Emma is a Tortie. That is, she has black, brown, white and a few orange stripes and the very lively personality of this type of cat. I acquired her due to very unusual circumstances. Her mother, brothers and sisters were rescued from a shelter, and my job was to care for them until they were ready to go to their forever homes. When they arrived, it was an extremely hot September day, so I opened the window. They all settled into my cosy"kitten room" and seemed happy to be there together away from cages and prying eyes. The next morning, while it was still dark, I went into the room to check on them and couldn't find mom. She wasn't with them, on the couch, in the closet.....Then, I looked at the window. She had pushed out the screen, apparently run along the eaves, climbed down a tree and run away! Though several of us searched and called over the next few days, she was never found again.
The dilemma now was: How to feed five hungry little mouths.....Luckily, I had a bottle left from a previous litter and one can of kitten milk. I put calls in to the head of Cause for Paws and my cat-savvy good friend, Carol, and said "Help!" Then, I packed them all up in a carrier and took them to the library, where teams of friends fed them in my office. It was a pretty crazy time....Long story short--I ended up keeping Emma because she became ill and stayed with me for ten weeks, and of course I was very attached to her.
According to the vet, bottle-fed kittens tend to be behavior problems because we humans don't discipline them the way the mother cat does. Emma is very naughty, not bad, just naughty. She climbs curtains, digs at furniture, wakes me up, jumps on the other cats.....but she sure is cute!
When the weather is good, most cats want to be outside. When it's warm I let mine go into the backyard for a while around noon on weekends. They really love running around in the grass. This past Fall, after playing, Emma did not come in. For several days she did not appear. I feared the worst- that the coyotes in the woods had gotten to her since that is always a danger around here. Finally, I went out on the deck , called one last time, and heard a faint "meow" from the top of the trees. She was about 30 feet up and no way was she coming down for me or food.
My gardener said he didn't have a ladder that high. I then called the vet's and they said to call the fire department. I said, "You're kidding". The tech laughed and said,"They really might help." So.....I called and explained who I was and that I was REALLY EMBARASSED. The Chief was really helpful and said he'd send out a detail to my house right away. ( He never even hinted that he knew the old axiom that you never see cat skeletons in trees.) I told the library staff that I was heading for home, and after we laughed a lot, I met three firefighters backing into my neighbor's driveway. How they moved that huge rig so precisely is a mystery to me.....
The backed right up to the tree, and then began moving a huge, moveable ladder (for tall buildings) into place. It reminded me of a scene from the TV show "Rescue Me". One of the guys took Emma's carrier with him on the high platform. Soon it was swinging back down again, and he said, "She bit me right through my glove!" Apparently, the noise had terrified her, and she actually jumped down to the ground as the ladder was descending. Whew! Talk about nine lives. At this point I think Emma has used up about eight of hers. She's confined to the house, and now no longer climbs trees, just curtains. Oh well.....
The dilemma now was: How to feed five hungry little mouths.....Luckily, I had a bottle left from a previous litter and one can of kitten milk. I put calls in to the head of Cause for Paws and my cat-savvy good friend, Carol, and said "Help!" Then, I packed them all up in a carrier and took them to the library, where teams of friends fed them in my office. It was a pretty crazy time....Long story short--I ended up keeping Emma because she became ill and stayed with me for ten weeks, and of course I was very attached to her.
According to the vet, bottle-fed kittens tend to be behavior problems because we humans don't discipline them the way the mother cat does. Emma is very naughty, not bad, just naughty. She climbs curtains, digs at furniture, wakes me up, jumps on the other cats.....but she sure is cute!
When the weather is good, most cats want to be outside. When it's warm I let mine go into the backyard for a while around noon on weekends. They really love running around in the grass. This past Fall, after playing, Emma did not come in. For several days she did not appear. I feared the worst- that the coyotes in the woods had gotten to her since that is always a danger around here. Finally, I went out on the deck , called one last time, and heard a faint "meow" from the top of the trees. She was about 30 feet up and no way was she coming down for me or food.
My gardener said he didn't have a ladder that high. I then called the vet's and they said to call the fire department. I said, "You're kidding". The tech laughed and said,"They really might help." So.....I called and explained who I was and that I was REALLY EMBARASSED. The Chief was really helpful and said he'd send out a detail to my house right away. ( He never even hinted that he knew the old axiom that you never see cat skeletons in trees.) I told the library staff that I was heading for home, and after we laughed a lot, I met three firefighters backing into my neighbor's driveway. How they moved that huge rig so precisely is a mystery to me.....
The backed right up to the tree, and then began moving a huge, moveable ladder (for tall buildings) into place. It reminded me of a scene from the TV show "Rescue Me". One of the guys took Emma's carrier with him on the high platform. Soon it was swinging back down again, and he said, "She bit me right through my glove!" Apparently, the noise had terrified her, and she actually jumped down to the ground as the ladder was descending. Whew! Talk about nine lives. At this point I think Emma has used up about eight of hers. She's confined to the house, and now no longer climbs trees, just curtains. Oh well.....
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