Dilys Graham's Legacy

[smokingboot]

Dilys Graham, I learned today, was a lady from Salford who bequeathed £168,000 to the RSPCA specifically for the care of feral and stray cats. Phil, an animal handler far happier in his job than my prior RSPCA contact, Mistress Strangemoose of the Ultimatums, pulled out a newspaper clipping he carries around with him, which detailed her story. 'She's pulling our strings from Heaven,' he said, beaming, as he presented me with a confused but happy Chav-cat.


Chav-cat's blood and bits have been checked; He has neither feline HIV, nor leukemia nor anything other than a bout of catflu. He's been wormed, deflea-ed, neutered, given a flu jab and, should we catch up with him in a while, they'll give him the booster. We brought him back to much food and fussing, he yowled, we stroked him and he showed great appreciation.

Phil introduced me to two tiny black rescue kittens, Felix and Samson, the latter named in definite irony, for Samson has had an eye infection and stunted growth - even for seven weeks, he is a very teeny moog and his hair sticks up like Mr Spock's in early Star Trek episodes. They were adorable (the kitties, not the episodes), and I would take them on in an instant, were it not for larians protests and the moogs' stony reaction to the homecoming hero. Whether it was his change of smell or our enthusiasm to see him, Surya was disdainful and Ralik had a downright sulk. Methinks more feline lodgers would not be welcome.

Chav loved being stroked, but the excellent book on cat psychology lent to me by november_girl detailed the syndrome where you stroke a cat lots, it is clearly blissed out and then out of nowhere shreds your arm or bites you; the book describes it as a cat's momentary turmoil between inner kitten and inner killer. This is what Chav did, only having no background of humans screaming 'No! Bad Kitty!' he drew blood. He was fine afterwards, we got on well, the stroking resumed, and he finally wandered off to check out his territory and get back to normal. But there's no getting past something I have remembered and ignored for the past week, while working in the garden; It has been 12 years since my last tetanus jab. My phobia re needles has made me all too ready to ignore it but I really shouldn't - we are close to the country and I am accident prone.

Now I could get a bit Kipling about this; The not-quite-tame thing forced the not-quite-wild thing into medical help, necessary and long-delayed. In return, the not-quite-wild thing forced the not-quite-tame thing to get medical help, necessary and long-delayed.

Or it could be that Chav took one look at his genital modification, and knew who to blame. With a psychic scream of 'Eat jabby justice, Bitch Queen!' He became karma-cat and got me good.

Either way, from one mad cat woman to another, thank you Dilys Graham. Harvest is the gift of past care; may yours ensure the health and safety of many a lost cat for years to come.

Comments

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Go get a tetanus jab, now!






What are you still doing here?

Attack of the pointy wee jabbystabbies

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Aiee!

I know you're right.

*shuffles off, whining, to the surgery.*

Tetanus Jab

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

Cats can't give you tetanus, although you can get all kind o' nasty infections if you don't clean the wound thoroughly. (I have keloid scarring from one cat scratch which is placed so that plasters kept coming off.)

Rusty ol' nails on fences and other garden-related stuff, however, can. Get your tetanus jab, then when you see something fabulous wastefully being thrown on a skip you can retrieve it without worrying.

Re: Tetanus Jab

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! Reason to cancel the jab! And my mother called to say that the old vaccines last far longer than was previously known - I know Chav won't have tetanus, but I fear the dirt deep under his claws.

Hmm. Finx finx finx. I may just be able to call this off...

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and, Obviously, I am immensely glad Chav-cat survived OK. Are you semi-adopting him or just releasing him into the wild?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

More a good neighbour than a keeper. He's still his own cat, but there'll be food out for him, fire in winter if he needs it, a watchful eye to see if he's OK, that sort of thing...

feline psychology

[apresmididufaun.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased to hear that Chav is alright. I've heard a great deal, by the way about the quirk of behaviour where cats suddenly attack -- seemingly -- as an expression of love. My first cat had this problem. The vet told me it's caused by the cat being separated from its maternal clutch too early. The kitten never quite learns what it is to be a cat, or to be social in a cat way. When you are petting in the way you describe, you call up memories or non-memories, I suppose, of the mother cat cleaning the kitten, & it sparks an aggression reaction. It might have something to do with the lack of having another cat to relate to, as well. My first cat ("Chi") also inherited leukemia from its mother, so I didn't have him long, but from what I learned, I made sure to get two cats at the same time for my next go 'round. They still exhibit unexplainable aggression, but against each other, not me or my wife.

On another note, per venusandronicus, I'd like to add that I understand about not wanting to add to another's thread without making some contribution to the subject. For this reason, I said nothing about the crystal baby thread, which I thought was a real hoot. Blessed be. Rock on.