Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:26:08 -0400
From: Claire Kane
Subject: lost pet topic – This one got me going!
I’ll add my comments to the lost pet topic on the chatlist.
It’s lovely to live in a place where people will want to know and assist if you are looking for your pet. These situations cannot always be prevented. We lost Jimmycarter, our big young tomcat, a few years ago. We had him from a kitten.
How did it happen? He somehow escaped from his fastened pet carrier in the several feet between our car and Pittsboro Animal Hospital, where we were taking him for his shots. He went into a hole under the building and would not come out. Cats are kind of amazing sometimes, and this little tom had escaped out of a different model cat carrier before. We should have named him Houdini.
Some people may remember this because we love this cat way too much and went to extravagant lengths to find him. It took a couple of months and I’m sure most thought we should give up already. Because we posted to the chatlist, many people called us thinking they might have found him, or spotted him and giving us good ideas on methods we might try. With their help, in a couple weeks, we narrowed down the search. If you don’t like lost cat stories, then skip the next couple paragraphs.
It had happened on a freezing January day. Folks let us know they were on the lookout, and a dear friend made posters, and helped us look. Other friends helped us look too. Once we were pretty sure of the area, we set a humane trap/cage for him in the field where he had repeatedly been seen. We checked it twice a day . Feral cats are very competitive and this cat had never been among them. It was snowing. We found him once, and saw that he was reduced to a feral state. He was maimed, half his weight and crazed. It was him though. We had him in the trap/cage, and the trap was in the back seat of the car. But the car door was not yet shut. Believe it or not, he SOMEHOW GOT OUT OF THE TRAP and escaped out of the car!!!!!
So then we set TWO humane traps then, and finally we got him for good. We have his mom too. She had never made a sound before that day. But when we brought him in, all crazy and sick, she went over to the trap and mewed repeatedly. She stayed near him for three days. THAT was interesting. But she’s a cat, she has her limits, so after that, she was outta there. The rest was up to us. After several months, he came back to himself, and believe me, it was well worth all the effort.
To those who disparage this topic:
It’s not wise to jump to judgment of anyone – and anyone definitely includes those who live with pets that get lost Don’t discourage us from posting. This is the country. There are many animal lovers here. We want to help each other. I am a very busy person and don’t always take the time to even skim the chatlist. But when I do, I go right by the topics that don’tinterest me. I suggest you try that tactic.
Sincerely,
Claire Kane