shape
carat
color
clarity

Abandoned Cat

Jambalaya

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
4,784
A friend of mine says the people next door moved away and left their cat behind. On purpose. The cat is re-homed now, but I just couldn't believe that anyone could do that. She's a really nice cat, too - a fine-looking cat (I saw photos) with an affectionate nature, I'm told.

I just don't get it. OK, so you don't want your cat anymore. Maybe it got expensive or maybe someone developed allergies. Whatever. But take it to the vet or get it re-homed in good time before you leave! Don't just abandon it! They really couldn't be bothered to even drop it off at an animal shelter? Apparently that was too much trouble for them! And people like that, does the cat never slip into their head that it is cold and confused and hungry, and shut out of the house, and exposed to predators? They really drive away and just leave it and never think about it?

I hope there's a special place in hell for people like that. I kind of wish I knew who they were so I could take out an ad in their local paper telling everyone what they did. Not that I would really do that, but it sure is a fun thought.

:angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire:
 

msop04

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Messages
10,051
Oh no! How sad!
 

NOYFB

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Nov 16, 2008
Messages
2,649
When I was 8 years old my mother and step-father moved us to a different town without waiting for our cat Tigger to come home (he was an indoor/outdoor cat - not by my choice, mind you). I was so sad that I cried for days. And yes, I truly believe that there is a special place in hell for people like that. As an aside, I have not had a relationship with my mother or step-father for over 8 years (for other even more heinous reasons).
 

monarch64

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
19,213
;( That is heartbreaking.
 
Q

Queenie60

Guest
Very Sad Jambalaya. I rescued a cat back in November, he was living out of a dumpster. Found a local no-kill rescue agency to take him. Come to find out, the cat was microchipped and actually belonged to someone. They guy was contacted several times but would not return calls. So he just decided to abandon the cat. The poor cat "Sammy" was starving to death, full of fleas and living out in the cold. I paid for his vet bills to get him healthy again so that he could be adopted out. Sammy was 4.5 pounds and now weighs a hefty 11 pounds! He's a 7 year old, beautiful cat. He's still living in a foster home and hopefully one day he will have a forever home. As my grandmother used to say - "there's not standing room in hell for people like that." My thoughts exactly!
 

KaeKae

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
2,390
IT's terrible

I belong to a "moms of" Facebook group, for our local area. At least once a week some one posts a picture of a dog or cat (or even a caged animal) saying they "don't have time" for it and need to re-home as soon as possible. While that's certainly better than abandonment, I still can't understand. Dogs and cats, especially, but other animals, too, consider you their family. They depend on you, are attached to you. How can you do that to a family member, whose has only crime is needing you and a little of your time?
 

diamondringlover

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
4,400
When we moved to our house 22 years ago...the previous owners left their cat....we took it in....and our last cat someone dumped..she was the sweetest kitty...she had been spayed and declawed on the front paws...they just dumped her :angryfire: what the hell is wrong with people...it makes me so angry....but I did get a couple of good kitty's but still its just so cruel. I also just remember another time it was late in the evening and some we had a fire going in the firepit in the driveway with the neighbors and some stopped...we didnt know why at the time..but suddenly there was a mom cat and 4 kittens...yes little kittens...we tried to gather them up but they ran and it was dark, the next morning we found the kittens but never found the mom...we kept them until we found them home...morons.
 

Calliecake

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 7, 2014
Messages
9,229
How very very sad. What the heck is wrong with people. How could you live with yourself leaving that poor defenseless baby. Some people really are just horrible!!! :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire:
 

packrat

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 12, 2008
Messages
10,614
When I was growing up, my grampa and gramma's farm was down the road from us. When they retired, they moved to a town about half hour away, and we inherited their farm cats b/c grampa said absolutely NO cats were coming w/them. We have had cats ever since then. (we always had an inside cat, but these were strictly outside) My dad was not thrilled-we got a mom and her three half grown kittens. Turns out he kinda has a soft spot for kitties..and our house ended up a "cat farm", and we started taking abandoned cats, soon to be abandoned cats, cats on the euth list at the vets. I started setting live traps where I worked b/c people would dump them there, and dad brought home a few from the packing house that were eating out of the dumpsters. The most we ever had was 50 at one time. It boggles my mind how people treat pets, without a second thought. One of those things that just does not compute and I can not possibly wrap my mind around it. I follow a lot of animal pages on FB, and there's at least one story per day, usually several, on abused, tortured, abandoned pets. Sickening.
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
We see it all the time, unfortunately. I find them and either take them in or rehome them.

Here's my Jack, who was left behind and is now our cat. He's a big orange love. He had a chip, it was out of date. But his previous owners abused him because he has a spraying issue (due to anxiety which he now takes prosac for), so he is better off with us.



And the calico is Tiger Lily, the sweetest cat I've EVER met, who I rehomed at the start of this year to a great couple after finding her in the parking lot of a human shelter we were donating clothes and food to. The residents there had been feeding her for a couple weeks but due to the ordinances of the city we found her in were not able to keep doing so. We waited two weeks and tried find her original owners to no avail (she was chipped but the information out of date). She's got a great place now with brothers and sisters she likes and parents who adore her. I would have kept her if I could.

img_20160128_224214070.jpg

img_20160304_160456523.jpg

img_20150501_0.jpg

img_20160311_011305298.jpg
 
Q

Queenie60

Guest
You're a lovely person Gypsy, for taking care of these kitties! I tend to fund a few per year. When they're dumped in my neighborhood or I find them behind the Safeway I will call my local rescue lady - she knows that when I phone, I'm always willing to pick up the expenses and she provides the shelter and rehoming. It's what I can do to help the population. People are a$$$$ holes - I wish that the stupid humans could realize that they do have hearts, soles, and feelings.
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
27,242
In the Harambe thread there was lots of talk about the value of human life over animal.

Here is a fantastic example of people whose lives I personally most certainly value less than their pet's. I'm confident they'll get what's coming to them, but I'm also confident that when they do they'll find some way to drag yet more innocents down with them :nono:
 

YadaYadaYada

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Messages
11,839
There was a very sweet cat hanging around our house late last year. We live on a very busy street and I was so scared that she was going to get hit. She would follow the neighborhood kids around and hang around with them. So one morning she came to visit me, this was all within a few days mind you from when I first noticed her and I decided to text my friend Stephanie and jokingly ask her if she wanted another cat. Mind you she already had two and two dogs so I thought no way would she go for another cat but I was wrong and she agreed to take her. Got her vetted and now she is her son's best friend!
 

House Cat

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
4,602
I found my girl outside of Starbucks. She was so thin and starving that she was eating the mulch laid out for the plants. She was incredibly affectionate. She would walk up to each patron and try to get love. There was a guy who said she was his neighbor's cat. He tried to pick her up and she scratched his forearm from elbow to wrist, left him bleeding. When he went inside, I grabbed her and took her home. I figured if she was his neighbor's cat, he wasn't treating her well enough to keep her. I've never seen her scratch anyone like that again.

She is strictly an outdoor cat. Sigh. Whenever we have tried to keep her indoors, she pees in every room of the entire house and paces and paces and paces until she can get outside. She is the sweetest little girl. People in the neighborhood stop to see her.



I think because there is always a feral cat issue in many areas of the country, people see cats as "disposable." They also see cats independent and able to fend for themselves because they can hunt. The jerks think that they can go out and catch a bird or mouse if they get hungry enough. I really think this is how they justify their shitty behavior. They never once take into account that their cat has feelings and loves them.
 

Jambalaya

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
4,784
Thanks for all the replies, and kudos to everyone who rescues cats, especially Gypsy. I googled this phenomenon of leaving cats behind when you move and apparently it's a well-known terrible thing that quite a few people do. :errrr:

Who are these people? We must be standing in line next to them, or working alongside them, or buying goods and services from them. Makes you wonder - we really don't know what the people who surround us are capable of.

I wonder what your average street or workplace would look like if all the animal abusers had an orange sign flashing above their heads, and all the spouse-beaters had a red sign flashing above their heads, and all the people who steal had a purple sign over their heads, and all the people who cheated on their life partners had a green sign flashing above their heads, and other signs for racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. In short, I wonder how many people would be sign-free who hadn't committed any of the great sins of our society - violence, theft, infidelity, and prejudice. Even murder - I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who commit murder and get away with it. I read a newspaper story about a woman whose husband disappeared many years ago. She said he'd gone back to his country of origin. No....she'd murdered him and buried him in the yard, and got away with it. The truth only came out shortly before she died - I can't remember how. But all her neighbors thought she was a lovely woman!!

It seems it's not unusual to abandon a cat. That means I might well know someone personally whose done it. :angryfire:

Queenie, I can't believe that the poor little cat you wrote about is still waiting for a forever home after all these months. That's one of the saddest things I've ever heard.
 

girlyglam

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Messages
274
Animal abusers both infuriate and baffle me. They are infuriating for the obvious reasons, but I am also truly baffled by them. If you are going to go through the trouble to bring an animal into your home, why on earth would you then turn around to abuse or abandon them?! I mean, truly - there is a fair amount of time, expense, and inconvenience when you get a pet...why would you do that if you didn't actually WANT the pet and LOVE the pet? If you never wanted it to begin with, then you shouldn't have ever bothered to get it, and it seems like an awful lot of work to go thought just to have a defenseless being around to abuse. And that just seems ludicrous to me anyway - do people really get a pet for the sole purpose of having something to abuse? The whole thing really, truly baffles me. I mean, I can't imagine what kind of person you must be to abuse an animal in the first place, but why even bother to get it if you're not going to actually uphold your commitment to love and care for it?

I try to be as open minded as I can be, so in that vein, I do get that sometimes unforeseen circumstances may come up that make keeping a pet no longer possible. I get that illness, dire financial situations, etc., can all lead to a person deciding that they can no longer keep their pet. However, to flat out ABANDON a pet is appalling. They are animals that have come to depend on you and love you...to just up and leave them is inexcusable. If you can no longer take care of your pet, for whatever reason, then the very least you can do is to make sure they go to a loving home, or at least a caring, no-kill animal rescue. How is this not obvious to everyone?

I don't have cats, but we have a little rescue dog. He was found wandering the streets in the Bronx. We don't know how long he was out there, but he was pretty thin and matted when he was found. We obviously have no idea about his background, but he had clearly lived with people at some point because he was already house-trained when we got him. It is possible that he got loose and got lost, which, if true, makes me sad for both him and his family (he wasn't chipped when he was found). However, it is also possible that he was abandoned, and that though make me so mad. He is a bundle of anxiety - general anxiety, particularly outside, and some pretty serious separation anxiety - and the past (almost) year we've had him has been filled with trainers (3 of them); every natural/over the counter/homeopathic anti-anxiety remedy out there; prescription meds; and lots of training. It's been expensive, exhausting, and unbelievable frustrating. DF and I have literally rearranged our lives to make sure that when he isn't in daycare, he's never home alone...we have not gone out for a date, dinner, show, or anything together past year, and sometimes I feel like we never will again. BUT, he is the sweetest, silliest, most loveable ball of fur, and we love him so much. And, I'm happy to say that it seems like all of the training (and the meds) finally seem to start to be paying off. His outdoor anxiety triggers seem to have been reduced now to just see other dogs and the opening of the elevator door. We've also recently been able to leave him alone long enough to go to the grocery store together, which is HUGE for us! He's not consistent yet, and we all still have a long way to go before that date night, but he's worlds better than when we first got him.

Anyway, my point is that his separation anxiety was truly so bad at the beginning that I can see why someone else who may have adopted him would think that he needed to be re-homed with someone who didn't work or worked from home. If I'm being honest, I thought that myself in the beginning, and I cried about it A LOT because it was the last thing I wanted to do. At that point though, I was lost. We had not been told of his separation anxiety before we adopted him (yes, I asked, and we had actually been told he was ok being alone); we weren't prepared for it; and his vet, medication, trainer, and daycare costs were starting to become unmanageable. Luckily, they were just fleeting thoughts, and when I actually voiced them to DF, he talked me off the ledge. I'm also incredibly lucky to have an amazing, caring boss who I was able to turn to to talk about the possibility of getting a second job within our institution that I could do from home...turns out, HR didn't allow that, but she did me one better and wrangled a promotion for me. The pay raise wasn't much, but it was enough to make things manageable. I've been blessed all around to have such a great support system, particularly in my DF and my boss. Not everyone has that, and I believe there are plenty of people that don't see any feasible way they can keep their pet. But just abandoning is it hideous. If you can't care for it, you owe that animal enough care and love and respect to ensure its wellbeing and put it in the most loving and caring situation possible. I'm not proud to say that I ever though about rehoming my little guy, but I can say without a doubt that I would never ever have just abandoned him.
 

packrat

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Dec 12, 2008
Messages
10,614
I think we're a pretty disposable society. If we don't want it anymore, it doesn't fit w/our life, what have you, we just get rid of it w/out a second thought, regardless what it is, including animals. That's pretty pathetic. Do what you can, make a difference for the ones you can, I guess, that's all we can do. We continue to take strays out to my parents house.

All the Kittahs Rescue..it's still in my lottery plans.
 

stracci2000

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
8,345
We adopted a cat from a shelter, and I'm pretty sure he was abused at one time.
Once we got him home, he became very aggressive. All fangs and claws. I believe he was teased and treated roughly, which would account for his vicious behavior. He didn't like to be touched.
One of his fangs is half missing, (cracked off) as if he was taunted with a stick or other hard item.
The end of his tail is kinked, his tail was probably slammed in a door. How that must have hurt him!!
He had 2 names on his records, so he had been taken to shelters at least twice. He was also micro chipped.

At first, he bit me hard many times, drawing blood. He would get this look on his face, and you can tell he is about to attack, sometimes for no reason. His pupils would get big, and he would chase me and bite my ankle. Hard.
I was not happy with him at first, and it was hard for me to warm up to him for a while. But there was no way I was going to bring him back to the shelter. We were keeping him, no matter what.

Well, almost 2 years later, his behavior is very much improved. Maybe he knows that we aren't going to abandon him like the others.
He still gets aggressive at times, but I can see the signs, and I leave him alone. He attacks our other cat sometimes, who is older, and I feel bad, because older kitty is so mellow, and I hate to see him being stressed.

After lots of patience and kindness, he is now mostly gentle and sweet, and he loves hugs and kisses. Such a huge improvement!
DH really loves this cat and they are best buddies.
I feel bad for whatever he went through before we got him. He can't tell us, but I'm sure he suffered.
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
packrat|1465272387|4041041 said:
I think we're a pretty disposable society. If we don't want it anymore, it doesn't fit w/our life, what have you, we just get rid of it w/out a second thought, regardless what it is, including animals. That's pretty pathetic. Do what you can, make a difference for the ones you can, I guess, that's all we can do. We continue to take strays out to my parents house.

All the Kittahs Rescue..it's still in my lottery plans.

I agree. We are a disposable society and that is the message our kids get so it perpetuates the cycle. Have a problem? Get a new widget.

I would absolutely open a rescue if I could, too.

In FACT given all the PSers who love animals, if I won the lottery I would post for contributions and match each one, just to raise more money for the huge number of animals I'd want to help and also ask if any of the PSers wanted to help me establish one and assist with optimizing policies or would want to work at the shelter.

I'd want to buy one of large hangars here on Alameda. We have a lot of them here. I'd convert it to a cat and dog shelter and also have a re-hab space for wildlife. I'd have several dog runs and cage free cat rooms. And a vet on staff.

But most of all I would open a cat cafe on site. Coffee, teas, drinks, salads, soups, and baked goods. Lots of vegetarian and vegan options, but also meat options. And I would have a free cat space with jungle gym behind plexiglass with couches in the cafe. Drinks with lids would be allowed in there and people could come and sit on the couches and spend time with the cats, and all the cats would be available for adoption.

I would have as good a screening process for cats as I could come up with and make it mandatory that any animals be returned to me.
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
stracci2000|1465274479|4041047 said:
We adopted a cat from a shelter, and I'm pretty sure he was abused at one time.
Once we got him home, he became very aggressive. All fangs and claws. I believe he was teased and treated roughly, which would account for his vicious behavior. He didn't like to be touched.
One of his fangs is half missing, (cracked off) as if he was taunted with a stick or other hard item.
The end of his tail is kinked, his tail was probably slammed in a door. How that must have hurt him!!
He had 2 names on his records, so he had been taken to shelters at least twice. He was also micro chipped.

At first, he bit me hard many times, drawing blood. He would get this look on his face, and you can tell he is about to attack, sometimes for no reason. His pupils would get big, and he would chase me and bite my ankle. Hard.
I was not happy with him at first, and it was hard for me to warm up to him for a while. But there was no way I was going to bring him back to the shelter. We were keeping him, no matter what.

Well, almost 2 years later, his behavior is very much improved. Maybe he knows that we aren't going to abandon him like the others.
He still gets aggressive at times, but I can see the signs, and I leave him alone. He attacks our other cat sometimes, who is older, and I feel bad, because older kitty is so mellow, and I hate to see him being stressed.

After lots of patience and kindness, he is now mostly gentle and sweet, and he loves hugs and kisses. Such a huge improvement!
DH really loves this cat and they are best buddies.
I feel bad for whatever he went through before we got him. He can't tell us, but I'm sure he suffered.

First, do you have pictures? I'd love to see him!

He sounds like my Lucy. She too was abandoned, has a kinked tail and was definitely abused. We found her right before our wedding when we lived in a one bedroom. DH sat with her outside for hours. She would sit on his lap but she would bite if you touched her at all. Finally, it was Halloween and she's all black. We had looked for her owners and it was clear she didn't have any. So we took her to the vet and boarded her through Halloween and had her checked out. Then she lived in our bathroom for three weeks till we moved to a 2 bedroom.

She's a different cat now-- eight years later. It took 3 years to really reform her until she was 'human friendly.' And she still also has her moments-- but they are less an less. But we've learned to recognize it and we leave her alone. She's never integrated with the other cats, so she stays in our bedroom. She tolerates Duncan so he's allowed in our bedroom whenever he wants. She's very happy and she's DH's biggest fan. She likes me, but she ADORES John.

img_20150104_0.jpg
 

missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
53,978
This is why I don't like some people. It is because of ignorant careless (and yes mean) people that we have this crazy cat situation in our country at least and in some other countries I have traveled to as well. People abandon cats and they procreate and it quickly gets out of hand. All 4 of our house cats were rescues and were abandoned kitties.

And we are currently dealing with an overwhelming feral cat situation right now. We are trying to trap neuter and release as many as we can but it is further complicated by the fact we don't live there full time. One of the cats we trapped in April gave birth the day after and we didn't even realize she was pregnant before she gave birth. So now we have 3 newborn kittens (well they are 7 weeks old about now) that we need to find loving homes for as soon as they are ready to stop nursing. Their mom will be spayed and released by the end of the month when the kittens don't need to nurse her anymore.

The mom is feral so she has to be released as she would be happiest that way. But at least spayed so she has no more babies. It is a heart breaking situation and as soon as we trap and neuter one cat a few more seem to pop up where we have the feeding station and the list keeps growing. Overwhelming and we are just doing the best we can and I say thank goodness we have the funds to keep this up at least for now. It is getting very expensive but we will keep doing whatever we can to help these sweet poor innocent ferals. These ferals all exist and are in the situation they are in because of inconsiderate rude selfish and ignorant people. :nono: :nono: :nono:

People, please spay and neuter your animals! Please don't abandon them! They are a member of your family and if you don't feel that way please rehome them. PLEASE do the right thing. ::)
 

Jambalaya

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
Messages
4,784
It's really lovely of you to take care of the cats around your beach home, Missy.

Yes, it seems that many people are very mean to cats. It's also amazing how many horses experience abuse. Such gentle, wonderful creatures who have served mankind so well.

I keep having this recurring thought: Since there is so much animal abuse, animal abusers must be among us, perhaps people who seem perfectly reasonable. I so wish I knew who they were, so I could go up to them and deliver a really swift, hard kick.

Thanks to everyone who posted photos. Gypsy, your black beauty looks a bit down. I bet cats remember abuse just as much as humans, and I bet abused cats suffer from long-term depression from it every bit the same as humans.

Why is it so hard for some people to accept or to imagine that animals have feelings, too?

I agree, Missy. There's no excuse for abandoning an animal. If re-homing is just too much time and trouble (eye roll) why, why, why can't they just drop the animal off at a shelter?

I've never heard of people leaving a pet behind when they move, and I was just really shocked when my friend told me about her neighbor.

My other friend who works at a vet's office says that the number 1 reason for people rehoming their dogs is that they started a family. Seems once baby comes long, the dog is unwanted. She says the new-baby thing accounts for about 80% of rehomings. I find that incredible. People who have kids usually knew that they would have them at some point, so if they didn't want to mix babies and dogs, why couldn't they have waited until they'd had the darn kids and the kids were older, so choosing and training the dog could be a family project? It makes no sense to get a dog, have a baby, and then get rid of the dog.
 

CJ2008

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
4,750
I love this thread.

My first cat had been abandoned by someone. They still lived there, but they had simply stopped letting the cat in the house and feeding him so he would just hang around their yard. :(( My friend had told me this was going on and asked me to come by to see him. I had never owned a cat before - and as a matter of fact my only memory of a cat from when I was little was not a good one, I think I had tried to pet one once and it tried to scratch/bite me - but the minute I sat down on the grass and this cat stepped onto my legs it was all over. I didn't know what I would do, I just knew I couldn't leave him there. It took a little while for me to get used to having him in the house - at first it seemed like we would have staring contests like "what are you doing here?" and "what am I doing here?" haha - but after a while well the rest is history and I am now on my 3rd rescued cat (all 3 have been found outside - the last one DH rescued.)

If we were ever to be so lucky that one of you won the lottery - count me in on participating and helping with the animal rescue.

There is someone in my life right now who I adore in many ways - but this person doesn't seem to be an animal lover. She likes animals, and owns a dog and posts cute pictures of the dog etc (but I have not seen her interact w the dog so I don't fully know how she really is with it) - but what I mean is that she can see stray animals or when I mention something about it I can tell it just doesn't register as something to notice or care about. For that reason and that reason only I can never fully and wholly like her and bond with her, if you know what I mean. It's just the one thing that if someone doesn't have something is missing for me.
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
Jambalaya|1465301136|4041124 said:
Gypsy, your black beauty looks a bit down. I bet cats remember abuse just as much as humans, and I bet abused cats suffer from long-term depression from it every bit the same as humans.

.

That's just her "mom, get this thing out of my face" look. She dislikes photo shoots and gets grumpy about it. But yes, they do remember.
This is as happy a picture as I can get of her. John has better luck, plus she adores him so occasionally he gets a better one of her. But in general she dislikes picture time.

tmp_23852-img_20160605_163347233246946298.jpg
 
Q

Queenie60

Guest
Gypsy - your cat is beautiful. She looks a lot like my male cat, Rascal. He's the sweetest cat, black cats have special personalities.
 

stracci2000

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
8,345
Gypsy|1465276734|4041057 said:
stracci2000|1465274479|4041047 said:
We adopted a cat from a shelter, and I'm pretty sure he was abused at one time.
Once we got him home, he became very aggressive. All fangs and claws. I believe he was teased and treated roughly, which would account for his vicious behavior. He didn't like to be touched.
One of his fangs is half missing, (cracked off) as if he was taunted with a stick or other hard item.
The end of his tail is kinked, his tail was probably slammed in a door. How that must have hurt him!!
He had 2 names on his records, so he had been taken to shelters at least twice. He was also micro chipped.

At first, he bit me hard many times, drawing blood. He would get this look on his face, and you can tell he is about to attack, sometimes for no reason. His pupils would get big, and he would chase me and bite my ankle. Hard.
I was not happy with him at first, and it was hard for me to warm up to him for a while. But there was no way I was going to bring him back to the shelter. We were keeping him, no matter what.

Well, almost 2 years later, his behavior is very much improved. Maybe he knows that we aren't going to abandon him like the others.
He still gets aggressive at times, but I can see the signs, and I leave him alone. He attacks our other cat sometimes, who is older, and I feel bad, because older kitty is so mellow, and I hate to see him being stressed.

After lots of patience and kindness, he is now mostly gentle and sweet, and he loves hugs and kisses. Such a huge improvement!
DH really loves this cat and they are best buddies.
I feel bad for whatever he went through before we got him. He can't tell us, but I'm sure he suffered.

First, do you have pictures? I'd love to see him!

He sounds like my Lucy. She too was abandoned, has a kinked tail and was definitely abused. We found her right before our wedding when we lived in a one bedroom. DH sat with her outside for hours. She would sit on his lap but she would bite if you touched her at all. Finally, it was Halloween and she's all black. We had looked for her owners and it was clear she didn't have any. So we took her to the vet and boarded her through Halloween and had her checked out. Then she lived in our bathroom for three weeks till we moved to a 2 bedroom.

She's a different cat now-- eight years later. It took 3 years to really reform her until she was 'human friendly.' And she still also has her moments-- but they are less an less. But we've learned to recognize it and we leave her alone. She's never integrated with the other cats, so she stays in our bedroom. She tolerates Duncan so he's allowed in our bedroom whenever he wants. She's very happy and she's DH's biggest fan. She likes me, but she ADORES John.

Here is a photo of Miso, named after the soup. His coloring is all gray.
We were gonna call him Alucard (Dracula backwards), because he was always trying to bite me. He has calmed down alot, but he still acts up sometimes. I tell him all the time how lucky he is to be in my house, where he is treated like a prince!
Your Lucy is beautiful. And I still adore the sweet kitty in your avatar, I'm sure you still miss her so much.

miso.jpg
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
Thank you Queenie. I'd love to see pictures of your black kitty. I am lucky enough to be owned by TWO black kitties. Penny, my second black cat is below.

Stracci, what a HANDSOME boy! OMG. To have him and NOT be able to SQUEEZE HIM and love him and hug him would be a special kind of torture. I'd probably risk losing a limb to sneak in a squeeze ( I've done it with Lucy a couple times, only before feeding her when she is less likely to eat my face) of that beautiful boy! And he is VERY lucky to have found you. Thank you so much for taking such good care of him and having so much patience. If he is anything like my Lucy after the 3 year mark at home, we saw a dramatic improvement. I hope he gets even more comfortable around your all in time. And thank you for your kind words about Hally and for remembering her. She was a very special soul. And we miss her every day.

Penny (named for her copper eyes).

_37510.jpg
 

momhappy

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 3, 2013
Messages
4,660
It's sad, but I am not at all surprised. A rescue group I follow just posted a picture of a dog crate full of 10 small dogs that were abandoned/dumped. People can be very cruel :((
 

missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
53,978
Stracci, Gypsy, thank you for sharing pics of your sweet gorgeous fur babies! :love: :love: :love:

Here's the set up my husband created for the feeding station for our ferals at our beach house. We are not there full time and had to figure out a safe way to feed them when we are not there and manage keeping (most of) the raccoons away so the food gets to our feral cats. My dh retro fitted a dog cage making 2 openings small enough for most of the kitties but too small for most of the raccoons. Now it isn't perfect because smaller raccoons and possums do manage to fit in and eat but that's just fine as there is still plenty of food for the cats.

Posting pics of the feeding station and then posting some pics the 3 kitties that were born 7 weeks ago to Sprite one of our original ferals. She is still nursing them and by the end of this month we are spaying and releasing her because her kittens will be finished nursing and then we are looking for good homes for her sweet kittens.


feedingstation.jpg


feedingstation.jpg


feedingstationsecondopening.jpg


Sprite the cat who just had kittens. She gave birth a day or 2 after we trapped her and we didn't even realize she was pregnant till Ann got home and saw that her babies were born!

_4033.jpg


And Sprite's 3 kittens. Such sweet babies. :love:

spriteskittenscutenesstimestwowhereisthethird.jpg


spriteskittiessoprecious.jpg



spriteskittiesawwww.jpg



spriteskittens.png



spriteskittiessocute.jpg


spriteskittysoadorable.jpg


spriteskittenandgregawww.jpg


spriteskittyaskingwhoareyou.jpg

spriteskittieshangingoutinstudy.jpg

Sorry for the cuteness overload but I just cannot help sharing these sweet faces.

Here are some of the original ferals who showed up last autumn. Sammy was first and she was the only one for a whole week before the other 5 showed up and after we started trapping and neutering a number of other ferals started showing up and that's who we are trying to trap and take care of now.

Sammy our original feral that started this madness last autumn. She has been trapped and spayed and is back amongst her feral family.
sammysweethandsomebaby_0.jpg


And Squirt. One of the originals after Sammy.
squirtsoadorableandsweet.jpg

And here's a fix my dh had to come up with when some of the raccoons that are able to get inside the feeding station decided to knock all the food down. So we had to make an unplanned trip to the beach house and he drilled holes in the feeders and attached them via cable wire to the cage itself. So far so good.

_3726.jpg


Some of our newest feral kitty additions who we are now trying to trap and neuter and spay and vaccinate.

Ginger Ale
orangesweetie.jpg


RootBeer
rootbeerkitty.jpg

Fresca who we suspect is the dad of Sprite's babies
frescaduringdaylight.jpg


Cola
cola.jpg

colablackkittywithwhitepaws.jpg

There are more but I think I have posted enough kitty pics for now at least. :cheeky:
 

Gypsy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
40,225
Missy you and DH are amazing.
 
Be a part of the community Get 3 HCA Results
Top