I have to work tomorrow but I get to sleep in a little, get up after 7.
I am happy Ron let me clean his leg, took his aspirin, and ate a half bowl of chicken fajita meat. I buy it already cooked from Walmart so it just needs to be warmed. I warmed it gently, he added a little more time, but not hot enough to burn when he ate it.
Cleo peeped at me when I was working with the chicken meat so I gave her a VERY SMALL bite. She was happy and left. Cleo is the kind of cat who walks away when full. She is also letting me pet her more and more, she is becoming a very nice little cat. I am glad she is with her brother and Mom.
And Ron was delighted to eat the meat for dinner, his family had a much different policy "You can't eat just meat" and other comments made to Ron. If you have kids, and are very poor, I think you have an obligation to take the food stamps so your kids can get their nutrition. Yes, you can be proud and deny them healthful food but it creates very bad long lasting dietary habits. Ron is always looking to fill up on starch because that's what he was taught.
I am hopefully teaching him that protein should be objective #1 at mealtimes, then starch and fat.
Looking at his leg he is going to have a scar but will not need a doctor. That has been a very unpleasant road to walk, but I learned an important lesson: don't feed Ron hot things when he is drunk. I got paid so there's that. I will need to make a deposit sometime, maybe Monday. I don't have a lot left after paying the credit card and repaying my savings (I saw both as highly urgent)... paying Arturo for the dentist rides on Tuesday. But I have a lot of food, pot pies and such for me, soy milk, protein powder, etc.
But it won't be a very big deposit. Hard to believe it is almost Thanksgiving. Sales will pick up around then.
About work, we worked today because I could not work last week. Working tomorrow as well but not a horrible long shift. I had ordered/bought several cases of canned cat food.
I'm not kidding about my devotion to the cats! But I would get tired of eating 24 cans of the same thing day in, day out. So I took all the food, laid it out, and then put one of each, again and again, in an extra box. So I have a very nice assortment of cat food. Plenty to last for a while.
Poor Biscuit got so excited seeing me manipulate the cat food I had to give him a can of his urinary formula wet, but I did put some probiotics on it. I haven't seen Baby Girl eat the probiotics but she did have some of that. Good. Can't keep them too healthy. The other cats got 3 cans of wet plus dry. Cleo got her burger and a taste of chicken.
In some ways Cleo reminds me a lot of Bubba. Bubba was the black cat in my slideshow. He would eat almost any meat. He was very friendly, though, unlike Cleo. Cleo is warming up but she had a hard road. It is amazing to compare her to the rest of her family and realize they are all related.
And Mama Cat is still nursing! That can't be good for her but she is devoted to them and loves to nurse, even though they are as big as her. Everything I read seems to say let Mama cut them off.
I had one male cat like that, if he got a chance he would nurse off his mother, who by that point had a new litter of kittens. I don't know if she will ever stop. The vet just shook her head when she saw the teats still active.
7 comments:
Cleo does not need to be fed every time she makes a noise in your direction. You are creating a nuisance animal. A pest. You may think it's cute, but you are putting her at a huge disadvantage of she ever needs to be adopted.
You are creating bad behavior in an effort to socialize her. Most people do not want a pet who begs. All of your cats beg because you feed them too much, too often, and seemingly every time they "ask."
My cats would be horrified if they knew I read this. They are really only beggars when I first get up, wanting breakfast, but do not wake me up.
Cleo gets hopeful when I go int he kitchen. If I meet her eyes she will peep at me hopefully....hopeful is a good word for her. If I say no or ignore her she leaves. If I get out the burger (she knows what it looks and smells like) she will beg a little but not much... she is mainly interested in ankle polishing my ankles at meal times.
Mama cat, now that girl's a beggar and she came like that. But if I say no she stops.
TBH if Cleo had to be adopted it would have to be a very special owner with a lot of patience as it has taken her about 2-3 months just to get basic things like petting and I doubt she would let me pick her up even yet.
Mama, Spotty, Torbie, and Biscuit have the best odds in that department. Baby Girl is very loyal to 1-2 people at a time.
But they are not really beggars and they only get a couple of meals a day (One 5 ounce can shared between 3 cats, some dry in addition).
I had my dogs at perfect weight and eating a very structured diet. Beautiful teeth coats smelled like teddy bears no bad breath ,
One had cancer that could not have been prevented in any way shape or form it is genetic with this breed. The other had such horrible genetics and had to be put to sleep (and I certainly hope for he option of being lead to death the way my animals have been when the time comes if I want it) due to the inability to control her pain later in life . They both lived about as long as they would have lived if I had given them each a hamburger daily. Sadly not long enough their lives with us is so short to obsess on every detail is hardly worth the struggle.
When I realized the first dog had cancer I let her have whatever she wanted and could eat as well as a tramadol like Ron takes with a beer daily. She had a history when we had BBQs she would sneak behind peoples chairs and “sip” their beers. She never took anything else that we know of but she was sneaky so who knows. Her diet was “perfect” in that I fed her what she needed for her size and weight my dogs were always spot on weight wise . BUT if butter was on the counter it would be licked gone one sneaky lick at a time I could smell it on her breath when she kissed me and it was always my fault !
You are doing a great job considering what you are up against and I hope you listen to the folks who are giving you the positive advice to work on your “plan B” get the house in order and know that when the time comes you should have choices made for everyone and not be in a panic. You have your aunt in your circle and hopefully you have talked this out with her and she is open to listening. We only get a snippet of your life so just so happy you were able to think ahead and get a little money tucked away ..please do that you know how important it is to have a back up stash. Try to make Ron responsible he is not being “kind” by paying you or arranging and paying for transportation to a medical appt or to do household chores that is on him . Just saying!
I have one more trip and then I am going to start looking at adoption again ..it has been too long and there are plenty of animals waiting for homes that are eating far worse than your bunch of darling beggers. LOL I see a house where there are way too many cats but happily you have rescued them and made a wonderful life . You are taming Cleo good job! Dog trainers use dried hot dogs what is the difference she would be eating crap out of a garbage pile . I do wonder if you could ask the vet about cooking her a batch of homemade burgers for the week? One pound of quality meat is not bad at all you could just make patties and freeze them like you used to with your cheddar burgers? Just a thought take care I am rambling! OOOXXX
You have too many cats for that small house. 7 litter boxes and some in the carpeted areas where you refuse to vacuum? It’s no wonder you have migraines. Hope no one sees inside and calls animal control.
I sweep around the litter boxes as needed. My aunt has seen the inside of the house a couple of times since I got the new gang and told my doctor my housekeeping had not suffered for it. And Doc was not worried either.
When you can, I would absolutely do a rescue. I am very partial to black cats as they have dreadful adoption rates (but are considered GOOD luck in France), an older black cat or one with special needs... there is a reason I never go to the shelter.
Biscuit is special needs with his condition but easily managed and a favorite everywhere he goes.
I would adopt an older black cat in a heartbeat at the humane society. I have 2 rescues now and while they get along for the most part sometimes their rough play gets out of control and with one FIV+ I always make sure it doesn't escalate.
It is heartbreaking the small cages they have them in with food and litter box right next to each other and no room to move around. As you know cats do not like their litter box next to their food. So imagine the stress for these poor animals. I see many that just give up and lay in the litter box. Very, sad and completely the fault of selfish and stupid human beings entirely.
Many do not get adopted out and spend years in the shelter until they are deemed not adoptable and killed. I think maybe people should not be so insulated about what happens to abandoned animals or when there are too many to be adopted and they should have to watch an animal being taken to be euthanized. Maybe it would be a wake up call for people that animals are not just disposable when the novelty of kitten or puppyhood wears off or they are too inconvenient to take care of any longer. It is even worse in other countries where there are no spay and neuter programs. In I think it was the Ukraine they pay people to shoot and kill stray dogs. One little girl was walking with her puppy and the man shot it and dragged it away while it was still alive and just threw it in his van with a pile of other dead and dying animals. Just the callousness of some people makes you wonder what the point of all of THIS is.
We have another shelter here that has large rooms for the cats but they can only take so many and while there are no windows as least the litter box is away from the food. I think the rooms are like the size of your bathroom at home. But those animals are still very lonely for attention even though they have people that come to the shelter it is just not enough.
That's why I had the abortion done on Mama Cat, I just couldn't see finding homes for 5 (?) more cats when the shelters are overflowing. The few people who might have been interested said things like "I would get it declawed" and other disturbing comments. Better to end them before it began.
I did of course keep the living kittens and their Mom, after the spay, because the vet was clear Mama Cat would never get a home. She didn't tell me to keep her but made it clear older (than a kitten) cats are just not seen as adoptable in Houston. That explains why the big black guy at the shelter almost cried when he found out I was taking Torbie (old). At the time neither of the kittens was socialized so they weren't adoptable either. So they would have been put down as well.
And, happily I WAS able to care for them. But I have no more room.
A woman at work, and a woman in my neighborhood, is doing the whole handwringing "I am overrun with cats" feeding ferals. That is a good start but you have to get them fixed or they will keep breeding. Then eventually animal control comes along and everyone gets put down. I have encouraged the one who speaks English to look into doing TNR but she has proven very resistant, but still wants to come and bitch at me about all the cats. Well, stop feeding them or get them fixed, it is that simple.
I think she equates TNR with them getting put down even though I have explained it again and again.
About the litter boxes and food, that is one problem I had when I was ready to leave town last week, I had to spread out some food bowls but not near the litter, and I have at least one box in every room. It was a bit of a challenge and I ended up putting one food/water combo in the hall.
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