He works with rats in his magic act.

But it was the friendly overtures of a young feral cat which created the Peaceable Kingdom he lives in today.

In terms of background, it helps to start by saying that I have been a volunteer at my local animal shelter for almost a decade. I’ve worked in a lot of different areas in the shelter, including bottle-feeding in the kitten nursery, cat socializing, urban wildlife, and small mammal.

Currently I spend most of my time in small mammals (I work primarily with the rats; I’m “the rat guy” and have had rats from rescues for about 15 years – also, about three years ago I built a wheelchair for a paralyzed bunny.)

So you can see, I’m clearly a soft-hearted (and soft-headed) guy when it comes to animals.

Early this spring a skinny little grey cat appeared in my backyard – not a kitten, but still pretty young. He was not scared of humans much at all, and was always hungry (the first time we saw him we were having a BBQ; he wolfed down a burger in half a tick). Sick and older rats may not be able to handle rat kibble so a good alternative is cat food – as such, as I always have rats, I always have a few cans cat of cat food on hand. So I started feeding him cat food every time he appeared.

And of course, ’cause he was no fool, knowing there was cat food waiting he appeared more and more frequently. I bought a big bag of dry food and started just leaving a bowl of it out for him. Unfortunately, the raccoons in the area (also no fools) soon learned there was cat food around so I had to be more careful about when I left the food, and taking it away at night.

This continued for a bit. It was summer and I was fairly casual about this cat, since he wasn’t always around. However, one day I noticed he was limping a little. After a day or two he was still limping, so I held him down and took a careful look at his (rear left) paw. One of the claws had torn sideways – it was still mostly attached but the area was badly swollen and, I could see, starting to get infected (there was pus, etc.).

So, off to the vet. Taking with the vet was interesting ’cause I had to answer a lot of her questions with, “I don’t know, he’s a stray.” (Has he been vaccinated? I don’t know, he’s a stray. How old is he? I don’t know… etc.). After the exam the vet said that the infection was bad and the claw plus at least half the toe would have to be permanently removed – she’d know more once she could look more thoroughly when the cat was under anesthetic, but if we didn’t act soon he was going to lose the whole foot. And also, since he was going to be put under anyway, she’d like to neuter him. I agreed, since it was only an extra $40 to do that.

And finally… since this was foot surgery, she didn’t want him running around outside through muck and whatnot for at least two weeks after the surgery.

Now, this was trickier. I live in a huge old house – at the time I’d barely owned it for a year, and except for the basement (where I was currently living) the entire place was a construction zone – dirty and dusty plus open walls, electrical wires, etc. And, I had my cage of rats in my room… and this was an outdoor cat who, before he met me, must have been hunting to stay alive.

But what could I do? So I cleaned up one room and put a bed in there as well, and it became the cat’s room. We did the surgery and I brought him home (minus a claw, a toe, and, uh, [his testicles]). He stayed in the room for two weeks and I spent as much time in there with him as possible; I even started sleeping in there, most nights. And I named him Pembo, a cuter version of the name of the street I live on.

Pembo was (and is) a great cat – he was fine with the litter box from the very first night. He usually sleeps on the bed. He’s always happy to see me. Right now I let him outside a few hours a day, when it’s warm and dry. I open the door to his room and he runs right down the hallway and waits at the outside door.And when I call for him, he (uh, mostly) runs from where-ever he’s been playing and right back into the house. I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do when it gets too cold to let him out; I’m sure he’s not going to be happy about that.

So that’s the story. A side note: there are at least two other strays in the area that look really similar to Pembo (he has a spiffy collar with my phone number on it, so I can tell him apart from a distance). Pembo is sometimes playing with them and I suspect they’re from his litter (the vet, BTW, said that he’s likely about 1.5 – 2 yrs old). They’ve never been brave enough to come to the house or let me near them, but if they do… well, I might have to take them in as well.

I think Pembo is adorable, and clearly a bit of a magician in his own right. He is undoubtedly telling his littermates about his good fortune, as in a fairy tale.

I’m so glad he has cat friends; and such a warm-hearted human friend.

In honor of the day, I declare this story a Festivus Miracle!

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I’m interested in adopting a cat, but don’t know if I should steer clear of all males because of the spraying issue. Do you have any words of wisdom?

Dear Readers,

Of all the things to worry about, this really unpleasant problem is also the most easily prevented.

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In the wild, a mature male cat would be expected to mark the boundaries of their hunting territory with extraordinarily stinky urine, sprayed as much, and as high, as possible. While it’s not as common as the male cat’s urge to “spray,” intact female cats have been known to use this territory marking signal, too.

Altering a cat prior to their reaching sexual maturity means this potential behavior never gets started; for either sex. The hormones never reach the brain, and the behavior does not “activate.”

Whenever I had, or helped with, a spraying issue, there were additional factors that had created the situation.

Waiting too long. There’s still a lot of ignorance about when; even in medical professionals.

My previous vet assured me that if such behavior manifested itself with then five and a half month-old Reverend Jim, they “would of course neuter then!” This even though RJ, due to his stressed early months, was already toting a set of these. I didn’t understand why it was okay for them to neuter early “if there were problems” but not neuter early to prevent them entirely. So I found a new vet.

Here’s more information on pediatric altering; many shelters now won’t let kittens be adopted unless this procedure has already been performed.

Stressed background. Survival challenges can push a kitten to mature earlier; mentally and physically.

This is why I was anxious to have RJ “fixed” as soon as he had recovered his physical health. A cat who is trying to survive will be driven to mark territory in an attempt to keep food competition away. Of course the abandoned cat usually didn’t get altered, either, and they can develop with a full set of wild behaviors; including this one.

Improper handling. If we do adopt a cat who was neutered after sexual maturation, we should use training to help along the new behavior we want. Even though their bodies will no longer be prompted by the hormones, the behavior can linger if reinforced.

Keep the cat in a room to themselves for a while, and make sure they are happy and have plenty of food and toys and attention. While the hormones are winding down, we want to make sure there aren’t any stimuli that might prompt the cat to reinforce territory marking. Once the hormones subside, this will make sure the behavior connected with it will go away, too.

Anxiety. Cats who developed both the hormones and this behavior are the most likely to turn to spraying when under stress. But any cat, given enough pressure, can resort to this most basic Ownership Move.

Our cat’s wild instincts urge them to “mark stuff” to show it is theirs. If they feel in competition with other cats, if they have overwhelming input, or if the humans supposed to be taking care of them are a source of mixed signals or neglect; the desperate cat can’t help but follow this raw instinct.

I always took this kind of behavior as a sign this cat was meant to be an Only Cat. Because when I did manage to find a home who believed my assurances about the cause of the problem (and I had to be honest) it was true. Allowed to “run the place” and not having to deal with other cats did shut off this stress response.

Just one more good reason to spay and neuter.

I often get asked why cats do that to shoes.

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This makes the 2-fer choice both practical and fair.

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Shelters screen potential adopters because they don’t want “boomerangs.” Adopting two cats, especially for first time adopters, is an advantage to the shelter and the people. And the cats.

Two cats are a shortcut to pet harmony.

It’s not necessarily an easy sell, though. People can resist; feeling it’s a greater commitment. Perhaps so. But there are even greater advantages.

But what if I’m new to cats?

Cats find the process of settling in easier with a cat companion. Humans have doubled their chances to communicate with either cat. Another cat is reassuring, because a new cat alone in the home will wonder, Where are the other cats?

Having another cat to explore with makes both new cats more comfortable, right away. We have two approaches to getting their needs met, and we learn more about cats. This helps us be good cat parents. A rocky patch with one cat will not undercut our confidence when the other cat is blooming under our care.

If we are thinking two kittens would be “too much” we are forgetting that the best toy for a kitten is another kitten. So we have a easier time of it. Getting one kitten trained on something increases our chance the other kitten will do it, too.

There’s another advantage to new adopters when it comes to two cats. Newbies might not know how much a cat sleeps or will be occupied with their own concerns, and might want more cat interaction than one cat can comfortably give, especially at first.

When we have twice the candidates for playing or cuddling, we are less likely to feel thwarted in our affections.

What about cat conflicts?

Two cats come into an existing situation more easily. Getting two older cats also lets the two new cats draw confidence from each other’s presence, even if the previous cats are still getting to know them.

This bond will help them get over their introductory period and make them less likely “targets” for apprehensive previous cats. Everyone adjusts to the change more quickly.

Of course, there are situations where two new cats are too many. But we might have arrived at that conclusion with a misconception.

If we are wondering if our older cat will accept a kitten, we can get two kittens to make sure they have each other to play with, greatly reducing the potential harassment of the older cat.

For new adopters, getting two also undercuts the likelihood that these two cats will not get along. It increases their potential for friendship because they come into new territory, together. Conflicts are reduced when each cat begins on equal footing.

What combination should we choose?

Matching activity level and temperaments will mean more than age and previous situation. Cats who have already formed friendships are easy choices. Littermates are not an automatic match, if these kittens have wide variations. Two unrelated kittens, even of differing ages, might be a better choice.

Older cats need to be at least introduced to each other smoothly before we make our final choice. But we have even more flexibility with mature cats, as the age difference matters less. Cats who enjoy the same things in the shelter will do the same in our home.

For the cat newbie, getting two adult cats is the easiest way of starting with cats. This is another thing about getting two cats, right away. We admit, up front, that we are ready to find out what the cat experience is like.

We don’t really grasp that until we move beyond one cat.

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Any large enough discussion of pets, especially ones where the pets are regarded as thinking and feeling beings that a person expresses affection for, will sooner or later generate a comment along the lines of, “Why don’t you people just have children, you selfish bunch of jerks?”

The funny/sad part is that the clueless commenter is the one equating children with pets; the one assuming pets are a poor substitute for children. That would be true… if pets were child substitutes.

But they are not.

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We’ve all made this same mistake, one time or another. We might know an elderly couple, seeing the country with a dog or two. There are people who turn their home into an aviary devoted to parrots. I spent one morning in a coffee shop, chatting with a devoted ferret fancier. In each case, a person isn’t wrong for thinking, These animals are their family.

But that doesn’t make these animals, children. It doesn’t make them child substitutes; there are no child substitutes! What these animals are, actually, is nurturing outlets.

We should nurture our children, and we should nurture our pets. Humans have a wonderful capacity for love. Any living, and loving, being that we receive reciprocation from is a good outlet for our loving impulses. This goes for our life partners as much as it does a favorite houseplant.

But we don’t expect our spider plant, no matter how lush and pampered it might be, to enjoy a movie with us. We don’t expect our best friend, no matter how attractive and personable they may be, to hang around our home and make it look good.

We do love our pets. The person making the angry comment might even have some, but they feel slighted that others are expressing love. They feel this is reserved for people. A lot of the time, they feel it’s only reserved for certain people, and in certain amounts.

In essence, what they are saying is: What’s wrong with you, actually loving an animal? Such enjoyment and devotion for beings who are so dependent and responsive should be only for humans. You want cute and helpless? Get a kid!

This attitude does a disservice to all involved.

That’s because there are huge differences between pets and children. That is why pets are not child substitutes, any more than gardening is.

A different world. Whether our child is “ours” genetically or not, raising a child is unlike any other human endeavor. The goal is to get them out into the world with their hearts and minds working properly. We want them to be an asset to human civilization. We want them to be able to live independently, outside of our home.

Pets are the opposite. We want them to never leave our home. Any contributions they make to the greater world are highly individual, whether it is being found by a search and rescue dog, or a cat who makes our grandmother’s life less lonely.

A different commitment. We want our child to outlive us. Ideally, they will keep on representing some of our important values out in the world, after we ourselves are gone.

Pets, we know, will be saying goodbye in our lifetime. It’s an index of how much we love having pets that we are willing to go through the loss, over and over again.

A different expectation. This is a crucial difference between children and pets. Spoiling children will mean they will grow up with poor impulse control, a lack of responsibility, and a tendency to be the “pain in the behind” of any group. So we have to work hard to keep instilling proper values, day after day, lest our children become unproductive and socially unhappy.

It’s so much easier to spoil pets. In fact, cats are made for spoiling.

A different experience. It must be admitted: pets are easier. We get to choose the one who appeals to us; in fact, it’s highly encouraged. We get to train them in ways which please us; because they only have to please us. While it is always sad to say goodbye to them, this is tempered by knowing them the whole of their life; and being there for it.

It is exactly this undiluted enjoyment, this ease of use, and this reliable pleasure that lie at the literal heart of Pet Appreciation.

As humans, we have nurturing instincts which serve us well when we raise children. These instincts are so powerful they are the glue that holds our civilization, even our very existence, together. Biologically, they can be expressed in the mating & raising experience that produced us.

But we live varied and extraordinary lives above and beyond that. This creates circumstances where the responsible and sensible choice is to not have children, so that other contributions can be made. There are so many circumstances where child raising would interfere with the fullness of these other, yet equally important, contributions.

Child raising should be done right, or not done at all. That is why it must always be a choice.

People who do not have the benefit of understanding the many forms love can take are terribly confused. They often don’t get enough love because they put too many arbitrary conditions on it. That is why they get so upset about it, and why our response should be tempered with understanding and compassion.

It might help them to at least know what part of the puzzle they are missing.

For more on this subject, see Dear Pammy, Is it strange to really like your pet?

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One: This is only a small problem for the humans.

Two: This isn’t an overwhelming problem for the cat.

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So many assume the cat is, or will be, “suffering.” Yet my encounters with such cats does not bear this out. What is going on that makes such challenged cats seem like such a challenge to so many?

Cats are not human. Humans do suffer over such losses. But while empathy is a wonderful thing, this kind of loss is not the same for cats. There is no career in jeopardy, the other cats will puzzle over their behavior and then shrug it off, and the cat themselves, perhaps with a bit of help, can pursue their usual interests without mental anguish.

This is really a case of misplaced empathy. It winds up sliding into cruelty when such cats are left to languish without a home, or are considered for euthanasia even though they are not suffering.

Cats are in the Now. Cats who lose a limb or sensory input later on, through illness or accident, simply come up with new ways of doing what they want to do. While cats born with such challenges, or who lost something early on, are unaware that there is another way to be.

If cats had the mental orientation to both know what they are missing, and so to theoretically miss it, it would cause cats some mental trauma. But cats react to these situations the way they would to any puzzling event; as an invitation to figure out a way to do what they want to do, anyway.

Squick factor. It’s good when we feel sympathy and compassion for a cat who has been hurt. But this feeling doesn’t do anyone any good when it means we don’t handle our feelings properly; and turn away.

People often think they will continue to have such feelings, and the thought of dealing with them on a daily basis appears too discouraging. But that is not what happens. Just as with humans, once we begin a relationship, the differences fall away; and the cat becomes themselves. Then their challenge is no longer distressing; it’s just them.

The nine lives. Cats can survive against all odds. Cats can accomplish amazing things. We should not project what we only think will happen in the cat’s life, going forward. We are likely to be wrong.

Cats without vision use their keen hearing; cats without hearing use their keen vision. The whiskers on a cat’s legs connect directly to the vision center in the brain. They can feel the wind of a closing door on their fur, smell other beings, and their athletic ability compensates for a missing leg.

Many people have shared with me that their blind cat navigates perfectly well, or their deaf cat learns hand signals instead of verbal ones, or that their paralyzed cat makes it to the litter box or the couch as they wish.

This is not about what we think our own capabilities might be in a similar situation.

Often, in our imagination, we cannot get past what seems to be an insurmountable obstacle. But cats don’t think that way. We shouldn’t create obstacles for them that really only reflect our own lack of imagination.

These cats are not less loving, funny, or extraordinary. These cats are still going to be their wonderfully unique selves.

Because it is not asked, of any of us, to be perfect.

There’s few books out there about such cats, but friends have told me they loved Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat.

Placing, or looking for, a challenged cat? Pets with Disabilities is also a place where FIV+ cats can find appropriate homes.

For a lot of helpful advice and true stories of cats doing well, see this roundup from Messybeast.

For more about cats with challenges, see other posts on The Challenged Cat.

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Oscar, a cat residing at the Steere House in Providence, Rhode Island, possesses the startling ability to sense when one of the residents is about to pass. Many of the patients suffer from dementia and great lonesomeness, and the little cat wanders into their rooms shortly before death to dispense solace.

In all the fuss made over this cat’s abilities last year, so many people showed they did not understand the situation. Oscar isn’t the “Death Cat.” He’s not causing any problems; he’s solving them.

The scientist in Dr. David Dosa was skeptical when first told that Oscar, an aloof cat kept by a nursing home, regularly predicted patients’ deaths by snuggling alongside them in their final hours.

Dosa’s doubts eroded after he and his colleagues tallied about 50 correct calls made by Oscar over five years, a process he explains in [his book], Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat. The feline’s bizarre talent astounds Dosa, but he finds Oscar’s real worth in his fierce insistence on being present when others turn away from life’s most uncomfortable topic: death.

My bolding, above, from this article: Nursing home cat can predict impending death

I bolded that phrase because I didn’t find this ability astounding; I’m pretty sure Oscar, while inadvertently, was trained to do what he does. By combining a cat’s innate abilities with the nursing duties of his social outlets, Oscar saw a “caring vacuum” he knew how to fill.

Cats have super senses compared to ours; it’s not supernatural for him to learn the signs that these very sick people would soon be expiring.

While Oscar’s home and responsibilities are somewhat unusual, the way he expresses his compassion is not. Even cats who are not openly affectionate can astonish us by mustering up the caring when it is most needed. They are concerned, and the only way they have to show that concern is, after all, one of the best ways; being there for us.

I think cats get a raw deal in the What have you done for us lately? arena, because what cats can do is not physical. They don’t drag their people out of burning buildings, or therapeutically carry children on their backs, as dogs and horses can. They are not physically capable of doing this for humans; though they do it for their own kittens, as in the case of Scarlett the heroic mother cat:

It’s a case of what our culture values, and we have an unfortunate tendency to value hard sciences over soft ones; hard currency over the fluffier forms of exchange; things we can measure and tabulate instead of things we can feel.

But when the problem is how we feel; there is no better comfort than someone who is willing to share it.

For more about cats and their special empathetic abilities, see Cats for People’s Problems.

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Others are certain these are wonderful cats who simply need love.

And… they are both right.

Here’s our beloved Reverend Jim, his first night in his new home. He was four and a half months old.

This was after three weeks of medical care in various shelters. He was skin and bones… held as police evidence in an abuse case… and had experienced so much neglect he didn’t know how to play.

When I first saw him, I didn’t even know he was a kitten. That big Maine Coon bone structure, the skeletal build, the loss of so much fur that he didn’t even look like a long-haired cat; it all added up to what looked like a grownup street survivor from the back.

On my second pass through the room, he’d woken up, and padded to the front of his cage. He leaned forward to look into my eyes.

I walked closer, my hands behind my back to look less threatening, and softly asked, “So what’s your story?”

He reached out with both paws, claws in, and patted my cheeks. He wanted love.

So we took him home and gave him enormous amounts.

That wasn’t Reverend Jim’s only problem; he had mental deficits from not growing up as a normal kitten, from abuse and starvation, from lack of social connections and input. He was quite possibly, considering all dimensions, the most pathetic case I’d ever seen.

Yet, he was still able to reach for contact.

He was still able to ask for help. After the right support and training, no one can tell he’d had such a rocky start. Even now, he continues to improve, advancing his communication, logic, and analytical skills. He has an excellent brain; he only needed help accessing it.

And there was never, ever, anything wrong with his heart.

If our prospective cat will try to connect with us; with their paw, with their eyes, with their voice… then they are more than willing to meet us halfway.

This vital social connection between two beings is all we need to get started.

That’s the key to choosing the right shelter cat.

Every cat in a shelter has a problem. But most of the time, it’s something quite easily fixed. They don’t have a home.

If the cat who appeals to us appeals to us… then their problem is that they aren’t getting enough love.

And we can fix that, can’t we?

See home video footage of Reverend Jim, only a couple of months after his rescue, in my introductory video which introduces key Way of Cats concepts.

(Click on RJ’s kitten picture to read his story… the link leads to a historical document that was the first post on my first cat blog!)

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