The Roadside Artist

Oh, Hammie the Cat - the hamster cat, is all too real. This is just a cartoon-caricature of him…

Get the Hammie tshirt for only $9.99

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know about my rescued feral kittens. I wrote about them here and here, and you’ll see this little guy in both of them: The first rescued feral kitten from last year was the orange no-tail I named Hamster cat. Well, here he is today…

Hammie The Cat tshirt for $9.99

He isn’t exactly tail-less, as you can see - he has more of a POOF-BALL for a tail. I guess you could call it a bobtail ..sort of… More after the jump, including a close-up photo and a the truth about Hammie’s future…

Such a sweet little guy! And life seems so unfair at times.

Hammie “Hamster Cat” is alive and well, thanks to some quick intervention. He is very affectionate, but I think he’s a bit traumatized and has abandonment issues. For instance, he likes to/needs to have a “binky” (a piece of cloth to chew on while he falls asleep), perhaps because he was alone for many days before I rescued him. He was only about four weeks old at the time so I’m sure he was starving. I fed him on a bottle for a while, until he learned to eat solid food. He was really too young to lose his mamma. But then, that’s why I say that life is so unfair at times.

Hammie is always in a good mood, now. Well, he gets lots of attention, so why shouldn’t he feel better? In the cartoon, I imagine Hammie thinking that people are pretty stupid, because he tells us what he wants and we can’t figure it out. How can anyone misunderstand “meow” for petesake?

He is about 7 months old now and has really blossomed since his days as a nearly-dead four week old feral kitten. For his sake, I may do a whole series of Hammie The Cat cartoons. You know, just to help pay for his room and board.

Truthfully, it’s a difficult situation because I have a few other rescued ferals, too, and this gets to be more than a handful after a while. Hammie is sweet enough to be adopted out but homes are few and far between AND his little emotional issues would certainly get in the way.

It can all be very stressful: I already spend more on cat food than many people spend on their own meals for their whole familes. Nevertheless, as long as I am able I will continue to take care of Hammie and his friends. If you get a shirt, though, it will help.

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It occurred to me that I might have left some kitten fans hanging, after telling my story of rescued kittens.. so here is the update:

Then:

And Now:

All thumbnails are clickable for a larger version. Lucy, the black and white bobtail, is super-smart and curious. She is the one you can count on to figure out stuff that cats shouldn’t really figure out. Hamster, the orange bobtail, is maybe two weeks older than Lucy, but he’s a very laid-back kind of boy. They both love people and have learned to ride in the car. Lucy is especially curious on rides, looking at everything.

The two kitties shown here love each other very much. You wouldn’t know they are two weeks apart from different litters. Hamster loves to bathe his sister Lucy, and they play really well together.

I still hope that at least one of them will find a home of his/her own someday. They deserve it.

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Why me? Well, I know why. I’m tenderhearted and can’t say no. I will tell you the story of the feral kittens, and I will have something to say about life and art at the end…

First there was Mojo. He was a feral kitten who practically tamed himself at 7 weeks old. But then at 8 weeks he suddenly disappeared. I think an owl got him. It made me sad. I also feel guilty, but I really wasn’t in a position to keep him indoors 24/7.

Then there was Mojo’s sister, who looked exactly like Mojo except, as we later found out, she was a girl. She was also wild as could be. But then one day she didn’t run away anymore. In fact, she just laid there and mewed pathetically. She was critically ill.

We took her to the vet, and the vet said, “We can’t do anything for her. I can’t even draw blood for tests because she’ll go into cardiac arrest.” The vet wanted to euthanize her (a Rovian word if I ever heard one, it means murder, but nicely) but I said no, I wanted to try to save her. I felt I owed it to Mojo.

So the vet gave me antibiotics, flea treatment, B vitamin liquid and we went home. She was so cold she needed a heat pad AND a hot water bottle. She could be fed only via a syringe with some food mixed with warm water. And every time she ate, she’s collapse into unconsciousness.

But by the third day she could hold her head up. Around-the-clock care has something to be said for it. Too bad most people in America can’t get this much attention. Anyway, I would put her in the litterbox after she ate, and she would lay her head on the lip while she went.. it was so sad.

She got stronger and stronger. Now, two weeks later, she’s a dynamo. She’s alive! Take that, Vet! Perhaps she has some neurological deficits - it’s hard to tell. But she’s happy and friendly and you’d never know she was a feral kitten.

Thumbnails are always clickable to get a much bigger image.

This is the half-dead feral kitten now. Playing a game..it’s hard to get a picture of her out and about because she moves so fast. She’s very friendly and box-trained. I just wish I had room for her. Well, in reality, I will have to find a way to take care of her, I suppose, because nobody else will. But as adorable as she is, she isn’t alone.

In the middle of this ordeal, along came another kitten, abandoned by its mom. I heard this one crying in the field. I found it. Then I tried to ignore it. I kept thinking a mother cat would take care of it eventually. But no, the entire day went by, and into a cold night. The cries got weaker. I had to do something.

We called him Hamster because he has a short bobbed tail and when I first brought him home he had short, tab-ears. He’s growing fast. Hasn’t learned to eat solid food yet, but he has learned to use the litterbox.

I just can’t close my eyes to the suffering and leave these guys to die. Obviously, most OTHER people can, though - or there wouldn’t be so much suffering and horror in the world.

This is Hamster-cat. He might be 4 weeks old in this picture so he’s about 5 weeks old now. He was abandoned by his mom. He was a feral cat but has already learned to use the litterbox and he loves people. He’s looking less like a hamster now but we still call him that.

These things always make me wonder, where is humanity? Where is compassion? But I guess since most people don’t give a crap about their fellow human beings and their suffering, why would they care about innocent kittens?

And there’s more to come… it never ends.

First there was Mojo, who died. Then his sister. The Vet wanted to kill her. I saved her. Then there was Hamster-cat. And just now, another abandoned baby. I can’t turn my back on their suffering.

Where is compassion?

A cat is a work of art - nature’s art. It is a painting made by an invisible hand, a genetic sculpture. And like the very best of human art, it reflects who we are.

If people had more compassion, or just more people were really as compassionate as they say, this would be a painting of joy and beauty. But because of the hardness of people’s hearts, especially of those who CLAIM to be spiritual, this is a very sad painting indeed.

It makes me cry.

Updated STORY from a previous post: I had originally told you, here, how McFeral Cat had been missing for about two weeks. I feared someone has harmed her. Well, the third week she showed up again when I visited that area. I fed her. However, her kitten is still missing. Again, I suspect human beings.

So perhaps the feral cats are right after all: people cannot be trusted.

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Art is life, life is art. I suspected that McFeral had a baby somehwere. Sometimes McFeral would take the piece of hamburger and disappear for a long time… maybe 15 to 20 minutes. I thought, she has kittens hidden somewhere far from here. Today, for the first time, she showed up with her half-grown baby in tow. She finally trusted me enough…

McFeral Has A Baby

It must be hard to be a mom, friendless and homeless. McFeral cat does her best and we appreciate her for that. Sure, there are too many cats in the world. You know what? There are too many people in the world, too. Way too many. But we don’t hate people for existing and we shouldn’t hate the feral kitties either.

She’s had a very hard life, or so I surmise from her missing eye. Well, and the fact that you really can’t get anywhere near her. But she’s learned that the Artmobile means food. Although my contribution is paltry and insufficiently regular, I am glad I could do something for the poor girl. And I feel even better about that knowing that she has a surviving child.

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