The official CAT thread

[stomachmonkey]

Update on Gary AKA Outside Cat.

My neighbor down the street who works with a rescue group was at one of her kids sporting events today speaking with a woman she knows trying to talk her into maybe taking the second black cat that has popped up in our hood.

The woman was saying how she still missed her last black cat with the really long tail that went missing a while back.

My neighbor went "hmmm"

Woman was here just a bit ago, turns out Garys name is Midnight and he'll be going home later where his brother Boots is waiting for him.

I like a happy ending.

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Update on Gary AKA Outside Cat.

My neighbor down the street who works with a rescue group was at one of her kids sporting events today speaking with a woman she knows trying to talk her into maybe taking the second black cat that has popped up in our hood.

The woman was saying how she still missed her last black cat with the really long tail that went missing a while back.

My neighbor went "hmmm"

Woman was here just a bit ago, turns out Garys name is Midnight and he'll be going home later where his brother Boots is waiting for him.

I like a happy ending.

Bravo!!!!!

Happy day!!!!! Small world where little miracles happen.

BTW: I liked Midnight's adopted name. He will always be known as Gary!


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[scottmandue]

Spent the last week building a 'catio':







Inspectors:

[Halm]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Spent the last week building a 'catio'

Love the Catio!

[Racerbvd]

[Racerbvd]

[Cooper911SC]

DANG DANG DANG!!! Stupid human F***UP!

2 nights ago Oliver (our orange tabby) played hard to get outside at dusk... Our 3 week old new baby boy was crying and had the wife busy.
That meant I was busy getting our 4 1/2 YO son getting him showered, teeth brushed, story time, and to bed.

Well guess what... normally it's my routine to
Shut down the house each night. Cats in? Chickens all accounted for in coop and closed up? Doors locked etc. ?


It hit me like a ton of bricks when I went to feed the cats yesterday morning...
Where's Oliver. Not perched on his usual scratcher. OH *****!??

Took me about 10min to realize he wasn't in any of his normal or "forbidden" inside spots and wasn't "hiding" on the porch. 😿

Looked around our yard and sadly found obvious signs of disturbed leaves and cat claw drag marks on the concrete driveway.

Oliver was a sweet friendly cat... and easy pickings for a 19lb Coyote feast!!!

I've drug myself over the coals the last 2 days. My wife is upset, but agrees...he has lived here 5 years and "knows" to come
In at night... Still pretty sad and in dis belief at myself. 😔

Our other cat Chester has been looking for his buddy the last 2 days. Sad.

RIP Oliver. I hope it was a quick demise.
😿😿

[vash]

poor Ollie. i would hate not knowing..impressive you found signs of a struggle. closure i guess, for what that's worth.

i hope he got a few shots in on the yote. i worry about my cat, but it's her choice. she is miserable inside all the time, and lives to make her rounds.

[Cooper911SC]

I was surprised to see the marks too... Ollie loved the front yard best. I walked out to get the paper and look for him and right there on the concrete at the gate were multiple cat claw marks on the concrete.

Crazy clawing for life type marks plus leaves from a nearby planter all over.

I do feel closure in that regard.

I agree about giving them the choice... but around here that means they might not be around in the morning.

Ollie was a lover and dreamer without much "street smarts"

Our other cat Chester came from the outdoor only survivor cat instinct. He would sleep up in a nook on the barn roof at night. Smart guy.

We'll rescue another Tabby from the Animal Shelter soon...

[dafischer]

So sorry to hear of your loss. Ollie looks like he was a great cat, and I'm sure he had a good life with you. Orange tabbys are special, they all seem to have a very mellow personality, different from other cats, for some reason. Hope you find a good rescue.

[bugstrider]

Today's helper

I really enjoy the fact that Tubs will go roll in the dirt then stroll under the 911 while I'm on the creeper to do a drive by body rub on my head as I'm trying to get a bolt loose.....

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[bugstrider]

Really having a problem with the stupid raccoons. All food has been removed, Doby is super paranoid and when I go under the house to check on him, the phuctards have now started scaling walls....WTF? The pictures washout the actual mess.











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[widebody911]

[john70t]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

Really having a problem with the stupid raccoons.

You know what to do. Loud, or quiet.
They don't learn too good

I did loud for as long as I could and did not harm a single one as necessary.
Pots and pans and lights and many needless nights awake.

My previously-injured cat was getting attacked on my 2nd floor balcony (devoid of food) right outside my bedroom.

A couple bold mother racoons and a dozen other babies involved.
Scaling all my walls like animal zombies. WTFH!!!
Message transmitted more than once = Go elsewhere.

No more complications about which 'night animal' was neighborhood boss established after those meetings so far.

[bugstrider]

Hahahaha, establish who is the butt kicking Alfa Coon. Although the momma raccoons are absolutely vicious. Years ago, I ran outside at 2:30AM when they attempted to pull a 40# food vault off our porch. I started yelling and banging things to scare it off. The bastard stood up and snarled at me, wasn't remotely afraid. Guess it's been conditioned to the large predators in our area.

I actually was thinking of using the live traps my parents have and then drop them off on the way to work 50+ miles away with the hopes of them not finding their way back. Also I could install a motion sensor bright ass LED near the entry point.


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[widebody911]

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

Really having a problem with the stupid raccoons. All food has been removed, Doby is super paranoid, and when I go under the house to check on him, the phuctards have now started scaling walls....WTF? The pictures washout the actual mess.

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The Catio I posted above is a result of our raccoon problem... my wife had jerry rigged wire fencing/plastic trellis by wire tieing it to the railing to contain the cats... beside looking ghetto it was not raccoon proof (woke up one night to find a small raccoon causally snacking at the cat bowl).

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

The Catio I posted above is a result of our raccoon problem... my wife had jerry rigged wire fencing/plastic trellis by wire tieing it to the railing to contain the cats... beside looking ghetto it was not raccoon proof (woke up one night to find a small raccoon causally snacking at the cat bowl).

(Long reply warning)
I saw that when you posted it. That is very cool and Catio 2.0 looks far from ghetto, rather professional. We have had visitors over the years but never to the recent levels and never shown evidence of climbing door jams/walls. With the white painted walls, mud and paw prints jump out like crazy. Unfortunately we have a cat door for Doby so until it is sealed up, there is their opening. Doby is our outside terror and I feel he needs an escape path from our larger predators. This year we have even had packs of coyotes on the property running around in the wee hours. Just yesterday I found another deer carcass which isn't good. About four years ago I accidentally left the downstairs workshop door open. When we returned late at night I go down to lock up and found very obvious and strong odor of a "big" kitty visit. Between 80-110# mountain lion. Evident by the height of the blast pattern where it sprayed 23" off the ground in three places.... lesson learned.

Onyx our feral rescue here has the survival nack of "run silent" if she gets outside. We believe this is why she survived so long outside and being all black helped too. When she was still living outside, we had an incident that I still can not explain to this day, I found her treed and looking down at me with her yellow eyes as I searched for her late that evening. Even the bugs went quiet .

Only cat we've ever had that drools when you rub her belly, and loves to be brushed.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

(Long reply warning)
I saw that when you posted it. That is very cool and Catio 2.0 looks far from ghetto, rather professional.

I built Catio 2.0 while my wife was in Oregon for her daughters college graduation (so I could be unsupervised )

She got to the top of the stairs, paused and said "that is nice"... she stepped inside "this is really nice" and later "you did a great job."

At which point I wasn't sure if I should feel complemented or insulted

I may be a tech-geek now but I did work ten years in construction, I can design and build things if given a chance!

[scottmandue]

Update on feral kitties:
Adopted out (white) with her new brother, very happy together:


All babies (4) adopted... still have feral mom cat and her sister (also up for adoption) but have removed the baby gate from the nursery (back bedroom) and giving them full run of the house and catio. They seem to be blending with our three large cats (a little hissing but no fighting).

Biscuit joined my wife on the couch the other night:



Marie (mom kitty) is doing well also (old picture from when she as still living outdoors):



Current pic of Marie: