All In and a Furry Dilemma
Now that we finally have our own Internet connection set up, I thought it only right that I update you all on house progress as well as show off a few images from over the past few weeks.
Hex helps on moving day
The heating was fixed on Tuesday, although we seem to have a problem with the gas. We’re on a prepayment meter — from what I gather, previous tenants got into debt — which means we’re automatically on a higher rate than a standard “bill quarterly” type meter. Nonetheless, I wasn’t quite expecting for it to eat up £9 gas over 3 days and then another £6 over the weekend. Both my mum and a colleague are on identical meters and are paying less than or around £10 a week. We’re looking at more like £20. We’ll be moving supplier very shortly…
The dodgy walls/etc were fixed up before we moved in, as I’m sure I mentioned. The overall finish was more than adequate but will probably need touching up to remove scuff marks from furniture, etc. I’d show you a picture of my walls but I’m sure Magnolia is not that exciting!
Hex chases a grape
Unrelated to the house, or Hex, I have a bit of a dilemma. There’s a kitten roaming around the streets near me — which is no surprise in itself, we Brits are more flexible with our outdoor cats than a lot of ‘mericans — but its coat is in poor condition and it’s very scrawny. He has an adorable face, not cute in a typical way but there’s something about him. Anyway, I would say that he’s no more than 5-6 months old and that he’s being underfed.
My problem is that I can’t work out if he’s a stray — in which case I’d be more than happy to take him in as company for Hex after he’s been neutered/vaccinated/etc — or if he’s simply a less than loved but nonetheless owned moggy. Unfortunately, short of following him around I don’t know how the bloody hell I’m going to work this one out, and what I should do next :(
Tracy said:
On 17 Mar at 8:31 pm
One day I’ll come to where you live and kidnap Hex. Seriously.
Rachael said:
On 17 Mar at 8:32 pm
Does the cat have a collar? That might help you track down its owner…
Yesenia said:
On 17 Mar at 8:33 pm
I love the pictures of Hex! So cute! Hmm, what I would recommend is asking the neighbors around you. You could say “There’s a cat wandering around here, I am just wondering if he belongs to anyone. Would you by any chance know” … something like that. =P It would be really great if you were able to take in the kitty! Poor thing, it deserves a good home and to be fed and cared for. Good luck!
Nellie said:
On 17 Mar at 8:34 pm
Over here, if a cat isn’t collared with a registration number, it’s up for the catnapping. I personally think it’s a stupid rule because some owners do not like to collar their cat and they end up having their pet essentially stolen.
Emsz said:
On 17 Mar at 8:36 pm
You can ask around in the neighbourhood, there are bound to be people there that know to whom the cat belongs :)
Jem said:
On 17 Mar at 8:37 pm
@Nellie: I don\’t like to see collars on cats, so I agree that it\’s stupid. Hex only wears anything resembling a collar when he\’s on a harness, out with me under supervision. @Rachael: unfortunately (for my convenience) he has no collar.
Dave said:
On 17 Mar at 8:50 pm
Maybe try and put a collar on the cat (you could even put a message on it!) and see if it’s taken off over a week? Could give you a good indication of whether it’s being looked after?
Ann said:
On 17 Mar at 8:54 pm
Why not take the cat in for a week or so, and see if any “lost” posters appear around. If they don’t then it’s either a stray or the owners don’t care enough to deserve a cat. And if they do, then ring up and you can have a chat about how underfed it looks… Or maybe it’s lost. As in, the owners moved far away and it roamed back to it’s old home, which would explain the scraggly and underfed look.
Vira said:
On 17 Mar at 9:01 pm
I like Dave’s idea, personally. ^_^ But if it was me, I’d take in the poor thing. It’s obviously not being taken care of well enough wherever it comes from.
Teesee said:
On 17 Mar at 9:56 pm
Would it be sad to point out I actually quite like your kitchen floor?
Fran said:
On 17 Mar at 10:38 pm
Teesee I assure you that is not sad at all.. I was thinking the exact same. I would also like to say, your cat is absoloutly beautiful. Any Kittens? I want one! x
Karl said:
On 17 Mar at 10:45 pm
oh, that’s not JUST the kitchen floor…it takes up about..1/2 the ground floor..it’s a kitchen/diner.
Amelie said:
On 17 Mar at 10:51 pm
As a person have been through the “is it a stray?” battle, here is what we tried (and found out the cat was owned, bah :( ): 1. Attach a collar. Buy a cheap collar (but one of those ones that breaks easily in case the cat gets caught in a tree etc etc, I’m sure you know all about that :P ). Add a note to the collar with something like “is this cat yours? phone 1234566, we’d love to speak to you” or similar. Tie note to collar with string or something, making sure it’s visible. 2. Take pictures of cat, put them on posters of type “found: one cat, is he yours?” and post them through doors/around the surrounding areas, that sort of thing. 3. Speak to neighbours, find out if he’s known around the area. Turns out they might be able to tell you “oh he’s been roaming for years” or “oh he’s Mrs Number 3’s cat Mr Tibbles” or whatever. 4. …ignore the above steps and take the cat in regardless of his status. ;)
Sarai said:
On 17 Mar at 11:30 pm
I would probably feed him. Try to coax him on over and have a little meal.
Lil said:
On 17 Mar at 11:42 pm
That’s exactly how we picked Billy up – we saw him wandering around and took him in. We eventually did find his owners and they let us keep him – the rest is history! I would pick up the kitten and take him to the vet and see if they recognise him (or if he has a chip which will have his address on). It’s not criminal to look after him. The kitten is clearly emaciated as you said and doesn’t have a collar. You should submit that first picture to ‘stuff on my cat’ :p
Lene said:
On 18 Mar at 12:26 am
Sounds like everything at the new home is slowly falling into place :) Making flyers for the cat sounds like hard work (specially if you don’t really want to find the owner, lol) but what Amelie suggested of putting a collar with a note in it sounds easier, hehe :D Well, good lucks with that. The pictures of Hex are adorable, by the way!
TBQ said:
On 18 Mar at 12:33 am
I’d feed the kitten my lunch – or some of it. I’d be quite the roughed up and scrawny kitty myself if I didn’t have lunch.
Hev said:
On 18 Mar at 1:23 am
If he is being neglected then I would just take him in. I wouldn’t worry about it. If the owners come screaming about it, then simply say that the kitten couldn’t possibly be theirs cause you found the kitten in such horrible shape and neglected and you just know that they wouldn’t do that to an animal. Surely a good standing Brit wouldn’t abuse animal like you found this animal in. Then shut your door. That is what I did when I found a puppy in my yard horribly neglected and at deaths door. Once I got the puppy back in health and the numerous vet bills the owners showed up and wanted the puppy back. I told them what I just told you and I never heard from them since.
Britney said:
On 18 Mar at 3:59 am
Hex is sooo cute!
Mumblies said:
On 18 Mar at 4:55 am
You could always just feed/worm/deflea this kitten and ask around/keep an eye out for fliers etc asking about his owners and hope for the best. However, if you should start feeding him outside, you then run the risk of getting each and every cat for miles around jumping on the bandwagon and showing up for free scoff! Cats are notorious for quickly recognising ‘Mad cat people’ and descending upon them. I sympathise with your predicament Jem, as a cat owner myself I also hate to see neglected cats.
Bobbi-lee said:
On 18 Mar at 6:03 am
The only thing you can do is either steal it and hope no one misses it, or ask around to the neighbours if they know who owns it, or take it to the vet and if it doesnt have a microchip etc, then keep it (here all cats must be micro-chipped-I dont know if it’s like that where you are). Or just convince it to come over and eat at your place and eventually it will never want to leave and you will be it’s new owner :p
Vera said:
On 18 Mar at 7:14 am
Aw… Hex in a box. You should put that up on icanhascheezburger =P A stray… well I’d be rather likely to just take him and be done with it (hehe), but you could go around the neighborhood and ask… or is that not an option?
Tanya said:
On 18 Mar at 9:44 am
*sigh* The previous tenants of our home also got into serious debt (with a LOT of companies)… we still have utility companies sending out threatening letters and even the bailiffs, and we’ve been here more than eight months. E.on are by far the worst, they are completely unreasonable and refuse to speak to my landlord so the situation can be resolved once and for all. I really hope you don’t run into similar problems. As for your kitten problem, as already suggested I would put a collar on the little guy and see what happens. I really hope he/ she has been neutered before being allowed outdoors. Question – is Hex being allowed outside now you’ve moved into a house?
Karl said:
On 18 Mar at 10:32 am
In theory, these smartcard meters shouldn’t allow debt…certainly the meter screens are telling me that now we’ve put our new cards in there,the meter has reset and removed any debt owing. I say in theory..I swear the gas meter is insane. I have a nasty feeling it also has a low battery..
Li said:
On 18 Mar at 10:52 am
You could try kittynapping it and waiting to see if any ‘missing’ posters go up, featuring it’s little face? Personally, I’d just steal the kitten and ignore any posters which may go up. At least I’d KNOW it’d be looked after better than it had been with the previous owners. My family was the ‘Mad Cat’ people.
Jem said:
On 18 Mar at 11:47 am
@Tanya: no. We’ve decided to keep him indoors, thus the idea of getting a second cat to keep him company. While I have strong feelings about keeping cats indoors there are a few reasons why Karl and I came to this conclusion: 1) There are a lot of cats near us, and with the addition of another there is likely to be fighting to establish the hierarchy. I don’t want to be lumbered with ridiculous vets bills should Hex get hurt. 2) There’s a road that goes past our house which – while is a 30mph in theory – leads directly on to a 50mph.. the majority seems to think that our stretch of road was specifically added for them to get a run-up, which means they’re usually doing 40-45mph as they go past. Cars and cats do not mix well. 3) Hex is particularly susceptible to ear mites for some reason. Despite being treated several times with both spot-on and ear drop treatment they keep coming back. Allowing him to venture outside could potentially worsen this astronomically. 4) Karl – who claims to not be a cat person – loves Hex too much to let him outdoors ;)
Ashley said:
On 18 Mar at 12:50 pm
Not letting Hex go out is a wise choice. I’m sure you wouldn’t let him go out unsupervised or anything, but with the potential for strays to be around that could be carrying diseases, not letting him go out is the best thing probably. My cat got FIV from getting in a fight with another cat. If she had only been inside, that wouldn’t have happened. I think Amelie’s suggestions are great. I’d ask around first and then maybe try the collar idea. There are stray cats all over the place where I live. Not only that, people drop off their animals they don’t want. They just throw them out of the car and that’s that. :P Stupid people. I maybe wouldn’t feed it too much until you do find out the situation. If he is someone else’s cat and you feed him, then he’s going to start hanging around more and you may not want that. Glad to hear the move’s gone well and that you have your internet back! Woot! :D
Kachii said:
On 18 Mar at 12:57 pm
I’ve taken in two ‘stray’ cats I found wandering my streets (yes I know, I’m allergic, this was when I was much much younger though). One I named Cinders and the other I named Oliver. Cinders my dad bought in after she was stuck under our garden fence. She was starving so we fed her some egg and kept her. She had no collar and nobody asked around for her. She suffered from some kind of paranoia though (we had a dog at the time, who wasn’t actually fussed by cats, he left Cinders well alone, but she was petrified of him) and got very sick because of it, so we had her put down after a few months. She used to sleep under the radiator in the bathroom, though. I always remember that. Oliver just randomly came into our house one day, I think he was nosy, so we fed him stuff and he kept coming back every day, staying for some nights. He was very affectionate. If we was just greedy we don’t know, but again nobody ever asked around for him. He had a collar but no tag so we didn’t know who he belonged to. We took the collar off a few times and it was never replaced. Eventually he stopped coming back, I don’t know if that’s because he went back to his real owners or was involved in some accident. My grandma used to take cats in if they were being neglected. I think at one point she had 14 cats. She would find owners who badly treated their cats, knock on their doors, waltz in, and take the cats away. I think she found some people who chucked their cat down the stairs. I don’t think the owners really cared that much, after all they couldn’t have liked the cat in the first place. One less burden for them. My grandma has two cats now (last I knew) – tabby cats from the same litter (they’re like twins, I can’t tell them apart) Woody and Molly. When they develop that allergy cure I’ve been waiting on for the past ten years, I’m going to get myself a cat to celebrate. :) Until then, I can just stroke the occasional cat that comes up to me in the streets. One time this really scrawny cat followed me all the way home from the bus stop, he wouldn’t leave me alone. :P
Kachii said:
On 18 Mar at 1:04 pm
Oh, and another stray cat story (sorry for filling up your comments). My boyfriend was going home from work one day and it was raining and he got into his car and this tiny little ginger kitten jumped in and sat on his lap. He thinks it must’ve been sleeping under his car and he didn’t want to leave it wandering the streets – it was so small and vulnerable, and this wasn’t a residential area. So, he drove home with the little kitten in his lap asleep, named it Marmalade and kept it. It’s sooooooo cute. :) His daughter’s puppy, Sparkles, always tries to eat it, but Marmalade fights back every time and wins. The cutest thing I ever saw was when we were sat at the dinner table and marmalade jumped on the chair and poked his little head up so he could see over the table. It just looked so adorable.
Jem said:
On 18 Mar at 1:21 pm
All cat stories gladly welcome Kachii ;) I had a ginger cat called Marmalade. He was my first cat that was my very own and inspired my love of felines that I have today :3
Hev said:
On 18 Mar at 5:29 pm
Keeping a cat indoors is actually healthier for them then to let them be an inside/outside cat. The only time a cat should be outside is when they are on a leash. This is just due to the simple fact of other cats or dogs attacking them, vehicles hurting them, or numerous other problems happening. I honestly would just take the little stray in and get him to the vet. But that is just my opinion.
SarahG said:
On 18 Mar at 9:59 pm
Just because the previous tennants got into debt doesn’t mean that either the gas company or landlord can keep you on a prepayment meter. Even if it’s a case of going onto a contract meter and paying a monthly direct debit. The switch of meters is free and you can set up say £10 a month and then pay off any extra when the bill comes in if it needs it. Much cheaper than prepayment, and you don’t be running on late on a sunday night when no where is open (or it’s raining and cold).
Kachii said:
On 18 Mar at 10:43 pm
@ Hev, I dislike keeping cats indoors. Very, very few Brits keep their cats indoors. I think it’s cruel. They are extremely independent and appreciate the freedom a lot more than most other animals, and are agile enough to escape most dangers. I don’t think “oh but my cat might get hurt” is a good enough excuse to keep it shut inside. That’s my opinion, anyway. Here, you may find this interesting to read: http://www.messybeast.com/indooroutdoor.htm
Maja said:
On 19 Mar at 11:14 am
Take his/her picture, make a flyer, hang it up on the markets in the area asking owners to contact you. If no one calls in 2-3 weeks claiming ownership, adopt it or call local RSPCA if you can’t keep it yourself.
Karl said:
On 19 Mar at 12:46 pm
ah, but…I LIKE the prepay…I like to see exactly where I’m at any given second..:) Better than a scary bill. As to expense…I’m investigating Ebico as a supplier…Non-profit, No standing charge, no charge difference regardless of meter type or billing method, and a price of 2.55p/Kw…they look and sound quite good..very polite and helpful, too. They even said they could send an engineer out to check the meter free of charge…which would be good.
Karen said:
On 19 Mar at 7:24 pm
What you say about that kitten is very sad. :( I’d just take it with me. If it does have an owner and they can’t be bothered to take care of it, I bet they wouldn’t care if it suddenly “disappeared”.