Monday, June 13, 2005

Animals, wild and domestic

As the animal control folks remove an army of squirrels from our friend Geoff's attic, our next door neighbor has apparently achieved a humane end to our local raccoon infestation. Yesterday he caught the second raccoon in a large "live trap" and carted her off to the same park where he had earlier released her mate. A happy reunion, we hope.

Meanwhile, on the domestic pet front, we had good news that our elderly prima donna cat Betaille qualified for radiation treatment for her hyperthyroid condition. We went through this with Bosco the Mystery Cat eight years ago, and were very pleased with the results.

Bosco, a happy hypochondriac, apparently thought his three days at the cushy hyperthyroid treatment facility were a spa vacation (they cost about as much). Betaille, who is set off by the most minor changes in her environment, will probably not be such a happy camper. She is currently in a snit, in part because of the raccoon battles next door, and in part because one of our year-old kittens, Zoe (Big Stripe), is bullying her.

Zoe doesn't hiss or swat, she just "bumps" other animals, sort of herding them around. She is now taking this to an extreme. I told Zorg last night that I'd seen her bump a life-size concrete cat statue in the garden and knock it flat. Zorg looked mildly surprised, and said "But I picked it up!" Apparent she is now bullying the concrete statue repeatedly. Either she's not very bright, or she's using it as some kind of warning to real cats.

Betaille's snit involves refusing to eat unless I keep the kittens out of sight and sit beside her while she dines. I guess it could be worse.

No comments:

Post a Comment