A very lucky cat!

[Ratboy]

King loved to torment my old cat, Orville, when he was a pup, until Orville had to be but down at almost 17. He is totally fascinated by cats, but hadn't really had much contact with any, except for a couple of Feral ones that had become treed by King and Molly. Luckily, they Molly never got hold of one.

The neighbors next door took a cat in that was wandering around the neighborhood. It's been totally declawed by whoever owned it before. It gets out of the house by the doggy door, and really isn't happy being inside at all, so it's getting out of the house as much as it possibly can.

It's apparently not too smart, as it keeps coming into my yard, and has barely avoided being caught by Molly, who now is watching for it all the time. A couple of days ago, King went outside, Molly stayed inside, for whatever reason Molly sometimes refuses to go out. I gave up trying to figure her out years ago. Anyway, King sees the cat, and chases it, and it barely escapes over the fence. King has been going over the fence for some time now to visit the dogs next door, but he's never shown any desire to chase the cat over the fence. Last week, he did jump over and he "caught" the cat for a few seconds, but that was just because the cat happened to be there. The kid next door rescued the cat right away.

But this time was different. With almost no hesitation, he backed up a couple of steps and went over. The cat, not "thinking" that he was still being chased, was slowly walking towards the house. King caught him about 20 feet from the dog door. The cat screamed, and King began licking the cat's head and whining like he used to do with Orville when he "played" with him. I can barely walk right now, due to a bad fall recently, and sadly for the cat, nobody was home next door, a real rare thing.

As I tried to hobble over there, I could hear the cat shrieking like he was being killed, and King is doing the whining thing he always does when he plays with a cat or small pup/dog. I put my shoes on (I can't do anything fast right now),and it took me a while to even do that. By the time I got over there, the cat, normally dark grey had a head covered with drool and foam, looking white in the sunlight. I yell, "King!!", and he looks at me like "Look what I have!", and keeps licking and sucking on the cat's head. The cat has given up at this point, and is just laying there, like he's dead.

I'm trying to get King to come over to me, but he's having too much fun. Finally I decide I had better go into the yard to get him, but to be honest, I was scared about falling, because if I did, I would be in big trouble. Just as I started to open the gate, the neighbors pulled in! They get out of the car, and think King is attacking the cat, but soon calm down when they realize King is "playing". King resists giving up his prize, but finally the neighbor gets him off the cat. The cat sits there for about 10 seconds, then jumps up, shakes his head, and runs over the fence into my yard!

Molly was there, watching the whole thing, and I thought, "The cat is done", as she caught up with the cat. Somehow, the cat made a good move, and Molly tripped up and rolled a couple of times. By the time she got back up and running, the cat was over the fence into the neighbor's yard. He was very very lucky. The way Molly was shooting foam out of her mouth, the cat wouldn't have had any chance at all.

The cat, being totally clueless, was out in the yard last night. King cried for about 10 minutes when I wouldn't let him out. Molly just stared at me like I was an idiot.

The cat's luck is going to run out one of these days. I know it's gonna be bad.

 

[ToscasMom]

Well hey you did the best you can. Your neighbors are not too bright to declaw a cat and then let it get outside where it has no means or defense. The cat is not too bright either, because I am SURE it knows it doesn't have a means of defense either. Sounds like a match made in Dumb Heaven. Seems to me you care more about their cat's life than they do.

I do think it's REALLY cute the way King loves cats though. But for Molly's different point of view, it would almost be merciful to get King another cat of his own. Tosca also slobbers Mojo a lot. As you can see by the look on his face, he appears disgusted. That begs the question as to why he always goes back for more..

 

[mjb]

I think the cat was already declawed when the neighbors found it and took it in.

I don't know what to do about the cat wanting so desperately to be outside and escaping through the dog door, though.

 

[ToscasMom]

Well the door is there for the cat to leave thru, so the responsible thing for the owners to do is either lock the dog door up and let the dog out themselves or keep the cat away from that exit. It's really the owner's responsibility. If they already adopted a declawed cat they have to realize the cat can't go outdoors if they plan to allow it to have a long life.

It's not all that impossible to train any cat to be an indoor cat, but adding an open dog door certainly does make it impossible. It's an invitation to leave.

Ratboy do your neighbors know that this declawed cat is in danger when it leaves and visits your property? If they do, then they are just terrible cat owners and there isn't much you can do to prevent whatever happens. Like you said, the cat was lucky. This time.

 

[mjb]

Yes, it was nice of them to get it off the street, but they need to do more. I assume this is a recent rescue since it's just now creating some issues. Maybe they can find someone who wants to take in the cat that would have an easier time keeping it an indoor-only house. Maybe the original owners are even looking for it, and it was a freak accident that it got out.

 

[ToscasMom]

I totally agree mjb.

 

[Ratboy]

I'm not really sure how long they have had it, maybe a year or so. They tried to find the owner, but nobody came forward. They have 3 dogs, all using that doggy door, so it's pretty hard to get them to stop now when one of them is about 7.

They are trying to get a new home for it, but so far, haven't had any luck, a couple of people wanted it, but turned out to be allergic. The cat is very friendly, but won't let me touch it. The going into my backyard seems to be a recent (and dumb) move on the cat's part. I don't think I ever saw him in my back yard until maybe April or May.

If I could get Molly and the cat together inside my house, Molly could be "deprogrammed" very quickly. She totally ignored my old cat from day one, and has shown that the dogs she used to attack will eventually be tolerated, but never really liked.

 

[Ratboy]

My mother's cat seems to be ok around dogs, but I don't know how it will take King's "advances", so I would probably have to do what I did to reprogram my past dogs, and I may do it when the cat needs a new home. Put the cat in it's carrier and let the dogs burn themselves out on it until they (Molly mostly) is bored and doesn't care about the cat at all anymore. It took about 6 days for my old Lab to stop fixating, and even then, he made one last lunge at the tiny kitten. The kitten arched his back and hissed, and the Lab wagged his tail, and seemed very amused by the whole thing. After that, he was fine with the cat, and they used to always touch noses when they saw each other. They never played together much, but they got along fine. My other dog, Blackie, seemed to act like "Cat? What cat?" When I got my Pit Mix pup Gus, he and the cat were big buddies for years, until the unfortunate "scrotum bite" incident. After that, he was terrorized by the cat for the rest of his life. Then the cat's nightmare began, all caused by a 10 pound lunatic puppy named King.

 

[ToscasMom]

Ratboy, sounds like you may be able to adopt that cat yourself. It's very clear that this cat is not afraid of dogs so that half of the battle is done. I'd be very interested in knowing how things go if you decide to do this.

 

[Ratboy]

I thought about it, but right now, money is very tight, and will be for a while. I don't need any surprises(vet bills) and the way I'm walking from the fall would keep me from saving the cat in case Molly went after it. I can't move quickly at all. From what the neighbors told me, the cat is a basket case when put into a carrier, something I would have to do for at least a fair part of a few days to get Molly to the point of not caring anymore. I just don't think it's a realistic thing, at least for the time being.

I have enought "Stuff" to worry about right now anyway.