Hey people,

Theres a cute small (may be a kitten still) white and black cat thats been outside our apartment building all day. My girlfriend and I felt horrible for it, because it looked like it was very skinny.

We gave it some milk and it slurped down over a cup of the stuff. He's a very friendly, but very skinny cat. Kate nor I lead a pet-friendly lifestyle right now, or else we'd consider taking him in, but I don't want to call the pound because I don't want him to be put down, he's very very friendly and other than his skinniness, appears to be healthy.

Is there like a feline rescue or something along those lines? Anybody here rescue cats? Its breaking our hearts to see poor kitty out on the sidewalk begging everyone that passes for food.

11/8/2005 6:26:37 PM

damn n00b must be still out there fucking around and making fatherless babies.

11/8/2005 6:30:29 PM

http://www.secondchancenc.org

We'll take her. You feed her until I can get you intake names. Go to the website, there may be forms/intake stuff there. I will get you a coordinator's name and email.

11/8/2005 7:51:14 PM

if you can, you might want to give it some cooked rice or cooked chicken. and some fresh water to drink. milk will usually give them gas/diarrhea.

good luck with the little guy!

11/8/2005 7:59:55 PM

Most people think milk is good for cats but they are actually slightly lactose intolerant...unless you give them specified kitty milk from the petstore, I would limit the amount of milk (^like they said) for the little guy.

11/8/2005 8:07:43 PM

IT IS YOUR JOB AS A HUMAN TO TAKE CARE OF THAT STRAY CAT

AND NAME IT NOOB

11/8/2005 8:08:58 PM

kitty has not come back, someone was cooking over in the common area and I think he went over there.

I'll bring the thread bttt if he does and get in contact with secondchancenc and all the people that have PM'd me. Thanks!

11/8/2005 8:09:41 PM

^^LOL and how is THIRD!

Pm'ing a contact at second chance. She is also an NC State alum

11/8/2005 8:23:00 PM

sn00p and third got adopted (together)

i did it for as long as i could, but i had to move in january for a while to somewhere i couldnt take them

11/8/2005 8:30:25 PM

11/8/2005 8:32:19 PM

This is another no-kill cat shelter here in Raleigh that's pretty good.

http://www.safehavenforcats.org/

11/8/2005 9:02:49 PM

just take it in, cats are easy to take care of...if nothing else, foster it until a no-kill shelter will take it in

11/8/2005 9:56:01 PM

There is a stray cat at my apartment that I have been feeding. It is an older cat and I am pretty sure that it has lived in the wild most of its life. It is really scared of people but I have gotten it use to me but it won't let me touch it or anything. I want to get it fixed and also it has something wrong with its ear. I think this is what is wrong with it http://www.vetinfo.com/cpear.html...... The ear Hematoma takes up the whole inside of its ear and it needs to be removed and maybe its whole ear taken off. Does anyone know of where I can get this stuff done without being charged since it is not my cat and a place that will catch it since I can't just pick it up and take it to a vet? I have no problem feeding the cat and I don't want to give it to the pound bc I know they would put it to sleep since it doesn't like humans.

11/8/2005 10:19:52 PM

emergency spca?

talk personally with a local vet?

11/9/2005 2:00:39 AM

and please people, don't feed cats milk. Most cats are lactose intolerant. Most kittens don't get milk past 3 or 4 weeks of age. You are just giving it diarrhea problems by feeding it milk.

11/9/2005 2:02:01 AM

Awww poor kitty! My boyfriend saw one a couple weeks ago begging for food, but when he got back from a kitty food run at food lion it was gone and we haven't seen it since. I wonder if its the same one? We've looked for it but have yet to see it again. I'd love to help the kitty but neither of us can give it a home (pet policies, allergies, etc). Good luck with finding a place for it though!

11/9/2005 5:03:00 AM

Kitty came back tonight so we took him in and put him on our porch. I got in contact with an agency that wolfee recommended.

Thanks for all your help and concern.... we're not giving him milk anymore... it just shows how little we know about caring for cats, which is why we don't want to take him and just make sure he's going to someone who can care for him.

He is very friendly and just cuddled up in my girlfriend's arms.

If anyone can come get kitty tonight, that would be wonderful.

[Edited on November 9, 2005 at 8:41 PM. Reason : .]

11/9/2005 8:14:09 PM

Have you heard back from Melissa? Let me know if you are having trouble getting through. Maybe I could get him tomorrow or, my guess is you could take him to our facility. See what Melissa says. If you don't hear from her tonight, let me know tomorrow and I'll see what can be done.

11/9/2005 8:45:23 PM

I sent her an email when kitty came back. That was right before I made my last post.

here's kitty:

11/9/2005 8:48:46 PM

The more time my girlfriend spends with kitty, the more she wants to take her in.

11/9/2005 9:30:52 PM

What a cutie! Trying to find her number now and sending her an email myself.

11/9/2005 9:43:07 PM

What a friendly kitty! I have two cats from a shelter who are grown, and neither of them will just sit on a person's lap like that.

He does look very skinny. You are kind to take him in and feed him for awhile. Cats are REALLY easy to care for. I'd say they're even easier than fish. All they need is a clean litter box (which is easy if you buy the clumping litter) and some fresh food and water daily. Since my cats stay inside, I don't even have to deal with fleas of anything like that. I do keep their vaccines up to date, but that's only one trip per year to the vet.

11/9/2005 10:08:37 PM

sorry for the double post.

[Edited on November 9, 2005 at 10:10 PM. Reason : Itchy trigger finger.]

11/9/2005 10:09:32 PM

ok, kitty is outside on our porch, but without company he is very .... chatty.

its seriously tugging at my conscious hearing him cry. I don't want to let him inside because he obviously has fleas and we don't want to get the place bombed.

but another problem has presented itself, as we're on a 2nd floor apartment. While we have a solid railing on our porch, he's trying to jump the ledge. We don't want him to fall.

Are we better off letting him back outside or keeping him on the ledge for the night?

11/9/2005 10:43:41 PM

welp

kitty made a run for it we saw him just kind of claw his way down the side of the building. He's ok, but we wont be trying to keep him on the porch anymore.

I have no doubt that he'll be back.

11/9/2005 11:29:20 PM

Quote :

"This is another no-kill cat shelter here in Raleigh that's pretty good. http://www.safehavenforcats.org/"

thats a great shelter. we got a cat from there a while back, they are great people

11/10/2005 1:13:59 AM

unfortunately they don't have any spots available for kitty right now

11/10/2005 8:38:50 AM

if you are willing to foster the cat then the organization I volunteer for would be willing to accept him/her into the program. All the kitty needs is a bath to rid the fleas and then if you keep him/her inside with some flea preventative you will be fine. When fostering an animal the organization provides for all costs- this includes food, litter, toys, vet visits...everything. You just take care of the baby until a permanent home can be found. Please PM me if you are interested & I will contact the coordinator of the group. Also if anyone else would be willing to provide a loving foster home we can help this kitty out!

11/10/2005 11:43:19 AM

We've decided to keep kitty for now. He's so nice and so sweet and so well behaved.

We went looking for him earlier today, and didn't find him, but just like every other day this week, he found us when the sun went down. The first thing we did was give poor guy a bath. We tried to make it to the vet in cary on time, but they were closing up when we showed up. He's got fleas all over, and we need to get him some frontline.

We're giving him small meals for now and keeping him in the bathroom upstairs that nobody uses at night. He's just playing around up here in the loft, checking out all the computers buzzing.

HAhaha he just climbed up onto a dead computer monitor that was on the floor. Cute.

11/10/2005 8:37:23 PM

11/10/2005 8:46:51 PM

wow, he's litter box trained

11/10/2005 9:15:33 PM

awww so cute (and yay for being litter trained!)

11/10/2005 9:18:08 PM

they don't really have to be trained for that

it's like "oh i gotta shit. where's some sand?"

11/11/2005 10:33:57 AM

hahaha

11/11/2005 10:55:20 AM

Damn, looks like it handled that bath pretty well.

11/11/2005 10:59:39 AM

he is absolutely adorable! looks like he found an awesome home too

11/11/2005 12:46:04 PM

Quote :

"What a friendly kitty! I have two cats from a shelter who are grown, and neither of them will just sit on a person's lap like that"

Ive adopted stray cats off the street before that are super friendly until you keep them for about 2 years. Then they realize they got it made, lol.

Quote :

"wow, he's litter box trained"

They come from the factory like that.

11/11/2005 1:19:23 PM

you can also clip his nails (if he'll let you) with an adult-sized toe nail clipper. if he won't sit still, you can gently constrain him with a towel (think "kitty burrito").

he may (and i say this with great caution) be "bathable" -- if worst comes to worst, a sponge bath can make a difference, too. it won't kill the fleas (looks like you already know about frontline), but if he's been outside, it can definitely help remove, if needed, the "greasy" factor from his fur.

11/11/2005 2:00:34 PM

are you going to try to keep him indoors? if so, get ready for a period of time where he'll probably try to dart out the door once when you open it to leave...he'll stop, eventually (at least ours did)

11/11/2005 2:17:15 PM

we named him Hobie ... (like Hobiecat)

He doesn't try to dart out the door. In fact, he seems more concerned in checking out the apartment, and finding anything warm or soft to lay on and sleep

still really skinny, but he's eating lots of food and seems to have much more energy now. He was so weak that he couldn't jump onto a chair when we first let him in, but now he's strong enough to jump up onto the futon.

Gonna have to go buy a bigger catbox this weekend though. He's flinging litter everywhere

11/11/2005 10:43:35 PM

covered litter boxes are great

11/12/2005 12:00:13 AM

yea but practically no litterbox is enclosed enought to keep some litter from getting flung/tracked all over the area the box is in.

11/12/2005 12:54:32 AM

Quote :

"http://www.secondchancenc.org We'll take her. You feed her until I can get you intake names. Go to the website, there may be forms/intake stuff there. I will get you a coordinator's name and email."

Second Chance is a pretty damn good bunch of people--my hubby and I got two of our cats from them, and I can't say enough great things about the experience. Hubby was still grieving over the loss of Franco (who died of lymphoma last September), and the folks at Second Chance were very supportive and encouraged us to take our time looking for a new companion for our surviving cat. They weren't all like "adopt adopt adopt!"--they wanted to be sure that we were the right people for the cats (and that the cats were the right ones for us).

Of course, if you guys decide to keep the kitty then that's cool too.

11/12/2005 2:20:15 AM

looks like a cat found tad and made him his slave. good going hobie.

go get a scratching post or something to save your furniture of claw marks.

there is nothing quite like an animal companion.

Quote :

"yea but practically no litterbox is enclosed enought to keep some litter from getting flung/tracked all over the area the box is in."

well as long as you don't mind tracking litter, the covered boxes with swinging doors they sell at wal-mart/petsmart do an excellent job.

11/12/2005 2:13:40 PM

yeah there are also grates at the exit of the box so it gets most of the litter off their little paws

11/13/2005 12:14:11 PM

got a shoe thrown at me by a mean old man

and i get my dinner from a garbage can

11/13/2005 1:08:15 PM

11/13/2005 1:28:58 PM

Just felt like posting an update on Hobie.

We took him to the Vet on Saturday, did the whole gammut of tests. He's Hyperthyroid apparently. Way to go kid, another endocrine disorder in the family.

We've protected all the valuable furniture with old no-good comforters. He can sink his claws into them and we really don't care. Vet says he's probably 8 years old. He was neutered and demonstrates many domesticated behaviors.

He only weighted in at 5 lbs. We're giving him a lot of food, but his appetite has curbed significantly, not sure if he's putting any weight on. Goes in for his teeth cleaning after thanksgiving.

Still sweet as a button. Loves to sit on my lap as I work on the computer. Cuddles up with Kate when she reads and studies.

11/15/2005 8:17:54 PM

feed me.

11/15/2005 8:25:12 PM

what a cool dude! Final name? Sounds like a good one.

11/15/2005 11:32:59 PM