View RSS Feed

Destroy, erase, improve. Reinvent yourself. Stuff like that.

A kitten wandered into my garage. Now I have a kitten.

Rate this Entry
A kitten started hanging around my house about a month ago and I felt bad for it, so I started feeding it. Then one night some friends and I were chilling in the garage, listening to some Tears For Fears records, playing Poker and drinking some High Life, and the kitten wandered in and began playing with the straps on my messenger bag. As stoners, we were immediately intrigued by the kitten and watched it play for a good 15 minutes before we had to switch sides on the record. One Electric Light Orchestra LP later and she was curled up in my leather jacket on the floor slowly drifting off to sleep. I moved her food into the garage and closed the doors.

The next day I brought home a litter box and some toys after work, and I made her a bed and a small house out of one of my old dog cages. I left the garage door open, but she never left the garage and has been living in it for the past 2 weeks. At some point soon I'm going to take her inside and introduce her to my dogs.

So I guess I have a kitten now. I didn't really ask for one, and I've always been a dog person, but she just showed up. She seems pretty great, even though she's cross-eyed. I can't give her to a shelter because I'm sure they're inundated with cats and none of my friends want a kitten. She's too small to survive in the wild by herself and my neighborhood is notoriously known for cat rapists (people who will have sex with cats against their will). So I took her to the vet the other day and named her Eva.

My problem is that I don't know anything about kittens, and if she lives a long and healthy life (which I hope she does), I could be taking care of her for the next 18 years. Whoa. That's a lot of responsibility, and I've got plenty of questions.

Why is she always stalking me like prey and pouncing on me? Sometimes all I want to do is grab a beer from the garage fridge, but I feel like I'm being watched, and before I know it she's pounced on my shoe and is clambering up my leg. I'm guessing she just wants some Fat Tire, but I don't know what the drinking age for cats is. I don't want to start her down the wrong path too early, only to see her grow up and end up on the Sunset Strip as some hipster groupie. I hate John Mayer.

When do you teach a kitten about sex? Should I tell her before she hears about it from the other kittens at school?

When she purrs she sounds like my old single cylinder Honda motorcycle, is that normal? Are vet bills for cats high?

Should I let her outside to play or confine her to the house? Should I let her sleep in my room? Sometimes I have night terrors.

I think she coughed up a hairball the other day. Cats do that? Does it ever become not gross? I think it surprised her as much as me.

So yeah, I have a kitten, and I'm starting to learn about cats while simultaneously trying not to become a weird "cat person" who gets t-shirts printed with their cats' face on it.

Submit "A kitten wandered into my garage. Now I have a kitten." to Digg Submit "A kitten wandered into my garage. Now I have a kitten." to del.icio.us Submit "A kitten wandered into my garage. Now I have a kitten." to StumbleUpon Submit "A kitten wandered into my garage. Now I have a kitten." to Google

Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
  1. Yoshi's Avatar
    Loud purring is normal, depending on the cat.

    Cat vet bills are essentially identical to dog vet bills.

    Confine her to the house.

    There's a good chance she'll sleep with you or near you if you let her in your room. If you're cool with that, let her in there.

    Hairballs are normal. If she does it a lot, you can get special (but not really expensive) food to reduce them.
  2. Josh's Avatar
    Drown it in the bathtub and get it over with.
  3. Compass's Avatar
    "my neighborhood is notoriously known for cat rapists (people who will have sex with cats against their will)."

    What the hell?

    Kitten sounds cute. Post pics.
  4. Joust Williams's Avatar
    yay kitty~~~~~~~~~~~
  5. Dunlap's Avatar
    I've been taking care of a few kittens myself. Enjoy them while they're friendly (the stalking and pouncing). Cats are fairly low maintenance, so if you're already taking care of a dog it shouldn't feel like much more responsibility.

    Take her in for her shots and shit when she's six weeks old. Get her spayed and you won't have to have the talk with her. I grew up in a house that let the cats come in and out as they pleased, but the one that lived the longest came to us at age 10+ and didn't want to go outside anyway. My current cat doesn't sleep with me because he'll usually end up biting my toes at 3:00 am.
  6. MechDeus's Avatar
    This happened to me with a full-grown cat, who then lived with us for about the next 10 years until his death. Whoever had it before had clearly taken care of the cat, but we had bird-feeders so it started hanging out at our place to feed on the birds. Pretty awesome, in any case.
  7. Finch's Avatar
    They sell cat treats that prevent hairballs at Target. I give them to my cats about once or twice a week and they haven't been hurking.
  8. kingoffighters's Avatar
    You need to move out of your cat rapist neighborhood. Oh, and Kung Pao Kitty.
  9. Geen's Avatar
    Woot kitten!
    I've had two cats for about two and a half years now. A visit to the vet about once a year should do it.
    As for letting the cat sleep in your room, that's your call. My concern would be how severe your night terrors are. Normally cats are pretty peaceful to sleep with, but if you are really having night terrors and fear that you may hurt Eve when one occurs, I would leave her out of your room for her safety.
    Keep her exclusively inside. I'd also recommend getting the front claws removed if she is staying inside - she won't need them and she'll do a lot less destruction to your furniture and carpet, if you have any.
  10. kedawa's Avatar
    I really don't agree about the declawing thing. They don't just remove the nailbed, they cut off an entire knuckle from their toes. If you're concerned about furniture, a scratchpost and some of that cat repellent furniture spray will take care of that. You can also just trim the front claws every couple of weeks.
  11. Advocate's Avatar
  12. Yoshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kedawa
    I really don't agree about the declawing thing. They don't just remove the nailbed, they cut off an entire knuckle from their toes. If you're concerned about furniture, a scratchpost and some of that cat repellent furniture spray will take care of that. You can also just trim the front claws every couple of weeks.
    Yes, this is very true and very important.
  13. Geen's Avatar
    You're entitled to your opinions, but growing up I always had cats who were declawed and they never had any trouble and lived long happy lives. When I got my most recent cats my ex-wife thought it was cruel to have their nails removed so we left them in. Even with multiple scratching posts, they tore up most of the carpet in our bedroom and some of our clothes whenever they could get our closet open.
  14. M's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Joust Williams
    yay kitty~~~~~~~~~~~
    This ^
  15. Compass's Avatar
    Leave claws in unless you think it would be pleasant to have your fingernails torn off.

    If you're that worried about a kitten tearing up your precious worldly goods, maybe you just shouldn't have that pet.
  16. Dunlap's Avatar
    Really, the only reason to worry about de-clawing is a bad job will leave your cat with pain for the rest of it's life. It'll bounce back from the surgery better the earlier you get it done (but I think you're supposed to wait until it's like 1 or something?). Gotta do what you gotta do for an animal to live in a human world, IMO.
  17. Some Stupid Japanese Name's Avatar
    We have four cats right now. Two of them were "I'm moving into a place where I can't have pets, but only for a month, can you watch these so I don't have to give them to the pound? I'll take them back when I get my permanent living situation settled." Over a year later, and they're still with us. Their both nice kitties though, so I don't mind. They're indoor kitties and I feel bad for them because they like to sit on the windowsills and longingly stare out the windows. I've tried taking them outside a couple times, but they freak the fuck out and whine to go back in.

    Our original cat is an indoor/outdoor cat and though she's kinda small, she's a hell of a hunter. Every day there's either a mouse or mole left on the front porch for us to admire. She get's along with my daughter's dog, but can't stand any of the other cats.

    Back in July my daughter's friend had a cat who died from kitty cancer but had a litter of kittens pretty much on her deathbed. My daughter talked me into letting her take in one of the orphans. It's not the cutest kitten, but he has his moments. He went through a plethora of names (mostly derived from Miyazaki characters) before we found one that stuck. Due to it being very small (it was the runt of the litter), gray, and it's predisposition to scurry across the floor and go behind furniture against the wall I started calling it Mouse. He's more like a rat now, but Mouse suits him fine.

    I'm against declawing and for neutering.
  18. Cowutopia's Avatar
    How do cats and dogs get along?
  19. Timber's Avatar
    Depends on the cat and dog in question. They almost always like each other if you get them together from the time they're puppies/kittens.
  20. Compass's Avatar
    Yeah, the whole dogs and cats hating each other thing is only really true in cartoons. Sometimes they won't get along, sure, but that happens regardless of species.

    Sometimes cats do look annoyed when a stupid dog is acting all crazy and rambunctious and they're just trying to chill.
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Trackbacks

Total Trackbacks 0
Trackback URL:
Games.com logo