Oh. My. Lord.
If I was ever going to be dead against keeping Moocher Cat, today was that day.
Hubs noticed MC had some markings inside its ear over a week ago. Every time I tried to get a good look it would turn its head so I stopped looking. I assumed the markings - if they were there at all - were scars or some such thing.
Well this morning Hubs brought it up again, only this time we began to have suspicions about it being an identifying marking - like a tattoo. So I thought we'd just call the RSPCA back and see about bringing it in to have it scanned for a microchip - which at that point we weren't sure if it had. During the course of that phone call we discovered that yes, when a cat is microchipped they tattoo a small 'M' on its right ear and if it is desexed, a small circle with a line through it on its left ear. Well, wouldn't you know it - when we look more closely, the M and Ø symbols seem to jump right out and slap us upside our ignorant heads!
So to recap - Today marks three weeks since MC decided to adopt us and that WHOLE time, all we needed to do was take her into the RSPCA office to be scanned. They'd call the database line, quote the number and dum-da-da-da! Up would pop her owners information.
Thus began the debacle that is wrestling a scratching, mauling, screaming kitty into a box...
First we tried a regular box. Big mistake. We didn't have one with flaps that met in the middle so there was a gap and I don't know how she managed it but she squeezed her body through a space the diametre of a pencil. And that was after we spent forty minutes getting her into the box in the first place.
We made a trip into a local animal hospital and spent $10 on a reinforced cardboard cat-carrier. It looked strong, it really did. We got her into the box (wrapped her in a towel first - psycho kitty claws!) and into the car and were peeling out of the driveway before she TORE THROUGH the box with her claws. Got a talon hooked in one of the air holes and just shredded it. So then we had a screaming jumping cat bouncing off the seats.
I do not like unpredictable animals.
Out of the car we get. MC is getting quite traumatised at this point but we are determined. Hubs tapes up the box and suggests trying again. I just laughed. We rang the RSPCA back hoping like crazy they had a concrete bunker style cat carrier that we could quickly pick up and borrow. Thankfully, they did. But it meant driving 15 mins to go pick it up, 15 mins to return and then another hour trying to coax her into the carrier.
Let me just say one thing. Never underestimate the psychosis of a trapped cat. Hubs was thankful he was wearing gardening gloves when MC got her claws hooked in the cage door and that was it. Cat catapulted six feet in the air, did a triple pike whatsit, and scampered.
The good news in all of this is that now we're certain her owners can be traced because of the microchipping. When we finally do manage to bring her in to the RSPCA office for the scanning, we have a couple of boxes of kitty kibble and a couple of boxes of the single-serve 'wet' sachets (eight or nine days of food) to donate as well.
We just have to catch her first...
Cheers,
Lizzie
If I was ever going to be dead against keeping Moocher Cat, today was that day.
Hubs noticed MC had some markings inside its ear over a week ago. Every time I tried to get a good look it would turn its head so I stopped looking. I assumed the markings - if they were there at all - were scars or some such thing.
Well this morning Hubs brought it up again, only this time we began to have suspicions about it being an identifying marking - like a tattoo. So I thought we'd just call the RSPCA back and see about bringing it in to have it scanned for a microchip - which at that point we weren't sure if it had. During the course of that phone call we discovered that yes, when a cat is microchipped they tattoo a small 'M' on its right ear and if it is desexed, a small circle with a line through it on its left ear. Well, wouldn't you know it - when we look more closely, the M and Ø symbols seem to jump right out and slap us upside our ignorant heads!
So to recap - Today marks three weeks since MC decided to adopt us and that WHOLE time, all we needed to do was take her into the RSPCA office to be scanned. They'd call the database line, quote the number and dum-da-da-da! Up would pop her owners information.
Thus began the debacle that is wrestling a scratching, mauling, screaming kitty into a box...
First we tried a regular box. Big mistake. We didn't have one with flaps that met in the middle so there was a gap and I don't know how she managed it but she squeezed her body through a space the diametre of a pencil. And that was after we spent forty minutes getting her into the box in the first place.
We made a trip into a local animal hospital and spent $10 on a reinforced cardboard cat-carrier. It looked strong, it really did. We got her into the box (wrapped her in a towel first - psycho kitty claws!) and into the car and were peeling out of the driveway before she TORE THROUGH the box with her claws. Got a talon hooked in one of the air holes and just shredded it. So then we had a screaming jumping cat bouncing off the seats.
I do not like unpredictable animals.
Out of the car we get. MC is getting quite traumatised at this point but we are determined. Hubs tapes up the box and suggests trying again. I just laughed. We rang the RSPCA back hoping like crazy they had a concrete bunker style cat carrier that we could quickly pick up and borrow. Thankfully, they did. But it meant driving 15 mins to go pick it up, 15 mins to return and then another hour trying to coax her into the carrier.
Let me just say one thing. Never underestimate the psychosis of a trapped cat. Hubs was thankful he was wearing gardening gloves when MC got her claws hooked in the cage door and that was it. Cat catapulted six feet in the air, did a triple pike whatsit, and scampered.
The good news in all of this is that now we're certain her owners can be traced because of the microchipping. When we finally do manage to bring her in to the RSPCA office for the scanning, we have a couple of boxes of kitty kibble and a couple of boxes of the single-serve 'wet' sachets (eight or nine days of food) to donate as well.
We just have to catch her first...
Cheers,
Lizzie
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