Getting ready for a new aby kitten in Chicago-advice on vets and preparations needed

On 26 Jul 2003 18:53:28 -0700, (-L.) wrote:


Not always, IME.

Based on what I can see, I would guess Aby mix - but wouldn't be
surprised if this was a "pedigreed" cat. My friend has a "pedigreed"
black lab with rotty markings - sometimes papers don't mean diddly
squat!

*grin* She has a pointed Lab? Let me guess, field lines?
They tend to pop up a lot in the field side. I think they're really
pretty. And it's a great demonstration of the colour genetics in
Labs, and how solid black is just a masking gene.



Orchid

Orchid's Kitties: http://nik.ascendancy.net/bengalpage
Orchid's Guide: http://nik.ascendancy.net/orchid

"Arjun Ray" wrote in message
...

Letting her have free run of the house? That's progress, great! :-)

Well, not yet. I moved the cage into a back room today and covered
any area where she could hide but still left some small hidy holes
(nothing deep). I shut the door to the room, open her cage and gave
her a bigger litter box outside of the cage (but not far) and sat down
on the floor with a book and decided to sit with her, hoping she'd
come out. She just looked at me for a while then went to sleep. I
left her in there alone with the cage open to see if she'd explore on
her own then go back with her in a bit. I'm hoping it won't take much
more than a week or so to get her used to be outside the cage in a
closed room without the other cats but I'm prepared to let her go on
her terms.

| I couldn't really see any tipped ears on those pictures (not
counting
| the last where it looked like the whole ear was tipped!) I've
read
| the story of him with the flopped ear.

Ah, good ol' Bigfoot.:-) We went to Rikers a few weeks back, but
didn't
see him ourselves. He made it through the winter, and reportedly is
doing great.

Great! Tough winter this year to get through, too. I hope he feels
at home.

As for the eartips, generally we see them at a distance only if we
look
for them (and field glasses can help :-)). It's easy if you trap
one.

Thanks for the explanation.

It might be really interesting if
she had a good buddy among her former mates.

I am not sure but I know she got chased away from the food if she got
to it first. But she did react strange to Shamrock the first time she
saw him. I had moved the cage to the living room with only part of it
uncovered and Shamrock being the friendly guy he is went to
investigate and she bolted toward him chirping and reaching through
the bars at him sort of startling him. One of the other strays is a
b/w with facial markings similar to Shamrock and I wondered if she
thought he was that one. Maybe she just reacted because he was simply
a cat (one of her own. )

| I wonder if any of them will remember her, or she them.

Worth observing, for sure. And whether she gets an urge to bust out
because of them.

Yikes. I think it's escape proof, but then nothing is so I'll be sure
to keep an eye out.

As for memory, I had an interesting experience with my foster
kittens.

snip story

They knew exactly where they were.

That is amazing! And probably way less stressful. Good for them and
Marie.

"Arjun Ray" wrote in message
...

Letting her have free run of the house? That's progress, great! :-)

Well, not yet. I moved the cage into a back room today and covered
any area where she could hide but still left some small hidy holes
(nothing deep). I shut the door to the room, open her cage and gave
her a bigger litter box outside of the cage (but not far) and sat down
on the floor with a book and decided to sit with her, hoping she'd
come out. She just looked at me for a while then went to sleep. I
left her in there alone with the cage open to see if she'd explore on
her own then go back with her in a bit. I'm hoping it won't take much
more than a week or so to get her used to be outside the cage in a
closed room without the other cats but I'm prepared to let her go on
her terms.

| I couldn't really see any tipped ears on those pictures (not
counting
| the last where it looked like the whole ear was tipped!) I've
read
| the story of him with the flopped ear.

Ah, good ol' Bigfoot.:-) We went to Rikers a few weeks back, but
didn't
see him ourselves. He made it through the winter, and reportedly is
doing great.

Great! Tough winter this year to get through, too. I hope he feels
at home.

As for the eartips, generally we see them at a distance only if we
look
for them (and field glasses can help :-)). It's easy if you trap
one.

Thanks for the explanation.

It might be really interesting if
she had a good buddy among her former mates.

I am not sure but I know she got chased away from the food if she got
to it first. But she did react strange to Shamrock the first time she
saw him. I had moved the cage to the living room with only part of it
uncovered and Shamrock being the friendly guy he is went to
investigate and she bolted toward him chirping and reaching through
the bars at him sort of startling him. One of the other strays is a
b/w with facial markings similar to Shamrock and I wondered if she
thought he was that one. Maybe she just reacted because he was simply
a cat (one of her own. )

| I wonder if any of them will remember her, or she them.

Worth observing, for sure. And whether she gets an urge to bust out
because of them.

Yikes. I think it's escape proof, but then nothing is so I'll be sure
to keep an eye out.

As for memory, I had an interesting experience with my foster
kittens.

snip story

They knew exactly where they were.

That is amazing! And probably way less stressful. Good for them and
Marie.

Orchid wrote:
snipped a bunch of stuff better said than I could

overpopulation problem we should look at purebred cats as a problem,
but not until then. Why drain an lake with an eyedropper when you can
use a bucket?

Thank you, you put it better than I could (i'm not the best at
articulating myself).

Alice

--
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation. People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it. Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
|\ _,,,---,,_ Tigress
/,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat by Felix Lee.

Orchid wrote:
snipped a bunch of stuff better said than I could

overpopulation problem we should look at purebred cats as a problem,
but not until then. Why drain an lake with an eyedropper when you can
use a bucket?

Thank you, you put it better than I could (i'm not the best at
articulating myself).

Alice

--
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation. People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it. Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
|\ _,,,---,,_ Tigress
/,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat by Felix Lee.

Orchid wrote:
*grin* She has a pointed Lab? Let me guess, field lines?
They tend to pop up a lot in the field side. I think they're really
pretty. And it's a great demonstration of the colour genetics in
Labs, and how solid black is just a masking gene.


Heh, I actually like the looks better of field labs than show labs (I
wonder where that big barrel chest got popular). They look a lot prettier.
But... they wouldn't be for me because they are way too energetic and
would be very bored and frustrated with me (I'm a bit of a couch potatoe).
Sweet dogs though (the one breeder I know of that I would endorse breeds
field labs, she tells me, at least in this area, more black labs are
bred for fiedl than the other labs. Which I suppose is why I see more
yellow labs iwth a big barrel chest and black labs with more lean
bodies).

Sad cause I do want a GSD but I want an older one that is calmed down (and
on the less work ethic scale of the breed).

Heh, in the dog newsgroup the arguement is not whether there should be
breeding but rather whether epople should be breeding only for field and
not for show (A lot of breeds bred for a purpose have two seperate
standards, show standard, and field standard, field being the dog doing
well at what the breed was originally bred for). I know of one person who
vehemently thinks that dogs should only be bred for field and that show
breeding ruins the breed (because you do have a lot of people focusing too
much on looks rather than functionality and health... they'll breed in
what they think is neat without consideration if it helps the dog).

Alice

--
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation. People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it. Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
|\ _,,,---,,_ Tigress
/,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat by Felix Lee.

Orchid wrote:
*grin* She has a pointed Lab? Let me guess, field lines?
They tend to pop up a lot in the field side. I think they're really
pretty. And it's a great demonstration of the colour genetics in
Labs, and how solid black is just a masking gene.


Heh, I actually like the looks better of field labs than show labs (I
wonder where that big barrel chest got popular). They look a lot prettier.
But... they wouldn't be for me because they are way too energetic and
would be very bored and frustrated with me (I'm a bit of a couch potatoe).
Sweet dogs though (the one breeder I know of that I would endorse breeds
field labs, she tells me, at least in this area, more black labs are
bred for fiedl than the other labs. Which I suppose is why I see more
yellow labs iwth a big barrel chest and black labs with more lean
bodies).

Sad cause I do want a GSD but I want an older one that is calmed down (and
on the less work ethic scale of the breed).

Heh, in the dog newsgroup the arguement is not whether there should be
breeding but rather whether epople should be breeding only for field and
not for show (A lot of breeds bred for a purpose have two seperate
standards, show standard, and field standard, field being the dog doing
well at what the breed was originally bred for). I know of one person who
vehemently thinks that dogs should only be bred for field and that show
breeding ruins the breed (because you do have a lot of people focusing too
much on looks rather than functionality and health... they'll breed in
what they think is neat without consideration if it helps the dog).

Alice

--
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation. People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it. Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
|\ _,,,---,,_ Tigress
/,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat by Felix Lee.

In ,
(Orchid) wrote:

| That, IMO, is where the major thrust of our efforts to reduce the
| shelter population should go. We need to pound into peoples' thick
| skulls that pets are a *lifelong commitment*, and that altering is
| not only not cruel, but is beneficial.

But breeders are somehow exempt? How convenient a dispensation.

| If, once the moggy and feral shelter population has been reduced
| to the level that the purebred population is currently,

"Purebred" cats are an essentially modern affectation. There was no
good reason for it to have started at all. People projected onto cats
what was once a reputable practice with dogs.

| there is still a huge shelter overpopulation problem we should look
| at purebred cats as a problem, but not until then. Why drain an
| lake with an eyedropper when you can use a bucket?

Because if we thought of the problem as merely one of scale, we'd have
no option but to throw up our hands in despair.

You want to know about drops in the bucket? Consider me. I've lost
count of the number of cats I've participated in the TNR of. The number
of times I've baited a trap is now in the thousands. The number of
times I've carted a trap away from a trapping ground to a holding area,
or brought one up into a mobile S/N van, or transported to a clinic, is
in the hundreds.

But what are these hundreds and thousands when there are *millions* of
unwanted cats? Drops in the bucket, that's what. You want one or two
here or there ignored as negligible. What is your argument that my
hundreds are *not* negligible also? What are one or two zeros behind a
number when the problem involves six or seven? You want to pretend that
a number like 1000 is "big" and "makes a difference" when it's actually
one tenth or hundredth of one measly percent? Why should my efforts
make even the slightest bit of difference? By your *logic* - and not
ignorant fascination with numbers taken in isolation - they don't.

Because your *logic* is waiting for a one-fell-swoop solution. We wake
up one day and lo, those millions have magically disappeared. However,
in reality, there is no *scale-based* solution to the problem. It has
become an issue of principle, where every last goddamn drop counts and
makes a difference, because the ONLY WAY we're ever going to make even
the slightest dent in the provlem is NECESSARILY in drips and drabs at a
time.

Sheesh.

In ,
(Orchid) wrote:

| That, IMO, is where the major thrust of our efforts to reduce the
| shelter population should go. We need to pound into peoples' thick
| skulls that pets are a *lifelong commitment*, and that altering is
| not only not cruel, but is beneficial.

But breeders are somehow exempt? How convenient a dispensation.

| If, once the moggy and feral shelter population has been reduced
| to the level that the purebred population is currently,

"Purebred" cats are an essentially modern affectation. There was no
good reason for it to have started at all. People projected onto cats
what was once a reputable practice with dogs.

| there is still a huge shelter overpopulation problem we should look
| at purebred cats as a problem, but not until then. Why drain an
| lake with an eyedropper when you can use a bucket?

Because if we thought of the problem as merely one of scale, we'd have
no option but to throw up our hands in despair.

You want to know about drops in the bucket? Consider me. I've lost
count of the number of cats I've participated in the TNR of. The number
of times I've baited a trap is now in the thousands. The number of
times I've carted a trap away from a trapping ground to a holding area,
or brought one up into a mobile S/N van, or transported to a clinic, is
in the hundreds.

But what are these hundreds and thousands when there are *millions* of
unwanted cats? Drops in the bucket, that's what. You want one or two
here or there ignored as negligible. What is your argument that my
hundreds are *not* negligible also? What are one or two zeros behind a
number when the problem involves six or seven? You want to pretend that
a number like 1000 is "big" and "makes a difference" when it's actually
one tenth or hundredth of one measly percent? Why should my efforts
make even the slightest bit of difference? By your *logic* - and not
ignorant fascination with numbers taken in isolation - they don't.

Because your *logic* is waiting for a one-fell-swoop solution. We wake
up one day and lo, those millions have magically disappeared. However,
in reality, there is no *scale-based* solution to the problem. It has
become an issue of principle, where every last goddamn drop counts and
makes a difference, because the ONLY WAY we're ever going to make even
the slightest dent in the provlem is NECESSARILY in drips and drabs at a
time.

Sheesh.

"Arjun Ray" wrote in message
...

Because if we thought of the problem as merely one of scale, we'd
have
no option but to throw up our hands in despair.

You want to know about drops in the bucket? Consider me. I've lost
count of the number of cats I've participated in the TNR of. The
number
of times I've baited a trap is now in the thousands. The number of
times I've carted a trap away from a trapping ground to a holding
area,
or brought one up into a mobile S/N van, or transported to a clinic,
is
in the hundreds.

And you can never consider that even those who trap and neuter only in
the handfuls is not making a difference. Every *little* thing anyone
can do makes a difference.