We have another random abandoned cat on our block

[conuly]

This one is a dilute tortie, and I've been calling her Smokey. (Actually, she looks more like fog in the fall, but I don't like "Foggy" as much as a name.) I made the mistake of clicking my tongue at her once, and now every time I go by that end of the block without the dogs she wants me to stop for a scritch and a chit-chat. Happily, the neighbors at that end plan to get her fixed, so I don't need to worry about that.

I'm going to ask that neighbor to take a few photos, put up some signs at the vet. She's so friendly, that cat! She should be inside somebody's house, not living on a porch.

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Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Poor little thing, I hope she gets a good home before the season turns. I never understand how people can just abandon pets on the street like that. Glad there are people like you out there, looking out for them.

[conuly]

Well, good people like the neighbors. I'm trying something new this year where I do NOT single-handedly attempt to rescue all the cats. It doesn't ever end as well as you'd think it would. (At least we are no longer in pet hoarding status, as we definitely were during my adolescence. I never ever ever want to go back to that. Well. I do want to go back to having all the cats... but only if I can care for all the cats, and given that I cannot, we'll iterate back to NEVER AGAIN.)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

No indeed, never again, because you have to figure that the budget for each cat is about $1000 a year - and what doesn't get spent of that each year has to get saved against the inevitable emergency vet bill and/or ongoing meds and care for chronic conditions.

My Cedar-cat has/has had both, and I've also been paying vet bills for Sonja's kitty Miss Fancypants. Two cats are more than I can really afford, and twice as many as I ever signed on for, but I love little Fancy, and can't let her go without care, especially when she's under my roof. Sonja never signed on for her either; Miss Fancy came out of the forest to live under her porch after (apparently) having been dumped off the road. Poor kitty, she's lived for a year and a half in the little suite off our garage, because Cedar-cat attacks all other cats on sight, so they must never meet.

I will be glad when I can go back to having (and paying for) just the one cat I did sign up for. However, realistically I know that my friends, poor though they may be, are going to continue to rescue and/or adopt the animals in need who come to them, as one does. Therefore, I'm going to have to continue to budget to support their rescuing as necessary - this is definitely better than having a multi-cat household of my own, all hissing and pissing and yowling and fighting "Been there, done that" - just like having chickens, I'll pay good money not to have to do it again myself.

[conuly]

The budget's not that high if you just suck at pet care. But adding to the list of Things I Don't Do, I don't blame myself for things that happened when I was younger than 20.