Before sunrise, she's your cat.

[oloriel]

Yesterday morning, I actually rose at 10 am. Why? Not because I'm all duteous or anything. Eru, no. You know me better than that. I rose early because the kitten I mentioned a few days back was sending massive distress calls outside. Loud enough to wake me; loud enough to actually get me out of bed relatively early on a Sunday.

Apparently, our neighbours to whom Shakira belongs - if one can speak of belonging when talking about a cat - lock her out in the evening when they go to bed, then let her back in once they get up in the morning.
Now these nights in January are damn cold; we're to close to the main street and the city center for much wildlife beyond squirrels (too fast), sparrows (to wingy) and rats (too tall) that a young cat could hunt. And every body of water is frozen.
Which means that we had a young hungry cat in our garden, out in the somewhere-below-zero-ness for twelve hours, trying to drink from the frozen 'pond' in our garden. (I kid you not. She was sitting on the ice in an attempt to melt some of it. I have no other explanation why a young, intelligent, half-frozen cat should sit on the surface of a frozen pond that has no fish under the ice, and, for that matter, no water either.)

I went out to feed her (what else could I do?) and give her some cream, and she was shivering. As soon as she had finished eating and drinking, she began to run around wildly, twirling and rolling on the floor and snuggling against me.

Now I know that cats are animals of the wild, and can technically survive in the outdoors. But... ARGH.

This morning, she was there again - at eight. By now, she comes even onto our windowsill.

So I suppose we can safely say that we have half a cat now. A nightly, pre-sunrise cat.
And cat food is back on the grocery list.

And, because I can't resist, PICSPAM!




I'm cute. You know you want to feed me./ This is why it's called 'catwalk'./ Eeeee, shiny!/ The power of mine eyes compells you.


Which side's up again?


... catch me if you can.



We'll see how long it takes until Mr Franke or our lovely landlord complain. Or the neighbours.

Comments

[kali921.livejournal.com]

I have to say that leaving a cat out in the elements with no shelter for the duration of the night is animal abuse, period. Have you thought of reporting your neighbors to whatever animal protection agency handles things in your city? Because that is neglect. That is simply animal neglect, and it breaks my heart.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Considered it, but they're probably not doing it out of malice but merely thoughtlessness, so calling upon some sort of agency seems a bit harsh. Besides, I don't even know who exactly it is. I just know that it's someone in one of the neighbouring houses, and that the cat has been appearing in our garden these last two mornings, hungry and frozen. If it keeps going on like this, I'll see whether there's something to do about it...

[vashachu.livejournal.com]

Are you comfortable enough with your neighbors to say something personally to them? Maybe they would listen...probably they just never thought things through...maybe they even think the cat likes going out at night.

You are *wonderful* for helping that adorable kitty!

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Can you systematically go around and start asking the neighbors who owns the cat? Because leaving a young cat out to fend for themselves is just cruel and neglectful. To me, part of the responsibility of pet guardianship is anticipating dangers to your pet and protecting an animal from harm. That means giving them a warm, safe place to sleep at night. That cat is at risk for injuries and disease. Feline AIDS, feline hepatitis, being run over by a car, being attacked by another animal, drinking leaking anti-freeze and dying hours later from liver failure. It just isn't okay to leave a cat out like that. Do you think the cat even belongs to one of your neighbors? If not, would you consider helping to place the cat in a responsible home?

It's January, for chrissakes. Putting a cat outside in freezing weather is just....beyond me.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I know that she belongs to one of my neighbours as I have heard someone from the neighbouring houses call her home. (That's how I know that her name's Shakira.) If she didn't, Jörg and I would already have adopted her...

I'm kind of scared of chatting up strangers - and that's what all the neighbours around here are, except for those we share a house with - so I suppose I'll watch it for now. As they've probably had the cat since Christmas or New Year's - she's first shown up in the first week of the year, then one time in the second week, and now these two days - and it seems to have spent only these past two nights outside, I hope it may just have been a temporary lapse. *sigh*

[kali921.livejournal.com]

I'd still, if you don't mind my saying, attempt to talk to them, even if it's only leaving them a note outlining the situation. It's an animal safety issue, so I tend to take those very seriously - I'm a sucker that works in animal rescue and I get all emotionally involved.