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"I love sweet warm summertime, just like Angel Scooter always did. Godspeed, sweet girl, and forever bask in the warming rays of your beloved sunlight."
Coloration: Black
Likes: food, warmth, feeling safe, snuggles
Pet-Peeves: Cow!Cat, neighbor cats, humans, sudden movements
Favorite Toy: mousies!
Favorite Nap Spot: previously: on papasan chair on enclosed porch in winter, on driveway or walkway in sun in spring, on lawn chair or floor of porch in summer. fall '08: on the bed!
Favorite Food: cat food "soup" (canned Friskies or California Natural mixed with water), Eagle Pack Holistic Select dry food, Trader Joe's cat tuna
Skills: survival, quick learning about human habits
Dwells:
indoors and outdoors
Arrival Story: Dougal is a feral who first came around New Year's Eve 2007. He comes on our enclosed porch (through a cat door) for food and warmth, but will not allow us near him. We are going to try to trap, neuter, return him. (We THINK he is a He.) I didn't want to simply call him Black Cat, and I found that Dougal means "dark stranger" and MacDuff means "son of dark ones" so it rather suits him. As a free-roaming feral, I've no doubt he does consider himself the "Laird" of our section of town, although no doubt there are other ferals around who would contest that claim.
Bio: February 19 2008: Dougal was neutered, had a torn ear patched up, got a dose of Revolution (anti-fleas, ticks, worms and ear mites), and had medical testing and vaccinations today. He was ear-tipped (left) but it's not easily visible due to the angle of the cut. He is FeLV negative, but FIV+.
August 2008: After spending most of the summer hanging in the back yard with the other neighborhood cats, Dougal has again discovered the front porch, and is showing signs of wanting INSIDE the house. He needs to learn better manners first, as his idea of playing is love bites and claws-out swats, but he is willing to share the porch for the most part peaceably with the other cats, and is now more likely to rub against our ankles when we come near him than to shy away. I've managed to scritch his ears a few times when he's too busy eating to worry about being touched.
October 2008 - Dougal is getting chubby and quite gregarious. He comes running to the door when he hears us, constantly rubs against legs and fleet, and is allowing us to touch him more, although I still use gloves. He has recently been introduced to brushing and seems to enjoy it. He also wanders into the house occasionally, noses his way around the main floor, then leaves. 2 days before Halloween he seemed to decide he was a house cat, and now spends most of his time napping on a bed or the couch, or following me around the house. He's not big on full physical contact, but he likes to be near me, and will accept head scritches and brief pettings. We even were able to use scissors on his hair mats, and his coat is getting sleek and glossy from brushing and indoor living. His old fight scars are also fading, so he gets more and more handsome. Maybe one of these days he'll feel particularly brave and venture onto my lap, but for now we're pleased that he's made enormous strides with very little drama from either him or the other cats. In November 2008 he had an abscess near his ear that required surgical repair; in January 2009 he had 2 broken teeth removed and an oral-nasal fistula repaired. He handled both surgeries well and easily accepted large doses of antibiotics, and his FIV+ status does not seem to impair his healing process, at least for now. Like Cow!Cat before him, I have used elementary Tellington TTouch therapeutic touches on him since he decided to come indoors, and in these 3 months he has become quite the domesticated, mellow, full-body-contact-seeking snugglebug.
Lives Remaining: 8 of 9
Forums Motto: Where's the Mama? I need the Mama! Catster Local Spots I've Marked: Forgotten Cats The Groups I'm In: "Cobblestone Square", Black Cats Crossing our Paths, PETS for OBAMA, De House of Isaac, Fabulous Ferals, Feliway® Felines, Friends of the Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary, Navin and Buds, Philadelphia Feral & Rescue Kitties, The (Endless) Summer of Scooter, The Hazel Lucy Appreciation Society, Voki Madness!, Young Furts!, {{{PAWS 4 PEACE}}}
First I got weighed. That was fine. (I am getting quite pleasantly plump though! I have gained 1.5 pounds since December.) The scale was very comfy, so I kept right on sitting on it.
Then the vet came in and gave me a routine FIP booster. That was fine, although a bit weird. I stayed on the scale.
Then Mama put me back in my carrier. That was SUPER fine.
But then Mama and the vet started talking about my weight. And the vet said that yes indeed I am overweight, but before he puts me on any sort of diet he would like to confirm my FIV+ status. Because I seem super-healthy now, but neither he nor Mama want to put me on a diet and then I get sick and lose too much weight.
Well, I'm down with that conclusion, but unfortunately the testing part meant Mama had to take me back OUT of the carrier. And that was NOT fine.
I was grumbly. I did not want to get out of my carrier, and I did not want to sit on the comfy scale. Then the vet tied a tight rubber thingy around my front leg, and told Mama to hold my paws and my head. She did. And then he stuck me and stole some of my blood! It hurt. I grumbled some more. It took a little while to get the blood flowing, too, so I wasn't very happy about the time involved - time I could have been home happily napping on the bed.
Then he said "okay, buddy, all done," and Mama let go of my paws, and he took that rubbery tie thing off my leg. And then I SCRATCHED him! Ha!
He was surprised at that, and a little grumbly himself. Well, heck, he SAID we were all done! Was Mama just supposed to stand there holding my paws all day?
And he took my blood- it's only fair I took a little of his too!
~~~~
The FIV test came back positive again. Drat. I was hoping that the first test, last year at Forgotten Cats, was a false poz, but I guess not.
Good news is, that means they probably won't make me lose any weight! No diet for me! Yay!
If she touches me and I am snoring, I promptly begin to purr. If she stops touching me, I immediately go back to snoring. This has become a game for her.
It doesn't bother me, but I wonder: why is snoring so funny?
Last Toosday Mama was scritching my ears, and she started smelling something nasty. She sniffed her fingers, and it was on her hand. Pee-yewww! Then she sniffed my right ear, and it was on ME. Yuck!
She couldn't see much through my fur, but she knew it didn't smell healthy, so she applied a warm washcloth, which felt so good I purred. It sure made the washcloth stink though! Then she dabbed at me with something called H-2-0-2, and I kept purring. I hadn't told her that my head was hurting me, but she figured out how to make it feel better anyway!
Next she called the V-E-T. They said to bring me in next morning, so when I was sleeping peacefully on my rocking chair she scooped me up and put me in the black box. Boy was I surprised! But she said she was going to help me feel better, so I didn't growl or hiss or complain. She took me out in the cold, and we took a short RIDE, and the next thing I knew I was at the V-E-T's castle. I hadn't been there for a long time, and they seemed to be expecting me to be a wild crazy thing.
Well, I wasn't. Not at all. I didn't want to get out of the black box, but once Mama got me out I was very well-behaved while the V-E-T looked at me and held me. He said I was a fine well-fed boy, but that I had an abscess and they aren't much fun on the head. As if he had to tell ME that? I didn't complain even when he took my tem-pa-cher, which if you've ever had that done you know is a grave challenge to one's dignity. He said I had a normal tem-pa-cher, which was a good thing considering I also had an infection, and that I'd have to stay at his castle for a little while to get ready to be in a tournament, or to work with a lance - something like that. I don't know.
Then Mama carried me back to a nice quiet room with a comfy chamber with towels in it. I went to sleep, and when I woke up I had these weird blue strings sticking out of the side of my head! I also felt all clean, but a little wobbly, and there were some ladies who helped clean me up when I got sick on myself. They told me it was okay, I was a very good patient and Sir Jerry was "over". I guess that means I beat him good! My head didn't hurt as much as it had done the previous few days, so that was nice. It's weird that I don't remember any lances or any battles or tournaments, though.
Mama came to take me home, and I slept a lot for the next day or two, and she kept squirting this evil liquid into my mouth, but I didn't feel like fighting it. Then I started feeling a lot better, so now I let her know that I don't like that liquid! But she always tells me before she gives it to me that it helps me feel better, and I DO feel better, so she's not trying to pull one over on me. And she gives me treats afterward. So I don't grumble about it, although I have stuck a claw in her hand twice.
I just wonder why I have to have stiff blue strings attached to my head? Are they a special sort of head-dress just for me? Maybe they signify I'm the head warrior of Clan MacDuff, or that I've again vanquished Sir Jerry, even though I don't remember him? That would be cool. I don't think that's it though.
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