BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum

Our BetterMost Community => BetterMost People => Topic started by: delalluvia on May 18, 2010, 07:00:11 pm

Title: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on May 18, 2010, 07:00:11 pm
As some of you know, I was laid off last summer then when my apartment lease was up, I moved in with my mother in her house back in January to help her out.

Well, my mother had given me her car, since I was still driving my beat up, ancient convertible with the torn top and 232,000 miles on it.  So now I have 2 cars.  I've been driving the newer one primarily, leaving my old convertible in the back of the driveway, and driving it rarely and/or just starting it to keep the battery charged up.

Today, I realized it's been almost 10 days since I last started my old car.  Ten minutes ago I went to the car, started to open the door and realized one of the local street cats had just had her kittens on the front passenger side floorboard.

 :o :o :o :o :P >:(  :P

*sigh*

First a dove, now a cat (see my thread "Aack!!  Help!  2009" for the dove story).

While I was standing there gaping, going "No, no, no, no..." The mother spooked and ran off.

I went inside to call the vet and the assistant assured me that the mother would be back and would likely move the kittens (they're just newborn - eyes are still closed.  They need their mother).

But there's no way for me to tell unless I disturb them again to look - and I don't want dead little kittens in my car if the mother abandoned them because I kept disturbing them - but the vet assistant said no, I hadn't disturbed them at all since she had had them and likely knew the car was a nice quiet protected space.  So it's very likely she'll be back and cats are very protective mothers.

Good news - she might move them, but I won't be able to tell.

Bad news - if she doesn't move them, then she'll be there nursing them for 5 weeks!!!!

My car will be dead by then!!!  The backyard overgrown!!!  I can't move the car so the lawn guy can get back there to mow!!!  I'll be fined by the city and

AACK!!!

Damned cats...grumble grumble grumble
 
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: louisev on May 18, 2010, 07:24:18 pm
Since she's a stray cat you could take the kittens and nurse them till you can find a shelter to adopt them - newborns are ready to adopt at 6 weeks and shelters find them easy to place.  If you don't do this, they will grow up feral, starving, and perpetuate the cycle of starving stray cats in our world.  I had a feral stray creep in through the cat door and have her kittens under my bed.  I kept two of them, nursing them from newborn, and adopted out the other four.  I still have those two cats, Kate and Fred, featured in my flickr site, and the others grew up to be gorgeous half-angora, half-tabby mixes, non-feral, with a healthy domestic kitty life.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on May 18, 2010, 07:55:25 pm

Since she's a stray cat you could take the kittens and nurse them till you can find a shelter to adopt them - newborns are ready to adopt at 6 weeks and shelters find them easy to place.  If you don't do this, they will grow up feral, starving, and perpetuate the cycle of starving stray cats in our world.  I had a feral stray creep in through the cat door and have her kittens under my bed.  I kept two of them, nursing them from newborn, and adopted out the other four.  I still have those two cats, Kate and Fred, featured in my flickr site, and the others grew up to be gorgeous half-angora, half-tabby mixes, non-feral, with a healthy domestic kitty life.

Trouble with that - and I was thinking about the getting her spayed issue - that young of kittens have to be kept warm, quiet and fed around the clock.  And I'd have to hope the feral kitties didn't inherit some fatal disease from their mother they could pass on to my own cats (I don't let my own cats outside for that reason).

I'm in the middle of having a garage sale for my mother's furniture, having relatives and strangers tromping into my house and front yard, having the movers bringing my furniture and termite exterminators coming, and boxing things up for Goodwill AND taking care of my own two cats AND going to work.  No idea when I'd have time to nurse the kitties round the clock and kept them undisturbed and away from my own cats.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Fran on May 19, 2010, 09:27:25 am
Can you call the Humane Society or Animal Care & Control?  Or maybe some cat no-kill shelter?  Hopefully, there's some local animal rescue organization that has the resources to save these kittens from the feral life that awaits them.

Your post got me thinking:  how did the mom cat get inside your car?  One of my fears is that a mouse or, even worse, a rat will find its way into my car someday.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on May 19, 2010, 12:19:32 pm
Your post got me thinking:  how did the mom cat get inside your car?  One of my fears is that a mouse or, even worse, a rat will find its way into my car someday.

I wondered about that, too, until I went back and re-read the first post, where she mentions that the car is a convertible. I'm guessing the top was "down."
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Fran on May 19, 2010, 08:43:12 pm
I'm guessing the top was "down."

If that's the case, then it must not have rained for ten days...or perhaps del has some kind of car port.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on May 19, 2010, 10:00:05 pm
It's a convertible, with a top and doors, however, parts of it don't snap down anymore, leaving a gap for a curious cat to jump through, creating a warm, enclosed but still airy environment that's off the ground.

Yes, Fran, I've been accosted in my car at very inconvenient times by large wasps, big roaches and spiders that chose to lower themselves on a strand of silk to right in front of my face at 60 mph.

I've had to evict ant nests and wasp nests, yet I've worried more about snakes, than rats.  :P
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Fran on June 01, 2010, 12:51:03 am
So have the felines exited the vehicle yet?  We need an update, del.  :)
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Ellemeno on June 01, 2010, 04:19:17 am
Cat report, por favor!

:)
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on June 05, 2010, 03:12:10 pm
I haven't disturbed them to to date to even look.  I started this thread on May 18th, so it's just been slightly over two weeks since the kittens were likely born.  They need to be at least 4 weeks before they can survive without their mother in case I spook the mother and have to confiscate the kittens myself.

I hope to every small animal god out there that she's moved them.  It's fricking 100 degrees now.  Unbearable outside in the shade, much less inside a nearly enclosed convertible sitting in the sun.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on June 18, 2010, 07:49:19 pm
Wish me luck.  This is the weekend I'm going to look in my convertible and hope it is clear of any live or dead kittens.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Mandy21 on June 18, 2010, 10:08:57 pm
Eek, Del.  Go in there with good thoughts in your head.  Be quiet and confident, yet trepidatious and kind and forgiving.  Not a small task, I know, but try to keep it in perspective in terms of all of the other gigantic nightmares that you're living through right now.

Heck, there's lots of folks in this world who picture homeless and helpless kittens in their minds when they're trying to think of lovely things in life, things to live for, to scoop up and cuddle with and give love to, blah blah blah...

Remember the mantra -- "For every problem, there IS a solution.  For every problem, there IS a solution.  For every problem, there IS a solution."

Good luck, girl.  Let us know how it turns out manana.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on June 22, 2010, 06:46:45 pm
Yay!

No kittens, no bodies, no smell, no mess!  They're just gone.

Car smells like my old car smell.  I checked under the driver's seat yesterday and will check under the passenger seat today, make sure no one is home, then I'm going to bug bomb the car, toss in a solution of bleach and water, then have the jeep towed to my mechanic to have him charge up the battery, do an oil change.  Then when I drive it home, I'm going to take the doors off so no other cat gets the idea that this was a great place to have kittens. 
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Kelda on June 25, 2010, 04:01:41 am
yay! Go kitties!
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on July 10, 2010, 04:03:27 pm
Looked out my window last week and saw in my backyard, out cavorting under a hot summer night sky, a yellow momma cat and three healthy, lively kittens.  ;D
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Shasta542 on July 10, 2010, 04:16:16 pm
Looked out my window last week and saw in my backyard, out cavorting under a hot summer night sky, a yellow momma cat and three healthy, lively kittens.  ;D

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f3SZ5Tu916o/R8gkTIOEJXI/AAAAAAAAFOo/V6-YWR72Pd8/s400/yay.jpg)

YaY!!
They had a good start at the Jeep hospital!
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on July 10, 2010, 04:20:24 pm
 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Kelda on July 11, 2010, 01:35:23 pm
 :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Mandy21 on July 11, 2010, 06:53:36 pm
Hey Del, how's the rest of your home ownership and all the problems you're dealing with going for you?
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on July 12, 2010, 10:30:14 pm
Hey Del, how's the rest of your home ownership and all the problems you're dealing with going for you?

Slow.

There is just not enough storage space, so I still have boxes sitting and bags of clothing and 4 empty shelves remaining.

The will is almost settled, so pretty soon, instead of upkeep coming out of a joint account it will be me paying it and I find myself very reluctant to pay someone every two weeks to mow grass I don't particularly care to have.  And no, I don't want to do it myself in 100 degree weather in a backyard that has fleas, poison ivy and mosquitos.

I'm barely moved in and already my sister is saying things like,

"Can you move out sooner?  I don't want to move in the summer..."

I've already reminded her that last time I was looking for financing for a car - the year I graduated college and finally got a full-time job - I was told by my bank that they required at least 5 years history with a job before they would consider me for a loan.  So I told my sister that I may not completely vacate at the end of my two year stint, because I may not be able to qualify for a home loan for a few more years.

She was not happy to hear that.
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: Mandy21 on July 13, 2010, 12:24:43 pm
Goodness, you're in quite a pickle, aren't you?  Filled with trials and tribulations.

Have you found any happiness or comfort at all in your home, or do you just want to run screaming from the place?

And why is your sister nagging you?  Has she helped at all?

I wish things could be better for you.   
Title: Re: Aack!! Help! 2010
Post by: delalluvia on July 13, 2010, 07:13:46 pm
Goodness, you're in quite a pickle, aren't you?  Filled with trials and tribulations.

Have you found any happiness or comfort at all in your home, or do you just want to run screaming from the place?

I'm trying to find some peace, but it's difficult.  In the unbearably hot weather that Texas has, I have to have air conditioning and I prefer central air, but I don't have it.  I have window units, four of them, that I cannot leave on round the clock to keep the house comfortable - the condensers freeze up and stop blowing cold air - and I don't dare leave on all night to keep me cool and help me sleep because they blow loudly and since neighborhood is not the best if someone tried to break in at night, I couldn't hear them.

So, every morning, by the time I get ready to go to work, I'm already sweating in my work clothes because the house is so warm.  On weekends, instead of lazily sleeping in, I wake up when I get so hot I can't sleep anymore.  So I'm perpetually tired and hot and hot weather in Texas can last until late October.

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And why is your sister nagging you?

My sister is nagging me because the house is paid off.  So there is only the upkeep on the house to be paid.

And my sister, who cannot handle her money, who is perpetually broke and has lived paycheck to paycheck her entire life - the same woman who asked me for a loan when she had a full-time job and I was unemployed - wants me out as soon as possible so she can move in and won't have to worry about paying rent anymore.

I know I'll have a hard time ever getting her out of the house once she moves in, so it was a left-handled blessing of sorts when I was forced by circumstances to move in with my mom and so 'got here first'.

Our mom perpetually bailed my sister out of her financial problems, year after year.

But mom is gone now.

There is no one left but me to loan her any money.  So, as fast as insurance and inheritance money comes in, I'm locking it up in CDs and 401Ks and investments so when she comes begging for money some day - and she will - I will be able to tell her "tough titty" because all my money is tied up.  Maybe my version of 'tough love' - something my mother was never able to do - will teach my sister to be more mindful of her finances if she finds herself stuck with no one to lend her money anymore.
 
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Has she helped at all?

She helped with the garage sale, but other than that, she has been more than happy to let me clear out the remaning stuff, so it will be gone when SHE moves in.  >:(

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I wish things could be better for you.

Thank you.  I do, too.