Cat Dancer and Bubbles

Hawkeye Cat continues to do very well. He loves one toy in particular, called Cat Dancer. This is a great, simple toy that is fun for him and fun for me.

Hawkeye is an indoors only cat, which is my preference. I've had indoor/outdoor cats, and ended up with fleas in the house. Not fun, and not something I want to deal with again. Hawkeye loves to look out, and always tells me when there is someone out side, especially the outside cats from the barn next door which I feed outside. However, he doesn't have any interest in being outside himself. The experience of being outside alone in the cold for a couple of weeks and nearly starving to death has made him cautious and appreciative of being inside.

Rescued Pets - Cadee

This is our little girl Cadee that we rescued November 12, 2005. She's about 16 inches tall, and weighs about 22 pounds. Sweet as can be, my son and I chose her in large part because she is very focused on people. Many of the dogs we looked at were totally uninterested in us once they were out of their cages.

Cadee was different. She was quietly interested in everything, but not obsessivly so. When I sat outside with her on leash, she sat so she could see me, then watched everything around alertly, but calmly. Whenever I moved, in the slightest, she looked at me to see what I was doing. The other dogs we looked at would totally ignore us once they had anything else to look at.

The only issue that she seemed to have is extreme submission to people. Any attempts to pet her, lean towards her, she would roll over on her back and show her tummy.

All in all, training is easiest with a dog that likes and pays attention to people. Miss Cadee is as sweet as she can be, was in the size range we were looking for, and seemed like she would be easy to train, so she came home with us.

She gets along very well with our other dog, BJ, who is enjoying having a friend to play with. She also does very well with our cat. The cat and she play together very well, too. It was a bit difficult at first for her not to chase Hawkeye, as our house rule says dogs aren't allowed to chase cats, but she got it quickly. Notice, the rule doesn't say the cat can't chase the dogs. Hawkeye will ambush the dogs as they walk through the house, jumping on them, wrapping his front legs around their necks and biting at their necks. Cadee will play with him, while BJ just sighs and keeps on moving!

Our way to bring a new dog into our home is to introduce the new one to any existing dogs outside, on leashes, in a neutral place before bringing them inside. Once inside the new one gets what I call umbilican corded - put on a leash that is tied around someone's waist. The new dog must stay with the person all the time. The only time the dog is let loose is under supervision, dragging the leash.

Having the leash on all the time means that we can prevent bad behaviors as they start to happen, and lets the dog know immediately when it does something we don't like. It's much easier to stop bad behavior when you can catch it as it occurs. And when dragging the leash you don't have to worry about actually physically catching it, you just step on or catch the leash. With someone like Cadee this is critical, as she appeared to have been abused. Physically catching her would have totally terrified her.

She is very, very responsive, but was also very afraid. When outside, if she went too far, or did something and we raised our voice towards her, or even shouted across the yard to talk with each other, she cowered and was afraid to come close. She had apparently been hurt after being called. Well, that won't happen here. We will yell at a dog to come to us, but always praise it for doing so. After all, maybe it was doing something we didn't like, but by coming to us it did do something we like.

Today Cadee and BJ have free run of the house except when we are gone. Cadee has gone from being very fearful of sudden noises and motions towards her to being happy and interested. Just like I'd hoped when we got her. She still has a tendency to roll over on her back whenever anyone wants to pet her, but I'm working on that. After about 6 months of only petting her if she was sitting I'm now only petting her when she's standing.

Rescued Pets - Hawkeye

On a cold, snowy day in December, I guess it must have been 2003, I happened to be out at Pioneer Village. It was Sunday morning, and most of the folks who had been there for the weekend had left. Four of us were wrapping things up, letting the fire burn down to nothing, and finishing up some leftover stew. I heard a cat meowing around the building we were in, so, being me, I had to go open the door and see this cat.

There had been brief glimpses of a young cat throughout the weekend, as it kept away from us, I think particularly the various dogs. There are several houses just down the road, so I didn't think to much about it at the time.

Into the cabin comes this black/grey young cat. Striped, except, no, not really striped, spotted. Interesting coloring which I hadn't seen before. Subtle, but pretty. He's so cold he's shivering, and under that lovely fur is the skinniest cat I've ever held. I can feel every rib, ever bump in his spine. There is no collar, and no one would keep a cat so skinny. Someone must have dropped him off. Some people do that, you know. Take animals out into the country and just put them out of the car and drive away. Apparently not caring that these small creatures, dogs or cats, almost never have the skills needed to survive on their own. This young cat, apparently about 6 months old, was dropped off in the winter.

We put out the last of the stew for him to eat, which he seems to really enjoy. After he has eaten he got up on the stones of the fire ring, huddling as close to the heat of the dying fire as he could.

I couldn't leave him there. He would be dead of cold or starvation in just days, if that. We didn't need another pet, already having 2 dogs at home. Well, I couldn't leave him, so I brought him back, hoping to find his home. Maybe someone hadn't dropped him off out in the country to "be free". Maybe he'd wandered away from home and some family was desperately looking for him. So home he came with me. I packed up the van and put him in.

He was apparently unshaken by being in a vehicle, got off my lap wandered around for a minute then lay down on one of the blankets in the back to doze. When we got home, he stayed in the van for a bit, watching as I unloaded. After a few minutes he jumped casually out and walked into the garage towards the house door.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've seen animals that haven't been in a building before. They stay carefully along the walls and are clearly uncomfortable. This young fellow, well, he just strolled on in like he owned the place! Good, that was one hurdle, whether he had been an indoor or outdoor cat. It was looking like maybe indoor.

Now remember, my husband and I had decided some time before that we had all the pets we need - 2 dogs. No cats at this time. And here I am coming home with this starving cat. I explain it's not to stay, just to try to find his home, or a new home for him. My husband sighs, but it's only for a few days.

I didn't let the cat go upstairs by himself. We have 2 dogs, and while they've been trained to stay inside a simple barrier, I didn't want to tempt them, or have a terrified cat dashing about the place. When he saw the dogs he hissed and growled, his tail puffing up, but he didn't otherwise seem too concerned. We had a litter box, from years before when I'd had cats, but no litter or cat food. Off we went to the store. You know whose lap he sat in on the way to the store, of course. My husband's! Down and back.

The little speckled cat happily ate the crunchy food, showing that he was familiar with that, too. For the night we put him into the bathroom with his litterbox, food and water, with something to sleep on.

The next morning I began my hunt. The cat has unique enough markings that if a vet had seen him, they'd probably remember him. Spots aren't that common. So I started calling. The first call I made the woman who answered turned out to live in one of the houses on the road to Pioneer Village! She was familiar with the little cat. She and her husband had been trying to cath it for a week or so, without any luck. The cat stayed away from their dogs. We determined that it's almost certain this little cat was dropped off to 'be free'. Poor thing!

Many phone calls later, to all the area vets and animal shelters, turned up nothing. No one seemed to be looking for this little cat. I even went on-line and put him in under the found section. In the mean time he was settling into our household quite nicely. He quickly learned that we wouldn't let our dogs chase him, so started to play with them. Everyone liked him. My husband started to say things like 'well, if we decide to keep the cat'.

It took about 2 weeks I guess before we really decided that we would give him his Forever Home. He's a really neat fellow. Very quiet, with a soft meow. He's even learned to trust people, and while he doesn't care that much for being held, he has decided to sit on our laps sometimes and purr.