Just hangin' around...
Meet Girl Kitty… Yes, that’s her name. She is 9 years old and her favorite activities include collecting loose change in her food bowl and hiding from her big bully brother, Boy Kitty. She was rescued from a backyard in Mercer County, WV at 5 weeks of age and has been a superb cuddle-buddy ever since.
I once had a friend who was owned by a large, beautiful Siamese cat. This friend also lived in a very luxurious home with silk wall coverings. Tia (the cat) took a liking to the walls and would run at full tilt and jump up about four feet and land on the wall with claws on all four paws fully extended, and then slowly slide down. You can imagine the mess this made of the wall. My friend decided that it was time to take Tia’s claws out. He only had the front two paws done trying to keep her from any pain??? Small difference between the pain of two paws and four, but he didn’t see it that way.
Well, Tia came home and recuperated for two weeks. Of course, my friend had to shred newspapers daily because kitty litter was a no-no on Tia’s poor feet. After three days of this chore and seeing his cat in pain, he began to rethink his idea of declawing Tia. But what was done, was done. There was no going back. When she was completely healed, the walls fixed, and my friend very proud of himself for achieving all of this with no mishaps, we watched as Tia took off running at full tilt, jumped four feet up, landed on the new silk wall and proceeded to slide down with her back paws. About halfway down she got stuck and hung upside down for as long as it took to get to the wall and remove her. She didn’t get hurt, though I can’t say the same for the new wall covering.
I guess the moral of the story is: Do not declaw your cat. Not only is it painful and medically unnecessary, but it will not eliminate your cat’s unwanted behavior. Just like a puppy or a small child, it is your responsibility to teach your pet what his or her “toys” are and what behavior is not acceptable. Also, declawing prohibits a cat from climbing. So if a declawed cat ever slipped out of the house (and they can find a way) they would not be able to climb a tree to escape a predator. That could have very fatal consequences for your cat.
Would anyone like to add more reasons why a cat owners should not declaw?
OAKLAND — When Sarah Kidder adopted a 12-year-old female Siberian husky named Tamerack last year, she knew she was getting a loving, friendly playful dog. But she never suspected that Tamerack had a hidden talent: as a foster kitten raiser.
It all started last month, when Kidder, who lives in the Grand Lake area, was taking Tamerack for a walk.
“About a block away, I saw this beautiful, blue-eyed, chocolate point Siamese adult and two little black kittens playing in a driveway,” she said. “I was like, ‘Why would those little kittens be there?’”
After talking with the neighbors, Kidder found out that the family who lived there had moved away and abandoned the Siamese — which she assumed was the mom — and the two kittens. So she decided to take them home.
“It wasn’t safe for them to be out there. And we don’t need any more feral cats in the neighborhood, because they would keep on breeding. Plus, they were just ridiculously cute.”
That’s when Tamerack unveiled her hidden talent.
“She was like, ‘Oooh, kittens!’ I was a little concerned at first because she was so excited, but then I realized she was excited because she wanted to mother them. She would follow them around and lick their heads and make sure they were OK. After 24 hours, they started following her around. Whenever she sat down, they sat down, too.”
By the next day, Tamerack was sharing her food with her little feline friends.
“Even when she was gnawing on a bone, she’d let them munch on it, too. I just sat there, slack-jawed, for a week.”
Now Tamerack and her kittens are inseparable. They sleep together, eat together and play together.
“She understands that she’s a lot bigger than they are, so she’s very gentle with them. If they’re gone too long, she searches for them and hangs out wherever they are. If I’m looking for them, I just look for her because I know she’ll be where they are.”
She named the mommy cat Choco Kitty and the kittens Roxana and Stetaria, after Alexander the Great’s wives. (Kidder is the product of a classical education.)
The next order of business was to get Choco Kitty and the kittens fixed, so Kidder called Island Cat Resources and Adoption, which arranged and paid for the surgeries.
That’s when Kidder got another surprise: Choco Kitty isn’t the kittens’ mother. He’s their father!
“It’s not unusual for adult male cats to be a great guardian for kittens,” said ICRA’s Gail Churchill. “When his owners moved away, he must have realized the kittens were helpless and took it upon himself to be their guardian.”
It’s not unusual for large dogs such as Tamerack to be kind to kittens, as Churchill can attest. Her golden retriever, Rosie, was in the news in June for fostering homeless kittens, too.
“Gentle, sweet dogs will take to anyone,” Churchill said, “especially young ones.”
Now that they’ve been spayed or neutered, all three cats are available for adoption.
“They’re all incredibly sweet and friendly,” Kidder said. “I’d love to adopt them myself, but I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to my cat, Enkidu.”
But what will Tamerack do when her kittens are adopted?
“I’m going to take her up to the snow as a reward,” Kidder said. “If she’s still missing them after that, I’ll guess I’ll have to start fostering more kittens.”
To adopt these cats, either singly or in combination, call ICRA at 510-869-2584 or visit www.icraeastbay.org. Reach Martin Snapp at catman@sfo.com.