cat story

[jinian]

All right, I promised to write this. I am teetering on the edge of coming down with something and moody as fuck, but here you go.


Summary so far: Found a cat Monday morning, took him inside. It was kind of a tough decision, because I do acknowledge that some people let their cats outside on purpose. (I think it's a bad idea in my neighborhood, between the cars and the Ave kids goading their dogs to fight, but people do it.) In this case, though, there was only one chance to do the right thing, and it's better to be safe than sorry. I put up a quick note in the lobby and came to work.

When I got a chance, I called Animal Talk Rescue, which is fairly close to my place, to see if they could read microchips. They can, so during lunch I took the cat up there. He was happy to go into the carrier, though he eventually got bored in there and wanted to wander around, and he seemed to enjoy the car ride. (Not like any of my cats.) The woman at Animal Talk definitely likes animals better than people. She was very willing to track down the cat's owner, though, when we discovered he had a chip. His name's Wally. The shelter lady called his owner, who didn't sound too concerned. I left him there in the carrier, and his owner was going to come pick him up after she was done with work.

When I got back to work, I found a voice message from the Humane Society office that happens to be downstairs in my building. (There's been a long succession of animal rights and environmental groups using that office. I find it weird that there's such a theme.) I called back and found out that Stephanie from the H.S. had found the same cat wandering around our building three times already, and had taken him to Animal Control each time. The fines go up every time the owner gets him from there, but she's still not confining him effectively, and our building is across a busy street from where he lives. Stephanie was incensed about it, more than I was. I'd gotten the owner's information from the microchip stuff, and I gave it to her so she could call the owner. I haven't seen her since, so I don't know what happened then.

Crossing 15th is hard enough as a human at the crosswalk, but I pretty much trust most cats to be able to stay out of the way of cars. It's the nasty-minded people that I really worry about, and Wally's so friendly that he'd be walking on someone's shoulder while they planned what awful thing to do to him. He should be home safe by now, but I really wish he had a better situation.

Comments

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

Poor kitten! I wish he had owners who were not such big fucking losers.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

wally sounds sweet. too bad you can't arrange to visit him and explain to him about not crossing the street anymore. maybe you and stepahnie can do something, will you get to talk to her more about it? sucks, we had indoor/outdoor cats but in a much less car-intensive area (and we had them coz some neighbor's cat kept having babies in our yard and we kept some).

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get to see Stephanie occasionally just in the building, and I have her number too. We'll see.

My parents have always had indoor/outdoor cats, but it's not really safe even where they are any more. Their last cat was deliberately run down when it was just near the road, they could tell by the tire tracks.

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

god how awful to think about.

maybe you/stepahnie can find a new home for the kitty
next time, chip, what chip?

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

Well, at least his owner does care enough to have the chip, and does keep retrieving him, even with the fines. Could be worse.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

Animal shelters usually chip cats automatically. I didn't have the option when I adopted my kitten last July.

Re:

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't know that. Our cat doesn't have a chip, but we adopted her from a neighbor, not a shelter. I don't think I knew anything about the chips when we had her spayed, and I don't remember the option being mentioned to me then. So we've never got around to doing it, even though we we really should, especially since we haven't yet found a collar that will stay on and not either wind up shredded or strangling her.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

My older two aren't chipped - it's something they only started doing in the last year or so in Washington (and not at all elsewhere) - but given that my cats have decided to hate wearing collars (I still don't know where one of them took her collar off) I should get the two without chips chipped.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

And we know he's been in and out of Animal Control repeatedly, so they might do it when they're brought in. That's who the chip was implanted by.

animal control chips pets!

[rubricity.livejournal.com]

If your pet is picked up by animal control, you do not get your pet back before you a) pay the fine and b) have him/her chipped. I know this because this happened to a cat of ours about 5-6 years ago.

I can't imagine letting a cat run loose in your neighborhood. Poor thing.

[jenett]

Blerg. I hate it when people don't actually *think* about what they're doing with their pets. Bad pet-owner. (And wonderful Kylee and other folks, who want the poor cat to be safe.)

I should, however, get Athene chipped. I've given up on trying to keep a collar on her. (She literally unbuckles the darn things, and I suspect she'd figure out the 'cat-proof' ones given enough time and boredom, too.) Not that we want to *let* her go outside (I'm under a block from a seriously major highway, and my street while not high traffic isn't exactly low-traffic either.)

Of course, the few times I've tried taking her outside on a leash, she tends to sit there and meow plaintively until I take her back inside, too. So I suspect she wouldn't go terribly far even if she got out. (She was found as a stray by the local humane society. Living on her own does *not* suit her)

I have one chipped, one not.

[lirrin.livejournal.com]

The one not I trust *way* more to find his way home if he gets out. The persian...four feet out the door and I suspect he'd be hopelessly lost. Fortunately, he shows no inclination to explore beyond me letting him out to lick the lawn.

I will get the other one chipped soon. He does well on a leash, and likes to take me for a drag around the yard.

I have another stray kitten I found...what do I do with THIS one?