From commentor Monza:
In the pic I’ve attached is my buddy Jack. About 7 years ago, he started showing up at my workplace every day. He was coming from the woods behind the building. I didn’t pay him much mind, until I saw him fight off a mama fox. I was really impressed after I realized that he was de-clawed in the front and fixed, so someone had dumped him and he could still take care of himself. After letting him hang around me at work for a few days, I realized that he was really a great cat & I wanted to take him home. I knew he was smart because after a couple of days he learned to hide from us in the building after the afternoon UPS truck arrived because he knew he would be put outside after that. (Couldn’t leave him inside with the alarm on). I pleaded with the wife for days, always getting a no from her. I promised her that she would love him if she just met him. Finally she relented & agreed to meet him. The rest is history…
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After two $350 vet bills, we finally figured out why they dumped him. If he doesn’t eat the right food, he gets crystals in his urine which plug up his bladder. He does his best to let out a little spray of urine in front of you as his way of saying that there is something wrong. His previous owners either didn’t like the vet bills, extra expense of his food, or his spraying, so they left him to fend for himself.
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When we first got him, he looked healthy. The vet said he was about 12 pounds and about a year and a half old. (The pic dates from about 2004). Now he’s right around 20 pounds. He’s not just fat either, he really is “big boned”. His skull is like twice the size of his mini-me Clover, our 2 year old rescue. And his favorite place is either in a lap, or right next to you.
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We’ve got 3 cats and 5 rats altogether. Clover, and two of our rats, were rescues from the humane society.
xaneroxane
Nice. Gonna need a lot more of these pet posts to deal with the aftermath of this week… Keep ’em coming!
Lesley
He’s not only “big boned” but he’s got Tunch’s expression. Looks like you have a Tabby Tunch (in other words, a real sweetie).
stuckinred
He looks like our neighborhood cat that loves to torment my dogs!
JGabriel
The New York Times is shrill:
Throw out the Mr.’s, add a few fucking’s and that could be from a DKos/FDL/BJ post.
.
Keith G
@JGabriel:
That quote from the Times has the added advantage of also being largely true.
Now that doesn’t mean that much of last night could have been avoided, but is does imply that President Obama needs to add to his M.O. if he wants to be president on Jan 21, 2013.
Love the Kitteh. Looks like mine.
Bill E Pilgrim
@JGabriel: BJ meaning Balloon Juice?
amk
@JGabriel:
It’s already a dkos wrecklist “diary”. Coming weeks will be ugly out there.
DanF
On the plus side, my dog doesn’t seem to notice that we have new corporate overlords. Of course my dog also likes the taste of his butt.
WereBear (itouch)
Awww, life dealt Jack a lousy hand. Confirming my bias; owners who declaw can’t be bothered by the needs of an acutal living creature. Hope there isn’t troubles down the road with his paws.
Dime to a dollar Jack never got that diagnostic vet visit… whizzed once and out he goes. And he just asking for help!
Suck It Up!
@JGabriel:
that’s a bj comment, not a post. the liberal blogs are already saying the WH will blame them and that the hippie punching will get worse and a bunch of other nonsense. Typical. This election will have an effect on this entire country but the left never fails to make it all about them.
Suck It Up!
yeah Obama don’t depend on the media to inform the public about what their government is doing. That’s all on you.
So for the next two years Obama should just campaign.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Ole tabbies are the bestest cats.
Somebody dump a cat after declawing it should be shot.
Another big success story! Like was said above, we’ll need many more of these to get thru the next two years.
Boudica
@Suck It Up!:
Yep. Not like anything’s gonna be coming from the Legislative Branch for him to sign.
Also, why are these election results due to too much government….but government hasn’t done enough to solve unemployment? I say these idiots want less government and more free market…sit back, pass nothing and let them see what happens with no government.
JPL
@xaneroxane: I have to agree with you that the posts need to keep on coming. Even if Anne doesn’t have a backlog she could post some of her favorites.
Suck It Up!
@Boudica:
I say he should give out some boot straps and let people fend for themselves. Then come back in 6 months and ask ‘how’s that smaller government thing working out for ya?’
valdivia
@Suck It Up!:
this drives me crazy. so we had a guy who actually governed for fucks sake but it would be better if all he cared about was get reelected. Oh well.
Since he wont be able to govern now anyway maybe he’ll be able to please everyone now and just campaign.
SiubhanDuinne
I honestly thought the title was a metaphor for us.
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, me too :)
What are you going to do? If living were a conscious decision, Republican voters would have a hard time getting up in the morning.
tidge
Our female cat has the same bladder/crystals condition and is a special diet. She’s worth every cent . She makes a mess when she eats because she lost the end of her tongue when she was a feral kitten fraught with infections. 18 lbs. now. and she owns one end of the couch
Annie
He’s beautiful. One of our cats has the bladder/crystal condition. One Christmas he became a statue — he was so filled with crystals that moving was incredibly painful. After rushing him to the hospital, our vet told us to make sure that he got plenty of liquids — that cats are not natural water drinkers. Now, in the mornings when I give him wet food, I flood it with water by making a little gravy with the food and water. He loves it, and he has been ok for several years now.
He is 20lbs and at night thinks my upper arm is his pillow.
merrinc
@Annie:
I am in full agreement that it really is that simple.
Our 12 year old tuxedo had his first instance of bladder crystals around 8 years ago. Came into my bedroom, squatted down in front of me and with a most piteous cry, peed out a small stream of what looked like pure blood. It was a Saturday night so we rushed him to an emergency vet. $800 later, we were informed that he would need to eat a particular kind of dry Science Diet. We fed it to him faithfully but twice in the next couple of years, the problem reoccured.
Went to a new vet who informed me that cats are no more meant to survive on a dry food diet than are humans. (DUH) Now he gets a quarter of a can of wet food (Friskies, 40 cents a can on sale) mixed with a teaspoon of water twice daily and guess what? No more crystals, no more bladder infections.
To Monza: Jack is a very handsome boy. Thank you for rescuing him.
bystander
Anyone who can rescue rats gets the gold star humanitarian award from me. And, anyone who can keep cats and rats in harmony probably ought to be working for the United Nations. Gorgeous feline. Fought off a fox de-clawed, you say. Jack should be the head of the UN’s Security Council for more reasons than an ability to fight with few weapons.
That the “head of the UN’s Security Council” landed on his feet with a Gold Star Humanitarian seems right to me. Despite last night, the world still spins on its axis. Thanks for the great story, Monza.
tesslibrarian
We also rescued a beautiful brown tabby with golden eyes we named Jack! (His story was here last December, right before he became an only cat.)
When I was about 7, we somehow ended up with custody of my aunt & uncle’s tiny siamese cat when they divorced (no one has ever been able to explain that to me: my aunt got the kids, we got the cat?). She’d been declawed. She couldn’t have been more than 7-8 lbs, and since the concept of “indoors only” didn’t exist for my family, she had to learn how to fend for herself when outside. She really did! Including, on more than one occasion, catching birds almost the same size she was and bringing them home. However, she didn’t kill them.
Few things are as exciting to a 7-year-old than waking up to parents frantically trying to catch a bird that is flying around their living room at 3 o’clock in the morning. I loved that cat.
phoebes-in-santa fe
I have a weakness for tabs, I have two and a black and white cat. All my cats were rescues. Your Jack is adorable and bless you for taking him in and making both your lives fuller.
asiangrrlMN
Great story of a very handsome cat. A pox on Jack’s former humans, though. They suck.
I see parallels with our country. Ugh.
Paul in KY
Doing a nice job of mimicking Tunch’s usual scowl.
Great cat story.
Mnemosyne
Keaton is prone to bladder issues, too. Luckily, he LOVES to drink from his kitty fountain, and the combination of that, his high-protein dry food, and his wet food treat every night (1/2 of a 3-oz can) seems to keep everything in balance.
Elisabeth
I had a “Jack” who looked exactly like your Jack ~ almost scary how much they look alike. I lost him in Sept 2005 and I miss him to this day.
Give your Jack an extra hug. And thanks for taking him in and loving him.
GlenInBrooklyn
I had a couple of cats that had the same urinary problem. My vet at the time recommended 500 mg of vitamin C (the cheap generics are fine). The guys got used to the fact that dinner came with the price of swallowing a pill. Worked for years.
Val Heart
It’s great how you welcomed this furry friend despite other owners who have given up on him. It would do the world a lot of good if it had more people like you helping out and taking care! Good job!