Oh no. I’ve been dreading this day. This town is just teeming with abandoned cats and it’s stray kitten season. Went down to the porch for a breath of fresh air and a sweet little gray Tort kitten came running up to me. Not at all feral. Jumped in my lap and purred its little heart out.
I can’t have pets. I couldn’t bring him inside. But he was so skinny. And alone. And hungry. Yes, I fed him the fish I was going to have for dinner. He’s gone now. Maybe he won’t come back.
Update 12:12am: Hot bear on salmon action happening right now. Waterfall bear has a close friend.
dr. bloor
Uh-huh.
So what are you going to name him?
Baud
Hmmmm.
Linda Featheringill
If it was a tortoise shell kitty, it was a she.
You might look for no-kill shelters in your area. I know that space in these places is scarce but it would be nice to have somewhere to place the little animals that come to you for succor.
ETA:
Do you live where the weather is mild? Some folks have cats that live outside as a steady thing.
karen
I think if you fed him, kitty will come back.
Diana
where do you live? maybe we should start a cat bleg
daryljfontaine
The semi-feral colony that the local barkeep feeds as mousers has sprung its new litter. I counted at least 5 different kittens tonight while bringing in groceries, in various stages of hunting/playing. And there was a dead juvenile opossum on the back sidewalk a couple of mornings ago; not sure if that was their doing or not.
D
PaulW
the no-kill shelters are full up in most places. It’s not fair to the kittehs but it’s not fair to us either. :(
If I could, I’d adopt another kitten (if my current kitteh wouldn’t get mad about it), but being unemployed and job-hunting… well…
Uncle Cosmo
@karen:
In other news, water wet, sun rises in east, Rmoney lies. Pooties may have brains the size of half a shelled walnut but about 99% of those synapses are dedicated to fud. As Jim Hightower once memorably said, Anyone who thinks you can’t herd cats never heard of a can opener.
Warren Terra
So your working theory is that you gave it a delicious meal and it won’t come back for more? Let me know how that works out for you.
Or, in other words, what dr. bloor said.
La Caterina
She’ll be back. Canned cat food will be less expensive than your dinner next time. Trader Joes has reasonably priced 5.5 oz. cans without any by-products. If you can’t get her into a no-kill shelter then try to find a TNR person (trap, neuter & return) to get her fixed and possibly located to a stable outdoor colony before she gets preggars.
good on you for feeding the hungry.
The Dangerman
Cats have a radar for people like you…
…and me, I suppose. In Seattle, I wasn’t supposed to have pets, but this little, emaciated kitty showed up at my top floor place somehow. I gave it milk, as I recall…
…and the little shit curled up on my lap and purred. The little bastard.
It was emaciated and liked to use it’s paws to bat me about the face, so it had found a home and I named it Thin Lizzy Borden.
hoppipolla
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the fish
that was in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving for dinner
Forgive me
it was delicious
so fresh
and so much
— William Carlos Feline
(yeah, yeah, i know the cat’s a female. Nom de plume)
Culture of Truth
Oh I’m sure you’re right. Cats are like that. He’ll go back to the big scary forest and noisy road and all those yards with big cats and dogs and hey where was the nice lady with the yummy fish…..
Violet
@La Caterina: That was going to be my suggestion too. At the very least, if you can help make sure there aren’t more kitties like her it would be a nice contribution to your community and the kitties.
Hypatia's Momma
@La Caterina:
This, yes, please. At least see if you can get the wee beastie fixed before there are more stray kittens running about.
Trader Joe’s cat tuna is pretty good.
Svensker
@hoppipolla:
I love that.
Uncle Cosmo
@The Dangerman: And the best thing about that is that the same foodar & the existence of soft touches like you & karen keeps them from bothering people like me.
Culture of Truth
a gray tort? like contributory negligence or right of publicity?
Yutsano
You have a new feline overlord. Just accept your fate.
hoppipolla
@Svensker: Grazie lei.
And by the way, “Kiss my ass, this is a holy site” is a found poem.
Libby Spencer
@Linda Featheringill: Well she then. I didn’t look. And no, since my family is a magnet for stray kitties, I happen to know there’s not a no-kill shelter anywhere within a 100 miles that isn’t full. So don’t want to call animal control.
She’s so tame. Hoping someone already took her in and she just got lost on the way home after a walkabout.
La Caterina
@Hypatia’s Momma
I’ve got a Hypatia in my cat colony! We must exchange pics of our Hypatias.
PurpleGirl
@La Caterina: A friend in Florida used to leave food for a pack of feral cats. She would also catch them and take the kittens to a doctor who would neuter them for free and then my friend returned them to the pack. Over a couple of years she tried to catch mama cat but couldn’t. She did the next best thing in catching each new liter.
Libby Spencer
@Violet: yeah, that’s Plan B if she does keep coming back.
gbear
@hoppipolla:
Kiss my ass, kiss it.
It’s a fucking holy site.
Have you no respect?
Hypatia's Momma
@La Caterina:
I could spend days talking about my Darling Dumpling and I’m always up for admiring other people’s cats. I’m thefluffbrigade at gmail.
hoppipolla
@gbear: impeccable, dude. my favorite haiku:
first, five syllables
second, seven syllables,
third, five syllables
wish i could remember who wrote it. Rpn Padgett, maybe?
ETA: RON Padgett, dammit.
SiubhanDuinne
@Libby Spencer:
Oh, Libby, I just love you. You’re SO droll. Ha ha ha.
hoppipolla
where did everybody go? watching the gymnasts? maybe’s is just cuz i’m an old boston boy, but Aly Raisman rules.
ETA: “maybe it’s.” that’s two
AA+ Bonds
Speaking of the dark, this is what the Washington Post had to say about the blackout in India
LOL, that’s India’s power & utilities for you, over-regulated
There is also a fab quote from some J.P. Morgan shithead who tries to explain that the way for everyone to get power in India is to support making it too expensive for them to buy
The Fat Kate Middleton
@hoppipolla: Lovely. Thank you. And ditto for the haiku. So wish I could have a kitteh. Allergies don’t allow it.
gbear
Libby, Hope your visiting kittie finds a home. I’ve got one Tort right now and I’m going to introduce another cat into the house soon but I’ve been putting it off because I’m not quite ready to deal with the stuff you need to do when introducing a new animal (especially when you’re getting the new animal from a place she’s called home for a while). My vet would slap me up if I let my cat come into contact with a new cat before the new cat had full blood work…
SiubhanDuinne
@gbear: I want to marry that haiku.
AA+ Bonds
The true story is that there is a blackout in India in 2012 for the same reason it happened in California in 2000: because capitalism is terrible and cannot even manage a power grid without encountering its contradictions and corresponding crises
hoppipolla
@The Fat Kate Middleton: well, bless your heart. you’re welcome. i’m a bunny man, myself. you’d hate it here during my overlord’s more-or-less thrice-annual shedding seasons. i invested in a Dyson for a reason.
The prophet Nostradumbass
OT: It looks like Gore Vidal has died today.
YellowJournalism
We have coyotes here, so very few feral cats and strays in my neighborhood. Good thing, too, because my youngest loves kitteeeez(!) and would find a way to let one in the house.
scav
@AA+ Bonds: Regulations don’t explain failure (see Gaza, lack of consideration thereof), It’t Providence(tm) and The Culture(tm). Love the haiku, so clearly we’re all sliding down the slippery slope to group marriage.
different-church-lady
Congratulations! You are the now the proud caretaker of an outdoor cat.
MikeJ
What’s the word on the cat from Sequim[1] from the other day? I can do Kitty Cab if it needs a ride to Seattle or elsewhere sane(I ain’t driving to Spokane).
[1] Pronounced “Squim” for the non-nw’ers.
different-church-lady
@La Caterina:
If you really want to make sure the cat “doesn’t come back”, then you need to get the TJ’s Tuna for Cats.
My little man will come running at top speed from anywhere he’s hiding the moment he hears me rattle the little plastic plate I serve it to him on.
Libby Spencer
@Culture of Truth: LOL. More like no settlement can be reached because both sides do it. Case dismissed with prejudice.
MikeJ
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Vidal v Buckley.
RIP. Amazing nobody else has it yet.
Comrade Mary
@gbear:
Obviously written by a cat. (Why do they think their puckered pink assholes are just the gift their human wants to receive first thing in the morning?)
Hill Dweller
Colbert’s two part dressage bit was hilarious.
Comrade Mary
@Hill Dweller: Huh? All dressage bits have two parts — oh.
Oh well, must catch that on repeat.
gbear
@Comrade Mary: Yep, my own cat just walked out of the room, tail in the air.
I may have used too many pronouns in the haiku…
Cain
What needs to be done is to catch the rascals and get them spayed and neutered then release them. You need to stop the population growth and that will reduce the number of pets out there.
Over time, who knows they could get adopted out as older cats die off.
hoppipolla
@gbear: no, it’s perfect. as in all great poems, new meanings emerge with each successive reading.
John of Indiana
Oh-oh, you know what’s gonna happen when that kitten scratches the hobo-sign for “Nice Lady, Good Eats” out by your trash cans, right?
We had a kitten show up a month ago. She’s been spayed and is probably going to become a house cat.
different-church-lady
@John of Indiana: Holy moley: the sign for “kind hearted lady” is a cartoon cat. I crap you not.
NotMax
Within 48 Hours, Mitt does a triple axel on “culture.”
hoppipolla
@different-church-lady: that is so cool. does anybody know if there’s an academic discipline or sub-discipline devoted to the study of underground codes?
Bobby Thomson
RIP, Gore Vidal.
ETA: Not exactly a scoop, huh? I just found out.
kindness
Someone has to send Stephen Colbert a link to that Bear cam.
PeakVT
@NotMax: What an awful waste of skin he is.
Mnemosyne
As others have said, if the kitten is a tortie, she’s almost certainly a female. There are a very few male torties and if you look under the tail and that’s what you’ve got, don’t let him out of your sight, ’cause they’re very rare.
If you’ve never been owned by a tortie before, she will expect to rule the roost and have her every whim catered to. Fortunately for you, most of a tortie’s whims are related to snuggling, cuddling, and purring.
Allen
My young cat, T.C., a gray kinda wild looking spotted tabby, found me during wind storm we were having in Portland and was terrified of the wind and jumped into my arms. Had been noticed him dumpster diving and, in general, just living rough. Tried keeping him till I could get him into a no kill shelter but by the time they had room I had gotten a bit attached. To bad for me.
My older cat, Kitzel, a very, very shy Tortoiseshell walked into my backyard, walked up the deck and jumped up onto the table I was sitting at with my neighbors and made herself right at home.
Now, I’ve seen a tortico near me that doesn’t appear hungry (brought it a bowl of food that it wasn’t that interested in). Hope she has a home as my situation isn’t very stable right now.
JGabriel
__
__
RE: Vidal — Here is the Times Obit.
.
Yutsano
It’s quiet…too quiet.
MattR
@Yutsano: Where’s Little Boots? S/he usually keeps up the late night chatter.
I think everyone is too entranced by the fishin’ bears to comment.
hhex65
@hoppipolla: I think “Linguistic Anthropology” is that subject. I read a book that covered Carnival culture, Polari, hobo code, Navajo symbology, train hoppers &c it was from an expert in that field but I’ll be damned if I can remember the title.
Yutsano
@MattR: The bears just remind me of my fail to buy salmon tonight. In my defence though I was on a rather targeted shopping mission at the store.
NotMax
Slow night at El Rancho B-J.
MattR
@Yutsano: An Alaskan friend of mine recently posted a pic of the cupboard full of salmon he just finished smoking and canning. He had to preempt the inevitable requests by commenting that this was personal use salmon that he caught by net and is prohibited from sending out of state.
Yutsano
@MattR: An old friend from college married a Native with fishing rights. He’s allowed to give away a certain amount of his allotted catch. I’m just waiting for her to announce that the smoke is on! Although any fresh stuff I’ll gladly take as well.
Skepticat
@John of Indiana: I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the hobo sign for a kindly person who’d provide food was a smiling cat.
JR in WV
Loved the Buckley-Vidal cross-fire. Crypto-Nazi! Queer! Live on ABC convention coverage. Not unusual for today, but in 1968 it was quite over the top!
We have a grey tabby named Spike (just now learning she doesn’t usually need to cling with all claws at the age of 3 or 4) who is becoming a cuddler, finally. Her step-brother Roscoe Adkins is totally into cuddling, sleeps all day alone, and all night against one of us.
I luve my kettehs! Punkin is getting bigger than Tunch. No, Really! Hindenberg would be a good name, except she’s rounder, hence Punkin.
Maude
@JR in WV:
About the size of a weather balloon?
Jennifer
I have a grey tortie, and she is the most polite cat ever. Very patient – never wakes me up to feed her or let her out, has never peed outside of the litter box, and if she’s hungry, just comes and sits quietly behind my chair at the computer until I notice her. About the only time she gets insistent about anything is if she really wants to play. Loves being held and petted. Best cat ever.
Jennifer
I have a grey tortie, and she is the most polite cat ever. Very patient – never wakes me up to feed her or let her out, has never peed outside of the litter box, and if she’s hungry, just comes and sits quietly behind my chair at the computer until I notice her. About the only time she gets insistent about anything is if she really wants to play. Loves being held and petted. Best cat ever.