Friday, September 21, 2012

Cats in Literature

Many cats have appeared in children's stories, romances, science fiction and just about every genre you can think of. All of my books on Kindle at least have cats mentioned in them. "Two Feral Waifs' is stricklty about the rescue of some cats. In 'Fire Escape', two cats make an appearance: Muffin lost in a lightening storm and  another cat stuck on a roof. Muffin is actually the name of the first cat we ever owned and she lived a good 18 years. Both of these cats are rescued by the hero of the story, Jerome. In 'Theory of Sevens', one of the heroines owns several cats where she lives with her mother. I hope to write cats into all of my stories in one way or the other. They are the perfect pet in my opinion with unlimited ways to get them into literature.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Two Feral Waifs

Lost cats seem to be wondering our green belt, forlorn and in need of attention. Some of them are hungry, dirty, matted, cold, wet, and lonely. There always seems to be a golden eyed feline ready for a rescue. That's what happened one autumn around the turn of the 21st century. My wife named them Sunny and Starr. Sunny was a short haired grey tabby and Starr was a short haired black cat with a patch of white on its breast and a tip of white on one toe, hence the name Starr. They were certainly feral cats and they had a hard time warming up to us. When we rescued these two ferals, we also got a long haired black stray cat to boot. We named him Shadow. We tried to find their homes but to no avail. I wrote a short story, about 4000 words, that I published on Kindle that I titled 'Two Feral Waifs' about how we rescued these three cats. I hope you get to enjoy it.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Simon has Feline Herpes

          Simon was found in the green belt behind our house in a box with other abandonded kittens. He was the only one to survive his ordeal. When he was found, he was small enough to fit in my hand and was fed with an eye dropper until he was well. When he was old enough he was given to us. The finders couldn't keep him because of a jealous dog. He developed swollen. red, pussy eyes before long. After numerous trips to the vets and much money thrown in to treat the eye problem, it was discovered that he had feline herpes. The herpes causes his eyes to flare up so when is eyes are red and swollen we call it a flare up.
          Our First question was: Is this contageous to people? And the second question was: Can our other cats catch it? We were relieved to find out that it is not contageous to people but other cats can be infected, and in fact, our other cats probably have the virus but it is not manifesting.
          The main treatment that seems to offer Simon relief from his infected eyes is a nice tasting paste that comes in a pump-action bottle called Enisyl-F. I put a shot of the squirty stuff on my finger and he gingerly licks it off like it's candy.
          We've also tried antibiotics and interferon, but to no avail. I would like to hear from anyone who has a remedy for this situation or is going through the same thing to leave a comment. Thank you.