peppermintesse: (Snow angel)
peppermintesse ([personal profile] peppermintesse) wrote2003-05-19 09:25 am
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So, um, yeah

We took in a new cat.

I should say he adopted us. We got home from work on Friday, shut the door, only to hear a plaintive wailing from the front porch. We open the door and this kitty tries to come in! We stand outside and pet him — he was practically crawling our legs. We theorized that he was an indoor kitty that had gotten out, and thought he belonged to the house down the street, so we walk down there, and were greeted by two very large barking dogs.

Probably not here.

We went to the house past that. Not theirs either; she suggested they belonged to a family down the other way, as she'd seen it following a 'family' that way.

Se we headed down to the other end of the street, and the two houses we asked said he came from the end of the street we'd begun on. Coming back to our own house, we brought out a bowl of dry food, which he fell face first into.

Based on what my roommate said, we now think that when the family across the street moved out two weekends ago, they left him behind (whether accidentally or intentionally).

We brought him in the house and kept him in the downstairs bathroom, away from the girls, in case he was FIV or feline leukemia positive. We had a lead for someone who might be interested in taking him in, but as it turned out they wanted a shorthair.

Meanwhile, aside from the occasional caterwauling in the small downstairs bathroom (usually when he heard people voices in the office) and wanting to get out every time we went in to check on him, he was relatively well behaved and very friendly. (Judging from the deposits in the litterbox, he'd been living on garbage.)

We decided then that we would take him to the vet and get him checked out. Aside from being a little underweight for his ~1 year of age, flea-ridden, and intact, he was fine ("Brain surgery", as the vet put, will be happening very soon tomorrow). He had his shots, blood drawn for the FIV/feline leukemia test (negative!), an Advantage treatment, ointment in his irritated eyes… a very hard day. So as soon as he got home, we gave him a bath with kitty bath wipes (think baby wipes; didn't want to wash off the flea stuff). The first thing he did was walk off of the table and sit on my roommate's bike seat (what a sight). Then he slept. A lot.

When he wasn't sleeping, he investigated the house a bit, got into hissing matches with the girls (and touched noses — there's hope yet). We had an incident with inappropriate peeing, but I think that had more to do with feeling ganged-up upon and insecure, or not associating needing to pee with going to the catbox (if he was an outside cat before, he isn't going to be now).

He's pretty vocal. Doesn't like to go upstairs. Loves sitting in the big front window.

Anyway.

[identity profile] jidabug.livejournal.com 2003-05-19 09:48 am (UTC)(link)
He's pretty. I love the bright blue eyes and pink, pink nose--very cute. Hope the integration with the rest of the household goes smoothly!
mtgat: (Default)

[personal profile] mtgat 2003-05-19 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
Pretty boy! Speak to me more of these kitty wipes, says she who is afraid of bathing her long-overdue tortie.

Kitty bath wipes

[identity profile] shiningmoon.livejournal.com 2003-05-19 11:31 am (UTC)(link)
We found them at PetSmart and actually there were several brands available. I don't remember the brand we bought, but they are essentially a bath in a wipe. You'd definitely want someone there to hold the cat still, and it helps to scrub into the fur a bit. It's a no-rinse thing, but safe for ingestion.

Hm, unless your tortie goes outside and gets very dirty (like blue-eyed boy was) or gets, say, motor oil all over, you shouldn't worry about bathing her/him. Cats are pretty good about self-cleaning. :)
mtgat: (Default)

Re: Kitty bath wipes

[personal profile] mtgat 2003-05-19 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
Ours not so much. Also, she gets dry flaky skin, so there's an occasional yuck factor. I'll take a look for the wipes when we go to the pet store next.

[identity profile] tanacawyr.livejournal.com 2003-05-19 10:49 am (UTC)(link)
1) He's adorable.

2) I'm going to be chuckling over the "brain surgery" comment all day long ...

"Brain surgery"

[identity profile] shiningmoon.livejournal.com 2003-05-19 11:20 am (UTC)(link)
I can't take credit… the (male!) vet actually referred to it as that. :D