3 Sept 2012

The Little Ninja Saga - Episode V: A New Home

(Originally published Dec 10, 2011) 
 
I woke up early again that following Sunday, letting Cheryl sleep in since I wasn’t as confident as I was the day before. Maybe we’d catcher her, maybe the trap would work, maybe we wouldn’t have interference from other neighbourhood cats… or maybe I’d be standing at the doorway watching shadows for 4 hours again. As per the routine, I filled the food bowl (adding some wet cat food on top for irresistible yumminess), put the food in the trap, set the trap outside my door and called to the Little Ninja. And I waited. She never did eat the day before so she must have been starving. I was hoping this wouldn’t be a long wait


After ten minutes I finally saw her run right by… like she didn’t even see the food, like she had better things to do than to finally eat. And again I waited. Impatiently, I called “Pretty Girl” again thinking she’d try to come to the food once more. No luck. After 30 minutes, I decided to take a walk around the block to see if I could find her. No sign. I then decided to go for drive. I had caught her a couple times eating from the dish as I drove up after work at the end of the day. I figured, maybe she wanted to be sure I was away before she came close enough to the house to feed. Still nothing (Note: Leaving an active trap unattended for 20 minutes was not the best decision. I don’t recommend trying that one. I could’ve caught another cat, a squirrel, a raccoon or even a small child).


After an hour, the sun was starting to rise and I was pretty sure I had missed my chance. I looked for her again and saw her in the neighbour’s yard; she stared right back at me. I would always try to not look her in the eyes, apparently that’s a sign of aggression or dominance. I didn’t need that mind game, whenever I saw her I would look away immediately. I did the same here and quietly stepped away from the fence. I was relieved to know she was nearby, though. Instead of leaving the trap by my door, I figured maybe she would prefer to eat someplace more secluded and away from my prying eyes. I moved the trap just around the corner, right near the fence where she would often perch.


Another 10 minutes passed with nothing happening at all. I cranked up the laptop and was just about to google again “how to attract a feral cat’ when the loudest, metallic ‘ching-clang’ made me jump up from the couch. I opened the door, with a thick blanket in hand. And there she was! In the trap! Of course she was freaked out and very vocal and backing to the rear, away from me. I put the thick blanket over the cage, hoping that might relax her a bit, might make her more comfortable being confined. I quickly ran into the wake Cheryl up. She jumped out of bed and quickly got ready. I called the vet to give them a heads up we were coming. Coats on. My heart pounding. Car started. Cat in the back seat, in the cage. And so by 7:20am on November 6th, we rescued the Little Ninja.
 
 
It was hard to listen to her sad little mews from the back seat, she was obviously stressed, and we hated doing that to her. As people, we could rationalize that is was all for her sake, that it will be better, that we rescued her from a likely death as winter approached and food wasn’t readily available. It’s really hard to explain all that to a cat.

Nevertheless we went to the vet and had her checked out. She seemed fine, if only a little thin and weighing just 7 lbs. The blood results that came back the following week were fine as well. A relatively healthy cat. As the vet gave her the once over, I was surprised to see that she immediately tried to crawl into Cheryl’s arms and curl up. She didn’t freak out or squirm like I had imagined. She wasn’t as fearful or people as I had first thought, she was just a little timid and perhaps just wary of strangers.


 





We brought her home in the cat carrier that Laura let us borrow (there was no way we’d get her into the trap for transport). We put the carrier in the room and left the door open, facing the food and facing a little nook Cheryl whipped up (just in case she need a private place to hide). We knew it’d be a while before she’d come out and interact and know that we weren’t there to hurt her… so she stayed in that carrier for the first day. Cheryl was the first the reach her hand in to pet the cat… and the Little Ninja seemed perfectly happy with a rubdown from a disembodied hand. Eventually, she came out of the cage to eat.
 


 
 
And praise the heavens above, she was even litter trained!!
 
Cheryl was actually quite a bit ill the following two days and stayed home from work. I’m sure this was a blessing to both Cheryl and the kitty. It provided some much need bonding time and a chance for the kitty to explore her new home, to be comfortable at home, and to not feel alone. The kitty spent a lot of it curled up with Cheryl on the bed, easily the first time the kitty was warm in over a month. She seemed quite happy to have a new home.

At first we were going to call for Violet… personally I like the name and liked the reference to the Series of Unfortunate Events (which is what led this little kitty to end up in our home). Violet didn’t seem right though. It’s kinda hard to call out and it just didn’t flow.

After some time, we settled on Charlie. Maybe as a shortened version of Charlotte. We could even call her Chuck if we so pleased (like Anna Friel in Pushing Daisies). I’ve always been a fan of boys names for girls, like Charlie, Sidney, Frankie, or even Fred (a la Winifred). So it was decided, this little cat named Charlie would become a newly adopted member of our family.
 
If you are ever wanting to help your own cat settle down and become more at ease when at home, I wholly recommend Feliway (see photo below). It comes in both a spray and a plug-in diffuser, as over-precaution we got both. I’m pretty sure this is what helped Charlie easily transition into becoming an indoor cat in a stranger’s home. It synthetically mimics the ‘scent’ or pheromone that cats release when they rub their faces on things. It calms the kitty into believing that ‘this is home’ and ‘this is safe’. Essentially it’s an airborne anti-anxiety medication. Effects are noticeably with hours, but sometimes may take a week. After 3 months of the plug-in, your kitty should be right as rain. If you are having issues with spraying or peeing on things or anxiety, this stuff seems to really work. There, that’s it for the commercial ad (fyi, I wasn't paid to say this or anything... I just think this stuff is a godsend for our situation).
 
 

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