From: lisa@magrathea.lerc.nasa.gov (Lisa M. Lambert)
Subject: HELP! and comments on other threads (long)
Followup-To: lisa@sarah.lerc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 14:25:03 GMT

(Sorry, this got so long.  Please at least read about my problem in
the beginning.  Thank you!)

---

First, some background.  My cat's name is Stranger and she became my
cat last November after having been in a cage at an animal hospital for
about two months.  I think she's about 5 years old.  Apparently, her
previous owner moved somewhere that she couldn't have pets and left
her there.  A friend of mine worked at the office and wanted to save
her, since the veterinarian needed the cage space and was going to
have to put her to sleep.  She and I took the cat one Saturday evening
to my Mom's house, where she lived until a couple of weeks ago when I
was finally able to move to a place that I could have pets and now I
have her.  She's mostly grey with some white on her paws and belly.
She's extremely lovable and will pester me until I pet her as if I
haven't given her attention in days (when it's really only been about
five minutes), but she won't even walk across anybody's lap and hates
to be held.  My Mom's only complaint about having her was that she kept
following her around looking for attention (gee, what a burden :-).

Anyway, my problem is that in the last 24 hours, she has pooped (no
urine though) on the carpeting in four different places (and I know
exactly when she did it because right afterwards, she would stand
there and meow at me and the ONLY times I've heard her meow is when
she's really upset...in the car or getting a bath) and she threw up
twice.  Nothing has changed in her environment since she moved in
three weeks ago.  I change her water and add to her food every day
(she's free-fed dry food, Iams and Purina) and scoop her litterbox
often (a LOT more often than my mom did, which was every week or two).
Also, she has used her litterbox since this started yesterday.  I was
45 minutes late to work this morning because I was trying to chase her
down to lock her in the utility room with her litterbox and food so she
wouldn't ruin my carpets.  This was really weird because I've never had
a problem getting her to come to me, even after she went after one of
my birds and I yelled at her.  She really knows she's doing something
wrong.  I feel so bad for her, but I don't know what to do.  I'm going
to try to find a vet today and take her in, but I have to wait until I
can get a hold of a phone book to look one up (her old vet is too far
away).  Does anybody have any suggestions???

Onto other threads (since I've been lurking since rpc started, some of
these may be pretty old):

I am one who attempts to give my cat a bath.  I haven't managed to use
shampoo yet because I have to give her baths by myself.  The reason I'm
doing it is because of my allergies that I didn't know I had previously.
I've never had a problem with cats before and I have lived with them.
Recently, I read in rpc that plain water baths every so often can help
with allergies, so I'm going to try that until I can afford to see an
allergist about my problem.  Right now, Stranger's problem comes first.

Stranger is an indoor kitty.  This is partly because she has always been
this way and partly because the condo I just moved into is along a busy
driveway what services a bunch of condos and two apartment complexes and
is a definite hazard.  She has never had a complaint.  At my mom's house,
she once got out onto the patio when my sister went out, but (I was told
this, I wasn't there) after about 15 seconds, she stood by the door
meowing to get in.  I have left my door open when I went across the street
to get the mail.  Once, she went outside of my door about two feet, looked
around for maybe 5 seconds and ran back inside, behind the couch.  She's
definitely happier and safer inside.

On the declawing issue, she has been front declawed, but still has her
back claws (another reason to keep her inside).  This was a condition
on my mom keeping her.  Since nobody could find anybody to give her a
good home, the vet did this for free because he wanted Stranger to have
a home so badly.  I guess it's better than her being put to sleep, but
I still don't like it.

As for names, she's called Stranger, Stranger Danger, Stranger-than-most,
Meatloaf, fuzzball, fur-face, dufus and whatever else seems appropriate at
the time.

Stranger usually won't look twice at cat toys, whether made for cats or
not.  If she happens to walk by her catnip ball (which is missing right
now), she will bat at it until it goes out of her reach and then ignore
it (a true meatloaf).  BUT, I did finally find those furry mice in a local
pet store and SHE LOVED IT!!!  I've never seen her play so much and she
actually carried it around with her for a bit.  You rpc people were
right.  Even my lazy fuzzball played with it.  How amazing.

Speaking of lazy, she's also not a cat to snuggle up with at night.  She
will sometimes lay about a foot away from me on the bed, if I don't move
a muscle, whenever she wants to be pet, but will usually sleep on the
floor somewhere.  Part of it is that I now have a waterbed and she is
used to my Mom's regular mattress that doesn't move as much.  I was pretty
worried about her back claws on the waterbed, but I used two mattress pads
and try to keep her on top of the comforter, so her claws can't sink that
far.  I haven't noticed any leaks so far.

Wow, this is getting longer than I planned, so I'll save more comments
and stories for another time.  Now that I finally have a cat living with
me, I hope to post more often.  Thanks for reading this far and PLEASE
post or send me suggestions on the problem I mentioned in the beginning.
I need all of the ideas I can get until I can get her to a vet.

Thank you!!!
-- 
 < Lisa M. Lambert               | Standard Disclaimer:  Neither NASA >
<  lisa@sarah.lerc.nasa.gov      | nor The University of Akron         >
 < lisa@zippysun.math.uakron.edu | necessarily share my opinions.     >