I got a pair of them … and they act like a pair of ’em too.
Last night, the one who’s a Luddite — he doesn’t even have a computer, if you can believe it, and I suspect that he’s just like Bush, watching ESPN2 all day — called me up and alleged that I’d been arrested for kidnapping.
The other one — who lurks here at BT but doesn’t have the nerve to post here — sent me an e-mail that Johnny Cash has (presumably posthumously) released a new song, “A Boy Named Lisa.”
Ha, ha, ha!
They’re making fun because the cat, who I named Lisa, went to the veterinarian yesterday, and we found out a few, um, things. First, let me say that I went through a lot of hoops for this cat, arranging for the local private shelter to pay for spaying, although Darcy and I had to come up with $35 co-pay.
I’d called the vet’s office a couple times and asked how to be sure it’s been spayed, and they told me that they’d have to shave her stomach to be sure (sometimes the scar is faint and hard to see). I dropped Lisa off at the vet’s office at 7:55 a.m. So, about 11 a.m., they call with the news that Lisa is a neutered male. But, “Lisa” was neutered so young that there’s no vestige of testicles left (what one could do with a phrase like that), and that they’d had to shave “her” stomach to realize that she was a male.
Now, this is the cat — some of you will remember this story — I was trying to find when it was crying in a huge, thick hedge last November. And I leaned on a branch, fell down, and ended up with a wound and black eye from hitting a pruned branch on the way down.
After a couple more days — as I threw cat food into the hedge — she finally came out, and I began feeding her in the morning and at night. She meows at my door to let me know it’s time for food. She has never wanted to come inside — or even to go in the separate building that houses the laundry and garages. She’s clearly an outdoor cat, and my plan after she’d recovered from anesthesia was to release her back here, and I’d keep feeding her.
Then, yesterday at 11 a.m, the vet tech dropped the second bombshell. HE (it’s a he, Susanhu) had a microchip! Owners! Hooray! They told me to call the county shelter, and they gave me the owner’s names, phone number, address, and the cat’s real name, which I won’t post here for reasons only known to me.
I immediately called his owners, and left them a message. No one called last night. I brought “Leo” — yes, he’s Leo now — home, and my BT lurker neighbor helped me set up the big cage in my garage. (BT Lurker had also very kindly helped me the night before by helping me to get this 16-lb. cat into the carrier to go to the vet. BT Lurker is a VERY nice man.)
The odd thing about the owners? This morning, a Susan called. She’s Leo’s owner. They live less than two blocks from me, but have never seen Leo/Lisa since last November. (I have to wonder what else happened in that home.) And, they don’t want him back. Sh says that they adopted him from the pound last October, kept him inside, but after a month, he bolted outside and never returned. I wonder why. Anyway, they’re moving into a business they bought, and it’s on a busy street. So, that’s that for them and “Leo.” I invited her to come visit, but she’ll see about that. I told her to call anytime. I mentioned the, ahem, money, but that didn’t elicit a response.
Yet one more adult cat that hasn’t an official home. I rescue them all the time. I’m sure that a LOT OF YOU DO TOO. Why don’t people get their cats and dogs spayed and neutered? And why in the hell don’t people adopt cats and dogs from shelters, and not from breeders? We have millions of cats and dogs, like Leo/Lisa, who get euthanized every year because there simply aren’t enough homes. And they’re almost always fabulous pets. Even the most shy cats will come around in time…. I’ve taken in two shy cats who, within a year, were the most loving, affectionate, and comfortable-feeling cats. People need to give them a chance. Especially the shy ones. And most especially the adult ones that almost no one wants because kittens are “cuter.”
Uh oh. This was an OPEN THREAD … kinda long, huh. Well, go for it. And, yup, I’m sending BT Lurker this link … he’ll no doubt invite the Luddite neighbor over to see what I wrote about those two …
