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Sunday, January 5, 2014

A Tale of Two Kitties

Happy New Year!  I have a good feeling about 2014 don't you?  I probably have most of the same resolutions I usually have but I have added a few more and this may be the year I push myself to actually conquer a few of them!

Meet Jiggs.  He was dropped off near our house right after Thanksgiving.  It has been a roller coaster ride with Jiggs, to say the least.  He was absolutely starving when we noticed him, rummaging through our garbage until he got at our turkey carcass.  He has the loudest, most obnoxious meow and the wildest front feet I have ever seen.  He looks like he has opposable thumbs.  We didn't know what to do with him.  We aren't really equipped to have an outdoor cat.  We only have a garage and it is closed up at night.  We live next door to the most animal-dangerous highway around.  I have a house cat Mickey who never goes outside and, at 6 years old, is very set in her ways and doesn't seem to care for other animals at all.   We started feeding Jiggs until we could set up alternate arrangements, looking for a home for him or, last resort, the ASPCA.  My 19 year old son, who volunteers at the local vet clinic and wants to be a groomer, took over the care of Jiggs in the garage.  My son was carrying the new bag of food we had just purchased at the grocery store and Jiggs bit him.  I have no idea where this cat has been and whether the lovely previous owners he had kept him up to date on his shots so I had to report it to my local vet clinic who had me call my local public health department.  I had two choices:  have him picked up by the dog warden where he would be quarantined for 10 days and then destroyed even if he was healthy or quarantine him myself for ten days.  A friend had a nice big cage we could borrow, so we quarantined him ourselves for 10 days.  At the end of the 10 days, we took him to our vet and had him get his shots and a check up.  We are thinking of getting him neutered, when we can save up the money, so hopefully he won't end up in the road by our house. So far he seems content to stay in the garage.  He took very well to the litter box when we had him in the cage, so we lock him in the garage at night.  He is very affectionate.  We realize that he bit Jake because he was starving and probably is used to fighting for whatever food he can get.  Jake made this observation right away and was devastated that we might decide to have Jiggs put down for his basic fear of starvation.
My husband named him Jiggs, by the way.  I have told him all the pets friends and family had when I was growing up by treating them like real people, giving the first and last names.  My godmother had a daschound when I was little named Jiggs.  He thought that was a riot so this stray cat was the first animal my husband was able to name in our family.  The ladies at the vet clinic had a few chuckles over it!

We are getting attached to Jiggs so I made him a collar.  I also hope you can see his front "mitten" foot in this picture.  Oh and I made my Mickey a couple of collars too!  So you can see I have a city cat and a country cat.

These collars are super easy to sew.  I got the idea from a wonderful animal lover who always seems to have room for one more- Susan at FlossieBlossoms  .

I have been on vacation these last 2 weeks.  We started the vacation with an ice storm and then we went right into Christmas so I haven't been as productive in my craft room as I would have liked but I got a few things done.  I made another watchband.

This is the fifth one I have made.  They are so easy and I love how much fun I can have with the fabrics.

I can also share the necklace I made for a good friend across the country from me.  


It matched the bracelet and earrings I sent her for her birthday.  I plan on winding down my vacation today by working on a few jewelry pieces.  It really relaxes me.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.  I have lots to do and I am excited to begin some different projects that will bring some new challenges with new skills to learn.  Stay warm and take care.  Nancy

15 comments:

  1. I think Jiggs is very handsome and lucky to have found you! Hope it all works out for him to live with you.

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  2. Awesome Idea! I had to alter a kitty collar for one of my kitties when he was little. He was so small even the kitty collar didn't fit. We currently have 4 cats in our family and love them like our own children.

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  3. Nancy, I think this is a heartwarming story. I am so glad that Jiggs has a home. Why do people put animals out? I just don't understand it and never will. That is what the SPCA and other groups are for if the person is no longer able to care for the pet. I would like to think that Jiggs got lost, but I highly doubt it. I'm glad he's making the adjustment to your garage and that he has friends and a home. Love his collar and the other things you made. We had an outdoor kitty, too, whom we adopted. I think his owner died, and she had about a dozen cats. My next door neighbor took most of them before she moved, but Whitey (that's what we named him) got left behind. He ended up costing us a fortune as he needed surgery, but he was such a sweet boy.

    I'm visiting from Met Monday...

    Happy 2014!

    XO,

    Sheila

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  4. Good morning Nancy, what a beautiful job, that my Shasha accepts no leash, good week and happy 2014.
    Silvia

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  5. Beautiful collars, and that Jiggs is certainly a handsome fellow!

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  6. Jiggs looks sweet and he's super lucky to have found you!!!! Merry Christmas

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  7. Wonderful, uplifting blog post, Nancy! Thanks for taking in Jiggs, he's a lucky boy. We also had a cat wander in once, we didn't WANT another cat but he turned out to be the nicest, sweetest boy ever, Roughy. (He was orange, ha!)

    And thanks for linking to my cat collar tutorial, you did a great job on your collars! I need to make more of them now, too, as the kids lose them fairly often, but not as badly as they used to.

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  8. Jiggs is a great name! Thanks for sharing this story! So glad he has some sweet people to take care of him.
    Blessings,
    Nici

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  9. We had a beautiful grey cat who had up to six toes on her front feet. She used the extra toe almost like a thumb. It was pretty cool. Sounds like your Jiggs is also that way, which is called polydactyly. She is a beaut for sure. Your story was sweet and I enjoyed your sharing it.

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  10. Nancy -- there should be a low cost spay/neuter program in your area. The Humane Society definitely has them and some local animal charities may also. Check it out. For an outside cat it is imperative.

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  11. Great story. Thanks so much for sharing them with Wednesday's Adorned From Above Link Party.
    Have a great week.
    Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above

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  12. That was a fun story. I'm so glad your son is okay! Whew. We had a dog who was bitten by a raccoon and at one point we thought he had rabies. It was a rough couple of days there. Anyway, Jiggs looks happy now. We have an outdoor cat also. My daughter rescued her as a kitten and then she moved. But the cat had other ideas. Her home was here and she promptly (within a week) she arrived back here. Amazing that she found her way. Thanks for sharing, Linda

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  13. Thank you for adopting Jiggs. All of our animals have been rescues. Our oldest cat used to bring home kittens that belonged to the neighbors. Then I would have to take them around to find out where they lived.

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