I never thought I'd see the day...
42About 12 days ago my wife had a friend over to visit while I was at work. When I got home about 2345 Michelle decided to head home and my wife walked her out to the driveway. While they were saying their goodbyes next to her car I started hearing what I thought was a bird making a bunch of racket outside. As it turned out, it was a little kitten that came walking down the side of the road towards my wife and her friend (we live out in the country with lots of space between houses). The kitten was not at all skittish, and went right up to them, crying the whole time. I came out and picked her* up and she settled down and started to purr.
We set out some milk and opened a can of tuna for her since we didn’t have anything else, and she took a couple of sips and ate some of the tuna, but kept crying. I petted her for a bit, then put her down on the front porch. We decided to just leave her there overnight and see if she hung around or maybe went back to one of the neighbor’s houses… if she belonged there. She looked to be about 5-6 weeks old and seemed pretty healthy and well fed.
Next morning she was still on the porch, crying her fool head off so I went up to WM and picked up a couple of tins of wet cat food. She dove right into it when we put some out, eating and crying alternately until she ate a couple of tablespoons and calmed down. She was more than happy to be picked up and cuddled, purring contentedly the whole time.
She (?) has settled in nicely, and my wife, who heretofore was allergic to cats seems to be able to tolerate being around her (outside on the front porch) without any issues. SWMBO has become surprisingly attached to the little hairball. She is a bundle of energy (the cat, not SWMBO) and we have got her on kitten chow now and she continues to be an ‘outside’ cat. She’s super affectionate, and we spend mornings playing with her on the front porch while we have our coffee (after I come back from checking on Mom next door). I also generally spend some time with her before hitting the door after work. Plus she is super attentive to whatever is happening that involves us when we are outside, like when my wife was weeding the front gardens earlier she was all in the beds pouncing on her hands, feet etc.
She is fond of crawling up my shirt and perching on my shoulder, nuzzling my ear and/or nibbling on my earlobe or nipping my nose. She also will lick the inside of my elbow and knead my forearm with her paws some times.
(side note: My daughter has a cat named ‘Biscuit’ due to this type of activity… it looks like she is making biscuits when she does that)
We searched for a name for ‘kitty’ for several days and briefly considered Potter when I found her curled up in a Christmas Cactus plant one morning. But I think we have finally settled on Bandit… because she stole my wife’s heart!! Interestingly enough, SWMBO is proposing the acquisition of a second kitten to keep Bandit company. We will see.
So that’s the tale of how I became a pet owner once more.
- the pronoun she is used throughout this text since she is a cat… and in my head, all cats are female (and dogs are male). Don’t ask me why… I have never been any good at sexing cats when they are young and I plan on taking her to the vet in the next few days, and I will have her/him sexed at that time.
TL:DR I HAZ CAT!
- 35 comments, 100 replies
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Today she learned just how far she could lean into the pond out front while trying to reach the fish.![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
She hit the water and bounced out like it was a trampoline.
At least I don’t have to worry she will drown in the fish pond!
@chienfou we had a bunch of fairy moss growing on the surface of an old fish pond. One of our cats of the time when running along through the garden and right out into the water. I guess with everything growing on the surface of the water he had no idea he was running head first into a pond.
AWW![:purple_heart:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f49c.png)
Congratulations!
She’s ADORABLE!
And looks polydactyl in that last photo, as well.
@Kyeh![:laughing:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f606.png)
Thanks… still in awe that she was able to get into SWMBO’s heart the was she did…
@Kyeh
I’ll try to get a better pic of her feet/toes/pads in the next couple of days.
@chienfou Kittens are pretty irresistible!
Awwww…suckers!![:laughing:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f606.png)
(I joke, this is how dogs get me every freakin’ time.)
I see your new owner has arrived.![:smile_cat:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f638.png)
Enjoy your new found friend. Please pass on some head skritches from me.
@yakkoTDI
will do… headed home shortly for just that reason!
@yakkoTDI Do you approve of her chosen nap spot?
@Kyeh @yakkoTDI
yeah. We have a ton of them…
Head scritches given…kisses received…
It’s wonderful she chose you two
The cat distribution system in action. She’s adorable. I miss having cats (I will have them again).
@Fuzzalini Depending on where you are, I might be able to help there.
@Fuzzalini @werehatrack
@unksol might be able to help if you’re farther north …
@Kyeh @unksol @werehatrack Unfortunately, I’m in a place I can’t have pets. But I will move eventually.
Kittens are great. Too bad they eventually turn into cats.![:pouting_cat:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f63e.png)
@macromeh Yeah…
I was putting food out for my feline menagerie this morning and was looking at the new kittens playing around and climbing on everything and practicing stalking and attacking each other. Sometimes there’d be a fur ball of two or three rolling around together.
Then I looked at a couple of the adolescents who were the cutest things last year. I never knew where I would find them perched. (One was once draped atop a a-frame swing on the top bar, with all four limbs and tail hanging over the sides, looking at me as if to say, “Why do I never see you up here?”)
Now those older ones are just content to lie flat on the deck. They only move to get food.
@macromeh @phendrick Yeah, but there’s a lot of humor in that as well.
@macromeh @phendrick
all our outdoor cats have been pretty active over the years. And since the deck surface is at well over 110 degrees right now nothing is going to lounge on that…
@chienfou @macromeh At least my deck is mostly in the shade in the afternoon. And a few feet away from it close to the house is some bare ground (mud) where the home air conditioner evaporator has an outlet tube and drains to it. I see some of the cats like that area.
@macromeh My cats are all strays and years later remain loving, gentle and grateful cats.
So cute…and meant to be.![:smile_cat:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f638.png)
![:heart:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/2764.png)
@gogrrl Definitely a survival strategy!
I hope the kitten has a nice tunnel style bed so it can feel like it has a safe place to hide when outdoors and something scary comes by. I also hope you let it indoors to live as outdoor cats generally die young. Such a cutie!!! and that is wonderful it is so loving and has attached to the two of you. Often recused cats can be very grateful cats. I have several I rescued as littles who are like that even now at 13, 7, 4 and 5.
@Kidsandliz
Since she is outdoors she has lots of places to hide:
under the porch, under the decks, under the outbuildings, in the bushes, under the furniture on the deck and porch, etc etc etc…
@chienfou Glad to hear that. Too bad I don’t live closer I have some extra cat beds that I could give you to put around for her. That photo of her after discovering the pond is not a preferred habitat is pretty funny.
@Kidsandliz
yeah, she couldn’t shake her feet fast enough! So far no return to the scene of the crime…
@Kidsandliz His wife is allergic, so no indoor cats.
@chienfou I think of dogs as male and cats as female too, which is funny, considering all but one of my dogs has been female.
What is SWMBO ?
@nannieanne
She Who Must Be Obeyed.
(Typically the wife or life partner)
@nannieanne don’t feel bad, I had to google it myself…
@earlyre @nannieanne I only knew because of the old wine site where it had to be explained a few times. I think some of those people lurk here now.
@f00l @nannieanne
@blaineg @f00l @nannieanne Wow, I had no idea the internetz term SWMBO was based on “a Major Motion Picture… coming to theaters in 1965”
The trailer that IMDB plays for it looks quite steamy for 1965.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059710/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7
wikipedia link
great review quote:
@blaineg @f00l @nannieanne @pmarin Shouldn’t that be: Ursula Undress?
@pmarin
![](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
It already haz the only thing it needs to redeem it-
the lovely Ursula Andress!
/giphy ursula andress
@pmarin <img src=“
” alt=“Ursula Andress Wears Classic White Bikini On Jamaican Beach Dr No X”/>
That is true Kitty love!
Congrats.
Since it looks like you have a covered porch what about a cat tree in front of a window so she can sit there and watch you inside the house? I bet she’d like that.
@Kidsandliz
Not really necessary because I have several windows that go down to ground level.
Regarding pet allergies, and I’m not expert on this at all, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard about people who had pet allergies and turned out to be totally OK with a certain animal.
Also, allergies can change over time, often get better. So for people that were told they had pet allergies 20 years ago and have been avoiding them for years may find that it’s much better now maybe even gone completely.
But yeah you know your body and how it reacts, so I’m not saying run into a room full of animals, especially if you may have more dangerous responses like an asthmatic condition.
@pmarin This is true - my brother gets sneezy and itchy-eyed around unfamiliar cats, but he owns a cat now and spends a lot of time with her snuggled up very close!
@Kyeh @pmarin It’s often the cat saliva people are allergic to not the fur/dander.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @pmarin We have eleven cats. One of them provokes my sinuses if he gets on my lap for too long. Want to guess who he decided to strongly bond with when he arrived?
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh @pmarin An addendum: Just under two weeks ago, our house AC failed, loudly and expensively. We took refuge in my daughter’s living room for the duration, coming home to do cat maintenance once or twice daily. The AC people replaced the entire system on Saturday, and the new installation includes greatly improved filtration. Unsurprisingly, about half of my sinus irritation seems to have cleared up. Maybe a bit more. I no longer sound like my throat is heavily coated with crud all day. And given that I’ve been trying to work to develop a more presentation-appropriate voice, this is A Very Good Thing. And the cats are not complaining, either; if anything, they have spent the last several days being very insistent that they should be getting all the lap time and scritches and treats.
@Kidsandliz People who are allergic to a cat’s saliva would be particularly distressed around one specific cat of ours. When she’s feeling especially content, she drools. And when too much of it accumulates in her mouth, she shakes her head, sending it everywhere.
@Kidsandliz @werehatrack I would say I don’t believe the drooling story, but yes I’ve met a cat of such behavior. A friend was staying at someone’s house cat-sitting, and I went to visit. And met the cat, but he warned me about the drooling cat, and it was accurate.
@pmarin @werehatrack I have one that drools when purring or kneading you. Wish she didn’t but vet said nothing wrong with her, some cats just do that.
@Kidsandliz @pmarin @werehatrack my daughter’s cat is named Trudeau because he drools all the time
She is getting bigger and her head now is more proportional to her body. Still super cuddly and a people pleaser.
No more dips in the fish pond either!
@chienfou
pix as she grows are most welcome
@chienfou Your fish are safe then. Sometimes an immediate undesirable natural consequence for behavior is just the ticket. LOL
Here’s a better look at her paws
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
@chienfou Hmmm! It looks normal that way but yikes, those claws are sharp! If you get a chance, can you get a picture of the toe pads?
@chienfou Bandit is adorable. Please give her (?) a nice belly rub and a few treats from me!!
Thought I would take a few minutes to update the saga of Bandit the cat.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Here’s a look at the pads as requested (finally)
Bandit’s still good about staying in the (one acre) yard, and now has learned the purpose for those nails. Tree climbing was suddenly a thing.
as was the “30ft solar clothes dryer”.
So, fast forward a couple of weeks and SWMBO drops another bombshell on me…
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
“You know, maybe we really do need to get another kitten to keep Bandit company”
WTF… “who are you and what did you do with my wife??”
When she mentioned it early on I thought she was just being snarky… but now that she has repeated it I am forced to admit she really means it. So we learned from some friends that their daughter knows someone with a batch of new kittens. They are too young yet, but should be good to go in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, Bandit continues to grow and remains a very snuggley kitty, loving to be picked up and held in a lap, or padding and licking at the bend in my arm, or my wife’s neck, or my ears or … whatever is available.
Time marches on (as it is wont to do…) and we learn the kittens are ready for their ‘forever homes’ last Tuesday. We have already picked out a name… Smokey (of course) so when we get there we try to pick one out that fits that moniker. Lo and behold one of them is not only gray, but also much “fuzzier” than Bandit so she looks like a little puff of smoke. DONE… we’ll take that one.
Put her in the carrier I had bought from Amazon (pretty cool, it even has a fan built into one end of it that runs off a battery pack that is USB ported) for the trip home but quickly decided that she was just too cute and needed to be cuddled.
Bandit took to her really well, and they have been playing tag and wrestling frequently, but also have moments of just hanging out together/cuddling with us. They even eat at the same time with no fights over who gets which plate etc.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Overall she is a keeper.
By the way. Finally went to the vet once we got the second kitty and it was determined that Bandit is about 10 weeks old, Smokey about 6.
Oh and remember that thing about cats being “she”? Turns out Bandit is a male, but Smokey IS a female. Next appt in a couple of weeks will be the last before they get scheduled for spay/neuter. No (more) new kittens in my future…
@chienfou thanks for the update and the super cute pics! They are adorable and lucky to have you and SWMBO. Please give the kitties a snuggle from me and whatever the equivalent of a PB treat is from Charlie!!!
@tinamarie1974
That last pic is them channeling Garfield… they were finishing the last of Mom’s lasagna!
@chienfou OHHHH!!! So adorable and now you have two! That really is an excellent idea. I always preferred having two at once (just haven’t tried with Toby because he’s so shy.) But they do seem happier with a sibling. Such cuties; and funny and amazing that your wife has become a cat person.
)
(I thought that was lasagna!
@chienfou love that!!
@chienfou Thanks for the toe pad pic too; just the normal number of toes, I guess. (But variegated
!)
@chienfou Just remember, no onions in the sauce when sharing lasagna with the kitties.
@chienfou @tinamarie1974 Be careful as cats can get sick from tomatoes, onion and garlic - power or otherwise (the latter two can kill them, as can caffeine and a variety of other people food and plants).
@chienfou Those kittens are darling so keep the new wife and forget about the old one.![:rofl:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f923.png)
Enjoy your kitties. You will have good company for the next 17-20 years.
@chienfou @Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 Garlic, yes, good catch. I’ve had numerous cats who adored tomatoes, but onions, garlic, shallots, and basically anything from the lily family is off limits.
@chienfou @Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 @werehatrack @Kyeh
They are too cute! And lucky to be able to grow up together in such an idyllic setting, it’s like a cat’s dream!
Yes, good catch you guys, about the lily thing with cats! I knew about the garlic/onion issue, but had never heard about lilies until my niece’s kitten died, and it happened so fast there was nothing they could do for her.
I consider myself fairly well-informed when it comes to pets, but i wasn’t aware of this issue, despite the fact that they’re HIGHLY toxic to cats, to a crazy level.
https://www.mspca.org/angell_services/lily-toxicity-the-potentially-fatal-danger-to-cats/#:~:text=True Lilies%2C which include the,small amount can be fatal.
The poor baby never even went near the bouquet of stargazers that was up high in a vase, but they say even inhaling or ingesting a tiny bit of the pollen can do it. Even drinking the water from a vase that used to have the flowers in it is toxic.
I mean, everybody’s heard of the poinsettia thing, even though they’re barely a problem, maybe causing a some gastrointestinal upset if a significant amount is ingested, but i wonder why this isn’t more publicized? It could have saved my niece a lot of heartache.
@chienfou, it occurred to me that you like gardening, so i thought this would be a good opportunity to mention this, in case you have any true lilies in the area where the kittens are kept, you may want to remove them. I know it’s easier said than done, especially with day lilies once they’re established, but there must be a way. Maybe killing the roots with black plastic or something else that wouldn’t be harmful to the fur babies…? I’m far from a horticulturist, but I’m sure you would have some ideas.
Anyway, congrats on becoming a cat dude!
They’re precious. ![:purple_heart:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f49c.png)
@chienfou Those kittens are ADORABLE and I love the names you’ve picked out for them.
Here’s to years of entertainment and love for you and SWMBO.
Our Avengers are almost two years old now. Time flies.
@chienfou @lisaviolet Two years?!
I feel like my mother’s friends who I remember telling me “how’d you get so big, you were just a tiny thing last time I saw you …” and seven-or-however-many-years-old me rolling my eyes…
Thanks all for the heads up on the food/plant issues. We will have to keep that in mind going forward. I guess since I have been a ‘dog person’ mostly in the past I wasn’t aware of all the potential threats to kitty health in our environment.
![:cat:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f431.png)
Smokey and (the) Bandit say Thank you!
Life’s crazy, man! I can totally picture you guys bonding with Bandit on the front porch, playing, cuddling, and her perching on your shoulder like a true bandit.
Been a while since I posted an update to our saga.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Smokey and Bandit get along well and have been a blast. Here’s a shot of them sacked out on the side table on the poolhouse porch.
Last night we laid out on the poolside loungers and looked for meteors in the Perseid showers. Both cats hung out with us the whole time and in fact, SWMBO missed all three of the ones I saw due to being distracted by the cats!
Bandit goes in for his nut job in a few weeks.
@chienfou Catshirtswoot has that covered. Or more specifically, @acraigl has that covered.
https://shirt.woot.com/offers/cat-distraction-warning
@chienfou Cute little babies… Watch out. I’ll steal them. Does Bandit still nuzzle you like in the earlier photos?
@Kidsandliz
yep, he spent almost a half hour doing that last night!
@chienfou
Sounds like they both lucked out bigtime.
What a couple of cuties!
@Kyeh
Just got home and walked back to check on the chickens and close them up for the night. Both the cats came out to greet me as I was coming back to the house. Bandit was insistent on being picked up and then wanted to nuzzle. Smokey felt left out and kept weaving in and out of my feet till I picked her up too. Yeah… they have a hard life!
@chienfou So do they stay in the house overnight?
@Kyeh
Nope. Totally outdoor cats but they have an acre to rule over!
So, lately they have discovered that the grape arbor makes a wonderful platform for their antics…![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
@chienfou Is it just the picture or does he have a short tail? I scrolled through the rest of the pics bur couldn’t tell.
@yakkoTDI One of the early ones appears to show a normal tail.
@yakkoTDI
No just a normal tail. I think it was the angle or may have been curved a little bit
Thank you for saving this kitten and giving Bandit a home![:heart:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/2764.png)
Those kitties have an enviable life!
So very cute and they look happy!!!
Yep they have it tough!
What can I say we’re pushovers…
Trying to update this thread but having ‘issues’ getting pics to post.
Will try again later…
Sorry for the long gap in the story.
Here is an update on the saga of the chienfou household’s kitties…
9/12/23
Bandit went in for a ‘nut job’. Spent the day at the vet’s but seems to have forgiven us for it within 24 hours. Still VERY people focused and affectionate. Smoky is waiting for a couple of weeks more body mass for her first rabies shot. Still way under 5 lbs.
Bandit is still a climbing fool, and will run in front of me and straight up a 7 foot 4x4 post to perch on top of the clothes line each time I walk past it if he is anywhere around. Sort of reminds me of when Snoopy perches and pretends to be a vulture. I keep waiting for him to leap at me as I walk under him.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Other occasions he will run up the pear tree or the cedar out front…
Smokey is still not as people-centered as Bandit, but does enjoy being picked up, flipped onto her back and having her tummy rubbed.
Both of them will come around and hang out with us if we sit out on the deck. Smokey loves to play with the hole in the middle of the high-top table where the umbrella goes thru. Had to get rid of the umbrella recently after it got destroyed in a wind storm. She has taken to reaching thru the hole as far as she can and batting the underside of the table. It’s a glass top so she can see our feet or fingers under it and she will strrrrretch out as far as she can to reach us if we ‘tease’ her from the underside of the table… It’s a great game.
Sunday 9/24/23 Disaster strikes.
Went to bed Saturday and both kitties were on the back porch to eat their night-time meal and say goodnight/get some scritches…
Woke Sunday and Smokey came around to eat but no sign of Bandit.
CRAP!
Called and looked around on the front, back and poolhouse porches but no sign of him. Fed Smokey and sat out on the front porch with her for a while, calling Bandit on and off. Still not taking Mom to Mass due to recent hip replacement making getting in and out of pew and kneeling difficult a bit still, so SWMBO took Mom to church.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
While they were gone I walked around the house and called for Bandit, but still no sign of him. I finally got back to the front and found him curled up under an azalea bush. My first thought was “Oh Fuck” since that was where I had found our last cat (7-8 yrs ago) after she got her pelvis shattered in a car incident.
Bandit was alert, and looking around and meowed when he saw me, but didn’t get up… shit,shit, shit! I picked him up and he winced a bit but tolerated it well enough, so I sat with him in my lap on the front porch to try to check him out. No visible trauma, no blood, no obvious deformity… but his back left leg was pretty swollen and he wasn’t standing on it. He really wasn’t complaining much as long as I didn’t mess with that leg, so I decided to hold off taking him 40 miles to Montgomery and waited until the next morning to see our vet locally. He spent the whole day and night in a laundry basket on some towels and I tried to get him to drink a bit from a syringe but he wasn’t really interested. I kept him NPO after midnight just in case he needed to have any surgery etc.
Dropped him at the vet first thing Monday and she contacted me a couple of hours later to tell me he had broken his leg… probably from a fall since there was no evidence of any other trauma… Dammit. Must have fallen from the arbor onto the pavers, or maybe got his leg caught in a fork in a limb on the way down from a tree or something. It’s pretty soft grass under/around the clothes line, so I don’t think that was the culprit.
Here’s a pic of the xray:
As you can see, he broke the distal head of his femur, which the vet said is not that uncommon. Rest and recover (inside) and he will be fine in a few weeks.
He is on pain meds (gabapentin) and something for paristalsis since he was pretty blocked up from not wanting to poop at first. He is getting the hang of it, and took to the litter box fine.
First few days he basically just hung out and slept, then by mid-week he was up and walking around with a limp. Now he is getting more frisky, pouncing on your feet when you walk by, shooting across the floor to beat you to the couch, jumping onto the couch or the sidetable and down again, laying on his back and batting/chewing on the strings that keep the cushions on the dining room chairs, etc. etc. (without any crying or apparent pain).
Today he spent a good bit of the day outside since he ran thru the door when we went to feed Smokey. He accompanied me to the back corner of the yard to feed the chickens and swap out the tires on the trailer we will be using next week to carry some kayaks to the beach and didn’t really seem to be uncomfortable at all. Still favoring that back left leg, but will flop down onto the ground on that side as often as not.
So there you have it. This is the current state of affairs locally, and part of the reason I have been AWOL from the meh community intermittently of late.
Hopefully things will settle down and go ‘back to normal’ whatever that may be…
@chienfou Whew!
I’m glad it’s all turned out okay - how scary! Poor little guy. I hope he heals as well as you’ve been doing.
@chienfou Sooo… indoors some of the time at present? You know where this leads, right?
@chienfou Glad he is better but I’d suspect there will be more incidents in the future just because kittens are demented the first 2 years of their lives and do a lot of stupid things.
@chienfou @werehatrack Hope allergies aren’t kicked up and both can come inside. It’s safer for them. And in the winter they will be warmer and happier.
@chienfou Poor little kitteh. Glad to hear he is recovering well.
Ok, it is now Jan 13, 2024 so I guess that safely constitutes “later”
Things are going well at the cat haven.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Bandit is fully recovered from his leg fracture and other than a weird way of laying down with his left leg out behind him, seems none the worse for wear.
He is getting bigger but is still a big furry cuddle buddy. Smokey has also grown some but not as much. I expected her to get some weight on after she got spayed, but so far it is pretty much a normal amount.
They have adapted well to being mixed indoor/outdoor cats with nights spent inside in the parts of the house that are not carpeted and don’t have cloth upholstered furniture. They have a litter box in the guest bath (using pine wood chip based litter that we REALLY like) and have a cat water fountain and a gravity fed dry food dispenser in the dining room they can avail themselves of at will.
Bandit is still a climbing fool, much to the dismay of my vet. The other day he was about 25-30 feet up in a cedar tree when I went looking for him outside. He was meowling his fool head off and giving me a “get me out of here” vibe. I remember someone once telling me cats always manage to get down on their own. After all, have you ever seen a dead cat skeleton in a tree…? I told him to “get his own ass down since I didn’t put him up there”, and sure enough a couple of hours later when I came in from the shop he was on the porch waiting to go inside like nothing had been wrong.
Our typical routine is to let the cats in at dark and out in the mornings since it is near freezing at night locally. They both come over to greet me when I get home about 2330 after work and will jump up on my lap when I sit on the leather couch. Bandit still likes to nurse/nuzzle/lick, especially in the crook of my arms which are generally exposed due to wearing short sleeved scrubs at work.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Sometmes I will leave my fleece jacket on which totally pisses him off since he can’t get to my skin, but most nights I just let him go to town. The only trouble is he likes to pad/kneed while he does it and sometimes the little shit forgets to keep his claws sheathed which hurts like hell. At that point we play a round of “re-direct the kitty” and I will move his head away from my arm and pet his head or scratch his belly until he squirms around enough to get to my other arm (or my neck or my face or my nose etc) and start licking that, then I will re-direct him until… rinse, lather, repeat. Eventually he will give up and just plop down in my lap and go to sleep. Meanwhile Smokey will crawl up onto the couch and just lay there with her head in my lap, letting me pet her back or ‘scritch’ her chin or ears for a while, occasionally giving me little pats with her paw or little ‘love bites’. Sometimes she will just lay there and start grooming whatever part of Bandit is closest to her face.
Eventually I will extricate myself and head to bed.
In the morning it’s the same scenario as I try to read the paper on my tablet. They both hang out with me until SWMBO gets up and feeds them as she puts them outside. I have left that duty to her so that they associate her with their feeding. So far that seems to be a good process and she will occasionally snuggle with one or the other of the fur-babies on the couch while I am at work or while we have coffee in the AM.
Well, that pertty well caps it for now. I will try to keep more abreast of my posting ‘duties’ so it’s not so far between parts of the saga … yeah, and pigs might fly some day too!
@chienfou Well, it seems like your having indoor cats was kind of a flying-pig phenomenon in itself! They sound like lovely kitties, and Smokey is especially beautiful!
I’m glad Bandit has healed up okay; I hope he doesn’t break anything else.
@chienfou P.S. Do you have lotion on your arm? My cats have always tended to want to lick it off if I do.
@chienfou Yup. Evidence that the will of the kitties will rule the roost despite what the humans originally intended. Your kitties have mastered the art of getting their humans do to their bidding.![:laughing:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f606.png)
@Kyeh
Nope, the closest thing I use to lotion would be hand sanitizer!
So, to facilitate the access and egress for the two feline overlords, I made an insert for one of the windows in the dining room that is only about a foot off the floor at the bottom. I put a cat door in that insert and the cats took to it very readily.
We went out of town for a few days so I thought “great, I can check out how well this works while we take a short trip”. They have a feeder and a water fountain so no worries there. In order to gauge the frequency of their trips thru the door I put the game camera up on one of the chairs to capture any motion as they came and went. It is set to take a burst of 3 pics back to back, then a 15 sec video.
Turns out they were going in and out pretty often. Maybe due to the novelty or maybe just because they really wanted to. I was reviewing the pics and video clips… look there’s Bandit, there’s Smokey, there’s Smokey again, and Bandit coming in, and there’s wait a second… who the F%# is that??* Seems they threw a party at the house while we were gone (typical kids) and invited some rando cat in to eat their kibble. Needless to say… Papa was NOT happy.
So, back to the drawing board, and back to the vet to get the cats chipped. Now we have a super-duper high tech cat door that reads the chip and only opens if it recognizes the cat. Problem solved!
BTW the door can be programmed to recognize up to 40 different chips. WTF… no way THAT is gonna happen.
@chienfou Wow! Those kitties have you wrapped around their furry little paws. It’s good to have them chipped in case they wander off and get lost, too.
@chienfou
You are already up to two - the man who wasn’t going to have any cats, let alone cats inside. This happens one cat at a time. Just ask a couple of people on here who have a dozen cats and counting…![:laughing:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f606.png)
@chienfou @Kidsandliz If an orange kitten shows up, I’m doomed.
@chienfou I literally Lol’d when I was reading about the shenanigans, that was hilarious!![:rofl:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f923.png)
![:cat2:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f408.png)
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That’s kids huh, there’s always that ONE trouble maker!
I’m curious to what else they did to the party pad while they were entertaining?
@chienfou My daughter went directly to the chip-checking cat door because the raccoons (and even the possums) have learned that there’s good stuff inside those little flaps.
Awe! I had a cat that we named Bandit, he was my very very very favorite cat, please don’t tell my current two. Bandit was more like a cat dog, he played fetch, actually minded, was just the coolest cat. We lost him with the melamine poisoning bullshit that was going on in what 2007. Anyway, we called him Bandit, Bandicoot, Cooters, it was a great name for a great cat. Congratulations on your little Bandit!
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
@Dakini
that’s awesome! He looks like a cutie. Sorry about your loss. Do I must say I had to look at the picture closely cuz you look like he was headless and I couldn’t tell which way he was pointing! We used to have a Siamese that played fetch all the time. She was my father-in-law’s favorite cat, and he was not really a cat person. Did she say something about a cat playing
OWLS! TOWELS! JOWLS! AWESOME!
@Dakini
oops… the last sentence was SWMBO commenting to me about your post while I was doing voice-to-text… We were outside on the porch with out kitties and I didn’t take the time to proofread before I posted since my phone had started to blow-up with texts from my sister.
@chienfou Would you like history to be revised?
@chienfou haha, I figured it was something like that! I throw something to my two girls and they look at me like I am nuts. Dog/cats are the best and honestly I always feel they are typically of the male gender. I always swore I would never have another female as they have always been neurotic for me. I somehow ended up with two girls. One found us out in the woods, we brought her in when it was near 20 below, the other I got as a friend for her because she seemed to need something more than us. They are both needy in their own ways and drive me a little batty but I love them all the same.
Anyway, this was my Bandit without his head crunched into a cat tree.![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
@Dakini
What a Beauty!
@chienfou @Dakini
That IS a gorgeous cat!
Been a while since I brought you up to date on the doings of my 2 kitties.
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
Bandit often still keeps his back left leg out behind him when he lays down .
Smokey will cuddle mostly if you pick her up and flip her over in your arms. If you try to get her to curl up in your lap or next to you she will wander off a lot quicker that if you hold her.
They got a new toy. Sort of a hollow donut they can get inside and wrestle in.
It even has a ‘murder hole’ where one of them can stick out a paw and bat the crap out of the other.
But at the end of the day, they are still great buddies!
@chienfou oh that last pic is so sweet![:heart:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/2764.png)
@tinamarie1974
yeah… isn’t it??
@chienfou @tinamarie1974 Clearly those two love each other!
@chienfou If you could post a url to this toy I know of 4 devious little kitties (yup those would be mine) that would likely love this.
@Kidsandliz
It was a gift from the lady that ‘pet-sits’ when we are gone more than a few days. She spends more on them than we pay her sometimes! I will look it up in a moment… gotta take care of one of these pesky ER patients!
@Kidsandliz
it’s from fampaws. (www. fampaws.net) but pretty sure it came thru amazon. Really cool, zips in half so top and bottom nest, has large entrance and smaller ‘murder hole’, depression in the middle for kitty to curl up in etc. They have had a blast in it. Once Smokey was running around inside and managed to get it up on edge and roll it 15 feet across the room til it bumped into the other wall! That was spectacular!
@chienfou SO CUUUUTE! And so big now! They’re a lucky pair of kitties.![:heart_eyes_cat:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f63b.png)
@Kidsandliz
![enter image description here](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
@chienfou You sure she isn’t a hamster or gerbil rolling across the room like that?![:laughing:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f606.png)
@Kidsandliz![:lion_face:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f981.png)
Thinks she’s a circus lion!
Reminded me of seeing The Cat Man at Key West.
Dominique is a French guy that does a full on ‘lion taming’ act with rescue kitty cats… Too funny!
Pic is probably 30 years old… he has a lot more gray hair now.
@chienfou Thanks for the link. I found it.
@Kidsandliz
looks like there are some knock-offs as well…
all I know is the cats are bat-shit crazy about that thing.
Huh - if your guess on the kitties’ age is correct, then their birthdays must be right around now, too - like CharlieDoggo’s!
@Kyeh oh, I do have some more ice cream!!!
@Kyeh
yeah, we celebrated Bandit’s on Sunday (5/12) last week, Smokey is 6/6
@chienfou Oh! Are those guesses, or do you actually know? And did you actually celebrate with treats and stuff?![:smiley_cat:](https://dj5zo597wtsux.cloudfront.net/joypixels/assets/6.6/png/unicode/64/1f63a.png)
@Kyeh
Bandit’s a guess. Smokey we are pretty sure on. And Nope, we didn’t really do a cake and sing to him or anything. I have tried to get him interested in reading a calendar but so far no luck.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯