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For a few years my neighbor and I have been feeding this cat. Even after all this time its still scared of us though, it always runs away when it sees us, but it comes back when we put out food. We live in the midwest U.S., so we get cold winters. We have tried using those little outdoor shelter houses that humane societies give out for stray animals in the winter, but this cat refuses to go inside them. My neighbor, who was taking care of this cat before I moved into the area, told me that she thinks he was abused, as his mouth and teeth look damaged, but not enough to interfere with eating. Anyway, she and I finally had enough when we saw him this morning, with a terribly injured paw. He refuses to put weight on it and it looks badly swollen. We are finally trying to trap him. But get a load of these photos....the two with the trap were taken this morning. He just lays by it and wont go inside! Because of our experience with him refusing to go into the little portable winter shelter house we tried getting for him, I'm afraid he'll refuse to go into that trap too. I know most of the people here on FJ are smart animal lovers, and might have some experience with this. Help!! How do I trap this kitty if he wont go in that trap? ?? P.S., even on 3 legs he's still too fast for me...I tried approaching him with a towel b4 getting the trap, and he just wont let me get close enough.

Our baby is 4 years old today! Hims a chonky chonk living it up with the Princess.

Thanks to @Curious and everyone’s advice we have solved the food issue and our kitten gets along well and has the run of the house during the day. He is growing and doing well according to our vet. He and our cat love playing together and entertain me daily. Thanks everyone, for the helpful information and for your viewing pleasure, a few photos of my sweet baby. Photo # 1: Photo taken today. He is playing with our cat and my daughter told me to update my “Free Jinger Friends” and say thank you for all y’all help. So, THANK YOU! Photo # 2 : Trying to tell me he wants the water fountain my daughters found on Amazon. (Yes, we bought it.) Photo # 3 : He stole our cats favorite daytime spot! Photo # 4 : I didn’t see him for a while and found him sleeping on my daughters bed. He was too cute; I had to take a picture.

Kitten is doing great, except a few times after he eats his canned food he will go to his litter box and vomit. We are feeding him 1/2 cup Science Diet Kitten dry food and 1/2 can Science Diet Kitten (2.9 oz can) food twice a day. (We let him nibble on the dry food all day.) I'm waiting for the rescue organization to call me back to ask what type of food he was given there since it may be caused by the change in food according to our vet. I changed the amount of canned food to 1/4 can this evening and so far he hasn't vomited. Maybe I was giving him too much canned food and his little stomach couldn't hold it all? We weighed him on my kitchen scale and he is 3 pounds. I've looked online but everything I found has different suggestions regarding a feeding schedule and amount. He is going to our vet next week but I can't have his stomach hurt for days! Any advice is appreciated.

It's our baby's birthday today ? He's had adventures, a,new fridge to scale, & a new doggie to argue with. He & Mina are still working out their lap domination dynamic. Our favorite kitty decided to help himself to daddy's muffins I made the other night. I woke up to discover a shredded zip lock, and half a muffin clean gone. He'd left tooth marks in several others. Honey discovered said muffins halfway down the hall into Thor's room. The muffin destruction was great. I lub my baby.

Someone had a big adventure this week! We've been trying to get our house sold and some of the feedback mentioned the urine smell from the cats. So the last two showings I put the Princess outside and took Thor to our office complex along with his litter box. The first day I had my grandkitty Rowena and he. One of our buildings has a series of classrooms with an office inside an office, so double doors plus the main entrance doors. When I put he and Roweenie kitty they stayed in the office with just the door pulled shut. He got down between a pair of desks and stayed there till it was time to leave. Well the second time I guess I didn't pull the door shut well enough and Mr. Thor the Wanderer needed to go exploring. We called and searched inside and took turns sitting in the back classrooms (storage space these days) and just listened for his bell or him to move something. There was a pretty nasty thunderstorm so I know his nerves were bad, I understand him hiding out. 7 hours ya'll. He didn't make a peep and I started to get freaked out that he'd somehow slipped out the main doors. My husband toured the grounds and called and called. He came home and got his food bowl and shook it in around. Nothing. So we called the alarm company and asked how high the motion sensors were set and told them about the rogue kitty. I cried till I was sore. I was so scared that he wasn't in the building. He managed to set the alarm off twice in the early morning hours so that made me 100% better. I got up this morning & went to the office and called him and then just sat for a while. It was a few minutes later he comes sneaking out of the most packed room in the back. He had some random cobwebs stuck to his whiskers and he was a little freaked but he came right to me and let me pick him up. He's home safe and sound but now I know....if he has to go back for a visit, SHUT BOTH DOORS! Thank you, thank you for every prayer, every candle, every good thought. OH! also we have a new addition to the family, meet Mina. I rescued her from our local pound about a month ago, she's somewhere between 2 & 3 years old and I believe she's a Kelpie or a mix of Kelpie and Terrier. She's really great and loves the new farm land we bought. Thor was not amused but he's warming up to her.

We've had quite the adventures the last few weeks. Roweenie Kitty has been visiting for a while, the daughter's complex caught on to their dog so she snuck the kitten out just in time. (They need to pay all their pet deposits) Two weeks ago the older kitties were sick, I thought Princess had caught mange from somewhere outside but it turned out to be just a case of fleas and some serious scratching. Some meds and and a good bath got her fixed up. While she was itching I noticed her sneezing a bit as well. Not long after, The Old Man caught her cold and Thor soon followed. Old Tex being...well...old, I sent him to the vet. Unfortunately he didn't come home. His age had gotten the better of him and we all agreed to let him go peacefully. I need to go pick up his ashes. His last few days were spent laying in the sunbeams with his buddy. Thor kitty recovered with some antibiotics and some steam therapy. He and the Princess were a bit down for a few days, they knew someone was missing. Then Ro Ro came to visit and play. She seemed to pull everyone out of the funk. I noticed her sneezing a bit yesterday so I made sure to give her some vitamins and keep her little nose clean. Got meds on standby just in case. We have a new farm we'll be fixing up just in time for spring. The babies will have a different house to explore and enjoy. I do hope they'll like it.

More, including photo at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/verizon-suspends-worker-who-rescued-cat-telephone-pole/ My family would drop Verizon right now if they weren’t the only network that worked in our neighborhood. I would have given that man a raise. And thrown him a parade.

Lack of exercise is an important reason why cats become obese. I bought cat trees and some toys for my cat to increase their physical activity. I hope to control their weight.

Thor made a friend this week. I've been kitten sitting, she's a wee tiny scrap of a thing. Her mom is munchkin, not sure what dad is, but she wasn't a full price kitty. The first day or so was a bit hairy, she's small but has no fear! She was telling those big cats what side their bread was buttered on! By the end of this week she & Thor have been ripping & roaring. They are quite the partners in crime. I give you: Mistress Rowena Longbottom (Rowena, I added all the fun bits) And Thor's "I'm not guilty" face after they midnight trashed my kitchen table & stepped on Honey's macaroons

He's the most helpful helper who ever helped! He inspected the Amazon box & contents for danger, he kept me company while I worked. He's a very curious kitty. I mean it's entirely possible that I was cutting cheese on the walking around on thing, he had to be ready in case a piece fell. Thank you @EowynW for the gift idea! I've never made lotion bars before. I do soap pretty regularly but haven't ventured into butter territory. I got some 2oz screw top tins from Amazon, they are purrfect! I used: shea butter, beeswax, Jojoba oil, a drop of Vitamin E, & French lavender & sage for scent.

It’s always exciting when someone screws up their office’s social media/emails and it’s not me. Someone at the State Department accidentally sent out a photo of a cat wearing a Cookie Monster onesie instead of a meeting invite https://www.buzzfeed.com/joshtaylor/this-photo-of-a-cat-wearing-cookie-monster-pyjamas-was

When you don't have hooman children to dress up, you turn to your pets, lol! Precious was a hit as a UniPuppy.....Dogicorn? Thor was quite fascinated by mama's incense, he loves to watch the smoke. Moms candy wrapper pile was pretty entertaining too. Pretty, pretty Princess stood guard by me while I handed out treats, she enjoyed some Halloween face rubs.

There is always love. Idk what I would do without them. (I feel bad the flash woke them, but I couldn’t help myself. They are being snuggled to sleep to make up for it.)

So it's black cat appreciation day. He's been such a sweetie muffin lately, as he gets older he mellows out. The Little Hooman moved out for college recently and he was very curious about the boxes & empty room. So far he knows something changed but he's not searching for her yet. (She has to stay gone more than 2 nights for him to miss he)

Yay for a long weekend, but we'll be back at it with a vengeance tomorrow. I have been attempting to do some laundry today but apparently the basket (full or empty) is kitty territory. Thor was being swipey kitty to the Princess through the handle holes until she informed him that she wasn't amused. So now he's just protecting my ungodly swimwear. They'll get put away eventually.

So I wasn't planning on adopting another cat right away, but Mom(who volunteers at our local animal shelter and lives next door)called me Wednesday morning to tell me they had a young cat whom they thought would be perfect for me. According to her shot records, she'll be a year old on the 30th(although whether that's her actual birthday or just a guesstimate is unknown). One thing I've had to get used to is CLAWS; China was declawed before I got her. I was sitting on the throne yesterday morning and she nailed me pretty good when she tried to jump up on my lap. So without further ado, here's Pepper!

I've been trying to potty train my cat. We are now at week 6. Weeks 1 -4 were fine, we just moved her litter box to the bathroom and removed the lid (she did NOT like the lid being removed and kept trying to cover the box with the bath rug or shower curtain). Week 5 we sat the box on top of the toilet and she now VERY grudgingly will use it, but we had to move the toilet paper because she was covering the box with an entire roll of unrolled TP every time she went. We have doubled the time for each step (2 weeks instead of 1) because she's very stubborn and spoiled, but I'm nervous about the next step, which is removing the box and replacing it with the litter tray sitting in the toilet. We tried this once before but she HATED it because it was flimsy and moved, which scared her. Now we have a very sturdy one, so I'm hoping it goes better. Has anyone here ever successfully potty trained a cat? Are there any tips for a skittish cat? Is it going to be a problem that we only have a single bathroom? Attached is a picture of my tortoiseshell Molly because she is adorable.

Ya know, cause there are never enough kitty pictures out there. He was a sweet little jelly bean nugget, now he's a straw stealing, drink dumping monstrosity that gives wet nose kissy apologies.

Hims twwwooo!!!! Our little nugget is two years old y'all! Today he gets wet num nums all to himself & all the scritches & squeezies he can handle... and some he can't.... I didn't have a party hat in my phone picture doodle thing so a top hat will have to do.

Tomorrow marks 2 years since that fateful day when our favorite baby & his siblings crawled their wee tiny little selves out from under my house. While his sissy & brother went on to kitty Valhalla, baby Thor stuck with us & has become the darling of the household. Every morning there are head butts & wet nose kissies, every evening there is good night cuddles & squeezes. He lounges. He plays. He meets us at the door every time we come home from anywhere. He's my sweet sweet baby cat. Day 1

I'm finally able to get into my blog! I've been trying & trying to post but the little plus sign drop down doesn't show any blogs. So I searched & found my way in! Anywho... he's been the ultimate kitty protector since my carpal tunnel surgery. He was nursekitty extraordinaire the first few days after, laying on me to help me sleep, breaking into the bathroom to supervise baths... We caught him being all cute, playing with his ball earlier. For your viewing pleasure:

He came home this morning! Hungry but otherwise perfect - no injuries and even his fur is clean. Have to get ready for a meeting and need to go, but needed to let you all know! Thanks for the love!

Even though I am definitely in no shortage of unread books, I thought it would be a good idea to go to Goodwill today. Unsurprisingly, I walked out of there with quite a few books! Here to help me model them today is Murphy, the most handsome book model there could ever be. I got these for such a steal, it was too hard to pass up! In case you can't read the titles from the picture, I got: Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (the second book in his Cemetery of Forgotten Books series) Looking for Alaska by John Green Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver Little Bee by Chris Cleave The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders Let me know if any of you have ever read some of these books! I am excited to dive into them, although goodness knows when I will ever get all the books on my shelf read.

7 years ago today I had to make the heart breaking decision to get my boy Cooper put to sleep. His girl friend cat Samantha had come over earlier in the day to wait for him at the back door so they could both go for their daily patrol of the neighbourhood. It was getting close to bed time and something stopped me going to bed until I knew Cooper was home safe and sound. He came home but he wasn't safe and sound. My brave boy suffered a clot in his spine which paralysed his back end and somehow he managed to drag himself home to us. Unfortunately the vet was unable to fix him and he went to sleep in my arms with his favourite human my son right there with me. This is Cooper when I got him at 7wks old, he came to me early as the lady who was fostering him couldn't look after him any more, he would sleep on my shoulder and get up to mischief playing with anything he could get his paws on, even if it wasn't a cat toy! He grew from that little scrap to be a big bruiser ! He was a cool cat who would choose to be aloof when he felt like it but would be your best friend in the whole wide world if you had chip shop chips or a donner kebab! He would come running up and try to sit on the plate to get them, tough luck if you put the plate down for anything as you would come back to it empty and Coops licking his lips lol. He would let you pet him on his terms only but when he had enough he would put his paw on your hand and push it away, if you persisted he would give you a warning swipe but never with nails, woe betide you if you still tried he gave you fair warning! He was my sons best bud and spent most of his time with him when he was home, at night he would sleep on the pillow with him snuggling up and keeping watch on his favourite human. Love you Coop's and miss you everyday xx