Three legged kitty Blue needs a home

Well, the kids are getting along, kind of. They tolerate each other.   Jigger wouldn’t look at Mr. Toes becuase she is still leary of him.  He flopped himself down by Jiggy’s chew toy, so she tied to get it back then he wasn’t looking.  They sat like that for hours.

My kids and Bub got a real laugh the other night.

I let Toes out,  he was crying by the front door and he bolted.  Into the the dark night and right out of the yard, across the road, up to the field beyond the house.  For 2 hours.   I went out every couple of minutes and called to him.  The girls called durring the missing cat episode and thought it was pretty funny that I had lost a three legged cat in less then a week.  I found him after a good long while, scooped him up and scolded him for being a naughty pants.  No more outside at night for him.

I am forbidden to adopt Blue, the other three legged cat who was abondoned along with Mr. Toes.   Elizabeth left a commnet about it on the last post saying, ” well you might not want to admit it but you are lonely as well. But I’m not so sure you should get him you cant even keep track of one 3 legged cant let alone 2 three legged cats.”  Nice kid.  I guess she will be getting coal in her stocking this year.   Emilie teased me as well and so did Bub. 

On a good note,  I hope to be done with Em’s sweater by the time she comes home.  Here is a sneak peek.  She has seen the sweater in the makeing,  so I can show what she has already seen. They claim that they don’t read my blog, but I think that they do, since I write about them at times.   Emilie is bringing the boyfriend home too.

“Oh Mum,  Kyle is getting you presents, so you gotta get him some too”.    I will be kitting into the night, which is not a bad thing. I am not purchasing many gifts this year but am hoping to make most of them.  Those gifts that I can’t make, I am buying local as much as possible to support our town’s vendors.  Problem is that I am cutting back on stuff as most folks are.  I worry about that for my friends that own small shops in town.

Vermont is really a small town. Less then 700,000 people and it seems like there is only one degree of separation at times.   I got a Christmas card from Governor Douglas and his wife Dorothy yesterday.  Not because I am special or some big muckity muck, but because this is Vemont and the Governor and his wife sign cards and send them out.  So when the recession/depression is hitting, we all know folks that are being affected.   I am sure foks reading this feel the same way. 

So lets find a home for Blue, the gray kitty with multi-toes and three legs.  He is at the Stowe Police department animal lock-up.   Elizabeth Rankin is the animal control officer and she works on Thrusday’s and Fridays.

There has got to be someone out there that would like a three legged cat.

I really like Mr. Toes.  He is very sweet dispite his grumpy apprearnce and sleeps on my bed at night. He is missing some teeth and hobbles around but likes people and purrs alot.  I hear that Blue is the same way.

Mr. Toes

This morning I brought Jigger over to our vet, Greg Goodson over in Stowe.  The cat came too for his well check and to keep Jigger company.  Greg and his assistant Meg knew him already.  Mr. Toes, that is his real name.  here is the story.   Mr. Toes is a stay and just began coming around to a local farm a bunch of years ago.  The folks thought he was a pretty nice cat, so they fed him and basically took him in.  Problem was that they had a larger heart then pocket book, so Mr. Toes along with several other cats and dogs all lived in a tiny trailer in a bit of squalor.

Mr. Toes was brought in to Greg with a broken leg, which Greg tried to pin but it didn’t take.  He was casted and was able to get around for a while with that, but when the cast was removed the leg was too unstable.  The end result was the amputation. Mr. Toes was able to able rehabilitate himself and is able to lop around pretty well on three legs.  The complete medical record was on file and the cat was up to date on all of his shots.

What is great about this is that he was cared for.

In November, the folks in the trailer were fired from their farm job and then evicted.   It is not unusual for farmers to hire out and provide housing on the farm site.  In this case, the farmer is well know and respected.  His hired help had worked for him for years, but for what ever reason, that relationship ended and when it did, the hired man moved on.  It is difficult to find housing with so many animals, so they were left.

Greg said something that was a good point.  There are some folks in this world that perhaps can’t find or do work other then farming or manual labor.  Not quite so bad off so that they get full services from the government, but not above the bar enough to do anything else then plain old manual labor.

Greg also said that the Stowe police has Mr. Toes a house mate named Blue.  Blue also has multi-toes and three legs.  He is missing his back right leg and has a bit of a stump.  He is gray.  I guess the animal control officer heard that Mr. Toes had been placed, and well, we live in a small, small community, so when I went to pick Jigger and Mr. Toes up the message was that I could have blue, no charge, but I would have to update his shots.  ($35.00)

Sounds good, but I will have to talk with Bub.

Bub said no more broken cats.

That is what he says tonight, but I bet if he meets him, he will like him.  Jigger needs a pal, and so does Mr. Toes and so does Blue.  I just need to somehow get Bub to think that the second cat is his idea.   Hmmmmmmm.

Jack, the three legged cat

This is Jack

Jack is a bit wonky, which is why he is a good choice.  He  has a bit of a snaggle tooth.  His lower lip, left side droops and his lower left fang sometimes catches his upper lip making him look like he has a fat lip.  He has funny tongue action and leaves it sticking out like he is giving a raspberry.

He is somewhere between 8 and 10 years old, maybe,  and was taken from a trailer  where there were 4 cats and 4 dogs in total.   The former owners had moved to another state and left their pets inside, with some kibble for a week or so before the landlord called it in.   When the animal officer went to the property, the owners showed up and were talked into surrendering three of the cats and two of the dogs.  They planned to take the remaining critters with them. The lady at the shelter said that the couple hadn’t come back a week later and the remaining animals were confiscated by authorities.

Jack was  one of the pets that was surrendered in the first round.  The lady at the shelter thinks that his former name was magic or misty or something like that.  Apollo was his shelter alias.  We have settled on the name Jack (rabbit).  He moves around much like a rabbit hops and he has back feet like a snow shoe rabbit.

This guy is missing his front right leg.  Notice that he as significant double paws on his remaining legs.  7 toes on each, and a double pad on each.  The guys at the shelter think that maybe he was hit by a car at some point, but there was another three legged cat at the home, so maybe a birth defect.  I can’t find a scar or a break in the fur where a scar would be.  He has a bony stub instead of a shoulder.   He gets around pretty well and is able to jump up on things counter level.  The couch, the bed, the window sills and the table in the kitchen where his food and water are.

Jack was introduced to Jigger at the shelter and they seemed to be fine with each other.  Jack is friendly and purrs a lot.  He is very sweet.   Jigger and I thought he should come home with us.  So we got a traveling cage, a new litter box, some kibble and brought him home.

Jack was very interested in the house, but more so in the food. He wolfed his food down like there was no tomorrow.  Then basically followed me or jigger around the house.  Last night he slept on the end of my bed and two times he got up, went up to my head to check on me, then I heard him thump off the bed and scamper off to the kitchen.  One thing about Jack, he is not a quiet walker.

He came back and continued to snooze on the bed.  When I got up this morning, he followed me into the kitchen, then back to my room.   I think he likes it here.  I think he likes me and Bub and he tolerates Jigger, and she him.  I think he will bond with Jigger when we are away at work.  Jack isn’t much for stairs, but neither is Jigger.  I think they will end up being buddies and Jigger won’t be as lonely.

Jiggy needs a pal

Jigger is mother’s best doggo.  She was 10 in November and is a bit depressed.  All of her sheep are gone, the ducks too.  YoYo the cat was gotten by a fisher, or fox or hawk in August and Brutus, our buff rugged barn cat turned into a naughty pants after being laid off.  He found a new mouser job down at UNH’s Thompson School of Agriculture as the official barn cat.  Emilie worked it all out and even got him a UNH Barn Cat collar so that the PETA people don’t take him away and put him in the shelter.

She always claimed that Brutus was her cat anyhow and that now she has her own place, he should be with her.

Well that leaves a hole for Jigger.  She has no one left to be with during the day and she is having some of her own medical issues.  Her teeth are bothering her,  she is not able to eat hard food and she is incontinent.  Poor Jiggy.

She went to see Greg our vet yesterday and we discussed a buddy as well as scheduling a teeth cleaning.

I have wanted a basset hound for years, neither  Bub  nor I want to go through the puppy stage again. As much as I would like a puppy, the idea exhausts me.

There are some rescue dogs at the shelter,  but jigger might not do well with another grown dog who is adjusting to a new home. Plus,  Bub is very pleased that the deer began coming up to the house once the sheep left, so he is not keen on two dogs out in the yard.

Jigger is in low gear, so going outside to do her business is as easy as opening the kitchen door.  Then she might walk around the driveway a bit, then head for the front porch.  Take a bit of a look about and then nap.  She greets all of the neighbors and their dogs up at the top of the driveway.  She is beyond the need for a dog yard.

I went to the shelter yesterday and found this guy.

He is a three legged, 8-10 year old boy named Apollo.  He is very friendly and has a good history of getting along with dogs.  He was rescued from an abandoned homestead that had several dogs and a bunch of cats that were not being cared for.  The local police seized the animals and all have been in quarantine  and now vetted.

Bubby  does not think that a three legged cat can catch a mouse, but has yielded on getting him.  Bub’s job is to be crusty about these things, then he can be magnanimous when the cat turns out to be terrific.   The girls laugh that I have picked a gimpy cat.  They are not surprised.

I just think that he has picked me.

Apollo probably won’t continue to be his name though.

I am going to call the shelter this morning and fill out the paper work.  I think Jiggy will like him.

Original scarf pattern

Happy holidays to my knitting readers. Look up at the different page titles and you will find a pattern for a scarf. See what you think. Beth you and your mom should knit this with some of the merino you have in your stash, then send the pictures.