h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cute, definitely cute. And what a tired boy he looks!

SC

What a lump! The pic was a bit dark so I copied it, took it into photoshop and lightened it to get some detail. I am always having to do this with photos of Charlie - that's the trouble with taking pics of black cats!

If you want to send me the original az I will lighten it up for you to replace the one on Fotki.

I hope nimbus wil be OK. A curse on your landlord.

Now HERE is stretchy cat!: http://public.fotki.com/WebbyCat/cats2/r4_061.html

Are you sure that isn't a strange feline/dachshound hybrid, or did your cat just eat a slinky?

Thanks Lady, but I have managed to lighten it (and one other almost the same) using Picasa. The only problem with Picasa is that I end up having to email edited photos to myself - there doesn't seem to be any way to simply transfer them to my Images file.

Anyhow, the lightened photos:

http://public.fotki.com/azahar/gatitos/azar-1.html


Mudhooks, great photo - great cat!


az

It isn't my cat. I just came across it in my Fotki travels....

The Nimbus saga continues. . .

For a couple of weeks there were workmen on the roof and then they were painting the floor up there - both levels. So I couldn't get up there at all while the paint was drying (more than a week).

Later tried giving Nimbus some food but he wouldn't eat it (the usual dry food). Later I saw, where I had left some food, a long viscous dribble of very thick cat pee! Meaning that Nimbus was getting so dehydrated that he was no longer able to eat the dry food nor pee properly.

Since then I've started sneaking upstairs morning and night with a cup of water and some wet food. The first day poor Nimbus drank the cup dry before even looking for food - that's how thirsty he was. Since then he has preferred eating first. Anyhow, after a few days of wet food I've now switched back to the usual dry stuff.

It's a shame I can't leave water up there for him, but I don't want to get caught. As it is, when I go up to the roof Noggin comes with me and 'stands guard' watching the staircase for anyone else coming up, in case it's the landlords.

Problem though - since the painting, and since I've started feeding Nimbus on the first level (since the landlord told me not to leave water on the second level) Nimbus is now constantly hanging around on the first level. There are cat pawprints in the dust all over the place. Happily he isn't, um, pooing there. But it's pretty obvious he is there.

And - get this! Yesterday he FINALLY let me touch him! I almost fell over. I was sitting next to him while he was eating and then lightly stroked his back. He didn't seem to notice so I kept doing it. And tonight I tried the same thing. This time he *did* seem to notice, but also seemed to like it.

Sheesh, only took nine months!

Anyhow, really not sure what's going to happen to this guy. I think the landlord is sure to find out about him in the next few days - what with the pawprints being everywhere.

Noggin and I are talking about bringing him in . . . still really not sure about that.

Well, that's the Nimbus update.

Hope you and yours are all well.




az

So Az now has another cat,could you not try the plant pot idea ,suprised your not growing some peppers or other veggies up there allready asparagus then have a dummy pot one almost filled to the top with gravel and very little siol that way he would have acess to water all the time and you'd have some fresh home growm veggies.

Bet you where walking around with a gigantic smile on your face after stroking him ,did you get the once over from your two when you came down smelling of nimbus

Looks like Nimbus is a very smart boy -- almost a goner, then the angel comes back for him! No fool he!! Congrats on the detente.

SC

Yeah, Nimbus!

I may have mentioned that the b!tch neighbour of mine who complained about Benjamin "being let out" had hauled Tuxedo, the neighbourhood Good-time Charlie cat, off to the Pound. All the neighbours in our side of the neighbourhood were really ticked off.

Yesterday, as we were heading out to my brother's for the day, I spotted what looked like a familiar b&w figure dashing off around the corner to my neighbour's house.... It was Tuxedo! At least I THINK it was Tuxedo!

If it is him, his personality has definitely changed and he has lost quite a bit of weight.

However, since I know my neighbour isn't a "cat person" and didn't have any other cat except Tuxedo and this cat ran into Doug's house and stood peering out his patio door, I am sure it is him. I have yet to see Doug to ask him. I would hate to think that Tuxedo's lovely personality has changed, but, at least if he is skittish, he will be more likely not to get in the way of the b!tch, again. Tuxedo is the sweetest fellow.

I would dearly love to meet up with the b!tch in a dark alley with a very large baseball bat and a few like-minded friends.

This is the same b!tch who locked one of the neighbours' cats in her basement for the weekend to "teach them a lesson". Had I known about it at the time, I would have called the police and had her charged with animal cruelty.

One of these days, she is going to p!ss the wrong person off.

It sounds like she already has . . .


az

I must be mellowing in my old age.... I haven't been able to come up with a vindictive and cruel, yet entirely anonymous method of getting back at her, yet.

I WAS thinking of having my friends collect every bit of cat poo from their litter boxes for me and then dump it all on her lawn, or, better yet, on her front and back porch so that she cannot get out without cleaning it off her porch first..... Preferably on the hottest and most humid night of the summer.

Funny i was going to suggest that ,soaking it in urine would enhance the exsperience, or a poor unfortunent rodent that had fallen foul to one of the cats last week that had been kept in a warm space would be much better.

There's always the classic, "flaming bag of dog doo" -- I'm absolutely positive it would work with cat poo, as well.

That way, you can make sure she'll step in it!

SC

I am actually thinking of a particularly nasty thing to do.

I use the silica crystal cat litter for my cat. When I change his box, there is always a layer of rather stinky, wet crystals on the bottom of the box.

I am thinking of filling the bottom of the box with water and sluicing the whole lot into a container and pouring it in her garden. The only problem is that she is going to go on a rampage against any wandering kitties. I am thinking that the best revenge would be something unconnected with cats.

Of course, I COULD pour the contents all over her car. However, doing that runs the risk of being seen by any number of neighbours.

Its a shame that it isn't the husband who ticks me off. He has his a$$ permanently glued to the ride-'em mower, mowing the lawns withiun an inch of their lives day ion and day out. If I could access the community garage, I could pour the stuff all over the mower.... As I say, though, I don't have any bones to pick with him.

Need some advice.

Noggin and I have talked a lot about the possibility of taking in Nimbus. This would require trapping him in the cat cage and taking him immediately to Maria the vet for a complete check over, de-fleaing, castration, etc, probably leaving him overnight there. Which isn't really the problem.

The problem is about introducing a fully-grown male cat - and one with a SERIOUS attitude - into our home with two rather wimpy males. I can't help but think this might be quite disastrous. It was different when I brought Azar home from the streets - he was just five months old and Sunny took to him straight away. And Lua just chose to ignore him.

But three BIG male cats in one small apartment? When I originally had the three before - Lua, Sunny and Azar - it was in a much bigger place next door. Then I moved here with the three of them, but as they were already used to each other, this wasn't a problem at all.

The thing is, I have reckoned that Nimbus was abandoned sometime last September - which was when he made his presence known. Given how badly he became physically after just one week of no water recently I seriously doubt he had survived living on the rooftops all of last summer.

And I would have no problem at all feeding and watering Nimbus up on the roof, but by doing so I am going against my landlord's wishes and this also doesn't feel good, since Pepe has always been very fair to me. I don't want to lie to him.

So yesterday I came up with Plan B and I want to ask if you all think this is a good idea. I thought I could trap Nimbus in the cat cage and then bring him over to the gardens near the house and let him go there. They are quite lush gardens, lots of mice and rats and birds to hunt. Where he is living now, up on the rooftops, there is no water, very little stuff to hunt. It's quite a bleak and VERY HOT place to be, especially in summer. You see, he is actually trapped on the rooftops with no way to get down to the street. And the way he acts most of the time, I think he is getting quite neurotic from being so alone all the time.

At least in the gardens he would have a better chance. Better than just letting him go in front of my house, with the traffic and all that.

If he is an abandoned house cat (which I think he is) I reckon by now he has become quite feral again. He does hunt when he can (I've found chunks of birds on the rooftop at times) and he doesn't seem to be any more 'friendly' than when I first met him last September.

So, do you think catching him and letting him go in the gardens is a good idea? At least it isn't so blazingly HOT there (as it is on the roof), there's lots of cool green shrubbery, and also various fountains that he can drink from. And plenty of rodents to catch. My idea was to drop him off at a certain place and then for awhile stop by each day to feed him - well, if I could find him. But when I was feeding Azar's father Cat years ago that guy always hung out where I'd last fed him, waiting for me.

The plan is that I'd let Nimbus go in the gardens with a big whack of catfood, next to one of the fountains. And then go back the next day to see if he was still there.

How does this sound to all of you? I'm really trying to find the best solution for this cat. Stuck up on the rooftops in this summer HEAT (often way over 40º) just seems so unfair to him. And while Pepe is still here I can't get up to feed and water him as much as I would like to. And anyhow, I think Nimbus would probably be happier living more of a natural cat life in the gardens. It's cool and shady there and at least he would have a fighting chance.

Advice please? Noggin thinks it's a good idea and one that is best for Nimbus as he really has no life up there all alone on the rooftops.


az



az

letting hime go in the gardens sounds a good idea ,re the food yes but would suggest you dont leave it there it will be taken by other ferals,
start whistleing a tune or useing a dogwhistle (again use sequence of blows) EACH AND EVERY TIME you want him for food till the day.

That way when you do let him go you can call him back to you.

Thanks logicus, your opinion matters very much to me, because I know how much you have taken care of cats. In fact, it was mostly your opinion I was waiting for, to tell me I wasn't being cruel or uncaring. I really want the best for this guy but I don't see it being stuck up on a baking HOT rooftop with his only source of food and water coming from me, just in case I can't always be there.

I would leave the initial food there and wait for Nimbus to eat it, so he knows that's his new 'place' to expect food.

Meanwhile, I *think* he knows his name now, as I always call him Nimbus Nimbus Nimbus when I am up on the roof with him. He does recognise my voice, I know that.

So, you really think this is a good idea? I'm still a bit confused, but Noggin also says living in a garden with a regular water supply - and regular rodent supply - is much more natural than being stuck on a roof.

az

had he wanted to come inside and live with you ,and had your two wanted him too by know it would have happened ,Noggin is right ,he is better off down on the groung given another source of winter stock up food hs been denied the bats,(prob how he ended up there in the first place) wondering if better to let him go first thing in the morning or last thing at night, be good if you checked out the rea for a little bolt hole for him ,when you let him go leave his food bowl there.

Since there might be a local tom (several knowing seville) but think he will fare better there better he spreads his wings on the ground than up there so to speak.

I think better early in the morning, before the night toms come out - and I am sure there are plenty of them. You know, so Nimbus can have a good meal and then go about setting up his own territory. Feel his way around in daylight.

The place I have in mind is next to a fountain, not sure about bolt holes nearby - Nimbus may need extra protection to start off with.

I mean, he is *totally safe* on the roof - no other cats there. Nor dogs, nor other life-threatening menaces. But long days of baking heat with no other life happening up there - does this also not seem like a non-life?

Oh, is this really the right thing to do?


az