Where In The World Is Sherbert Holler

UPDATE TO MY UPDATE

Sherbert is in surgery.  It looks like he was attacked by a raccoon.  He's in bad shape.  His muscle is actually completely exposed and torn in his arm.  They have to declaw his back paws because all of the claws have been yanked out and they are just open holes.  

Sherbert will be an indoor cat from now on.

UPDATE

Sherbert is at home.  I am getting ready to take him to the Emergency Vet.  He was attacked by something.

I've never had an indoor/outdoor cat before and because I'm well aware of the dangers of letting your cat go outside, I never thought that I would.  

When Sherbert was a baby, we took him in as a foster cat, with the intention of finding him another home.  He had been rescued at 3 weeks old and was from feral cats.  Between his feral bloodline and the lack of socialization as a baby, it quickly became clear to us that Sherbert wasn't adoptable.  He has always been fearful and aggressive and his curse is that he's so cute.  People want to touch and pet him, but are usually sorry that they try to.  

When we lived in the city we could never have let Sherbert out. Not only were we in an apartment building, but Philadelphia has a terrible problem with stray cats and he never could have survived.  Through the years Sherbert became more and more aggressive with our family.  He, overall, seemed horribly unhappy.  He would attack us, relentlessly, night and day.  Most people that have met Sherbert fear him.  He was refused flight when we moved to CA for being aggressive and in order to treat him, the vet has to have him restrained, wear protective gear (I am not kidding) and have several techs on hand to help.  

When we moved to California, Sherbert's desire to go outside heightened and his aggressive tendencies became more and more...  Finally, we let him go out.  We allow him to go out in the morning and then call him to come in before dark.  During the day he comes in and out and if it gets dark and we haven't called him, he comes up to our front door and waits for us to open it.  Sherbert is a lot like a dog.  No matter where he is, if I open the door and call his name, he comes running.  

We live on a quiet street that even has speed bumps and Sherbert never wanders far.  He usually stays within a few houses of ours.  So, though I do worry about him being hit by a car, I know that he's smart and the cars here are slow.  

Sherbert has always come when called...

Until yesterday.

Yesterday when I was returning home at about 1:30 pm I thought it was strange that Sherbert didn't greet me in the driveway.  Usually he will be on standby and run over to us as soon as we pull in.  Then, when I ran back out an hour or so later, I noted that he didn't come out.  So, I texted Jay to see if he was asleep in the house.  Jay couldn't find him anywhere.  

We searched and called...

But Sherbert never came home.

I put food out on the front porch and had a very restless night, and other cats came to eat it... but not Sherbert. 

At 6AM I went out in the car, searching for his body.  But I didn't find it.

At 9AM the girls and I canvased the neighborhood, knocked on doors and talked to strangers... no one has seen him since yesterday morning.  

I know that cats do this sometimes, but I can't help but think that Sherbert is trapped somewhere and needs help.  

If he comes home, will I ever be able to let him out again?

If he doesn't come home, will I be able to live with the guilt?

I knew that this was a risk before letting Sherbert out in the first place, but because he was SO miserable indoors, I decided that a life of torture in captivity that was long and unhappy but safe was worse than a short, happy life that had significant risks.  

I can't give up hope though.  I have to believe that Sherbert will come home.  

Sherbert Holler. Protector of Cherries

A lot of people have been surprised that we've been able to eat so many cherries from our cherry tree.  Usually people have to fight the birds for them and being that people live inside and birds live outside (and have the benefit of finding housing in the trees themselves) people lose and birds win.

But, not in my case.

We've done very little fighting  for the cherries.  No bird stops on our cherry tree for more than 15 seconds, never mind stopping for long enough to lose itself in the sweet pleasure of an afternoon cherry.

We have a secret weapon.

His name is Sherbert and he can both climb the cherry tree and get down from the cherry tree.  There's even a nice Sherbert sized branch that he likes to wait rest on.

This is the face he makes while he's resting in the tree.

All I can say is that it's a good thing that Sherbert has a bell on his collar.

The Love of a Murderer

Dear Sherbert,

I know that you love me, so there's no need to continue bringing such elaborate gifts to my doorstep. Day after day you out due yourself and though I appreciate that you are a daring and brave warrior, please, save your energy to fight things like coyote and mountain lion.  Or, if you ever see a fruit rat, I would support you in a quest to keep our home rat free.

And also, can you please get that crazy look off of your face.  The whole world shouldn't be able to see your dark passenger so transparently.

With love and respect,

Anna Holler

Pet Boarding

So, today we were having a follow-up extermination some work done on our house and we needed to board our pets. I decided to let Sidney be a shop dog and took her to work with me for the day. She enjoyed six hours of treating everyone who walked through BGES's doors like an intruder who she dared to protect me from. It was actually quite sweet. By the end of the day she had chilled out a little bit. All in all, I know that it was less stressful than going to the vet and I suspect that she even had a good time and liked some of the attention.

The cats got to go to the vet. As many of you may already know, we have Pandora who is older than old. She was born in 1994! And.... SHE'S NEVER BEEN SICK IN HER LIFE. It's likely that Pandora will live forever. She's basically a long haired lump. She has one particular chair in our house that she loves to sit on (don't ever sit there. even if it's empty. If you sit there you will definitely have a pandora fur butt and I will not feel sorry for you because you've been warned.) But don't worry. It won't be empty unless we're all in bed. When we are in bed Pandora will come up to sleep near my head. Outside of moving those two times each day... she must eat and use her litter box... but that's about it.

Then there's Sherbert. He hates people. He was a stray kitten and we rescued him. I am 100% sure that he considers us the enemy, would kill us if he could and believes that we are holding him captive in our home. For a long time we considered giving him away or to a shelter (he attacks). But after awhile he became a little, orange, hostile family member and can't help but love him. I set up quarters in our house where he can be alone. I put a bed and cat cube up on top of our hutch and he spends most of his time there.

When we leave the cats at the vet for boarding, they always take a picture.

Here is Pandoras:

Here is Sherbert:

I was not exaggerating.

Poisoned

Sherbert Holler is in the hospital.

This morning when I came downstairs I noticed that he was lethargic. Then he started throwing up, growling and hissing.

Because of the extermination yesterday I knew exactly what had happened.

The vet said that he's experiencing a toxic reaction to the pesticides and is keeping him over night. He's experiencing some little seizures and is generally sort of bad... but he's going to live. He's going to be okay.

The vet said that we did everything correctly and that normally the chemicals that they used in our home would be safe for Sherbert. Unfortunately because the weather here was so tropical yesterday, so hot and so humid, the pesticides didn't dry properly and Sherbert probably got some on his paws and licked it off sometime during the night. I did the best that I could to close the doors to the room with the most moisture... but he's always very active in the night so it's completely possible that he got into something while we were asleep.

Between the bugs and the chemicals, I wonder when I will ever feel clean again (just seeing the photograph of Sherbie that was taken in our old apartment makes my stomach turn).