Friday, February 22, 2013

King Hit by a Car

Yesterday morning when I got to the park, I was just laying out the kibble when I heard a cat crying.  I followed the cry into the brush by the sea and found King.  I knew something was wrong.  He couldn't move. 

King was in the brush and couldn't move

I didn't know what to do.  I didn't have a carrier with me.  One was at the vet with Rex, also from the park, as he was being altered.  The other we lent to a friend.  The only other carriers were at home and were the large dog carriers in which I had brought my dogs to Cyprus.  A trap would not have helped because King could not walk.

He has been a lot friendlier lately, allowing me to pet him, and rubbing against my legs when I arrive, but yesterday morning he was feeling  vulnerable and frightened and he was in pain. He was hissing and spitting and I knew it would be hard to catch him. 

My phone was out of juice.  I got in a quick call to Nik before it died.  I decided to go on down to the lower park and feed the rest of the cats, then go home and get a large carrier, and ask Nik to meet me at the park on his lunch hour to try to catch King.

When I got down to the lower park I found Sose with a deep wound behind his ear, and Pookie was sick.  She was sneezing everywhere.

Sose with his injury

Pookie has a bad cold, I hope that is all it is
And I noticed Mustafa is losing patches of fur:

Mustafa has some bald spots.  What's up? 


But they both ate well along with the others, so I focused my concern on King's needs.

After feeding the other cats I went back up to check on King to see if he would eat. I had a pouch of something special in the car and he ate the whole thing.

King was very hungry and I was so happy he ate


Since he had dragged himself a ways toward the kibble and water bowls, I thought he might be thirsty and brought him some water.  He didn't drink any. 

He wouldn't drink any water

Nik met me at the park on his lunch break and went right to work trying to catch him.  It's times like these when what we really need is a net, but all we had was garden gloves, a gigantic carrier, and a towel.   We were both crawling around under the brush trying to corner him and he was pitifully hissing and spitting and dragging himself away from us. 

Nik goes into the brush where King is hiding


King made sure he dragged himself where we couldn't reach him

Nik in the brush closing in on King
Then we both lost sight of him.  A few minutes later we found that he had exited the brush and crawled between these large rocks by the sea.  He wedged himself in well.  It worked in our favor. 
That's King's hind side and tail sticking out from between the boulders
Thank goodness Nik had some jeans to change into
Nik is trying to get a grip on him here without getting bitten
And sure enough he pops up with King in his hands, I couldn't believe it
And there you have it, Nik comes through for us again.  He got a big kiss after this.

It took us Nik's entire lunch hour but we got him.  I couldn't believe it.  I was sure we would have to come back again later.

King's x-rays show his hip is broken.  We have to wait and see if he can eliminate by himself before we can fully understand his condition.  He has already done his peepee but we have to wait on the other.  If he can do that then it is just a matter of time like it was with Arsinoe to see if he can walk again.  If so, he will have to be contained for a long time so his hip can heal, which means keeping him in a large carrier here at home.  He can't go back to the park. 

It broke my heart to see this dignified, proud, and benevolent creature I have gotten to know so well and care about so much, crippled with pain and reduced to terror.  I hate cars.  I really do.  Thank God, he wasn't killed.

Please send King your prayers for a full and speedy recovery. 

We love you King and we pray you will heal


Nik, thanks for coming through for us.  Thank you. 

And thank you all for your prayers and your kind and loving thoughts. 

The majestic King when I first met him
King is still a king to us.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Altering Glitter

The graceful and beautiful Glitter


Glitter is a young female cat at Sammy's.  She is so pretty, gentle and humble of spirit, that I felt cruel trapping her.  I used a carrier in her case, and some hard earned trust, to get her to go inside for some delicious soft food, and then I gently closed the door behind her.  She panicked and I felt horrible.  Walking to the car with a cat whom I feel horrible about catching, while carrying a cat who feels horrible about being caught is horribly unpleasant. There is no other way to put it.


Humble and meek of spirit, Glitter

Glitter and Earl Grey are very close, and Earl Grey became alarmed when I caught Glitter, too, as he was standing close by.  In fact the next time I saw him before I had returned and released Glitter, I noticed he was stand-offish, more than usual, and decidedly suspicious.  I reassured him Glitter would be back soon and I wanted only her well being.  He still looked at me suspiciously.  He missed his friend.  

Earl Grey


Glitter upon release, too cautious to bolt (I have to point out, she kept a heretofore unseen tidy carrier)

Getting her bearings

She finally shot out of the carrier

She headed directly for the wall of the house next door

Up and over, she squeezed through the fencing

Once she made it into the third garden, she began howling loudly.  Nik was with me and we looked at each other because we had never heard anything like it after a release. I followed over to the fence to see what she was crying about, and it then became clear that she was calling out to Earl Grey, because as soon as he arrived she stopped crying.  
 
Earl Grey came and then everything was better

Glitter and Earl Grey share an affectionate reunion
Godspeed, dear Glitter.

Xronia polla, matia mou
People don't seem to admire meekness much, or encourage it, but when you meet someone meek, you know why God values this trait and calls it a virtue.

1 Peter 3:3-4

3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
 
This is Glitter.  This is her beauty.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Glitterati at Sammy's

These are some of the cats presently at Sammy's. They are real cuties.  I refer to them as The Glitterati, because they are such a sparkly array.

They were just kittens in the summer of 2012. I am not sure who their mother is, and if they are all from the same litter. In fact there is one that could be one of Tweet's kittens we missed.

Last summer we looked in the tall grass for Tweets' kittens, I told Nik I saw a grey kitten and a grey and white kitten (mostly white).  Nik thought I was hallucinating, and I began to think I had been, too, until I saw one day kittens matching that description hiding under Sammy's car.

Searching in the tall grass for Tweets' kittens at Sammy's last summer


And then one day a black and white kitten showed up at the feeding bowl.  And then another grey and white one, this time mostly grey.

He turned out to be the cat that I am now proud to all my friend, Mouse.  Hi Mouse!:


Mouse
Mouse is adorable, cuddly, and fluffy and I am adding him to our adoption page.  He still has a few manners and social skills to learn, but he will come along.  They all do with patience. Mouse loves a belly rub and curls around your hand like a snail when you tickle him.  He doesn't like it when I leave and tries to stop me by attacking my ankles.  I have learned to wear my wellies around him even when it is not raining. 

Then there is Earl Grey:

Earl Grey
Earl is the most frightened of people, yet he is respectful enough not to have ever taken a swipe at me.  I cannot say that about some of the others.  Earl goes bonkers when I bring soft food and darts around everywhere in anticipation.

Then there is Glitter:

Glitter
Glitter is a female and she is so pretty.  She is the one that I think may be one of Tweets' kittens that we missed, because she behaves so much like Tweets' two kittens we brought home and looks like them in the face.  All three are females and are so pretty.  They are so well mannered, civilized, and refined, I told Nik they remind me of characters out of a Jane Austen novel.  He said, "You mean like they are waiting for Mr. Darcy?"  And that is exactly it!

Tweets' two kittens we brought home, apparently "Waiting for Mr. Darcy"


Then there is Buster:

Buster

Buster comes close to me but I cannot put the food out fast enough for him so he takes swipes at my hand.  I am lucky that he does this with his claws retracted.  I appreciate it, because it is more than I can say for my friend Mouse, who always makes sure his claws are cocked when he swipes at my ankles. 

This next little girl showed up at Sammy's much later, at the end of summer/beginning of fall.  She was so much younger than the others and appeared to have no littermates and no mom, so I brought her home with us.  At first we called her Toni, then Prickles, but now we call her Innocence and she reminds me of a waxy little cactus flower.  She has the loudest mouth of all.  She looks like a Bobcat kitten with her short mouth and tall ears:

Innocence

Then there is this older cat I call Murphy who could be the Mom of The Glitterati, I rarely see her though:

Murphy, Gitterarchal Matriarch?
She looks a little like Mouse, don't you think?

We have also spotted Big Van at Sammy's:

Big Van at Sammy's

Big Van has gotten fat. He looks cute this way!

We have also seen our old friends Jazzy and Sylvia there, and a few other cats we don't know so well, and this black cat who you never met, Luther, who every so often came to eat at our old house.  His paw was crushed, likely by a car:

We have seen Luther at Sammy's

Sammy's is just around the corner from our old house, and, as we hoped, many of the cats we used to feed at our old house have found the bowls at Sammy's.  Others who haven't have found the bowls at Sammy's have found the bowls at the Maisonettes, for instance, Cobbles, whose eye is doing much better by the way.  But one cat we have seen neither place is Hamlet. 

Here is another glimpse of The Glitterati at Sammy's:

 
 





 


Monday, February 4, 2013

What is an Altered Cat?

An Altered Cat  2012

What is an altered cat?  That is a good question and apparently it's one people are asking on the Internet, and through their search ending up at our blog.  So I thought I would answer it.

I looked up the definition of altered online and I found these explanations:

From The Free Dictionary:

altered past participle, past tense of al·ter (Verb)

Verb
  1. Change or cause to change in character or composition, typically in a comparatively small but significant way.
  2. Make structural changes to (a building).
 
and this:
 
al·ter (ôltr)
v. al·tered, al·ter·ing, al·ters
v.tr.
1. To change or make different; modify: altered my will.
2. To adjust (a garment) for a better fit.
3. To castrate or spay (an animal, such as a cat or a dog).
v.intr.
To change or become different.
 
But this is my favorite from Merriam-Webster, because it is our philosophy:
 
al·tered al·ter·ing \ˈȯl-tər\

Definition of ALTER

transitive verb
1
: to make different without changing into something else
 
We are making cats different without changing them into something else.
 
Listen, if I had my druthers, I would make it so we didn't have to alter cats. I would make it so all cats and their offspring were welcomed and provided for. I have observed their family lives, and they are rich and complex.  They are each individuals and have their own lives outside of us.  The gift of life is as sweet for them as it is for us.  Cats are more like us in essential ways than they are different.  They ask the for same things in life we do: food, water, protection, security, love, health, space, friends, and a soft place to lie and rest:
 
 
 
 
 
Given an option a cat will take a well worn path rather than blaze a trail.  Given an option a cat will choose a warm pillow over the cold ground. 
 
After living with so many cats for some time now, and nearly always having at least one kitten in the house, usually more, I feel like they are a gift like the spring flowers.  They are like the promise of continuing life, of renewal, and of the mercy of God.  They illuminate.  They are redemptive.  They enhance and better our lives:
 
To better:

Sense 2:
change, alter, modify

 
Now look at that, cats alter us, too.  And without the surgery.  All it takes is us embracing them, welcoming them into our hearts and homes, and providing for their needs.  Euthansia is not the answer.  Poisoning them is not the answer.  Shooting them is not the answer.  Leaving them to fend for themselves and get killed by cars and illness is not the answer. And altering them is a band-aid and an incomplete and temporary anwer. A love without limits is the answer. 
 
A Love That is Without Limits 2012
 
 
 
 
The problem does not lie with them but with us.  God's love, to our benefit, is without limits, and so should ours be.
 
Technically an altered cat is a castrated or spayed cat.  But to us an altered cat is one who has found a home.  Same same but different.

Fluffy Spotting, A Good Meal and No Hard feelings

My car at the park late at night
I was at the park late last night, late last night, late enough for the police to pull up and ask me what the @$#% I was doing there. 

That is the second time the police have approached me wondering what the @$#% I was doing roaming around the village after hours.  I held up my lantern and my crunchies and told them I was bringing the cats some food.  Luckily enough they were nice about it both times.  In the summer people in our village stay up all ungodly hours because of the vacation season, yes, but mostly because of the heat.  The daylight hours are just too unbearable.  But in the winter, everyone disappears inside their houses at suppertime.  Also I drive really slowly, really slowly, slowly enough to drive the people behind me in Cyprus crazy, so this seems to arouse police suspicion in and of itself if I am out on the roads after dark.

But people should be glad I am out there because I have caught someone breaking into a house, and I have found evidence from a burglary, and called police both times.  So if you see someone out after dark in your neighborhood, they might be up to no good, or they might be animal lovers!  And they might catch a thief!

Fluffy

Anyway, I was happy to see Fluffy at the park and gave her a good meal.  She was pert and more confident than ever.  I have noticed this with cats we have trapped because of illness.  I wouldn't call it gratitude, but it is as though they look at you like they now have secret knowledge of you the other cats don't have, and it puts a little prance in their step, and makes them a little bolder toward you. 

I picked up Junior, one of Baby's offspring from the summer, for alteration while I was there.  I was able to lure him into a carrier with some soft Kit Kat.  Nik had already trapped two cats at our house yesterday evening so both traps were occupado.  Along with Giblet, a tiny little female we trapped at our local grocery upon request some time back and relocated to our house, all four cats were headed up to Nicosia this morning.

I picked up Junior


 Junior's Mom, Baby - he looks like her
  
Giblet
 I am distressed to say that I think King is sick, and I am going to try and get him tonight.

King has lost a lot of weight since this picture and doesn't look well
But good on Fluffy for her recovery, her appetite, and her attitude. Well done little girl. 



Sunday, February 3, 2013

Fluffy Feeling Better and Released

Fluffy released Friday night


Fluffy responded well to her treatment, and we were able to pick her up from the vets and release her back at the park Friday night.  She dashed out of the carrier when we opened it like she was going to run as far away from us as she could, but she stopped short about 15 feet away, quickly dropped into a sitting position, and looked around.  She must have felt it was OK afterall, she was back home, and decided to not to bolt and to take a long stretch instead.  I am sure she needed it after being in the carrier coming back from Nicosia.

Letting Fluffy out of the carrier

Fluffy heads for the grotto


Fluffy investigating

Fluffy decides to slow down and take a stretch


I didn't see her yesterday at the feeding, so I will be keeping an extra eye out for her tonight to make sure she is OK.  She is likely spooked. 

She was not well enough to be spayed while at the vet.  We need to wait another week, But as for her age and maturitiy, it is time.


Fluffy



Godspeed, Fluffy.  She was very sick, but it looks like we caught it just in time. 

Friday, February 1, 2013