The cat from the other day that I said had been dumped on my property … so, yeah, she’s going to stay with us for good.

Despite leaving a message for the Humane Society, they never bothered to call me about bringing the kitten in. So, on Sunday night we decided I would take her to vet Monday morning to have her checked out. First off, we found out she was a girl. Good to know.  We named her Dolly Madison for the former first lady.  We were going to call her Madison for short, but Jon Rettinger of TechnoBuffalo took about two seconds to call her “Maddie,” and it has already stuck.

Overall we found out that she is about six weeks old, weighs an amazing 4 oz. and is healthy overall.  She does have a case of roundworm, but it’s not anything that shocking or scary and they put her on meds for it.  The only bad thing is that due to not knowing her background we have to keep her isolated for a month from McKinley, our other cat.  For now she is living in a (very large) dog crate we had on hand until we can figure out a way to keep her locked up in a safe area.  Honestly, she seems like what she needs the most of now is sleep, and she’s getting lots of that, so the crate is not such a bad spot for her at the moment.

We’re still not thrilled about how she showed up, but from here on out she’s going to have a much better life … and toys that look like disco balls.  (click the image for a larger view of her)

So, yes, for those keeping track, this brings me to seven pets, but that was certainly never the plan.

If you know me at all, you know that I am a sucker for animals.  Between my five dogs and one cat, that should be pretty evident.  So, imagine my dismay yesterday when I started seeing what appeared to be a little kitten hanging around my dumpster.

A kitten that was obviously too young to be on its own, but it would not let me get close enough to truly figure anything out.  I saw it once in the morning, and again in the afternoon as I came home from running errands.  I went to take a shower, took my dogs out, and I hear, “meow.”  He’s made it back to my house and inside the dog run.  I get them back in the house without them spotting him, and this time he allows me to get with a few feet before taking off.  What followed was hours of me trying to catch this kitten to no avail, and another close call with the dogs as he hid behind an air conditioning unit.

I opted to set the raccoon trap we have (live trap, totally harmless, you can see a picture of a coon in it from 2009 that shows it does not harm the animal on this post.), and I baited it with tuna.  No luck.  After a few hours I decide to take the dogs out again after traipsing all over my property trying to find him.  I go out on the deck to check for him, and I hear him (I keep saying “him,” I still don’t know), but he sounds like he’s a ways off.  I let the dogs out, they start checking smells, and … he was hiding behind a flower pot.  All heck breaks loose, I throw on my work gloves, pull it out of the fray, and walk with a kitten attacking my glove until I can get to the cage.

He is currently residing in an air conditioned room, still in the trap, and he has food and water in there with him until either the vet or the shelter opens tomorrow.  Here is a pic of him shortly after capture.

I want to know what sort of monster dumps a kitten this cute out in a wooded area.  It happens all the time around here, but this time it happened on my property.  I am not a violent man, but someone that would do something like this deserves a good kick in the nether regions of their body.

As to if we will keep it … we’re debating it.  The current cat lives by himself in our 3,000 square foot warehouse, so there is plenty of room for another cat, but taking on another pet … I just don’t know.  Right now it is a waiting game trying to keep it comfortable until tomorrow morning when I take it either to our vet or to the shelter.  My heart says, “keep it,” while my brain says, “are you nuts?”  I know I can give it a good home, but would the person who adopted it do so?  I just don’t know, and I have a lot of thinking to do tonight.

In the meantime, if you ever consider dumping an animal, please remember that intakes at the Humane Society are free.  Is it so difficult to go do that?

UPDATE: We changed his name to McKinley… he’s a Bi-color (what a breed name)… and he’s under 1 year old. He’s had his shots now, and next is the snip-snip. Oh, and his favorite place to nap is on my chest when I am leaning back at my work computer… makes typing an adventure!

While I am still a die hard dog person, I find myself now living with a cat.  Meet Mulford.

Back in July I wrote about flooding a few miles from my house, well, that’s where Mulford came out of.  Someone who was staying on our property at the time as a guest went over to look at the flooding, and found a black and white cat walking around the Mullanix Ford (MULlanix FORD… yeah, I didn’t name him) dealership, and as he was obviously a stray, brought them back to our property.

Well, when said guest went to leave, it turned out he was going to be able to keep Mulford, so we agreed to let him live on the property.  We unfortunately can’t let him in my house due to my dogs, and my Grandmother is 86, so too much chance of Mulford tripping her in her house, so it looks like Mulford will be living in our business (which is not open to the public) for at least the winter months.  Don’t worry folks, it’s heated and 3,000 square feet, he’s not going to be exactly cramped.

However, here is why I post this: we have no clue how old Mulford is or what breed he is.  We believe he is under a year old (this picture was taken on Friday November 7th, 2008), and while we know we won’t be able to pin down his exact age, we would like to at least be approximate.  As for breed, we are clueless.  Anyone that has any guesses to either peice of data, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

I doubt this helps anyone, but he is an extreme talker, I swear he has an opinion on everything.  Very fast, extremely playful, loves rolling on his back… I know these bits probably don’t help, but they might be breed traits for all I know, I haven’t had a cat in about 28 years.