ADOPT A SENIOR PET MONTH

November is Adopt A Senior Pet Month.

I have always had senior pets.

When I was a child my mother had a pet chicken named Henny Penny. She had her own chicken coup and when she wasn’t eating bird seed, she pecked at bugs around the yard.

Troubles seemed like the oldest dog on record, but we couldn’t be sure of her age. Our neighbors Oscar and Eloise moved to Oregon when I was a preschooler. We took their dogs Troubles and Queenie, two sister mongrels. I could not identify the many different breeds that went into them. Queenie was killed on the highway right after the neighbors moved.

I remember that when my dad pulled Queenie’s body off the highway, Troubles followed him and watched as Queenie’s grave was dug.

I was a preschooler then., We still had the dog Troubles when I graduated from high school and she lived for a few years after that.

I adopted a four month old cat in March 1972. Both of his hind legs were broken; he had malnutrition and various other medical problems. The shelter manager said he was too badly injured to live. He was slated for euthanasia at the shelter, but I loved him from the moment I saw him. I named him Thaddeus and he lived until December 1992; He had just turned twenty.

A few years after Thaddeus died, I had a very rough year. My dad died of cancer in August of 1995. As I struggled with that, we knew a stray cat lived in the neighborhood. I told all our neighbors I would take the cat if anyone caught her.

On December 16 of that year, the day before my birthday, my husband noticed the stray, a pretty young calico in our back yard.

He went out and brought her in. We guessed she was seven to nine months old. I named her Felina, after a Mexican dancer in an old Marty Robbins song, “Music would play and Felina would whirl.” Felina is still living with us. She is now twenty years old and will soon celebrate 20 years of living with us.

We did adopt a senior pet when we adopted Lancelot from the Pet Adoption Alternative in Warren. The vet guessed Lancelot was eight years old then.

Tiki our dog adopted from Michigan Animal Rescue is 14 born in 2001 and Senior pets bring a lot of joy. They are easier to cope with than kittens and puppies. There is no potty training.

What is or was your oldest pet?

NEW CHAIR, OLD CATS

I have a new office chair, but I am hiding it under colorful beach towels. The towels add color and fun to my office. More important they protect the chair from the cats.

Lancelot, a huge grey cat about ten year old, hurries over to the chair and climbs up to the back where he hangs on like the chair is a bucking bronco about to throw him. The old chair was a rocker, and I used to sometimes forget he was there. Lancelot learned that he has to hang on, but I don’t want him hanging on. I hope he will cling to the beach towels and not to the new chair.

Kira, a younger cat is a climber too. The chair is in front of the book case, and it is part of her daily climb. I didn’t mind the climbing or the clinging with the old chair. It had some of its stuffing pulled out by cat paws, and I used the beach towels to hide the damage to the chair.

I hesitated to get a new office chair. I thought the cats would quickly destroy it. They’re working on it.

I have cats. so fancy furniture is not on my want list. Even the floor and walls get some mistreatment. We need to paint, but this year we are putting on a new steel roof and solar panels.

We have all indoor cats so the roof should be safe. My new office chair, however, is in danger from cat claws.

But this chair is new. I want it to last for awhile. I scold Kira. I pull Lancelot off when his claws are sunk deep into the chair.

I have taken Lancelot off the chair several times, and he seems to be okay on the desk. For now.

Cats seem to think new furniture needs to be clawed up, so it looks more cat friendly.

READING, WRITING, HOUSEWORK

I gave all my pets their monthly flea treatments. We piled the Advantage tablets on the counter. I had a list of pets; my husband and I checked off their names as we found an animal and applied the solution to their necks.

Afterward I washed all pet bedding and sprayed areas where the pets congregate and sleep.

I happen to be reading “The Magical Household” by Scott Cunningham and David Harrington, so, of course, I was interested in magical ways to eliminate fleas. Some readers will say they aren’t superstitious. Neither am I. Magic has been a part of human lives since the days of the cavemen. We are still magical people.

Do you knock on wood. throw salt over your shoulder or pick up pennies because they are lucky. If you have a St Christopher medal or rosary in your car, perhaps you believe it it will protect you. Religion purports to be magical I believe magic is all around us.

Anyway I paid special attention to the parts about how to magically remove fleas. Some magical people write polite letters to the fleas asking that they leave the pets alone. This letter can be placed outdoors on a stump. For some reason, the fleas eat the note, and leave the pets alone. I tried to to write a letter to the fleas. What do you say to a flea?

Please leave my pets’ alone. If they taste good, perhaps this letter will taste better. I will even write it in peanut butter or olive oil for your enjoyment. Thank you, dear little fleas.

Another way to get rid of fleas is to scare them away. Go through the household banging on a pan as if it were a drum. “Yell at the fleas. Tell them them that they must be gone. The book says to shout, “Out with you scorpions, fleas, serpents, roaches, bugs and flies.” Name any critter you ned to rid of. That might scare the neighbors and the pets. I don’t think it will have much affect on the bugs.

Another flea removal method is to burn a dish rag, the first time you hear thunder in March. You could also burn fleabane every day of summer.

I already missed too many days this summer to start on fleabane now.

Anyway we are free of fleas at least until next month. It may have more to do with the Advantage and the coat of diatomaceous earth I spread around the house.