How could I have missed this? Reader Amy informed me that it was National Kitten Day, and although the evidence supporting this is thin (see here), I’ll go with it. Here’s a celebratory video:
And just to remind you that kittens grow up into lovely cats, here’s a picture I got today from reader Ken in Oklahoma. His notes:
I thought you might get a chuckle out of this photo of my grand-kitten Sterling relaxing in his favorite spot, the bathroom sink. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone more comfortable than this little moggie.
Out in Idaho, a feral tomcat has taken up residence in Stephen Barnard’s garage, efficiently ridding it of mice. The kindly Barnard has provided it with food and a heat source, and tomorrow he’s taking it to the vet for neutering and a checkup. So far the cat has eluded capture or even photography, but Stephen has a Hav-A-Hart trap baited with food and today managed to take a photo, saying (and gently mocking my determinism):
Finally got one [a photo] at long distance.The big bang has determined that it has a vet appointment tomorrow morning.
He then added this:
I’ll set the trap tonight and check it four hours later. The trap may or may not trigger, depending sensitively on the precise state of particles within four light hours of my garage (including the cat’s brain). The cat will exist in a superposition of trapped and not trapped until I open the garage door and turn on the light.
‘IDEA’ is just a state of mind. 😉
Hi Stephen, we had a feral cat at our place in Washington.
When I tried to get it to the vet, I got clawed and bitten pretty severely. It let me hold it and pet it, it purred. But, as soon as it saw that box coming toward it (friends bringing it) from about 50 feet or more away, it exploded out of my arms and left me bloody all over and with from deep fang wounds in my arm.
The Havahart is the way to go! This cat we had always evaded it though. I watched her leap out quickly enough to prevent the door from closing! (The Havahart came after the clawing/biting incident.) We never were able to get her to the vet.
Take care and approach safely!
And keep the iodine and betadine handy just in case. Cat bites are very dangerous for infection.
So dangerous, in fact as Mr Blilie recounts
and primarily from Pasteurella multocida,
that my hand and lower arm, ignored, were
within six hours thereafter … … edematous with infection to almost three times
its normal size.
Emergency room visit. Stat … … by then.
Decades ago. Lesson dastardly learnt.
Blue
Indeed! After those bites and scratches, I went directly into the house, stopping for nothing, washed myself and then poured liquid iodine into the wounds, and then packed them with betadine.
I was lucky: No infection, no rabies.
Rabies seemed very unlikely; but you never know. I had had the two-shot course of rabies vaccination 10 years earlier. I continued to observe the cat for weeks and satisfied myself that she was not infected – the waiting game seemed more humane than shooting her and having her body tested …
A friend was bitten by a barn cat a few years ago. She’s a farm-person and sort of dismissed it and went on a date that evening.
She went to the ER the next morning. Similar to you, hugely swollen hand; hours away from amputation!
It’s been eating from the wired-open trap for several days. I don’t expect a problem trapping it.
Don’t count on holding it in your lap right after catching it.
Jerry is sort of encouraging that. 🙂
Good! Be safe! 🙂
Is it really national kitten day? I feel like everyday should be national kitten day.
As far as the felines are concerned, every day is National Kitten/Cat Day. Mine certainly act like it is.
The wash sink looks like a bathroom piece of furniture specially designed for the cat to enjoy the sensation of being in its own Jacuzzi, without water, of course.
My cat Kveldulf (1995-2012) loved water. He liked to join me in the shower, and on more than one occasion he slipped of the edge of the tub and fell in while I was bathing. Instead of drinking from the cat fountain in the usual way, he dipped his right paw in the stream and licked the water off. He wasn’t one of the known water-loving breeds (Turkish Van, Abyssinian or Somali), just an ordinary DSH. If he were in Sterling’s position, he’d be more than happy to have the faucet turned on.
That’s hilarious. My own cat, Zizou, drinks daily from the bathroom faucets. He always races us in there so that we can turn it on for him. His technique is as you described for Kevldulf. He gets the bottom of his paw wet and brings it to his mouth, or he lets the trickle run over his paw from which he gulps the water. He sounds like an old man slurping his water.
I’m not sure but I think my daughter-in-law said that Sterling doesn’t mind the faucet on at a trickle. I’ll get verification.
Thank you.
That sure is a handsome, noble looking cat.
Why not let it unneutered and male?