Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Obsession

I have been slightly obsessed, maybe lacking more productive pass times, in determining if the old cat that tottered up to my open garage door Saturday night is the same cat whose eye needed removed whom I helped two years back.  I have only one photo of Big O, the orange guy from two years ago.

That one photo shows, sort of, the forehead striping and those stripes are like finger prints.  It also shows his nose freckles.

Comparing nose freckles from that photo and of this cat made me think its not the same cat because there are differences.

First, from the one photo of Big O, two years ago.



And now from bathroom boy.



See they are different, but not by much.

So I concluded its not the same boy.  Until, I found out nose freckles change and more come out with age.  Ok, nose freckles can't be used to determine if same cat.

I began to compare forehead stripes then, although different cameras can flash out or mute color and texture, so its not a sure thing.

Big O's forehead striping in the one photo I have
Here are bathroom boy's forehead stripes.

If you look quick from a distance the most distinctive stripe appears the same and that is the downward thick orange stripe from the outer edge of the left eye.   Bathroom boys eyes appear runny but I'd just put in antibiotic ointment.   Both photos show a short orange stripe upward just a bit inward from top of inner left eye too. The darker stripe to right of that one, angles out slightly towards the ear in both photos.

Anyhow, given the proximal location, the fact the other boy was losing his eye at that time, the fact its gone now in this cat, and that he knew where I lived (they have long memories for kind treatment when they need help), it is almost assuredly him. But who cares, really. 

This old guy just basically sleeps and eats.  Heartland said he's got flea anemia which makes a cat very very tired.  Those fleas are dead now.  He has a leg wound, needs dental care, well he's a project.  He's in the bathroom and loves his sudden change of circumstance.  He doesn't stop purring if I'm in there with him.

I've been doing projects for the winter, cleaning out all the cat yard cat houses, removing some that are now, after 12 years out there, rotted and falling apart.  They were made, in the beginning, with used wood and various discarded objects.

This one has stood the test of time however and the cats love it, so I replaced the cover board, which had rotted and fallen, with another I "fell into" with some luck.  I painted the board first and once nailed on, covered it with a remnant of floor vinyl I had in the garage.  Before I did any of that, I removed one side to wash down, scrape and repaint.  That end, plus one side, are made of window shutters that fell off this house shortly after I moved in.  I reframed them and used them in the cat yard.  Underneath the cover, are two plastic cat houses, one a side opening heavy duty storage container and the other a small plastic dog house, that is not really water proof, that a friend was otherwise taking to GoodWill.  I cleaned and sterilized both and put in new straw.  Anyhow, that project is done now.


I was up at the park yesterday and saw a couple of familiar faces sitting by the river.  I sat down on the mostly dirt and grass embankment and chatted awhile.  It was cloudy and there was no one else there.  We discussed our mutual disappointment with our cloudy sometimes rainy summer and decided to call it Bummer of a Summer.   Fits. Today its cloudy again and rain is forecast.

9 comments:

  1. Love your diligence. and yes, cats have long memories. Very long.

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  2. Anonymous3:23 PM

    You are quite a good builder by the look of it. All photos look like Big O to me. Good that he is nice and comfortable.

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    Replies
    1. I grew up in a family of builders. Guess its in my blood, so to speak.

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  3. The new old/new cat is lucky to have found/come back to you. Do you think you can treat all of his problems or is he too near the end?

    Sorry your summer is a bummer. Do you ever have dry summers? My impression that that part of Oregon rains a lot.

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    Replies
    1. We will see, L and L, he does have issues, but his main one is old age. His fleas and worms are dead but mostly he wants to sleep, so we shall see. He'll be going to the vet again, the affordable one, mid September for dental care, if he is strong enough and passes blood work for it.

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    2. We have become used to hot dry summers, with many days in the 90's here. That usually begins late June and can continue into September. Not this year. Last year we had an early winter but at least a warm summer. Fall skipped out completely last year and we went to what I call the long gray, of rain, or just clouds, drizzle, wet damp miserable, and it lasted so long. So we crave sun and when the summer doesn't produce we become panicked and aggravated thinking about what is to come---the long gray. I grew up in southern Oregon near the coast and it was always wet, foggy, rainy and cool. Anyhow, yes, Oregon is wet. Rivers have not warmed up this year, not much. Streams, if shallow, are warm. The Willamette which goes by Albany, is really too constantly full of gunk to swim in. Farm chemical run off, sewage sometimes, just ick, used like a garbage dump for everything we put on the farm lands or dump from industry. Ick.

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  4. I never thought about how each cat's stripes are unique. Thanks for the education this morning.

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    1. It's the only way sometimes when I have only a face photo to go by. He has a distinctive tail that is three quarters length and tipped in white, this garage boy, but I don't have full body photo of the boy from two years ago. So I have just the face photo. But then you add in the logistics of it, the fact this guys eye is gone and it was not gone but in danger of it two years ago, anyhow, it's him.

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