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Conference misery::feline

Title:	Meower Power - Where Differing Opinions are Respected
Notice:	purrrrr...
Moderator:	JULIET::CORDES_JA

Created:	Wed Nov 13 1991
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1079
Total number of notes:	28858

278.0. "Our Cat or Not Our Cat?" by PARITY::SCHULTZ () Tue May 12 1992 11:26

    Hi there,
    
    I need some advice on a situation.
    
    Back in November a beautiful Maine Coon Cat was coming up on our back
    porch to eat out of our cats dish.  I opened the kitchen door and the
    cat (we call her Tawny) came in and has stayed ever since.  She goes
    out around 8:00 every morning and is back by 4:00 every afternoon.  She
    sometimes goes out for a couple of hours in the evening but sleeps on
    the bed every night.  She was healthy but very knotted when she
    arrived.  She enjoys being brushed and got quite beautiful after a
    couple of weeks of living with us.  I guess we assumed that she had
    been lost or her people had moved and left her.  (I am the first to
    admit that we didn't look very hard for her "parents".  Since she goes
    out we thought "She's familiar with the area but comes home to us,
    we'll keep her".  We had two adult cats who get along with her and the
    end of December we got two kittens who love her dearly and have piled
    on and slept with her since they arrived.  She is their "nanny" cat and
    she cleans them, protects them from the older (and maybe a little cranky)
    cats and has provided them alot of warmth this winter.  She is a BIG
    part of our family.
    
    Now the problem.  She went out last Friday and was gone until
    yesterday, Monday night.  When she came back she was very wobbly on her
    feet and her long hair had been shortened as though she had been taken
    to a groomer and given a "summer haircut".  My husband has heard of
    people (I never have) who take their longhaired cats to a groomer or
    vet and have them sedated and groomed.  That looks like what happened
    to Tawny.  She is still waundering around this morning and not really
    at all like herself.  Her walk is unsteady (like she was still feeling
    the effects of sedation) and she is very shy.
    
    This brings up the unpleasant thought that either she has a home where
    she spends only a few hours a day or that someone, for whatever reason,
    took our (we think of her as ours after 6 months) cat and sedated/or
    worse her for the weekend.  Am I paranoid?  And what possible reason
    would they have had for cutting her hair short?
    
    I've already agreed with my husband that there is a possiblity that
    Tawny has two families but I am all for keeping her in from now on. We
    were frantic when she wasn't home Friday night and don't want to go
    through imagining he under some cars wheels. (Our other cats are
    strictly house cats and only get out on the enclosed back porch.  Tawny
    came into the porch when the door was left open but the cats were in
    the house, not loose.
    
    What do we do now? Leave her free to disappear (and perhaps go to her
    other house) or confine her as our other cats and run the risk of
    someone else being as frantic as us when she doesn't come home to them?
    
    Linda

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
278.1		MUTTON::BROWN	set home/cat_max=5 girls 2 boys 2 hhps	`Tue May 12 1992 11:41`	19
	In a previous note this topic came up, I can't remember where right now though. Anyway, a suggestion was made to attach a note to the cat's collar (or put a collar on her if she has none) and in the note say that you are wondering if someone owns this cat as you would like to adopt her or something like that. There is a very good chance that she does belong to someone else. It is only right to find out before you claim her as yours. Also, I once took in a stray that looked like he had been shaved, but it was just that he had a really bad flea allergy and his hair had fallen out. The stubble was the regrowth. Is it possible that someone shaved her because she was matted? How many days has she been groggy? The affects of anesthesia should wear off within a day of surgery if the cat is in good physical condition (no liver or kidney troubles). Jo
278.2		OXNARD::KOLLING	Karen/Sweetie/Holly/Little Bit Ca.	`Tue May 12 1992 11:59`	4
	It does seem strange that someone would resort to having the cat sedated to be groomed when her coat wasn't matted. I'd try the collar idea for sure.
278.3	possession is 9/10's of the law	SPEZKO::RAWDEN	Cheryl Graeme Rawden	`Wed May 13 1992 05:39`	12
	Re .0 When we got our (mostly) coon, he had to be shaved from the back of his neck all the way to the base of his tail due to excessive matting. I'm unclear as to whether Tawny still matted or not after reading your note and the replies. Perhaps someone had the cat groomed because the warmer weather is here and they thought the cat might be more comfortable and cooler with less hair? Anyway, when our guy was shaved, he was very wobbly and unstable for 3 or 4 days - I think it was traumatic for the poor cat. Perhaps Tawny had a similar experience or maybe the cat is just downright confused as to where her real home is? Do try to find the rightful owner(s) of the animal though.
278.4		MPO::ROBINSON	You have HOW MANY cats??!!	`Wed May 13 1992 05:43`	15
	I would be just as sentimental as you and want to keep her after all this time. Remember, though, that somebody else may be heartbroken if she never comes home again (if you keep her inside from now on.) Also, if you put a note on her collar and she does have other owners, THEY may decide to keep her in as soon as they see it and YOU would never see her again! I'd like to tell you to keep her, but somehow I can just picture this little old lady sitting at home sadly thinking `Tiffany never came back, I wonder if she's dead?'. Perhaps you could try to follow her to see where she goes?? Sherry
278.5	ask the neighbors/kids... etc	LEVADE::DAVIDSON		`Thu May 14 1992 14:16`	27
	We've gone through a similar experience.... a brown, longhair cat became a regular visitor at our home a couple of years ago. Though we would pet and converse with him, we didn't feed or held him. As time went on, we did wonder about his owners... and started asking our neighbors. Things were a bit confusing as most folks considered him black... Shortly we did find out who owned him and discovered that the family was looking for homes for their cats (cats? we only had met him.... hmmm), that same afternoon the word was passed and the owners showed up with BOTH of the cats asking if we'd like both! Unfortunately, we had never met Gus and already had a cat..., so Sebastian joined our family. He has been with us about 4ys. Funny, he never answered to Seb/Sebas/Sebastian, but trying it backwards: Nait-sa-bes, rather Nate, is definitely his name. Even comes when called and definitely a lap kitty! So, I would ask around and see what the local grapevine knows about Tawny... never know... his "official" family may be interested in finding him another home! Good Luck! -Caroline
278.6		FURFCE::LIZ		`Fri May 15 1992 07:44`	22
	There was an orange kitten that used to come to our house around the same time every late evening and would stay around for a few hours. We thought he didn't have a home, but where hoping he did because we already had three cats at the time. We would give him water and food every night and if he didn't show up we would worry. My Father really got attached to the kitten who grew into a teenager. One day the cat ran across the street in front of a car and my Dad thought that he got hit, the cat ran away and we went looking around the neighborhood for him to make sure he was ok. A few months passed without seeing him at all. We thought the worse. Then all of a sudden out of the blue this orange adult cat comes wondering in. He was all grown up. He must of used one of his nine lives. We found out he lived with a family a few blocks from are house, but loved to come over and visit and he still does occasionally. Liz