Talk Cancer

Question:

All of us guards that were posted at the junkyard knew about the wild cats that lived there, and the many rats, living in the junk piles, that made up at least part of their diet. I had once found two tiny kittens, abandoned by their mother, meowing pitifully at the door. They both died before I could get them home, and it broke my heart. But it also filled me with a resolve to prevent it from happening again! I caught one black kitten in a small tool shed (must’ve been part Tasmanian Devil, from the look of my arms when I got done), but decided I had to become more efficient. We found a very good home for "Taz" and I improvised a trap from a spare cage we had lying around. I’d park it by the dumpster, and wait. Kittens would show up, and whiff the wonderfully smelly canned cat food within. They’d circle around, distrustful of the enclosed space, but their stomachs always won out and in they would go. I’d wait until they were all chowing down, and pull the wire to close the door. I caught a total of nine cats, and we found homes for them all. Some of the cases were real heart-warmers– I’d catch a cat that looked like the one somebody had just lost or always wanted. I also lured one starved, fire-point Siamese-type out from under a dumpster with a lot of "kitty-kitty" calls and a can of stew, and just picked him up. He is still with us. At that point I figured I had the place cleaned out, except for that mysterious, elusive, shadowy cat that would shoot off into the trees whenever we came into view. It never came near my trap. It was big, grey-brown, and shaggy, and possessed of amazing speed, but one night I came into the break room, and there it was. It got a very distinct "Oh, *!" look on its face, and tried to dive out the door, but I closed it quickly. After a Wild Kingdom trapping effort, I got it cornered and stuffed into a box. I figured this wild, untamable, furious beast was the probable source of all those kittens and needed to be put to sleep. When I got it home, I saw that it was indeed a "she" and had one blue eye and one gold eye! They even reflected different colors! And the very tip of her nose was white. I showed her to my wife, a great animal lover, and she was impressed. I figured the hissing, snarling, growling, spitting, animal would be safely put away by the time I got home from work the next day, but instead found her snuggled up on my wife’s shoulder, purring. Obviously tame at some point in her life. And she was actually a white cat! We decided to take her in, and named her Dusty. I wanted to name her "Ducati" after a motorcycle which has two headlights, one amber and one white, but wives always get their way. She took her in to the vet for a bath (which turned out, to Dusty’s dismay, to be a shave) and had her tested for feline leukemia (felv). She came back pink and indignant. We got bad news later– she tested felv positive and was pregnant. The vet told my wife that Dusty was probably a goner for sure, and that we should have the kittens taken, since they would almost certainly have the disease and die young and miserable. But my wife had this feeling– what if we got to Heaven and found out the kittens would have been OK? The vet had said _almost_ certainly… So, after a number of anxious weeks, the kittens were born: one pure white, one pure black, and one white with a mere speck of black on her head. Whiskers, Cinder, and Spot. My wife fed (and, um, pottied) the little beggars until they were old enough to eat solid food. They all passed their first felv test! Two of them were felv positive with the second "first" test, but they all seemed very healthy. Of course, we had two quarantine areas, Dusty’s and the box the kittens were in. After a while, the animal hospital staff got to know the cats’ story, and once we found the receptionist in tears. She felt it was so wonderful that the cat family was being take care of. (Now THAT’S the kind of animal hospital you want!) Eventually, all four cats tested felv negative on two tests, and the vet was amazed. She said they must have some pretty potent immune systems! The receptionist said we loved it out of them. The kittens are so incredibly spoiled and affectionate, having been bottle-fed. But the real mystery is Dusty. She is a beautiful white Persian, with ears trimmed and very spoiled herself. We didn’t teach her to come into our bed– she takes it for granted. If she’s running to hide under the headboard, we can get her to instantly change her mind and hop on the bed if we pick up her brush. She’ll lie down on your chest, and say, with her eyes, "You may pet me now…" Did she get lost? Left behind when her owners moved? Dumped off? Did her owner die? Sure wish the cat could talk. Well, I’m sorry if this story is too long, but I didn’t know what to leave out. –Lyle * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Lyle D. Gunderson   N6KSZ      DoD #8383   ‘79 Yamaha XS750SF * *                                                               * * You can lead a gift horse to water, but an early bird in      * * the hand is worth a pound of cure.                            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Response:

 What a wonderful story! And to find out all Dusty’s kittens were FeLV negative is a near-miracle. Thanks for posting it all – and it isn’t too long by any means! Debbie Maizels. "Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap, Some say that knowledge is something that you never have Some say that heaven is hell, some say that hell is heaven"

Response:

Lyle, that was such a great story! It’s amazing to know that Ducati was tame after what she went through. And I’m so glad that they all turned out Felv negative. My concern was that you would have put Ducati to sleep if she had not been tame. I’m new at this, but I just started trying to trap/fix/release a family of feral cats outside my apartment. I’ve done some research on whether to fix or euthanise, and it seems that to fix & release is better (only if they are FIV negative, of course — the tomcat was not so we had to euthanize him )and return them back where you trapped them to prevent another colony from inhabiting the place & having to go through the trapping all over again. Besides, if you work at the dump (?) the cats will keep the rat population down, hopefully. Again, great story, I’m so glad things turned out so well! Cheryl Ball Writing/Computer Center GTA

Response:

(Lyle D. Gunderson) writes: [SNIP] Well, I’m sorry if this story is too long, but I didn’t know what to leave out. The best bit to leave out is "nothing". You seem very lucky to have acquired such a wonderful pussycat out of a wild stray. What happened to the kittens in the end? Did you keep them or adopt them out? Deb

Well, first off, all four of the cats (Mommakitty and three kittens) got fixed! The original idea was that we would adopt all or most of them out, but the kittens are SUCH mushballs now, my wife is reluctant to part with them. Personally, I’d love to find them homes with kind people who will keep them indoors and continue to spoil them. I believe they would make companion cats for somebody living otherwise alone. They’d follow their person around and be in the middle of everything. Thanks for your comments.. –Lyle * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Lyle D. Gunderson   N6KSZ      DoD #8383   ‘79 Yamaha XS750SF * *                                                               * * You can lead a gift horse to water, but an early bird in      * * the hand is worth a pound of cure.                            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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