Ramblings From Justin Penney

Helix was our first cat. We adopted him from Carey in the fall of 2000 as a Christmas present for Lily. As a kitten he was an asshole. There were many nights that would be awoken by his claws or teeth sunk into my flesh.

He grew up an indoor cat and didn't do well the few times he got out. Quite frankly, this cat was a pussy. He was big enough ... but didn't fair to well in the fights. 

After Roxy, Lexi, and Dan filtered into our family Helix, now much bigger (around 16 lbs) than his weak ass adolescent years, quickly established that he was the ace cat. Meaning that he was now an asshole to the other cats. I was thankfully bloodless (mostly). When the other cats were eating, he'd go and hit them and saunter away. If the other cats did <b>anything</b> he didn't like he would roll them. Helix was the be all, end all of cats.

He would still get outside and had a penchant for scrapping. One night he got it pretty bad and after a few weeks developed an abscess in his hip. The treatment involved antibiotics, a drain tube, and a tragically hilarious Elizabethan collar. He was also sequestered from the other cats so they wouldn't disturb the giant Pixy Stix tube protruding from his hip. Over the course of healing Helix dropped down to around 8 lbs. He was now a tiny, frail wisp of a cat and terribly clingy to people and distrustful of the other cats. Right around this time Dan became a man and porked up to around 12 lbs. The girls, both around 7 lbs., had also gotten pretty strong headed without their alpha male around. They also had pretty clear memories of the way that Helix had treated them.

From the time he started re-socializing, the other cats were quick to smack the shit out of him. Dan would chase Helix under a piece of furniture and then sit there so Helix couldn't leave. They would keep him from the food and water bowls and randomly walk up and smack him. I felt sorry for Helix but I also knew that he was reaping what he sowed. As he got bigger and stronger I thought he would fight back; he never did. 

Around this time he started getting out and being gone for days at a time. His time away got progressively longer until it would be weeks at a time. Our neighbors to the northwest called a couple times asking us to retrieve him from there yard. Eventually they started letting him inside and quit calling us. 

This past Sunday, Lily threw Wendy's ball into the neighbor's yard. She went to retrieve it and they asked if we wanted Helix back, over a year after they had last called us. So he's moved back in! And he's hiding under furniture ... and the other cats still hate him ... and he hates them ... and the dog ... We're going to try to keep him inside and hopefully they will be able to work out their differences. 

This leads me to the poop coop. We had the litter box in the garage with a cat door between the house and the garage. This works well from a poop smell perspective and it keeps Wendy from eating the kitty treats, but it allows the cats outside access whenever we open the garage door. The litter box is back inside and Wendy's belly is full of cat turds.

We decided that it would be best to put some sort of structure around the litter box to keep Wendy out. A poop coop if you will. After browsing the hardware stores I finally settled on garden lattice fencing and 1x1 moulding. It has been pretty effective as the cats found the opening I left for them and Wendy just sniffed at it and lied  down and sighed.