Thursday, June 30, 2011

Catnip and Blog Giveaways!

First:  Today is the last day to get your votes in on a picture for the Caption Contest!  There will be details to follow in the next couple weeks about where the giveaway will go from here.  Voting closes at midnight, mountain time!

Second:  Freckles the Happy Heathen is has her first review/blog giveaway going on!  Go check it out, it's pretty awesome.

Third, and probably the craziest and most important of everything.  Well, some of you know (and now all of you do) that we live in a trailer park.  It used to be really lousy before the new manager took over, and it is slowly getting better.  Getting the park better is what some of the court cases are about, but I can't really get into all that.

No, this is about cats.

About 4 years ago (so I'm told) there was a woman with three or four cats living in the park.  She moved, and left her cats behind.  So, can anyone tell me what cats who have nobody looking after them and aren't spayed/neutered do?  That's right!  They have kittens.  Lots and lots of kittens.  So many kittens that now there are anywhere between 25 - 40 feral cats roaming the park.

The park manager is being wonderfully caring and humane about the situation; he has managed to get a few cats adopted out and doesn't want to see any of them put down.  Problem being, there is someone in the park who has been poisoning cats.  With Antifreeze.  ALL the cats.  Not just the feral cats, which still wouldn't make it any better, but pet cats.  If you want to read about what antifreeze does to animals - it only takes a few teaspoons to poison a cat - you can find the link here. 

Next part of the story: about a week ago now, there was a dead cat across from our house.  We called the park manager, simply because we knew about the poisonings.  This cat hadn't been dead long enough to bloat or go into rigor - she was still warm.  Yet she was stiff and bloated.  She looked pregnant, I thought...her nipples were distended.  We now suspect that she is the mother of the reason I'm writing this post:  Kittens.  Kittens who are trapped in our neighbor's yard, because they are too tiny to get out.  The neighbor's have been on vacation or something for a month and a half, they don't even have cats so we know these aren't theirs.  These kittens are so tiny they are probably still needing only milk.  We tried to catch them yesterday, we were going to let them live in the porch until we can figure something out.  To no avail, of course.  So I had the thought:  Catnip!  Catnip would probably work wonders to help us catch the kittens.  They are starving over there, and we have the window facing their house open usually.  I can't stand listening to those poor things cry all day, knowing how hungry they must be.

So I post the question to you all:  Where does one get catnip?  The pet stores here in town don't sell catnip, just the chemical equivalent...nasty fake stuff.  Anyone have any ideas?  Help us help these kittens!

Goddess Bless,

Stacy

6 comments:

  1. Catnip: pet store, grocery store (pet aisle), internet, grow it. I don't think there's much else for options. Check the cat toys and see if any comes with catnip; many do.

    I don't see why you need catnip though. . .can't you just pick them up. . .they're kittens. If you're just trying to lure them, why not use the fake stuff? Or open a can of tuna? Or get a can of cat food? They'll be enticed by the smell even if they're not used to eating it.

    Catnip isn't really healthy for very small kittens anyway.

    Good luck!

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  2. I was thinking of opening up cat toys too, but a lot of them have very chemically stuff in them instead of real catnip. Hard to find the real stuff, at least up here.

    And seriously, you can't just pick them up. Wild cats don't let you do that easily, trust me. We tried for 4 hours yesterday. Thanks Rainy. :)

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  3. I've always heard that Catnip doesn't affect kittens under a certain age.

    You might try a local garden store for a catnip plant.

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  4. Catnip, cat mint and related plants are often available at nurseries. It's a common drought resistant landscaping plants here, so it may just be growing. Or try Rose Mountain Herbs.

    FYI- antifreeze tastes sweet (my husband is a auto tech and sometimes tests leaking fluids this way, yuck), so watch your little one.

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  5. Thanks all. :) I've never had to use catnip like this before.

    Also, Thanks Cauldron Keeper. I didn't know that. We don't let Brianna play outside by herself at all, mostly because of the neighbor situation, but that too is a good thing to keep in mind.

    Thanks, everyone :)

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  6. Catnip would work but I would almost suggest getting a hold of a live trap instead. You'd just have to bait it with some milk or a bit of meat and I'm sure they'd go in, set it off and just be stuck inside. That way you don't really have to gain their trust and then try to grab them without being shredded to bits by sharp little claws.

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