.
I absolutely do believe he grieved for his brother, and unfortunately hasn’t bonded with any of the other cats.
I’ll try some other food.
has the vet suggested IBD? has he suggested a diet change? or a novel protein source / limited ingredient diet? Could be that Niko has developed an allergy to the food he is eating (and thus a novel protein / limited ingredients might help) or it could be that he can no longer process grains / plant based ingredients. Or he could have irritable bowel disease. If your vet hasn’t made any suggestions or course of treatment I highly suggest you get your kitty to another vet for a second opinion.
Meira came to me with diarrhea so bad it leaked out of her and left puddles on the floor. You should see the horrible shave job they gave her because it was all over her “pants” They dewormed her seven ways to Sunday and nothing. I put her on a raw diet and it cleared up almost immediately. Same thing happened with a previous foster kitten “Bug”. Diet can make a dramatic difference in so many different areas. check out http://www.catinfo.org and http://www.feline-nutrition.org and search the web for feline IBD for more information on that.
I second getting the second vet opinion. My sweet late Boo was under the treatment of a specialist her last years but it was the visit when he was on vacation that the new young specialist ordered a new test and found the pancreatitis!! My regular vet was actually irritated that the test had been done until the results came back positive…
I was actually going to suggest maybe raw feeding (I remember the issues Connie had with Meira and how quickly they cleared up when she raw fed), and maybe a second vet opinion, but they beat me to it. Don’t I have the most awesome readers? 🙂
P.S. Razzie’s tail reminds me of a particularly aggressive (and cute) cactus. 🙂
Ha – that could describe Razzie herself as well! 🙂
@Noelegy, you might try a different food, perhaps the Royal Canin hypoallergenic food (rabbit & pea) to see if his diarrhea is food-caused.
Absolutelly amazing post!!!!! =)
Just a quick update on The Madster. She’s holding her ground when it comes to the bedroom remodel. She sits in the middle of the room while all the furniture is gone and painting is being done around her and REFUSES TO BUDGE. And also, I need to send you new pictures. She’s too freaking gorgeous for that bad shot. Gee, now that I think about it, I hopes she approves of the remodel…it is HER room after all. This could get ugly.
Or I could just go over to your site and steal a picture or two. 🙂 (I swear, next time I visit, I’m bringing the good camera!!)
I missed my kitten fix this morning. I figured you all were down there celebrating 4/20 with that bumper crop of catnip! LOL
HA – I totally should have done a special 4/20 post with catnip! 🙂
Re crafting with cat hair — I don’t have enough cats to do it, but I learned to spin last year and keep considering the possibility of collecting my dog’s hair to spin with. He has a really heavy undercoat, and when he’s shedding you can just walk up to him and start pulling loose tufts and end up with a huge handful without even trying.
I suspect this might tip the balance into Crazy Craft Lady territory, though. And also even though there’s information online about spinning dog fur, I can’t find anything that actually clarifies whether one’s lovingly handspun/handknit dog hat will instantly reek of wet dog the second it starts raining.
I wondered that exact same thing about using dog fur! George and Gracie are shedding like mad right now, and Fred just tosses the fur on the ground (in case any passing birds want to use it to make their nest), but it seems like such a waste!
I’m a n00b here, so a run-down on the resident cats with photo would be lovely! (I think it was a link from IBKC that sent me here. Don’t get old – your memory is the second thing to go.)
If you check the menu along the right-hand side, you’ll find a link to meet all of the permanent residents. They’re a pretty incredible crew! 🙂
Kelly’s right, the permanent residents do have their own pages – but they probably need to be updated!
Deborah, now I’m curious about what’s the FIRST thong to go, if memory is only second. My memory is starting to phase itself out, but I (wait for it) can’t remember any other major age-related… um… what’s that word… shit, I seriously can’t think of the word I want! It’ll come to me… just as I’m dozing off to sleep…
elyane: I can’t remember what the first thing is! 😉
I have been having issues with my scheduled blog posts not posting either, but I use blogger not wordpress so one probably has nothing to do with the other. it is frustrating though.
This was entirely my fault – I wrote it, I saved it, but I forgot to set it to publish. I must have had too many things going on at once last night. 🙂
Is this where I waggle my eyebrows and say, “Yeah, that’s what HE said!”? (c;
Glad everything is okay at Crooked Acres. I will admit to worrying just a little when there was no post to coo over and keep me calm while hollering at the kids to get ready for school. 😉
I found you while dear Mary Margaret was raising the McMao brood plus the Spice Girls at your house. Such an incredibly patient mama cat she was (although I’m learning through Emmy that the mama hormones must run full of patience… why didn’t my mama hormones come with that kind of patience???) That video is amazing. Is it awful that I hear the Wild Kingdom theme music when those lion-kittens take down their antelope-mama?
I am off to order a thermal cat bed to test it’s efficacy on humans. If Norman plays his cards right, I just might share.
Ha, no kidding Kelly – I wish I’d had half her patience, and I only had the one kid! 🙂
I was worried when there was no Friday post..so relieved to find it later!
A featured permanent resident would be awesome, even if we’ve read for awhile, too.
Thanks, Robyn.
I keep telling Fred that I need to set up a permanent resident schedule, because I know some cats (ahem, Joe Bob and Corbie) get pictures posted far more often than the rest!
re: sleeping with heating pads: They make lovely bed-size heating bads–actually, mattress pads with heating elements running through them, like an electric blanket. They are lovely. We put it on the bed in the winter, cover with our “real” mattress pad and sheets, and it makes the bed toasty warm, especially if you turn it on 5 minutes before climbing in. It is truly delightful. Just turn it off when you get sleepy (or, I suppose they make them with timers). Ours also self-turns off when it gets to a certain temperature.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sunbeam-Royal-Warmth-Heated-Mattress-Pad/5019318
I second this. They warm you up MUCH more thoroughly if they’re underneath the mattress pad or fitted sheet, than if they’re on top of you. If you’re like me and can go from freezing to roasting in 0.3 seconds, and (an hour later) back to freezing in the same amount of time, get a blanket that’s for half the size of your actual bed, or fold it in half. Then if you get too hot, you can just scootch over a few inches into the cool zone, and when you get chilled over there, you can scootch right back. (Or you could get one with dual controls, but I’ve always found those to be much more expensive.) And most of the newer ones have an automatic turnoff after about an hour, so you don’t have to worry about that. You will, however, have to fight for your life because a warmed-up bed is like crack cocaine for cats. I was so frustrated and crowded one night I finally just grabbed a blanket from the hallway closet and went to sleep on the couch, because the cats were NOT HAVING IT when I tried to get them to move off of the warm spots.
The strange thing is that even the romans knew about the dangers of asbestos, so it beats me how these companies can claim they didnt know about the dangers! Such a little thing to provide safety masks!
Asbestos?
This is what I don’t get about this kind of spam – they didn’t even leave a link for you to click on, so it’s not like they’re trying to get you to buy something. They just leave this nonsensical kind of thing that leaves you with a big ol’ cartoon question mark over your head!
Thanks so much for posting my question Robyn! I am glad to see that my kitty is not the only one with this problem (she also has a touch of Elwood’s other problem *cough* *cough* so that would also be why she is having troubles reaching around).
I tried the babywipe idea today (thanks to everyone who suggested it!) after buying a pack that are unscented and alot of un-other stuff and are called something like ‘Sticky Fingers’. I figured that if they’re safe for babies/kids it’s a fairly safe bet that they will be okay for kitties.
After wiping her bottom with it (and it got lots of the gunk off, hurray) she went off and licked herself down there!! So obviously she CAN do it if she absolutely MUST. Aren’t cats the most contrary of creatures? But I’ll keep wiping whenever it gets dirty, and hope that she’ll eventually get the hint that she should be doing it herself!
Thanks again!
Jess 🙂
About the feral who won’t come back to the trap, Robyn’s plan would be the first one I’d go with (and I’d put his food, or at least lots of treats, into the very back of the carrier, to give him a strong incentive to get in there and start feeling comfortable with it.
If your vet’s understanding enough about the situation and you can make a reliable estimate as to the cat’s weight, you might also be able to lace his food or a treat with a sedative – just enough to let you get him in the crate for transport to get checked out. (Most vets probably would frown on that, though.)
And here’s my advise… I dunno if this would work with cats (especially deeply feral ones) or not, but I can attest that it works well with dogs:
My parents got a dog from a shelter who’d obviously been very badly abused. He would shake if you even so much as looked at him; any sudden movements would send him scurrying for the safest place he could get, peeing in fear all the way. He wouldn’t let anyone near enough to pet him and even if you just spoke in a normal tone of voice (instead of a whisper or that particular baby-talk we tend to use with our animals), he’d go immediately belly-to-the-floor and start looking for an escape route.
I asked my mom not to feed him on one particular day, and went over to her house with a book and a bunch of different treats and cooked meat (chicken, beef, pork, liver, lunchmeat, whatever I could find). He was hiding under their bed so I laid down a trail of meat and snacks leading from the doorway of her bedroom out to where I was lying on the living room floor, reading. The trail started with meat then gradually interspersed with treats, then went back to just meat as it got closer to where I was. It took about four hours for him to work up the nerve to get some of the food that was closest to me, but I stayed very still, moving very slowly when I did have to move. I talked to him very quietly and soothingly but made no effort to touch him.
My mom repeated the same process a few times over the next week or so, and I did it again the next time I came over. It took about two and a half weeks (and chicken liver in my lap) before he finally agreed to be petted in exchange for the chicken liver. Then I scratched The Spot in the middle of his “shoulderblades,” and that was all it took.
He’s now SUPER affectionate and loving, and begs to be scratched at that particular spot. If you catch him by surprise, or if he sees you walking near him with something (anything) in your hand, he’ll still run and hide (and sometimes pee with fear) but it’s not anywhere NEAR so bad anymore. We’ve used the same technique on three or possibly four other dogs, and it’s always been successful. But it was a horribly time-consuming process, for one thing, and for another thing we all know how differently cats’ and dogs’ brains work. Good luck, and thanks for going out of your way to take care of him!
Hey, Just wanted to post a link to a YouTube video of a cat and dolphin…very cute. You may have seen it, but even so, it’s worth watching again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rynvewVe21Y
Thanks for the suggestions on my feral kitty. I don’t have real big carrier – they’re all smaller kitty size, but might give it a shot. I did talk to the vet and it didn’t sound like there was really anything to give – they said the only thing was a pill that couldn’t be chewed. I am going to give him time and hope he comes around. I’m going to put a cat carrier and the live trap and hope maybe he’ll wander in one or the other again once I put some treats in each. he’s a big beautiful fluffy orange tabby.
AH BABY CORBIE! SUPER CUTE THEN EVEN MORE HANDSOME NOW!