Brownie’s Big Day

Note: this was supposed to be an iPhone/iPad project update but though we’re working fast and furious there’s not much news. Brownie’s day is more important.

Today started like a typical day. Brownie woke us up at about 7am meowing to please open the garage door so he could come in for a snack. If he’s been out during the night, he likes to eat on the early side. Usually his pattern is to come in around 11pm or 2am to sleep on the comfy couch in the TV room off of the garage. In summer, when the weather is warm, he seems more interested in visiting around the neighborhood. Last night was a warm one and he was out and about.

Let me fill in a little background for this story. Martin and I adopted tabby kittens we named Brownie and Gray, two neutered male litter mates born to a feral cat and found on a street in San Francisco from San Francisco Animal Control in May 2005. We were ready to adopt a kitten and got inspired by the cutest story on KQED about the gzillions of kittens at the San Francisco SPCA needing adoption only to be disappointed when we learned on arrival one fine Saturday in May, that those kittens were still too young for adoption.

We asked if there were any other venues for kitten adoption and were directed to visit San Francisco Animal Control (SFAC) a couple blocks away. In contrast to SF SPCA, which exudes enthusiasm and has programs and much agenda regarding educating the public about pet ownership, SFAC seemed like more of a matter-of-fact animal intake situation. We were guided down a hall reminiscent of hallways in post-war-industrial-complex buildings and lead into a claustrophobic room containing cages of dogs and cats. Our boys were together in a 2nd tier level cage at the very end of this miserable room and we loved them instantly, in part because they seemed kind of dopey. Little did we know that they really were doped — had just the day before had their nuts toasted and were still recovering from the anesthesia.

We meant to adopt one kitten but who could resist litter mates? We played with them in the depressing play room set up for would be adoption candidates and all we could think of was that we gotta get these guys out of here. On the way home they yowled. Martin said “you guys have it made.”

Having read an article in The Atlantic about the brief window during which kittens bond with humans, we were prepared. The jist of that article was that you need to get a hold of them as young as possible and hold them a lot. So we slept with them for the first three weeks. Actually, we didn’t sleep. The SFAC had a policy of not doing the nut toasting operation until the kitten reached 2lbs in weight so this meant our boys were probably already 4-6 weeks old — a little towards the end of the ideal timeframe according to The Atlantic article (would love to provide a link but The Atlantic website is too nasty to bother with at this point). 4-6 week old kittens have some serious energy and there was the sibling rivalry thing too. Much toe biting, night time wrestling, chasing, jumping upon our chests, stomachs, legs etc. ensued. At the end of the three weeks we were exhausted but hoped the kittens were no longer feral.

Despite our best efforts, Gray Kitty, the inspiration for the Gray Kitty iPhone stories is still feral but Brownie is fully rehabilitated.

Our neighborhood is extraordinarily pet friendly but has a strong bias towards dogs. I would say outdoor cats are not generally appreciated but despite this Brownie has a fan following and this has probably encouraged his visiting spirit (Gray stays close to home — probably too freaked out to socialize). Brownie has encountered and grown used to many sunny neighbors and gardens.

So it was a bit of a shock this morning to get a call from someone at the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA — the first words were “are you missing Brownie?”

Right from the get go — SPCA employees/volunteers must be trained — we were to understand that our kitty was in crisis. SPCA doesn’t want people to allow their precious kitties to go outdoors and everything that happened today, from the phone call to finally getting to take Brownie home, seemed designed as an “intervention” to get us to realize that we need to make our cats indoor kitties.

So that’s how we found ourselves today right smack in the middle of this debate going on in the US regarding whether responsible cat owners should allow their cats to roam freely.

We tried to make our cats be indoor kitties but it was obvious they wanted to go outdoors and Martin and I wanted them to be happy. Supposedly they should be dead by now according to the statistics — the average life span of outdoor cats is 5 years. They are 5.5 years old. When we take them for their annual veterinary appointment the doctor is always amazed by their trim weight — not an ounce of fat! — and their silky glossy coats. Our kitties are happy and very healthy. They spend many hours stretched out in the sun, have significantly reduced the rodent population in our neighborhood (this was a HUGE problem) and are generally friendly and gorgeous critters.

But someone in the neighborhood must not love Brownie’s garden visits. A feral cat trap was set and he got caught in it. It must have happened right after he had his morning snack and then went off wandering. Our neighbor brought our trapped kitty to the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA as a stray and then — because the original SFAC folks implanted chips in the cats and we registered them — we got the call to come get him and bring him home. The chips worked! (As an aside, we tried getting collars on the cats when they were younger and it was clear they would hang themselves rather than wear a collar so we gave it up.)

The interaction with Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA was not neutral. There were three people helping us retrieve Brownie and each delivered a non-subtle message regarding our performance as cat owners. “You’re lucky” one person said multiple times as if we must be totally clueless. Another wanted us to know that if it’s an unfriendly neighbor it’s really our responsibility to protect kitty — we were pushing for contact info to call this neighbor and communicate but were told we can’t get that info. How sad.

We were treated like pet abusers. Several times we were challenged quite directly regarding our decision to let the cats roam — at one point Martin, in his quiet way, said that it’s not in their nature to stay inside.

The whole 1.5 hrs we were there trying to get our guy home – guess what they had him packed inside of? This is it.

He couldn’t pee or drink water or poop or anything while in this little tiny box.

As soon as we were “released” Martin let him out of the box prison and on the way home we stopped at a totally precious store to get him an approved collar to which we could attached his newly minted city license.

To their credit, after much challenging questions from us, Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA did agree to put notes in Brownie’s file such that if the same neighbor tries to keep trapping him that neighbor will know that this kitty is not stray.

Meanwhile Brownie is sporting his new leopard print collar with bell and newly minted San Mateo license — if he’s picked up again for roaming at least he’s documented.