Meet “Lucky”!!! Update: Happy 6th Anniversary!!! (Post #248)

the ringo kid · #**151** 03-18-2018, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redbert31

Check with the vet before putting on any oil on their coat especially with a petroleum base (like Vaseline and others you wouldn't expect to have chemicals like that) The tiny ones like Yorkies are very sensitive to small amounts of toxins. There are probably some beneficial products out there that can be used tho. If you want to truly get rid of fleas you must treat the house as well. Check with the vet how to do that. We haven't had fleas in years and there may be better products out there that I don't know about. They may be easier to handle than the"bombs" I used where you had to wash down all the kitchen counters and all you're dishes and floors, as well as removing any living animals especially birds from the house for hours. Then you have to wash or cover bedding. The thought of it keeps me using monthly flea preventive on my dogs. What a mess that was!

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I will. Ill ask Rosemary tonight what exactly she used on Simba? Rosemary told me that she just wipes a little on the comb just enough to make them stick-not too messy and her don seemed to not mind. But with kittens???? I don't know if ill survive if I try it on Sandy anyway. I have two doses of something I got at the vets that you rub on the top of their heads-costs about $15 per dose. I cut the does of this last one because its only suppose d to be given once a month. The first dose worked well, but the fleas are persistent little buggers and came back in full force. I don't have carpet in any room? floors always mopped-so I don't know where they are coming in from???

Redbert31 · #**152** 03-18-2018, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the ringo kid

I will. Ill ask Rosemary tonight what exactly she used on Simba? Rosemary told me that she just wipes a little on the comb just enough to make them stick-not too messy and her don seemed to not mind. But with kittens???? I don't know if ill survive if I try it on Sandy anyway. I have two doses of something I got at the vets that you rub on the top of their heads-costs about $15 per dose. I cut the does of this last one because its only suppose d to be given once a month. The first dose worked well, but the fleas are persistent little buggers and came back in full force. I don't have carpet in any room? floors always mopped-so I don't know where they are coming in from???

Some things interact so don't apply multiple things to the same animal before checking with vet.... Even if it's applied externally can get into the bloodstream . Also you have to treat the house because fleas have a life cycle where the eggs hatch later after you think you have it under control then you have to start over... So you also have to wash bedding in strong soap and hot water to kill eggs and do the same with anywhere your animals come in contact with. Take them all to the vet to be treated together.... Put the bedding etc in washer before you leave (don't do the dryer till you get home... Never leave dryer on unless you're home)... Then follow vet instruction to treat house while pets are at vet being flea dipped or whatever they do now... Been a long time since this had to be done here... Good luck.. Then put all pets on monthly flea preventive per vet instruction all year round. It's all a pain in the axx but if you do it perfectly and diligently you'll only have to do it once.. do it halfway and you'll probably have to do it over again in a few weeks and it's not fun... Let me know how you made out...

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les.b · #**153** 08-31-2018, 08:13 PM

Well....Tomorrow is Lucky's 1st birthday!!! (Sort of... I took him in on October 13th, 2017, and the vet estimated that he was probably born around September 1st). So we are going to celebrate his birthday tomorrow. Thought some of his friends here on the forum might have been wondering how he has been doing. The answer is: Great!!

Here he was the day I brought him home, October 13th, 2017:

Here is a current picture (good grief, I'm wearing the same shirt I was wearing almost a year ago!). As you can see, he has grown by leaps and bounds!! He now weighs in at just over 10 pounds.

Notice how happy he is to be held in this undignified position. But he's being patient.

He is just a great cat, and he and Bella are constant companions, but still happy to see me when I get home from work everyday.

Best Regards, Les

susieqz · #**154** 08-31-2018, 08:16 PM

oh, i love that expression on his face.
talk about long suffering.

les.b · #**155** 08-31-2018, 08:23 PM

Thanks, susie...he knows which side his bread is buttered on!! He is such a character, with all kinds of antics, I keep telling myself that he is still a kitten at heart.

Best Regards, Les

Rustyt1953 · #**156** 08-31-2018, 08:54 PM

I was going to post this in the 'Nasty Hat' thread but I'll drop it here. Moe just turned 2.

les.b · #**157** 08-31-2018, 09:06 PM

Awww, Rusty, now that's a fine looking kitty there!! Thanks for sharing him with us.

Best Regards, Les

labworm · #**158** 08-31-2018, 09:13 PM

les.b, believe me when I say this:

You made St. Francis smile with this thread.

susieqz · #**159** 08-31-2018, 09:35 PM

is there a name for that stripe color pattern?
moe, my cuddles n les's little boy look like brothers/

Rustyt1953 · #**160** 08-31-2018, 09:38 PM

Moe is a Tabby/Siamese.

The pattern is typical of Tabbies.

Tom K · #**161** 09-01-2018, 03:50 AM

les.b, you're a good man.

We had no cats, then this one showed up at our house in October 2012, about a year and a half after we had moved in. We were on the front patio with a fire in the chiminea, smoke rising. She was about half grown, and of course I had to feed her some tuna. The grandkids immediately called her Smokey.

When I went around the neighbors to let them know that we had a gray cat hanging around, one of them two doors down said, "Oh, you mean Smokey?" Turns out she had been fed by them for a few days, but apparently their home was not to her liking. And it was obvious that her name should be Smokey.

Then about two years later my wife and I were sitting on the front patio again when she heard distressed meowing. We figured out it was coming from out neighbors flowerbed, and we knew they did not have any cats. Usually I can get cats to come to me by meowing myself and speaking their language, but this one wouldn't. But he did come to my wife. He was full grown and healthy but obviously alone and scared. So we fed him.

I put up posters in the area with this picture - "Found - male black cat, no tail. Call ****" But nobody called so we had another cat. We called him Black Bob for the tail situation, but the vet said he was born tailless. He's very talky. Interestingly the same neighbor who had fed Smokey had also fed Bob before he came to our house. Maybe we just have better food?

Smokey was not happy with this new interloper and it took a looong time for her to come to terms with him. They aren't exactly pals but they do roughhouse together and get along okay now. And of course they are both fixed.

They are now full time indoor cats. We had been letting them out under adult supervision, to protect the wild birds that we feed. After a bout with fleas we decided to just keep them inside.

So, July 18, 2018 my wife says there's a cat in the back yard. We look out the window and see this black and tan cat, stalking a gray squirrel. It takes down the squirrel which is nearly as big as she is, drags it off and starts eating on it. Looking at the pictures afterwards, I can see that she is really, really thin.

Couple of days later my wife sees that cat again, so I go out to talk to it and find out if it's feral or tame. She sees me and starts to sidle away but she doesn't bolt, and after a couple of "kitty kitty"s and some meowing, she comes right up to me. She was just about as starved for attention as she was for food, and she was even thinner than I had thought. My wife said she'd never felt a backbone so prominent. So we feed it.

It would eat food in the morning and go away off in the woods for the rest of the day. Still thin, but getting better.

So after about a week my wife went out to feed the cat one morning and ugh - there were apparently a couple of dead moles or voles or something on the patio bin. Upon closer inspection, not dead and not rodents. Apparently the cat figured we were people who could be trusted.

My wife says this picture is my, "Well, we've really done it this time" face.

The kittens are now about 6 weeks old. We figure momcat was dumped because she was pregnant. Not likely she only had two kittens, and these are probably the only ones that survived. We figure they were maybe a couple of days old when she caught the squirrel (which probably saved her, and their, lives). Before she brought the kittens up we would have sworn she wasn't nursing.

We couldn't really come up with a good name so we just decided to call the momcat Missy, which sounds a lot like kitty. Now that they are on our back patio, she essentially hasn't left the house. The two-face kitten is Squirt because she's kind of whiny, and the striped gray one is Cleo, because of the Cleopatra-like dark lines coming from her eyes.

We are now trying to figure out how to deal with another cat. We don't really want another cat inside, Smokey and Bob are pretty comfortable with their situation. If Missy won't bother the birds we might be able to keep her as an outside cat, but we would be perfectly happy if someone would take her. We do have a home lined up for Squirt and are looking for a taker for Cleo.

HOUSTON RICK · #**162** 09-01-2018, 05:47 AM

My wife insists on having a cat. I do not like how they climb everywhere and get into everything, especially my face. They make my eyes water. Of course you know who the cat's favorite person is!

soFlaNative · #**163** 09-01-2018, 06:17 AM

This thread ALMOST makes me wistful for a cat.
Les's Lucky is looking mighty sleek but the tale of Tom's triple cat play
plus two is great. It would take some doing to drag me off that back porch, too!

les.b · #**164** 09-01-2018, 02:37 PM

Tom:

Thanks for your post!! I was really happy to read about your two inside cats, and the addition of a new outside kitty along with her family!! I'm sure that you will have no trouble finding homes for those adorable kittens.

Smokey and Bob sure look like great cats. Missy sure picked the right house to go to!! I'm sure she will be a great outside cat, but I won't bet on her not working her way into the house as well.

Thanks for sharing their heartwarming story with us. Those are great photos of all!!

Best Regards, Les

6518John · #**165** 09-01-2018, 03:04 PM

There is a problem with this thread—there are only 5 stars (which I just rated it)—and it is at least worthy of 10 stars!

6518John · #**166** 09-01-2018, 03:13 PM

We just got a group picture of our rescue brood.

susieqz · #**167** 09-01-2018, 04:19 PM

tom, there are about a zillion fruit growers that would love a cat that kills squirrels.
they would forgive an occasional bird dinner.

Bekeart · #**168** 09-01-2018, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Well....Tomorrow is Lucky's 1st birthday!!! (Sort of... I took him in on October 13th, 2017, and the vet estimated that he was probably born around September 1st). So we are going to celebrate his birthday tomorrow. Thought some of his friends here on the forum might have been wondering how he has been doing. The answer is: Great!!

Did not think it had been that long. He looks to be properly spoiled.

Beleart

Redbert31 · #**169** 09-01-2018, 08:09 PM

Thank you all for sharing your beautiful pictures and heartwarming stories about the cats and kittens that have found their way into your lives. You made my day! I have 2 little Papillon dogs who are very cat-like and just about the same size as a good sized cat. Jackson is 11-1/2 and Logan just turned 4. I'll take some new photos over the weekend and show them off (lol)

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les.b · #**170** 09-01-2018, 10:08 PM

John:

Now that is a great family portrait!! What a great bunch of kittens. And they are all marked so similarly that I'll bet it's a challenge to tell them apart.

For those who are cat lovers, I hope that John won't mind me giving the link to his thread on this fine looking family: Kittens, Kittens and more Kittens!

-7667e639-ccc8-4f91-a4ce-8a3fa3737e71-jpg

-7667e639-ccc8-4f91-a4ce-8a3fa3737e71-jpg

Thanks for caring for them, and thanks for sharing with us!!

Best Regards, Les

les.b · #**171** 09-02-2018, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bekeart

Did not think it had been that long. He looks to be properly spoiled.

Beleart

Time sure flies when you are enjoying life. You are so right....he and Bella are spoiled rotten.

Best Regards, Les

les.b · #**172** 09-02-2018, 04:16 PM

Thinking how ornery Lucky is...I was looking for him earlier today, and finally spotted him hiding in the "jungle", waiting to pounce on Bella or me:

He loves the shower and shower curtain. He and Bella chase each other around and around my small cabin, and they take turns hiding in the shower and pouncing on each other...and me, whoever happens by.

Best Regards, Les

kmyers · #**173** 09-02-2018, 04:20 PM

Lucky looks like a wonderful cat adjusted nicely to home. And those are some great cat pictures and stories, Tom.

susieqz · #**174** 09-02-2018, 06:01 PM

you guys all post amazing pics.
[ can't do anything like that.
maybe i need a better cam.

les.b · #**175** 09-02-2018, 06:28 PM

Thanks, susie, but for my part, I just use my cell phone. The iPhone has a pretty good camera, much better than I am capable of utilizing to its best advantage, but I usually have it with me. The other thing is, I usually take a bunch of shots, and just delete those that don't turn out so well. Since I'm still working, the phone is really a tool that makes my job easier, so I try to keep reasonably up with the models. For example, our school just installed new tech on our office phones (some of this was present before) which let anyone who has my office phone number to call or text to my office phone, and it forwards in real time to my personal iPhone, and I can text back, or answer a voice call, and no one gets my personal number.

I can also do much of my work from my iPhone or iPad. So I use them a lot for the forum as well. Here at the cabin, I only have my iPhone, no landline at all.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with the pictures that I can take with just my cell phone.

Best Regards, Les

susieqz · #**176** 09-02-2018, 07:03 PM

i have a cell phone laying around somewhere, but it didn;t have a cam or anything.
[ never carried it anyway.

les.b · #**177** 10-13-2018, 07:40 PM

Today is Lucky's 1st Anniversary in his "forever home"!!! It was just one year ago, on Friday, October 13th, 2017, that he was rescued and came to live with me here in the cabin!!

Here is what he looked like back then:

Today, just one year later...I tried to get him to pose on the same pillow that he was on last year...sleek and healthy, full of mischief and affection.

He and Bella are good company!!

Best Regards, Les

susieqz · #**178** 10-13-2018, 09:21 PM

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LUCKY!!

Jimmyjones · #**179** 10-13-2018, 09:29 PM

Happy Anniversary to the both of you, and Bella too.

Rudi · #**180** 10-13-2018, 11:40 PM

Good work Les. What a great cat!! Cheers to all the rescues.

kmyers · #**181** 10-13-2018, 11:42 PM

That is wonderful to see Lucky fitting in with his life, home and family and doing well.

Redbert31 · #**182** 10-14-2018, 10:11 PM

Happy anniversary to Lucky, to you and family and Bella of course

You did good

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Tom K · #**183** 02-09-2019, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom K

les.b, you're a good man.
....

So, July 18, 2018 my wife says there's a cat in the back yard. We look out the window and see this black and tan cat, stalking a gray squirrel. It takes down the squirrel which is nearly as big as she is, drags it off and starts eating on it. Looking at the pictures afterwards, I can see that she is really, really thin.

.....

We couldn't really come up with a good name so we just decided to call the momcat Missy, which sounds a lot like kitty. Now that they are on our back patio, she essentially hasn't left the house. The two-face kitten is Squirt because she's kind of whiny, and the striped gray one is Cleo, because of the Cleopatra-like dark lines coming from her eyes.

We are now trying to figure out how to deal with another cat. We don't really want another cat inside, Smokey and Bob are pretty comfortable with their situation. If Missy won't bother the birds we might be able to keep her as an outside cat, but we would be perfectly happy if someone would take her. We do have a home lined up for Squirt and are looking for a taker for Cleo.

Update - The original deal for Squirt fell through. But on December 12, 2018 we found a new home for her. She went to a family with a couple of young kids and a dad who is a cat person. Oddly they have decided to rename her Chloe, but she is young enough that it shouldn't be a problem.

About that time the weather turned cold so I moved Missy and Cleo into a screened off area inside our garage. We thought that maybe this way Smokey and Bob could get accustomed to them (the garage is where their litter box is at).

Bob was initially pretty concerned. He was meowing insistently at me and I'm pretty sure he was saying, "Dude - there are animals in the house! You've gotta do something about this, those things belong outside." But being separated by a mesh made it tolerable.

We were getting pretty close to giving up on getting Missy and Cleo adopted and were trying to figure out how to co-mingle them with Smokey and Bob. But just this past Wednesday Feb 6, 2019 a nice lady named Marjorie gave Missy and Cleo a new home. I had listed them on a pet rehome webpage and she selected them as potential adoptees. Marjorie came out to meet them last week and decided that they would be a good match for her. She had lost her previous two cats to old age a few months ago and wanted a new cat, and when she saw that they were a mom/daughter combo decided to take both.

We will miss them but this was a good solution, and Smokey and Bob are happy to be the rulers again.

6518John · #**184** 02-09-2019, 12:45 PM

We kept the momma kitten “Little Bit” to our brood of 7–the vet estimates she is only about 9 months to a year now. Little Bit has fattened right up and enjoying life off the street. All 7 kittens spayed/neutered and adopted out and doing well.

My son says she still has street skills though and if any of our other, older, much larger cats try to bully her, she will put a whipping on them right quick! We still believe someone raised her indoors initially, then dumped her as a kitten when she got pregnant. People don’t realize how quickly young kittens can reproduce.

les.b · #**185** 02-09-2019, 06:15 PM

Thanks for the updates, Tom and John!! Sounds like great solutions to two problems. Bella and Lucky continue to keep me straight!! Lucky is almost at 12 pounds now, and Bella almost 13. A few days ago I decided to put them on a diet, and start cutting back on their rations. They have outsmarted me, by developing a strategy where they wake me up about every hour during the night, and keep at it until I relent and give them some more food. Then they will let me sleep for awhile.

Lucky's latest portrait:

Best Regards, Les

Tom K · #**186** 02-09-2019, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by les.b

....
Lucky's latest portrait:

Best Regards, Les

That is one handsome cat.

les.b · #**187** 10-13-2019, 06:32 PM

Today is Licky's 2nd Anniversary of coming to live with me. He (and Bella) pretty much run the place.

Best Regards, Les

joeintexas · #**188** 10-13-2019, 07:03 PM

Sure looks like life is really tough on poor Lucky.

I'd say that's one happy cat.

susieqz · #**189** 10-13-2019, 09:05 PM

i miss hearing about lucky

les.b · #**190** 10-14-2019, 06:37 PM

susie, I’ve missed hearing about your kitties as well!! Cud and Drifter!! We need an update.

Best Regards, Les

Redbert31 · #**191** 10-23-2019, 09:30 PM

Hi Les and Susie... Miss y'all... Logan and Jackson say hi

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les.b · #**192** 10-25-2019, 09:46 PM

Hi, Linda! and susie!!! I've been out of town at a seminar, just catching up on the forum a little bit...I miss you guys as well!!

Forgot to show Lucky on his 2nd Birthday.... Now he's on YouTube....he's telling Bella that he's famous now, cause she never made it there!!

Best Regards, Les

Rudi · #**193** 10-25-2019, 11:16 PM

Lucky, truly is!

kmyers · #**194** 10-26-2019, 11:45 AM

That does fit the definition of cute cat video of Lucky playing on YouTube. Looks like he is having a wonderful time.

susieqz · #**195** 10-26-2019, 12:10 PM

i'd like to play with my kits like that,
i can't tho.
that sorta thing frightens them.

muddocktor · #**196** 10-27-2019, 09:13 PM

Lucky sure turned into one handsome cat, Les! He's just 3-4 months younger than the one we adopted from a rescue shelter right after we lost our wolfdog in late May of 2017. Cooper looked much like Lucky in size when we adopted him and has grown into a spoiled little boy that has my wife wrapped around his little paws and I am the official cat brusher as he tells me to brush him down every day by pawing his brush and pushing it to the floor if I don't brush him right away. He's a black and white tuxedo cat instead of being pure black though. Here's a couple of pictures of Cooper to share with you.

Cooper shortly after we adopted him from the shelter.

Cooper right after he turned 2, laying in one of very favorite spots, the satellite tuner.

les.b · #**197** 10-27-2019, 10:09 PM

Thanks for sharing Coopers story and photos with us!! What a handsome fellow he is. Lucky is here looking over my shoulder and purring...I know he approves. Bella spent most of the evening with me, she is now in the other room...I think they take turns keeping me company.

Best Regards, Les

Redbert31 · #**198** 10-30-2019, 09:06 PM

Happy 2nd birthday to Lucky and loved his video on you tube

hello and welcome to Cooper.. Such a beautiful kitty too

Happy Halloween to everyone and to Black kitties everywhere!! Special hello to Drifter, Cud, and Bella

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4506517 · #**199** 10-30-2019, 09:14 PM

He certainly turned out to be a handsome fellow.

Good on all you guys that gave someone a second chance.

mmb617 · #**200** 10-31-2019, 01:45 PM

I just read through this entire thread as we've always been cat people and had a dozen different ones over the last 40 years. Almost all of them were rescues of some sort.

Here's a picture of 5 of them from 1986 with a brief story of how we came to get each one.

Starting from the far left the first siamese is Tasha. She was an adult indoor cat that my sister decided she didn't want anymore so she put her outside to fend for herself. As soon as we found out we went and got her.

Next one over is Spyder. He was little more than a kitten when we got him because my brother in law was abusing him. The vet removed multiple bb's form his hide as the idiot was shooting him with a bb gun as a training method.

In the middle is Princess. She came to our back door as a kitten and was our first cat not long after we moved into our house. My wife started putting food out on the porch for her and in a few days she'd made the move to official indoor cat. You may notice that she became quite rotund in her adulthood. My wife wouldn't put up with anybody calling her fat though, she said that Princess retained water.

Next is Joe Cruise. My wife's sister, who lived with us at the time, was out riding around one night and some guys were going to throw him off a bridge. She brought the kitten home and he also became a resident.

On the far right is Boots. A woman we worked with said she had a cat that was so mean with her kids that they wanted rid of her. That poor cat was a real handful when we got her. I can only surmise that the kids had tortured her as she was afraid of everybody and having been declawed in all four feet she would bite, hard and often. It took some time but eventually she became a great pet. She never really liked kids though, but by the time our son was born she had lived with us for 5 years and became friends with him. Other kids could never really approach her.

About 13 years ago we adopted Tigger, a cat with more personality than any other I think. He had originally turned up as a kitten on our neighbors porch and they took him in. I don't remember exactly why they didn't want him anymore after a couple years but we took him in.

He was full of mischief and we nicknamed him Mr Badazz. We had two big dogs and they were terrified of him. He would chase Zeus who outweighed him by more than 100 lbs through the house and corner him till we heard Zeus whimpering and came to his rescue. Zena, the big bad Pitbull was also scared of him but he didn't pick on her as much.

My wife tried to teach the cat to let the dogs alone by squirting him with a water bottle, but that didn't bother him at all. He'd sit there soaking wet and lick himself furiously while giving her the evil eye.

Here he is:

The only cat we have left at this point is Shadow. He belonged to a co-worker and needed bladder surgery. When I was told that the cat would be put down because he wasn't spending all that money I said I'd take him. I do understand that sometimes you can't afford the medical care a pet needs and you do what you have to, but this co-worker had a much higher paying job than I did, he just didn't think the cat was worth it. Shadow was a handsome, indoor only cat and only 6 years old at the time.

I'm happy so say he made a full recovery, and is a real lap kitty today. Here's the handsome boy:

While we're on the subject of pet cats I guess I'll include my wife's former lap cat. We got him as a kitten in 1983 and he lived with us till he died in 1994. My wife could do things with him that I wouldn't have advised anyone else to try.