So, I mentioned the other day that I was on Butter Watch at work.
Meet Butter:
Butter is a stray in my office building's neighborhood. Butter is not fixed, and would come around anytime one of the other local strays came into heat. For a while it was thought that the crazy cat hoarder lady in the house on the corner owned him, but she denied it. Butter was a friendly dude, more than willing to come into the office for some petting and cat food.
I tried to get him into rescue care last summer, but the group for whom I was volunteering at the time said "no". Which is one of the reasons I no longer volunteer for that group. *cough*. Last fall, a different group told me that they would take him into the fold as long as I was willing to foster him, which I couldn't do at the time because my foster room was full.
Complicating the matter was the fact that Butter would often disappear for months at a time, show up for a day or two, and then disappear again.
Last Monday, Butter started hanging around the office again. I talked to my vet about making arrangements for an "emergency neuter", so that I could take him in as soon as he showed up, as opposed to trying to make an appointment for days ahead and then hoping he'd show up on the assigned date. The rescue group for whom I am now volunteering offered to take him into foster care (YAY) as long as he was neutered, and *I* agreed to pony up the money for the neuter, vaccinations, etc.
And then Butter disappeared again. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ... no Butter. Was he off on one of his jaunts? Would he spend the next couple of months impregnating half the cats on the East side before I could get him vetted?
And then, on Friday ...
I grabbed that cat. I set him up with a pet bed, fed him, gave him catnip, called the rescue to alert them to clean out a room for him for the weekend, and tried to teach him the rudimentaries of the file system:
(The first two pics were taken last summer. The bottom pic was taken last Friday. You can see what a winter on the streets did to that poor cat.)
Butter went into temporary foster care Friday afternoon. I picked him up this morning and got his wormy, flea-ridden, ear-mite-ridden, scrawny butt to the vet, who pronounced him "adorable".
Providing all goes well at the vet's, Butter will go back into foster care this afternoon. He will be loved and cared for and petted and belly-rubbed (he LOVES it), until we are able to find him his Home That Is Meant To Be.
And that is the Ballad of Butter.
16 comments:
Wow. He obviously isn't a born-feral kitty. He may have been abandoned, or simply decided he'd liked his freedom better than a home. Or (horrors!) maybe you've kittynapped someone's outdoor cat.
Whoever adopts him should keep him inside for a long while, or he'll be off again.
Don't let Becs see those photos. She wants a yellow tabby.
He is really a handsome cat.....and a lucky one, now. You rock.
I was gonna say what a pretty cat, but I think James P. (who I think is Ginny?) is correct, handsome is the word for this one.
Update! Got a call from the vet. He does not have ear mites (yay!) but he did have one ear that was severely lacerated and needed to be glued. He made it through surgery just fine and will be going back to foster care this afternoon. I have to admit that I keep checking the door here at the office to see if he's out on the porch - force of habit.
~~Silk, we try very hard to avoid "kittynap" (heh - love that word) cases. I will be advertising him on Craigslist and other lost-and-found sites to see if anyone claims him. If he did have a home, it was a pretty piss-poor one, judging by his physical state, but still, we will make every effort to reunite him if possible. I have checked Craigslist for months to see if a cat matching his description was posted as lost, and came up empty-handed, but we'll keep trying!
and yes, he is a handsome boy. Orange fur, green eyes, Hemingway paws - he'll be snapped up soon.
OMG MUTANT CAT HANDS
I love him. That's all I have to say about that.
Um, just to clarify, I don't mean to imply that Becs would not make a good Mommy. In fact, she'd be great. Just that I could see her taking days off work and tearing up there with her biggest carrier on the off chance he might be available.
And you had to go and mention green eyes.
That would be great if he could go to Becs.....if she is into mutant cat hands.....then we could get updates!
And, yes, it's Ginny. The day the husband posts on a kitty-cat site is not coming anytime soon.
I cannot tell you how much I love the phrase "mutant cat hands".
and Becs, we could make arrangements ...
Butter road trip to Becs' house!!!
I'm interested. FIV and FeLeuk tests back clean?
Becs, he has not been tested yet. I'll let you know when that happens.
Becs, I checked with the rescue, and they said he would be tested within the next few days. They did say, though, that they currently have a "wait list" for orange cats (we took one to the event last Saturday, the only orange cat we had, and it was adopted almost instantly), so you may have to take a number. I'm sorry! Let me try to get more info on the wait list for you.
Oh dear. I'll stay off the wait list. There are actually a lot of orange cats here that are begging for homes, including one trio that is looking for one home since they grew up together. Maybe I'm just not ready. I'll know when things turn up.
Becs, THREE orange brothers?! I'm on my way ...
(kidding I am kidding - you've got first dibs on those boys!)
and yeah, you'll know when you're ready. The cat will present himself to you.
Awwww.....Snipp, Snapp and Snurr! (Never mind....showing my age here)........Ginny
I'll admit I had to google that, Ginny. Too cute!
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