Rescue of a Fuzzy Baby Kitty, Part 2

For part one of the rescue, click here.

Mid-day, Monday

Scamp and I return from a shopping trip after which she fell asleep in the car. I had had no more thought of the kitten until I hear him begging for his mama again in the original jungle bush. I lay Scamp inside in her bed and start my search of the bush from the side closest to the back of our neighbor's house gently calling, "Kitty, kitty," when I hear someone else from the opposite side saying the same thing. It's our neighbor who heard the kitten meowing as well. We didn't know we were searching on separate side's of the bush. I explain our attempts of rescue beginning last night, and he basically leaves the hunt up to us because his son is allergic to cats.

Matt finally comes back out and sends me to the spot my neighbor previously claimed on the front side of the plant while he guides me to the kitty's lair. He has his eye on the him and tells me I have to lay down and reach about a foot and a half into the oblivion of this vast tree to grasp the now silent kitten. After two attempts, I lay hold of one of his paws and manage to wrangle him around his fuzzy belly pulling him out, claws and all. If he'd been any bigger than his five-week old self, I wouldn't have been able to handle those sharp nails. I quickly settle him into my chest and gently pet him. He's calm at last, and we take him inside for a bowl of milk. Scamp's still asleep, and we know what will happen. She'll quickly become attached to this little creature and will not want to share him. But, we are determined not to keep him.


We make a soft bed for him in Scratchy's carrier, but the poor little thing isn't happy unless he's snuggled up in the crook of someone's neck. Needless to say, I let him out until our own baby wakes up. "Look what Mama and Daddy found, Baby," I say as she peers down at the infant kitten. She's so excited and uses her stubby little fingers to pick him up. "My baby kitty," says Scamp. "No, Baby, that's Janice's baby kitty." Janice is one of our kitty loving friends who we think would have the ideal home for this new bundle of fur.

While Scamp's petting and strangling, oh wait, gently caressing the kitty around the neck, we call Janice and leave a message about the kitten. We hope she calls back soon because Scamp can't keep her hands off him, and we don't want her to become too attached. We intervene numerous times on the kitty's behalf while Scamp is holding him, but as soon as she sits him down, he's off following her. Finally, I leave for my 7:00 pm Bible Study, and Matt's left to supervise. When I arrive home two hours later with kitten chow in hand, Janice is there holding "Scamp's Baby Kitty." Scamp is already beside herself that she isn't in charge of the petting for the moment.


Bad news for Scamp. It's time for bed. She's had four hours plus of constant interaction with the kitten and wants him to sleep with her. But, Daddy tries to explain to her that the kitty is going to a good home at Janice's house. "Don't take my baby kitty, Janice," cries Scamp as tears of desperation streak down her face. Scamp begins screaming as Matt carries her upstairs to bed. What kind of parents are we? She finally settles down and goes to sleep. The next day wasn't as bad as we thought it might be. Scamp only mentioned the kitten once and without tears I might add. Later that day, I talked with Matt. He said he nearly broke down and let Scamp have the kitty as another indoor pet. It broke all our hearts to let the kitty go, but we have too many friends and family members who are allergic to cats. Scratchy will be out last indoor pet.


Kitty is doing well at Janice's. She has family staying over, and they all take turns sleeping with the kitty cuddled up on their necks. Janice has the pictures to prove it. We may even let Scamp visit baby kitty when he gets a little bigger and doesn't look so much like a tiny baby anymore.

Rescue of a Fuzzy Baby Kitty

9:30 pm Sunday.

We arrive home from Meme and Papa's to a hoarse meowing coming from our neighbor's enormous bush. When I say enormous I mean one-story house tall and 10-15 feet in diameter big. This is no flimsy bush but could easily hide a grown man if he could maneuver his way through the maze of tightly tucked limbs.

Scamp and I walk over to investigate. My heart is hoping the muffled meowing is from a kitty but could very well be the chirping of a tree frog. Even with the light from our front porch we can't see into the dense bush, so I retrieve a flashlight. Scamp is so excited to find what is lurking inside, but I can't see anything except branches. The meowing grows more distinct as I make my way toward the back of the jungle of limbs. "It's a kitty!" I exclaim to Scamp, almost sure that the tiny creature has nearly lost his voice from meowing continuously.

Matt arrives with his hefty high-powered flashlight and squeezes his upper body into the center of the bush. "I see it," he says. "It's just a baby," who has apparently lost his mama. Scamp's anticipation of seeing the kitten grows, and she ecstatically climbs into my arms to wait. But, the kitten has become frightened and moves farther away from Matt still half wedged in the tree. We move over to the other side of the bush on the front of our neighbor's house. I'm surprised they haven't come out with a baseball bat to catch us "cat-burglars" sneaking around on their property.

After about 15 minutes we give up since it's so late and too hard to see anything outside much less inside the bush. We put Scamp to bed, but Matt and his determination decide to hunt more for the kitten. We didn't realize our cat, Scratchy Paw Paw, was outside and has chased the poor baby kitty out of his hiding spot. But, Matt hears the baby across the street and proceeds in prowling yet again in another neighbor's bushes. With no luck however. He returns inside in defeat except for the fact he wasn't arrested! We accept our failed rescue and hope the kitty is able to find his mama. We put it all behind us...we think.

Read the rest of the rescue later...

KitKat Goes to the Vet

We finally managed to bring our kitkit into the vet's office. He's been peeing all over the house and even on me while I slept! Once you've woken up in cat pee, you'll never forget it! We laid soft towels in the bathroom floor next to his litter box last night and shut him in for the night. He normally roams free but due to his recent urinating escapades, we were afraid he would leave even more of a mess for us to clean up. Did I mention he even pooped on the carpet in our movie room last night while we were cleaning up pee in another room?!

This morning, I took the cat carrier into the bathroom where Scratchy was housed and slowly lowered him in. It was an easy process compared to the time Beef had with getting the orange beast of a cat into that thing! Scratchy meowed frantically all the way there, but Scamp enjoyed it. I'm sure she would have been upset, too, if she knew he was distressed. She doesn't like animals being hurt. She thought he was just talking as usual and even replied back to him.

He settled down once we got inside. The worst part for him was the car ride. It scares him something awful, and he has been known to go downright mad, meowing and flipping inside his carrier, or scratching and clawing legs when he's out riding in the car. The wait was terrible in the vet's office. All three of us were getting fussy and tired and ready to go home. But, the vet finally came in and told us Scratchy had an obstruction blocking his urine flow, something like a kidney stone in the way. He says it was typical of male cats but could lead to death if the reoccurring problem isn't corrected. Therefore, Scratchy will be spending the night there. The vet will sedate him, then work on freeing the stone an/or grit blocking his bladder.

The vet will give me instructions for Scratchy's diet to help prevent this from happening again. Well, this gives us insight as to why he was peeing on the carpet while we were watching him do it, but not why he peed in Scamps bed or on me!! We may have to work on behavioral problems as well when he gets home.

Scratchy Cat Tales

I awoke early one morning, 5:30 am to be exact, to find I was sleeping in an very sour smelling wet spot on the bed. I jumped up, startling Matt awake, and headed toward the bathroom to fetch a clean towel. "What happened?" I wandered aloud. "Are you sure you didn't pee in the bed?" Matt asked. "Yes, I'm sure!" On second thought, "I'm not sure. Maybe."

I laid the dry towel on top of the bed and crawled back in to get a couple more hours of much needed sleep before Scamp awoke. At 7:30 am, we heard Scamp cooing through the monitor, and Matt went upstairs to bring her back down. I drug myself out of bed as well and bent down to sniff the spot in question. Scratchy!! If you've ever had an indoor cat, you know the smell of cat urine -- It's unmistakable. My soft ball of precious kitty cat had peed on me, his beloved owner.

This wasn't the first time he'd "forgotten" to use his litter box. And it's been happening more and more lately. I figured I wasn't giving him enough attention, enough one-on-one time with just me without my feisty 21-month old trying to love and pet and squeeze him. I had been trying to pick up the slack by giving him treats if he's had a rough run-in with Scamp or making sure he has a quality petting session while I'm sitting on the couch. But, it hasn't helped. And why did he pee on me? Matt's the one threatening to make him a full-time outdoor cat. I've been fighting to keep my baby kitkat inside.

Exasperated, I called the vet and made an appointment. Hopefully, he could give me insight into what's been running through kitkat's head and how I can make the bad behaviour stop. The appointment was for yesterday, 9:30 am. Matt had let Scrathcy outside as he was leaving for work. So around 9:00 am I let him back in. I wanted to make sure he was in my sight. I lugged the cat carrier out of the closet and realized it still had orange and white "Boots" hair still inside along with deep scratches marking the plastic near the carrier door. Boots was the cat that bit Scamp, and Matt had fought this beast of a feline and won, forcing him into this same carrier so that he could be taken into the pound and be tested for rabies.

I toted the carrier outside and shook all the hair out, then went back in to fetch Scrathcy. But, he was no where to be found. Frustrated, I raced from room to room, looking behind sofas and under tables, calling his name, and shaking his container of cat food. I ran upstairs and looked under Scamp's bed and even in the doored crawl spaces inside the walls in her room and the office. Scamp even helped with the search carrying a bag of kitty treats and calling "KitKaaaat! Ownt cheets." (Translation, want treats). We continued our hunt outside. "Maybe he snuck out when I went out with the cat carrier," I thought but still no Scrathcy.

I ended up having to call the vets office. The receptionist laughed at my predicament and told me to bring him in when I found him. We searched all day with no luck. Last night around 6:00 pm, on hour after the vet's office closes, Scratchy sauntered out of his hiding place. He had been in the crawl space upstairs after all. I knew I had not left the doors of the space open and wandered how he got in there.

Scamp woke up around 7:00 am this morning, and Matt wearily climbed the stairs to get her. They played for several minutes until Scrathcy found his way into her room. And upon seeing him, Scamp opened the toddler-sized eye-level view doors of the crawl space and allowed Scratchy to run inside. Matt realized that Scamp had aided kitkat in his escape. Then, I remembered she and I had looked in those same doors yesterday, and she kept motioning inside and saying "kitkat" like she knew he was in there. Scratchy prolonged his stay away from the vet this time, but tomorrow is another story. I'll find a way to get him there. . . hopefully.

Cat in the Closet

Scratchy (aka Kitkat, Kitty, Ki) had to find a new hiding spot. His last spot was under our bed, and you've seen the pictures of Scamp under there with him. She has found and overtaken every favorite spot of his but has not invaded his last sanctuary, our closet. Yes, this is the bottom of our walk-in closet or stand-in and stretch closet because you can't manuever around in there.

I find him there throughout the day. Sometimes, he's trapped because I forget he's there and close the door. But, he doesn't seem to mind. Tuesday, Scamp and I left for a 4-hour stretch of time and when I came back, I found him. No way out, no way in. Just like he likes it. I opened the door to allow him to escape, but he lazed around in there for another 2 hours. It will be his special space for now, until Scamp learns to open the door!

Can You Guess Where Scamp Is?

Scamp follows Scratchy under the bed, and today, decided to have a Ritz cracker (or cook cook as she says)while she was under there. No, it wasn't one she found under the bed either, although it could be possible. She finds and sticks a lot of things in her mouth!!

Scratchy Paw Paw

Here's my cat, Scratchy Paw Paw, but we never call him that. Usually it's just kitty, kit kat, etc. I really didn't know I was the kind of person to have nicknames for every person in our home, but I guess I am:) Beefcake bought me Kit for Valentine's Day 2003. He was supposed to be an outdoor cat. Neither Beef nor I ever had indoor animals growing up, but when we left Scratchy outside, he ran away and got lost. When we found him, we left him outside again, and he got ran over (but is very much fine, no permanent damage:) So, he is an indoor cat.

Scamp just loves him and follows him around everywhere -- behind furniture, under tables, under the bed!! Scratchy tries to act like he doesn't like it, but he usually waits for her to follow!

Scratchy is the most personable cat I've ever had. He will play with any other cat. He sleeps in the bed with our overnight guests. Just ask Stacy!! I've never heard him growl or seen him hiss or bite at anything! He's very good with Scamp. He loves playing under the Christmas tree and hiding behind presents. So, here's my other baby!!