All your sofa are belong to us

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There was a time, a mere eleven months ago, when Flippy and I were masters of our sofa domain.  We could sit and watch television, we could enjoy a snack, we could recline and have a nap—the sofa was a huge, wonderful world of comfort, not to mention clean and hair-free.  Now look at what we’ve become.  Ratty towels, hair clumps, and CATS.  That isn’t even all of them, either… one is hiding behind a chair, no doubt plotting how to convince the other three to divide the sofa into quarters instead of thirds.  Cats are very good at math.

I opened our front porch “winter cat haven” just a couple of days ago, and last night as Flippy and I were leaving to go to the Liz Phair concert, there was a cat on our porch, eating out of the food bowl.  The cat wasn’t at all startled by the garage door or me getting out of the car, and it voluntarily approached me and even wanted to follow me.  I could see it had a collar and a couple of tags, and it was in good shape (shiny, clean), although rather tiny.  One of the tags was a rabies tag from a clinic about 9 miles away (thank you, Mapquest), and the other had a phone number and an address I didn’t recognize.  I left the cat to dine on the porch, but as we drove off I phoned the owner, in case the cat was lost.  It seemed that it might be quite far away from home.

When we got home at 11:30 pm, the cat was still on the porch.  The owner had returned my call and left a message on our machine saying that the cat was an outdoor cat, but that she was surprised it had wandered so far from home.  She also mentioned that her husband had come to pick up the cat and had taken it home, but I could see that it had obviously just returned to our porch (no doubt, enticed by the aroma of the cheap kibble).  Today I called the owner back just to tell her that the cat had returned, because I wondered how far that cat was walking on its sojourns.  The owner must have a bad sense of direction, because the cat just lives a couple of blocks away in the sub-division behind us, and is getting to our house by going through a small park at the end of a dead end street, and then just walking around the corner to get to us.  I was a bit annoyed that the cat was outside, considering how close we are to the freeway, but I was even more annoyed when the owner said that the cat was not allowed inside the house because it had scratched the baby (after the baby had pulled its tail).  To make matters worse, I thought it was a young cat but it’s old—12 years old, to be exact.  It certainly doesn’t look like a cat who’s spent its life outside, and I honestly think that it was just tossed out onto the streets because of the baby.  I suggested Soft Paws for the cat, but the owner said her vet told her that the claw caps fall off easily and that it wasn’t a good solution.  I’m a little bit suspicious of this—I can’t imagine that a vet wouldn’t suggest at least giving it a try.  The owner then said she was going to have the cat declawed, but that the vet wanted to do “expensive blood tests” before surgery because the cat was a senior, and the owner didn’t want to pay for that.  I will say that the cat’s owner was very polite and friendly, and kept apologizing that her cat had “bothered” us.  I don’t think I ever got it through her head that she wasn’t “bothering” us, and that my concern was for her cat.  Her cat can spend all winter living on our front porch, that’s fine with me—I’ll open the garage door and let it sleep in there if it wants.  I just feel so sorry for a bewildered little black cat who spent her life inside, and now is just left to wander the streets.  There’s nothing illegal about it—she’s tagged and vaccinated—and if she’s taken to the shelter she’d just be put to sleep because of her age.  I didn’t see the cat back today, and I hope it’s because her owners decided to let her back in the house, but I doubt it.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/18 at 09:06 PM

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  1. There are people I like who let their cats out, but for the life of me, I can’t understand it.  It’s a big bad dangerous world out there for little cats.  Mean people, big cars, hawks, bicycles, getting lost, etc.  Not to mention, YOUR pet does not belong outside YOUR yard.  We already have plenty of pee & poop to pick up, we don’t need your pet’s pee & poop too.  A village doesn’t need to raise your cat.  Or feed it.  Or clean up after it.

    If we weren’t already full up on cats, that cat would have a new home.

    Posted by FlippyO  on  11/18  at  09:46 PM

  2. Just had to comment that your photo caption cracked me up.  The biggest cat lover I know calls herself enslaved by the master race.  Come to think of it, she just had a baby, and there’s at least one cat in most of the pictures of him! I’m with you guys on keeping animals indoors.  As long as there’s cars outside, pets should stay in.  Or on a leash or in a fence.  Can you fence a cat?

    Posted by Nancy  on  11/19  at  01:58 PM

  3. I think softpaws suck, too - at least in my hands… but I wouldn’t recommend declawing. I would recommend trimming the frickin’ nails. It’s not rocket science, people. Sheesh!

    Posted by hillary, vmd  on  11/19  at  02:13 PM

  4. Hey, it’s ESL Nancy!  There are some fences which are supposed to be able to keep a cat in the yard (http://www.catfencein.com is an example), but I’d still be worried my cat would figure out a way around it.  Or under it.  Still, if you already have an outdoor cat it might be worth a try (I don’t know what it costs, though).  Chloe the cat did come around last night, so it looks as if she’s adopted our front porch.

    Hillary, thanks for the soft paws tip.  You’re right about the nail trimming—it makes such a difference if I just keep Frank’s claws trimmed every couple of weeks, as he can then “knead” on me without also performing acupuncture.  I saw a laser declaw on TV last week, and even though it’s supposed to be a huge improvement over traditional declaw surgery, it still looked quite nasty.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  11/19  at  05:13 PM
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