Dolphin’s Dock

About three years ago, TheBoyfriend™ was teaching at a residential “last chance” school when he had to confiscate a kitten from one of his students. The kitten was so young as to not even keep her eyes open consistently at the time, but attempts to track down the mother failed so we brought her home to live with us until we could find her a good home. Until that time though we had a kitten so young she had to be bottle-fed and stimulated to go to the bathroom (very young kittens need a mother to lick their genitals to get them to go; a damp wash cloth fills in nicely for human parents).

Surprisingly, even as she moved on to solid food and was able to go the litter box on her own, we could still find no one who wanted to adopt this adorable little kitten. We had a few “almost” adoptions, but nobody ended up taking her. Eventually she was old enough to get a FIV/Feline Leukemia test done and she entered the general population at our house.

She never did quite mesh with Hobbes and Gryphon. They tolerated her but while they’d hang out together, she was always the odd one out. I assume it’s because they had bonded with each other from a young age and now she was impeding on “their” turf. But still she did her own thing and seemed mostly content and loved finding a good lap to sit in. So, while we maintained that we’d like for her to go to a good home, we stopped actively looking and she more or less became one of our cats.

She’d always been so bold and fearless that we were a little surprised that she was the most skittish of all them when we got the dog. The others would stand up to him at least some of the time (it should be noted that Zeke has never shown the first sign of aggression towards any of the cats, he just runs up to them wanting to play), but she’d always run unless cornered in which case she’d squeeze herself as tightly into the corner as possible, put her ears back, and make a timid attempt at a swat.

Since we’ve had the dog, she’s taken to spending most of her time hiding out in the bathroom closet. That’s no life for her so we once again started actively hunting down a new home for her. This time we found one. One of TheBoyfriend™’s (now former) co-workers has a cat, but he feels like it is lonely while he’s at work all day. So he agreed to adopt Sigyn, giving his cat a playmate and Sigyn a home without a dog. I geniunely think it’s a good thing. I’m hopeful that she will get along well with his current cat (once it adjusts to her being there), since that cat is by itself right now and so hasn’t ever bonded with another cat. Further, his parents will be moving in with him in the next few months so she will always have people around her, even if she never quite clicks with the other cat. Most importantly she won’t have a dog terrorizing her all the time. I think it’ll be a tough few weeks for her to get adjusted but I think she’ll be happier there than she’s been here lately.

Still, it was tough to let go of a living creature that I’d raised from such an incredibly young age. I’m expecting pictures once she gets settled in to her new home. I think it’s a good move, but I’m still very sad to see her go.

Tuesday nights generally go something like this. We get home from work, immediately fold up our jiu-jitsu gis (martial arts uniforms) and throw them in the bag, where our belts already are (belts do not get washed), and immediately head out for class. Last night was no different, however when we got to class and began dressing we noticed that the bag and the belts reeked of cat urine! Since our cats don’t have problems with going outside the litter box, that should have been a clue that there was a problem, but I think we were too annoyed with the fact that our belt stunk (and you can’t really wear a gi without a belt because it won’t stay on), to really consider it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Feline Friday, but without further ado:

In the absence of a fireplace, a space heater does alright too.

=^..^=

(12/18/2008) Update:Within 24 hours of starting the cranberry and apple cider vinegar regimen, Sigyn was able to release an increased volume, if not yet normal, of urine. 3 days later, she’s going normally, behaving normally, and as far as I can tell is completely cured. She’ll stay on that diet for the rest of the week to be safe, but I highly recommend anyone with a cat with a UTI (caught early enough), to try ACV and Cranberry extract before rushing to the vet’s for antibiotics.

If you’re particularly squeamish, you may want to skip this post.

Friday evening, I noticed that Sigyn was almost ALWAYS in the litter box whenever I looked the room. Saturday morning, I noticed that she was in there (every 2-5 minutes), and squatting, but not more than a drop was coming out, and she occasionally was trying to use the bathtub on occasional as well without any better results). I’m no vet, but I know enough about cat health to know that those symptoms mean only one thing, she’s got a UTI (urinary tract infection). Christmas has put a strain on the bank account however so we’re hoping to avoid a vet visit if at all possible (and of course no vets were open til today anyhow and taking her to the animal hospital was out of the question unless it was clearly an emergency). Still a UTI isn’t something you ignore in cats because if you let it go too long and the bacteria get up into the kidneys, it can turn fatal in a hurry.

This is a cute idea, but I’m not so sure whether each “vote” is really a vote for, or against.

TheBoyfriend™ and I took a friend and her friend out to see our property yesterday. At one point I mentioned that there was a fairly large feral cat population out there and that was where Hobbes had come from. Asked by the friend of our friend what was a “feral cat,” I defined it as a “wild cat,” at which point he seemed to get very nervous. Imagine his relief when I pointed out one of the feral cats and he realized he was not endanger of getting eaten by a cougar.

How a cat chases a mouse in the 21st century. Actually Hobbes isn’t much of a chaser, more of a watcher.

Video quality is poor because I shot it on my cell phone, oh well.

Paper or Plastic?

Paper please.

Hobbes has been sneezing off and on lately, so he’s been getting a Reiki treatment every night.

Little Miss Sigyn isn’t so little any more. She’s finally gotten as long as Gryphon (so she’s most likely full grown), yet she keeps getting wider. Turns out she was finishing her food then waiting for Gryphon (who gets excited about treats but not really about food) to lose interest and wonder off leaving half his food in the bowl (where he would typically come back for it later), and then gobble up his meal as well. Feeding them separate is an option, but we’re hoping to leave it as the last resort so we’ve come up with something else.