Tortoiseshell Manx Cat

This is a tortoiseshell Manx cat (we named her "Marmee") which we found hiding in my mother-in-law's backyard with her three kittens, filmed on 6-18-08. We trapped her and had her spayed one week later.

Is she feral, semi-feral, or just a stray who got neglected or mistreated at her previous home? It's hard to tell, based on her behavior; but one thing's for certain -- spaying and neutering is *so very important* to help stem the tide of pet overpopulation, whether the cats are indoor-dwelling pampered kitties or marginally-owned outdoor strays. Whether or not she 'tames up,' she will be much healthier and happier now that she's been "vetted," vaccinated and won't be burdened by any more unwanted litters of kittens for which there aren't any homes available.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Manx
• cats
• feral
• tortoiseshell
• TNR
• rescue
• spay
• neuter
• cat
• trap/neuter/return

[churchmousie]

"She just wandered off and we never saw her again she was only 15 months old."

That's one reason why we keep ours exclusively indoors. It's a trade-off... Typically cat-owners in Britain let theirs out; but they have fewer hazards (i.e. rabies has been completely eradicated there, for example) than we do. It'd be great to have some cat-proofed fencing enclosure; but where we are there's also wild animals and dangerous traffic, not to mention insects (fleas, ticks) to contend with outdoors.

[SSN760]

We have a tortoiseshell Manx that we named Peaches, and we have her daughters from her first litter, Phoebe a tuxedo rumpy Manx, and Ms. Prissy, a stumpy calico Manx. A happy trio of Manx cats!

[churchmousie]

@SSN760 Two daughters from her first litter? How many kittens were there, and how many litters has she had?

"A happy trio..."

Ours is somewhat of a mixed bag, personality-wise. The one full-tailed daughter cat remained too emotionally dependent on her mother and wasn't socializing well; so we had to separate them. The red-orange male is not alpha; but he does tend to boss around his other stump-tailed female sibling (which is odd, because she's bigger than him, lol).

[boneham]

She just wandered off and we never saw her again she was only 15 months old.. she was the spitting imagine of Marmee with a 2 inch stumpy tail and same body. I have a video of her fetching a toy fish under my name boneham, she was only young in this video she was a real character. I wonder if she had a fatty liver too??She had been fully checked but in my mind a bit skinny. Do you still have her? and any new video of her?

[churchmousie]

@boneham I'll check it out. Yes we still have her -- no new vids, but I've been planning to film one of her being groomed (stay tuned!) :)

When Marmee was diagnosed, she had been spending increasing amounts of time hiding behind our living room sofa. We figured it was due to inter-cat personality conflicts (she was still semi-feral at this time, even a year after we rescued her off the streets), and so we figured they just needed time to work it out amongst themselves. (cont.)

[churchmousie]

@boneham "I wonder if she had a fatty liver too??She had been fully checked but in my mind a bit skinny..."

(cont.) It's possible, I guess. By the time we'd caught Marms it was fairly advanced. She'd been off her food, vomiting and had gotten dehydrated. :( Very difficult/stressful to capture/ and contain a semi-feral cat for a veterinary trip; but she was due for her vaccination booster too. We still don't know what brought it on unless it was stress. $2K later she's doing well now though.

[deathweilder90210]

THATS LIKE MY CAT!

[kyriekitty]

@churchmousie She's 8 yearls old. She getting white bits of fur T.T

[churchmousie]

@boneham So sorry to hear -- what happened to her? Manx cats can have tails of varying lengths. Of Marmee's three kittens, one is a "rumpy" (no tail), one is a "stumpy" (little short tail, like a bunny or bear's tail; and one has a regular full-length tail indistinguishable from a mixed-breed DSH cat. But she has the characteristic round Manx eyes that she inherited from her mother. It's hard to see from this angle, but 'Marms' has a short, round body with the wide foreleg stance.of the Manx.

[churchmousie]

@kyriekitty Did you mean 8 months? Not abnormal I don't think. Two of Marmee's kittens had blue eyes when they were young, but they both changed -- Bear when she was around 4 - 5 months and Milo's when he was close to a year old. Milo's eyes have changed to a light brownish-orange now (matches his fur). He reminds you of a pumpkin! (Guess that's kind of an overused name for red/ginger tabbies, though). :) His coat is darker with a more defined tabby pattern than when he was little.