A Quick Update

Well, forget about any further SDCC 2011 update. I already forgot the finer details of the Con. Just too many things have been happening in our personal life within a span of July to September.

I'll speak about it at a later time. When I am ready.

I can however, share some unfortunate news about the stray cats we take care of. We lost Lee and MomCat. Lee to injuries suffered from possibly being hit by a car. He survived but his injuries were extensive and we had no choice but to put him to sleep.

At the same time MomCat was not feeling well and after we took care of Lee, we took her to get checked up. She had feline coronavirus. Something she acquired when she was outside. She was at the last stages. I saw her x-ray. Her lungs were full of fluid. We also had no choice but to put her to sleep as she was suffering, unable to eat and breath properly.

MomCat was inside the house but she was isolated from our cats. Transmission is low but I still took Nodame, Dhani and Marley to get checked out to make sure. I need to call tomorrow to see what the test results are. Pickles is fully immunized so I didn't have to worry about him.

It's been a deadly year for our stray cat colony. Impostor Cat died due to being hit by a car, Lee may have died because of the same reason and now MomCat is gone due to her disease. We are down to three stray cats. When it used to be eleven.

All that's left is Dhani's Dad, Bree and Silver. I did see a small kitten Dhani's Dad drove away one night. Black with orange markings. Very hairy. I didn't see that kitten again.

On somewhat better news, purchases of the week has been ongoing but not as much as usually after SDCC, Nate and I stop buying toys for a while. I think it's because we do overload during Con. Plus we are more interested right now in making home improvements.

Nate's keeping busy with school and work and I am busy with work. I'll start updating again when things settle down and I've had time to think about everything.  

R.I.P. Impostor Cat

Nate and I had an unpleasant surprise as we headed to work this morning. As we turned the corner to exit the gate we saw Impostor Cat on the middle of the road. Nate saw her first and he was very upset. When I looked up from my phone I immediately recognized her. I didn't want to believe my eyes, but it was her.

We quickly pulled over to the curb and I ran back to the house to grab a trash bag and some gloves. We didn't want her to get run over again and we definitely did not want to leave her out there.

Nate knows I don't have a strong stomach for this so he carefully crossed the street and gently picked her up and put her in the bag. We then took her to the backyard to get a better look at her. I know it is a morbid thing to do but we needed to make sure she was not mauled by my asshole neighbor's stupid dog and thrown out on the street to throw us off.

Unfortunately, she had been hit by vehicle. Probably sometime before dawn. No signs of bite marks. Her collar was missing. Nate went back out on the street and we spotted it a few feet from where she was laying. It was undone. The impact must have knocked it off. Judging by her injuries, which was not visible, the damage was internal I can say she died instantly. I should take comfort in that but I don't. I find it extremely upsetting.

This has always been our number one fear for the stray cats we take care of. That they should cross the street. We take great pains to make sure they would not need to and provide shelter, food and water for our cat colony. But Impostor Cat has always been curious. More so than the average cat. Pickles and Dhani inherited that trait from her.

As of late, a new male cat had been coming over from across the street at night. He's a tuxedo. Mostly white with a black back. He has a dumb looking face and we named him Paul. After a Family Guy episode with Mayor West and the "catarang".

Nate said Impostor Cat may have gotten curious about him and may have attempted to follow him back. We know he comes from the houses past the field across the street.

Impostor Cat had a habit of disappearing for days at a time. No longer than three days though. We suspected she wandered but I guess she did the occasional crossing.

I can go on and on and speculate on who, why and how but it doesn't change anything. She's gone. All I know is that we are heartsick at her loss and I am angry at whoever hit her.

She was feral but she was friendly and allowed us to pet her and pick her up. She gave us Mariposa, Dhani, Tono-chan and Pickles.

Pickles is currently up North with my sister and her husband and it will be difficult to look at him as he has the exact same coloring as his mother. His face is a little different.

We have done and continue to do what we can with what is left with the colony. We are now down to four outside cats. Dhani's Dad, Silver, Lee and Bree. MomCat does not count as she lives in our house now. She occupies the guest bathroom. Paul comes by at night but not often and we do see a beautiful and large Siamese cat wandering in once in a blue moon. That one we know is a pet because he/she looks clean and well fed. Other than that only four. When there used to be many but that's what happens when you spay and neuter the colony. Eventually, there will be few cats around.

This is the last picture I took of her. As she playfully rolled around on her back in our backyard. This was taken on April 09, 2011. She was probably six years old. When we met her she was a young female. Possible even one of MomCat's kittens even.

Her body was taken to our long time veterinarian for disposal. We kept her collar and tag which I just replaced a month or so ago. She was a sweet and affectionate cat despite being feral. She will be sorely missed.

Cat Trap

My sister was about to implement the capture of our small cat colony in our neighborhood. At the same time, Nate and I were busy packing for our trip up North for his birthday celebration.

There's a certain urgency to complete the trapping as a new law regarding trap and release of feral cats was going into place for LA County. Some bird conservationists complained and they want the program to end.

My sister and her boyfriend made the trap, scheduled the appointment and started catching what cats we could to get fixed. She has a video of it somewhere that she still needs to edit to post.

We were not really sure how many cats were in our colony but the final tally was 8. The first night we caught 5 cats.

When the trap dropped on them they panicked like crazy. We had to cover the whole thing with cloth to calm them down. When they settled a bit we opened a small door in the big trap that lead to a small cage trap to hold individual cats. The big trap was more like a holding pen.

We caught the two little kittens and one of the most prolific breeders in the colony. So it was a good first day. They were not very happy but it's for the best. It's a great way to control the cat population in our gated community.

I know of another family that feeds the cats other than us but the rest of our neighbors are pretty indifferent about it.

After we left for Northern California, my sister caught another 3 cats. We got everyone except the Alpha Male, Boomer. He was too smart for the trap. Everyone that was caught got fixed and they stayed in our house for a day to recover. They're a little wary of us right now since they got fixed but at least there will be no more cats reproducing. Even though Boomer escaped being neutered he will have no one to mate with as all the females are fixed.

After having my own cats there really is nothing to fear with feral cats and I grew to love them dearly. Since my cats came from the strays outside, it was only natural that we do what we can for them. MomCat is to be credited for this. Her and Impostor Cat get to eat wet food when they come around the house. They have gotten so fat they look adorable.

The last thing we did before we released them was put collars on the cats. So that animal control will leave them alone. A collared cat would be more thought of as a pet than a stray so it offers some protection.

Feral Cats

We have a lot of feral cats in our area. Two actually became tame after we started taking care of them. That was MomCat and Impostor Cat.

Both became pregnant and we nursed them throughout their pregnancy and they gave us our much loved kittens. Nodame, Dhani, Pickles and Marley were adopted by family. BoyCat, Tono-Chan and Mariposa went to friends.

Although we've been fortunate to be able to place them all in loving homes that's not always going to be the case. We've learned through this experience that taking care of a pregnant cat and her kittens cost a lot of time and money.

As much as we've enjoyed taking care of them it's more practical to get them fixed to control the pet population.

My sister found an organization in our area that spays and neuters stray cats for free. They are FIXNATION.ORG. They provide low cost vaccination for your pet cats as well.

My sister took Myaah and her two companions over to be checked. Unfortunately, they have a case of upper respiratory infection and had to have antibiotics first. Until they are better is when they can get fixed. She had to release the gray cats again as they have a really severe case of infection.

Mom has to take care of Myaa for a couple of days and as soon as we return from SDCC and if she is well, Myaah can be fixed. Hopefully the gray cats will be better too.