Butler Prettycat's blog

World Day against Pet Abandonment

Butler Prettycat — Sat, 29 Jun 2019 09:24:58 +0000

Starting this year, the last Saturday in June is World Day against Pet Abandonment.

The day was created by Solidarité refuges, an association of pet lovers and shelters in France. The last Saturday in June is a typical day for the start of vacations for Europeans; sometimes, however, they leave kitty at home to fend for himself. They should either take their pets with them or find a place to board them or at least someone to feed and visit them, like a friend or cat sitter.

In Québec, leases on apartments and houses typically expire at the end of June, and there is an influx of abandoned pets there at this time of year. Our grandmother and Mama Kitty were abandoned when their original human moved out of the red house (as was one of the dogs we later knew). Fortunately for us, the new humans thought it better to deal with cats than mice or rats (and that having a working dog in a rural area can have benefits).

In the United States, the main danger in early July is from cats and dogs who run away from the fireworks celebrating the Fourth of July, or otherwise go crazy. I know of one cat who was left alone in the house while his humans watched the city fireworks from their front yard; he clawed up an old chair full of sentimental value.

"If you love something, let it go; if it is yours, it will come back." -- that does not work so well for pets. Cats can't follow you like that.

It is sad to forget a friend, wrote Saint-Exupéry in Le Petit Prince / The Little Prince. Cats can't understand why our favorite human is not caring for us anymore. It was hard for us when the humans had to move out of the red house and they could not get to the shed anymore. So they had to show us where they were feeding us, just across the road. We did not all have hunting territory over there, so it took some of us longer to get over there and rejoin the colony. Some of us disappeared. We might not have been totally abandoned, but for some of us, it felt like we were.

A human who loves his kitty can't abandon him. As Parker could tell you, when our human left the farm, he came back a week later to get her. She had the other humans to take care of her while he was in town that week, and those humans continue to feed Smudge and the other kitties in the colony to this day. He didn't even talk to landlords who would not let him have a cat with him.

The following section is a translation of the 13 proposals from Solidarité-refuges as posted at Animaux-Online to fight against this curse that fills shelters to overflowing, leading those that are not no-kill shelters to turn to that option.

That the fight against pet abandonment become a national Cause
That a national, centralized census take place among shelters, refuges, and associations that take in lost or abandoned animals
That pets be considered as non-human legal persons (similar to corporations)
That businesses and organisms that sell pets be required to inform their customers of the risks of abandoning or mistreating their pet
That controls be reinforced for sites that advertise the sale or giveaway of pets, including social networks
That primary schools sensitise children to pets and empathy toward animals
That identification of pets be assured, and failing to to so may be sanctioned to fight trafficking and wild abandonment
That a Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) plan be engaged at the national level
That spaying or neutering (as appropriate) of non-breeding animals be required
That cities must subsidize associations that welcome abandoned animals from pounds
That cities all follow the laws concerning pounds and shelters already on the books
That nursing and retirement homes favor keeping the bond by accepting pets
That cities develop temporary reception facilities (dog and cat stops) for pets of vulnerable people hospitalized, in direct contact with the emergency services (firefighters, EMTs, etc.)

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Global Cat Day

Butler Prettycat — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 06:29:10 +0000

Tuesday the 16th is Global Cat Day, formerly known as National Feral Cat Day. (Wednesday is the 17th, which isn't.)

Some people don'T like feral cats. They think we are an invasive species. Those people happen to be members of an invasive species themselves. People who live in glass houses... kill as many birds as we do, if not more. And wind-based energy is immune from some of the requirements of reporting when they kill birds.

Others see us as necessary. If they have a choice between dealing with mice eating their grain or cattle feed, they'd deal with cats. We lived in the shed on the one side of the road, and my mother and the other kitties now live by the barn. Smudge often brought back mice, and I killed a few mice in my day as well. And a mole.

So what happens if there are too many cats? sometimes, we will fight; sometimes, like my father Beardy and Dorian did, we'll look for a new territory. If there aren't any feral cats there (such as might happen if the cats have been removed), we'll move in. If there are too many kittens, the adult cats can sometimes ahem take care of the problem on their own. None of Rico's first litter survived more than a week (she raised some of Blackie's litter that spring).

One of the older kitties, who was mean and looked a little like a certain Austro-German dictator (they called this kitty Führerlein) was taken to a farm where they only had male cats. That farm didn't have to deal with kittens, but the neighboring farms probably did.

An alternative, which he tried with a few of us, is to trap (that part was easy, since we were probably more stray than feral), neuter, and return us to release us in the same place, a prrocess usually referred to as TNR. Parker and Inky never had kittens, and Truffles and I didn't contribute to the kitten prroblem, either. He didn't get the rest of the kitties fixed, and the neighborhood tom could still come around, so the population nearly tripled when the mothers had their kittens the next spring, but many of the kittens did not survive long. Since the cats are there to occupy our territory, the neighbor cats won't move in. The population will remain steady until it gradually decreases when we all grow old and die (or die from something else). The two matriarchs of our colony both died from complications of kittening.

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Why I don't believe the 420,000 kittens figure

Butler Prettycat — Tue, 29 May 2018 19:59:52 +0000

You have probably seen the graphic stating that one breeding pair can produce 420,000 kittens or so in seven years. That situation is not likely.

First, that number assumes that the cats will live that long. That is not often the case. Feral breeding cats (let's talk just the adults for the moment) face several challenges, including predators, traffic, poisoned mice, and the act of kittening itself. My grandmother and Truffles's mother (the one the humans called Mama) both died from complications of kittening. We aren't sure how old they were. Rico fell to some predators (she was seven and a half years old), Friendly just didn't come back anymore (about the time of his first birthday), and Old Mr Grey just got sick and died.

Second, that number assumes there is enough food for the kittens, and that their mothers will take care of them. There were four litters born on the farm the spring I was born. Rico's litter did not survive more than a couple days -- the other queens thought there were too many kittens to survive (or at least, too many kittens for their own kittens to survive), so they cannibalized Rico's kittens. One (or more) of my siblings from the following spring may have been killed by one of the breeding queens as well. So the cats themselves decided that there were too many kittens around, even though the human was coming to visit us with food twice a day, and we had shelter from the rain and most predators.

And there were the kittens who for other reasons did not survive. One of our litter was stillborn a week late. One of Blackie's kittens developed something where he couldn't open his mouth at all and therefore could not eat. Rico had trouble counting kittens when she moved her first surviving litter. The farm dogs who know not to chase cats don't always realize that they also should not chase the kittens; one of the dogs took Blackie's second litter from the shed or carport and tried to move them. The humans found those kittens and returned them to the shed, but there may have been other litters that were not so lucky.

Fourth, there are cats who do not want to be around kittens in part of the population. Our father and Dorian left with another cat shortly after we were born. The human saw them out the window one day. When Rico had her kittens the spring after we were born, Parker did not want to stick around, and the human could not carry her into the shed. (She ate in the barn or on the hay after that.) Does that contribute to the number of kitties in the total? Possibly, but maybe not.

And there are queens who won't have the three litters a year that these people claim they would have. Our mother Smudge had some kittens a couple years before we were born, but only Mama had a litter in the fall. The next year, only Smudge and our grandmother had kittens. Mama only had one litter the year we were born (not counting her failed litter after Christmas) while the other queens had two.

There were about twelve of us in December just after Truffles and I were neutered, and Inky and Parker were spayed. Mama, Smudge, Blackie, Rico, Dark Lady, and Pretty Grey Lady (6) were intact, as were Blackie's kittens Juan and Axel, and our younger brother Friendly. Thirteen total, nine breeders. We made it up to about 30 after the spring kittens. But only one or two of those kittens survived (and were rehomed), and Friendly and I did not make it through that second summer. Some of the others also showed up less frequently, and Mama died that following winter. So the numbers espoused by the scare tactics people are not realistic for those humans who do not live at a pet food factory.

Does that mean I don't think spaying or neutering is important? Au contraire ! I was neutered as a farm cat at eight months of age, and he wanted to take more of us. There was only enough cash on hand, carrier space, and clinic space to take the four of us that day, and it was a bit of a trip up there. Kittens are fun, say the humans, until it comes time to find them a new home. That spring, the human went from being sad at saying goodbye to the kittens to being sad that they couldn't all get good, loving, indoor homes. Even when Sir Ed went to another farm, he was a little sad that Eddie (what his new family called him) did not get to become an inside cat. There are benefits to the cat who is fixed as well. (It's not a guarantee of a longer life, but it certainly increases the chances.) The population growth is reduced without any kittens having to starve, be eaten, or be drowned.

Our official site policy is that all cats, whether altered or intact, should feel welcome here. So if you aren't, that's okay with us. If you are, that's fine as well.

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chasing the mouse

Butler Prettycat — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 19:25:11 +0000

So on Caturday, Parker was taking a nap. The human saw Cyril outside, so he went out to say hello and maybe feed them.

Cyril went and hid under the trees, but Bob and Shtinky were staring at the wall. The human looked, and there was a rather large mouse there, bigger than the mice and voles we caught on the farm (maybe 4 inches or 10 cm). The mouse had climbed the wall and was hiding behind some electrical conduit.

So, figured our human, if I flush the mouse down, maybe the kitties can catch it. Cats are better at killing mice in an environmentally friendly way than humans and their poison. He tried his hockey stick, but it couldn't get through the cracks in the porch/balcony.

He then tried a small lunchbag, and that worked. The mouse ran down and around the house, followed by Bob. By this time, Cyril had given up and was on his way across the street. The mouse tried climbing the other side of the brick apartment building.

The human took his hockey stick and knocked the mouse down. There was a bit of a chase. The mouse stopped, sometimes Bob caught it, but wanted to tire it out before trying to eat it. The human hit the mouse with his hockey stick across the yard (well, not all the way across the yard) a couple times. Bob caught it again. This process went on a couple times.

Finally, the mouse made it to the hole by the fence post that was damaged when the tornado went through a few years back. The fence post is supported by T-posts. The mouse went down the hole, and Bob stayed there watching.

The human watched for a little, then went inside where Parker was still taking her nap.

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Outside the dream house

Butler Prettycat — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 06:25:25 +0000

Parker had some

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World Domination Day

Butler Prettycat — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 15:13:17 +0000

This Caturday is Cat World Domination Day. Here's a little bit on how we are going to take over the world.

First, we domesticate humans. We'll do this on our terms. We'll take care of their agricultural pests, like mice in the cattle feed. But we'll stay outside and stay just wild enough. Until they decide they can't live without us, then they let us inside and keep us warm. We'll make them feed us enough so we stay by their barns instead of exploring into the woods, then we'll demand to be fed on our schedule inside, and go in and out when we want to, even if we just changed our mind. We'll demand things be kept a certain way. Everywhere a cat could possibly go, we will go. Humans must feed us, go to bed, and provide laps on our schedule. We'll also need to keep an eye on the outside world when we're inside, so windows are a must.

Then we'll find out who the powerful humans are. We'll move in to places like No. 10 Downing Street and the White House. Part of the problem the US has been having is they have recently elected Presidents who didn't have cats. Neither Obama nor Trump had cats, or even any pets, at the time of their first election to the Presidency. (Although young Bush and Clinton had cats in the White House, shown below)

Then, we'll take over their Internet. We'll make sure they spend all their computer resources on pictures and videos of cats. If necessary, we will actually sit on the machines they use to access the Internet to remind them that cats come first. We will get in their messages, typing our own things that they call cute.

Eventually, we'll have to take over places like newspapers, broadcast media, libraries, and colleges. There are a few examples of this, such as Joey the Garden Cat. But there are still too many dogs there.

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Z -- Zzzzzzzz

Butler Prettycat — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 12:12:59 +0000

Z is for Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

The sound of sleep.

We cats, who were originally hunting carnivores, like our sleep. We have to exert lots of energy to catch our prey -- mice, small birds, other small rodents, lizards, frogs, medium sized birds, and maybe even moles. So the rest of the time, we have to conserve our energy. And the easiest way to conserve energy is to sleep.

Even humans like to have lazy Sundays. So if they take a Sunday nap, we can, too.

Sometimes, we sleep on our human's bed. Sometimes, we like to sleep in high places. Sometimes we like to sleep on boxes or in boxes. Other times, we sleep on our humans' laps, or hiding under something. Sometimes we like to sleep with other kitties, if there are other kitties who live with us. Sometimes we want to sleep alone.

When it's time for bed, sometimes we have to prepare our sleeping area by matting down the place where we'll sleep. The humans think it looks like making biscuits.

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Making biscuits before bed

W -- White

Butler Prettycat — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 18:12:41 +0000

W is for white.

Last year we looked at some of the other colors and patterns of kitty coats, but we did not look at white.

A cat's white fur is not quite as white as the snow, as my human noticed when my sister Parker and I walked across the snow. But it is still white enough.

Pure white cats can have any underlying coat pattern, as the pure white is dominant. Pure white cats are also often deaf, as there is some link between color in the fur and something we need to hear. When a white cat has blue eyes, or one blue eye, he is often deaf in that ear.

White spotting is also dominant over non-spotted -- this is in part what gives us tuxedo cats. Most of the shed cats had at least a little bit of white. Some had more than one white spot. Kiwi was all black, and Friendly's litter sister Pretty Grey Lady did not have a white spot. Many times, the white spot will be on the paws (like me), the chest, the neck (like Truffles or Friendly), the tip of the tail (like Blanche), the back (like Tasha) [these features don't show up well in their photo below], or sometimes in some combination. Axel had a white spot in his armpit. Sir Ed, who did not go to get fixed when we did, had one of his b*lls was black and one was white.

Cats who are mostly white, but have a spot of orange around the ears and/or tail, are referred to as Vans, or Turkish Vans, after Lake Van in Turkey. They may actually be Kurdish or Armenian rather than Turkish.

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U -- under

Butler Prettycat — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:40:55 +0000

U is for under.

Sometimes, kitties like to hide under things.

When a storm comes, some cats like to hide under a bed. Sometimes, cats in strange bedrooms like to hide under the bed. Sometimes we hide under the couch or other furniture. Sometimes we go under, but we aren't really hiding.

Sometimes on a hot day, we hide under something to keep cool.

Queens who are about to have kittens often try to hide under something. When Smudge had her litter with Friendly, Dark Lady, Sir Ed, and Pretty Grey Lady, she hid under the shelves to have the kittens. Mama Kitty had Truffles and that litter under some scrap metal out back. Rico was looking for a place to hide her kittens when she had kittens in our last spring in the shed. This usually keeps the predators from getting to the kittens even when they find them.

When it

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P -- Poultry

Butler Prettycat — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 20:10:02 +0000

P is for poultry. Poultry refers to all those big birds that humans like to eat and comes from the french word poulet which means chicken.

Poultry, in the form of chicken, turkey, or duck, is often an ingredient in cat food. I don't know if the term refers to the birds we catch and eat on our own, like meadowlarks and bluebirds. We also had some wild turkeys on the farm that some people hunted when they weren't on our farm. There were some chicken farms in the area as well, and some neighbors had guinea fowl to eat the ticks.

Some of the chicken we eat is dehydrated and turned into dry kibble; other chicken is put in cans. It can be put in pâté or chunks or several different shapes. Sometimes it's mixed with turkey, tuna (which is some kind of a fish), other fish, or even cheese. I've heard some humans give their cats raw food to eat. We ate some raw food, but it was usually still warm.

Humans eat chicken and turkey, too. Their chicken has several different forms, and sometimes they even eat it in soup or take out the bones and put it in sandwiches.