Thursday, October 22, 2009

WHISPERING TO CATS
















Shiloh is on the left and Grayson is on the right. Grayson looks so innocent in this photo that I'm starting to feel sorry for him.
There's never a dull moment around here.
Tonight when I went on my cat feeding rounds, a little black kitty (Shiloh) went with me. I don't know where Chester was, but he doesn't follow me as much as he used to. I think he hides from the big gray bully, Grayson, who threatens all the other cats in CatTown. I'm almost sure Grayson is an owned cat, but he doesn't appear to be neutered and a couple of the kittens running around here look a lot like him. I have a huge problem with people who don't act responsibly toward their animals, but if I don't know who they are, I'm helpless to do much about it. I've noticed Grayson hanging around when Momcat is out and about and I've alerted her to what he wants. I admonished her to not allow him to have his way with her. We'll see if she continues to avoid him. I can only hope.
Last week I placed a call to the Pet Advocate League (PAL) which facilitates low cost spaying and neutering in this area. That's the program through which I had Kelly spayed and Chester neutered. One of the representatives returned my call yesterday and said I could take Shiloh for neutering on Friday morning. Since he'd stopped being so frightened and started allowing me to pet him, I thought he'd also allow me to place him inside a pet carrier. I was sadly mistaken.
I coaxed Shiloh into the garage so I'd have easy access to him in the morning, and so I could make sure he had nothing to eat after midnight tonight. I picked him up and opened the carrier door. That's when he suspected something was about to happen. I intended to leave him in the carrier for only a minute while I lowered the garage door. It makes an awful noise and I didn't want that noise to cause the cat to bolt, but he panicked before I even began to close the door and executed a perfect spread eagle when I tried to get him inside the carrier. He pushed against me, protesting loudly, and tried to climb up my arm. The boy was strong but I was stronger. I held on and was determined to get him inside the carrier. Then it happened. He gave me such a look with those huge yellow eyes - a look that said, "I thought you were my friend".
I felt I'd betrayed his trust, plus, I wasn't in the mood to be bitten, so I let go of him and watched as he bounded out of the garage and slinked down the street. He was very low to the ground. His body language told how frightened he was. I hoped I hadn't caused him to regress to his days of running in fear. I cancelled his appointment for Friday and went about trying to repair our friendship. He didn't come near me for a long time, but he must have had a change of heart and just before I came in for the night, he allowed me to pet him. He even went with me to shoo away the huge raccoon that was eating some of the cat food I'd left for the outside kittens. The raccoon wasn't one bit concerned about us watching him. Shiloh started for him, but I held him back. There was no way I wanted the little black kitty to get into an altercation with that big guy. I told him we'd just go get some more food and let the raccoon alone.
I don't know when Shiloh will trust me enough to allow himself to be put inside a carrier. I'll have to be patient. If I want him to be neutered, I'll have to do it on his time table.

1 comment:

Cat Nap Inn Primitives said...

they are so cute and you almost made me cry..that look gets us everytime doesn't it..have a great weekend.:)