The "What's on your mind?" Thread -2017

[segelkatt]

In Calif all shelters make sure a cat is neutered before it is given up for adoption. Some give a voucher for the vet of your choice for the other things the cat  needs. They are deflead  and checked for any diseases, usually they have all the shots and you are given a certificate; When I got my Chamouti at Petsmart he had all his shots, etc, he had been given up by someone who had moved to smaller quarters and had too many cats ( 9! ) and I was given the papers of the previous vet and some coupons from Petsmart for food, litter and toys. He also came with his own blanket and 2 toys.

Because he was already 8 1/2 years old Petsmart lowered their usual adoption fee by $25.00. Chamouti is missing one fang and several of the smaller teeth so his "smile" is a little lopsided, he has dark markings on the inside of his lips and on that side you can see the dark marking. Although he obviously is a pure bred Maine Coon he had to be advertised as a Mix because he has no papers, the previous owner did not want him shown and so would not give up the papers showing he was pure bred (he can't be shown anyway because of the missing fang).

Prices for various vet procedures vary wildly. In my relatively well-off neighborhood prices go through the roof. I take my cats 12 miles down the road to Santa Ana which is much poorer, many non-white neighborhoods, and the price many times is at least 25% less than around here and sometimes even lower, I also get a senior discount of 10% and sometimes I get a discount on the office visit simply because I have gone there for over 20 years, I've seen several of the vets retire and newer, younger ones coming in buying a share of the clinic.

Many cities in Calif also prohibit declawing and I've heard a rumour saying that is going to become a law as it is considered to be cruelty to animals, YEAH! Not many people live close enough to state borders so that it will not become common for people to travel across the border to get their cats declawed.

 

[DreamerRose]

I'm late on this subject, but the original costs you named are about the same here. Kittens cost more; senior kitties are less. I got Lily at a bargain price of $75 because she was a former mom cat; I guess because a litter increases her chances of cancer by 200%.

 

[LTS3]

The SPCA shelter here charges $150 for cats over 1 years old, $250 for kittens under 1 year old, and $50 for seniors over 9 years old. The fee includes spay/neuter, deworming, FeLV Test, FCVRP vaccination, microchip, flea treatment, treatment for ear mites, collar. Every summer senior cats are free for adoption. It's a way to get people to adopt seniors cats who are overlooked because most people want cute adorable kittens.

I adopted Emma from a local rescue. I believe it was $110.

 

[DreamerRose]

I forgot to say our local humane society has a pay-it-forward program where donors pay the fees for older cats so they are free to adopters.

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
I am sorry. Sending you hugs.  It's hard when memories hit you.I remember when you were searching for Slipper   :'( 

 

Those nutheads haven't contacted me since I sent the encrypted text about their deceptive practice of untruthful sales.

 

I also realized something else wrong with the truck=I was checking all the fluids I could reach and they were perfect. Then I leaned over the back bumper and touched everything to see if something is loose=hahaha! The spare tire was rocking!! It's supposed to be snug up inside the undercarriage...called the mechanic and told them..he didn't pick it up yet..probably blow me off..I will get 1/2" drive ratchet and 24:" extension and tighten it myself-there's a key plug=I have to unlock that first-it's inside the bumper=kind of a weird setup=the cable winds down to lower the tire until it drops down or something- never had to do it myself. So I think I solved the mystery noise! A rocking spare tire?!! WTH?!!

 

 

Oh someone said to check the torque converter which is part of the automatic transmission which sends the power to the axles- they said to check transmission fluid to see color and smell=nice and deep red and smells sweet like it should. So no burning up transmission or converter. The fluids can tell you a lot about the health of the vehicle. I always suggest smelling it good to see if it smells strange= sometimes antifreeze gets into the oil and gives it a strange smell..gasoline in the oil too... so I don't think it's anything mechanical-something is rattling and I suspect it's the stupid spare tire rocking as I slow down and speed up. A year or so ago I got a flat tire and it was summer=I couldn't get the tire to come off the cradle no matter how much I pryed on it with a pry bar or oiled it- there's some stupid clip that was rusted up and they had to free it...wonder if it came loose...haha. I either can't get the dumb spare tire down or it's rocking! I can't make this stuff up folks!?!! So for now I hope this fixes the mystery "noise" that has ticked me off something fierce this week.

 
If it helps, sometimes there are happy endings.

My first cat walked into my condo and claimed it as her own.  I checked with the shelter and the local vets several times over a month before declaring her mine.  The only lead I got was from a neighbor who said that another neighbor had seen a grown cat and a kitten dumped.  Someone caught the kitten really fast and kept it, the adult cat disappeared.

I don't know if I got the dumped cat, though it seems likely.  The only problem with that theory is that she wasn't lactating and she didn't have big nipples like a cat who recently weaned her kittens would have.  But the odd thing is that she was intact, not in heat and not pregnant.

The only other explanation is that the cat used to live there as the neighbors thought it was already mine as it had been hanging out on my patio for a week.  But the landlords had owned the condo for years and were very anti-cat and the vet estimated her age as 3 years.

So wherever she came from, she was a stray and she decided she was finding herself a home.

One of AWM's friends, UWCL (unwitting cat lover), had a whole stray group just move into her home. (One night, after she went to bed screaming that she'd rather have a dog, they brought one home. No clue where the puppy came from--it wasn't missing, spayed, or otherwise shown to have been with humans before being literally herded into UWCL's house by the cats.) Some cats are very good at that.

 
I don't adopt kittens. Give me a cat that is at least 4 years old, it won't have bad habits, has had all its shots, is used to people and unlikely to try to run away once it has gotten used to its new home. The Irvine City shelter which is a no-kill shelter and also a "third-chance" shelter will wave the adoption fee of a cat that is at least 8 years old and is being adopted by a "senior" (not sure how old a senior has to be). They call it a a "senior cat for a senior person".  I think it's great that they do that.  My bunch here is 18, 18, 10, 8 and 5 (this last one is a foster who has been here too long and I wish he would find a forever home). They are all indoor only and have no intention to go outside even when the front door is open, they just sit there without ever going over the threshold. The 2nd floor patio is another story, they love it out there. 

Always good. 

 
The shelter I adopted from, they used to have really reasonable rates but the last cat I got, about 8 years ago, their adoption fees were in the three digit range, even for the cats that came in already altered.  I think that's crazy high, how many people have the disposable income handy to drop $150 on an adoption?  How many not so well off people will turn to private individuals, giving those individuals even more reason to keep breeding their animals?

Anyway, so the adoption fee was really, really high but then I found out that they would drop the fee for cats that had been at the shelter for a bit.  Midway had been there 3 months.  He had been adopted out previously but that was a failed adoption so he was brought back 6 weeks later.  (A cat that didn't get along with 4 adult black labs.  Whodathunk?)  I don't know how long he had been there prior to that adoption.  They really, really wanted to place him so his advertised adoption fee was only $30.

[Note:  Adoptions sometimes really don't work out, no matter how much a person tries, and the shelter had always written into their legal contracts that the animal be brought back to them rather than rehomed to someone else if the adoption didn't work out.  And it was one of the few clauses that the worker would read out loud and have you initial in addition to signing the document.  So yeah, legally the previous owners had to take him back to the shelter.]

So that could be an option too, ask the shelter if there's a cat that's been hanging around far too long that they would lower the fee for.

Well, the purpose of a shelter is to adopt out the animals, after all. 

I don't think $150 for an adoption fee for a fully vetted cat is too high. I live in a reasonably low-cost area but it still costs me about $200 to have a cat "civilized" (spay/neuter, shots, de-worming, de-fleaing etc.). I suppose it would be nice for a shelter to be willing to take a huge loss but that's just not affordable in the long run.

I always see a lot of cats being re-homed on craigslist, a lot of them are altered, some de-clawed

, and usually free or really inexpensive, just because their owners don't want to be bothered.

It's what they charge down here (well, $150 for male cats and $170 for female cats).

 
What do you mean by "fully vetted"?  You got a cat.  If the previous owners provided vaccines, great, but the shelter didn't.  You got a certificate for a free vet visit from certain vets.  The shelter didn't pay for that, that was a donation from those vets.

All you could guarantee was no fleas and no ear mites.  And yeah, $150 is far too high.  Maybe you have $150 just lying around that is not dedicated to a bill or food or savings or retirement/IRA or college fund or replace-old-items or a million other things a household needs, but most people don't have $150 free and clear with no pre-existing obligations.

Since the shelter was in a constant state of expansion, they clearly were not operating at a loss.  Since they could run a petting zoo that included exotic animals on $5 a head, they were not suffering for money.  So yeah, for what you got, $150 was pretty high.

Pets shouldn't be for just the rich.  Someone on a working class paycheck can provide an equally loving home.

 
We charge $175 for a kitten; 150 for an adult; and seniors are lower; depending on age.

You have to take into consideration that all cats are fully vetted before they are allowed to be seen with the general public. They have been treated for fleas,  neutered/spayed, gotten all their vaccinations, and are checked for FIV/FELV....(think that is the correct initial)

If they need any additional Vet treatment, then they are given that. We adopt out as healthy a cat as we are able to.. 

They are all in foster care also; then they are allowed to go into Isolation at PetSmart. After 2 days in ISO, they get another Vet visit, in order to clear them for the general public.. 

And the humane society has to buy a ton of supplies: paper towels, cleaning solutions, gloves, trash bags, mops, hand sanitizer...some food, and some litter... some cats are on special diets...and some may need medication.

If you take all of that into consideration, it is a lot of money.. and there are some cats who are just unadaptable; due to age, medical condition, etc... so the adoption fee really is far reaching... 

It is not as simple as: paying $150 for one cat. It is very involved. 

In some places it is. In some places, it's not.

IF they are fully vetted (altered, vaccinated, de-parasitized), it's a steal. If they aren't fully vetted the shelter shouldn't charge that much. If someone doesn't have $150 for an adoption fee, they don't have the money for vetting a "free" cat either.

This is what I pay at my vet:
Spay: $120
Neuter: $80
FeLV/FIV test: $35
Rabies and FVCRP vaccines: $20 each
De-wormer: $2 ($8 for a Droncit shot if they have tapeworms)
Flea meds: depends what I have around

$40 for an office fee but my vet doesn't charge an office fee for routine things like vaccines and testing, just for illnesses.

And in some areas prices are a lot higher.

So I think that's a pretty good price

. Again, only if all the vetting is done. No, pet ownership shouldn't only be for wealthy people but it is necessary to spend some money on pets.

How could you ever get a pet cheaper than that? The only way would be for someone else to pay for everything and then give you the pet. But someone still had to pay for it.

Pets shouldn't be presents anyway, in my opinion.

 
That all seems pretty expensive for me, but I live in a very low cost area.  Neutering at my vet is $32.50.  He was on vacation when Connor and Murphy needed their surgery so we took them to a different vet and that was $60 each.  And I didn't pay more than $50 a piece for ear mite meds, flea meds, AND all the shots.  But I don't know how much this shelter charges for adoption.  I got Connor and Murphy from my aunt and John found Mickey on the street.

 Wow! Neutering at our low-cost vet (and trust me, it is low cost, cheapest when going through a regular vet is over $300) here is $50!

Yeah, I would expect a shelter (that does vetting before adoption) to charge approximately what it would cost for full vetting in that area, so in your area it would be cheaper, in some other areas it would be more expensive.

Wow, I looked up the small limited-admission Humane Society near me and they only charge $65 for a fully vetted kitty. I'd save a bundle if I just adopted cats from them instead of taking in strays

. The Sioux Falls Humane Society charges $65 for kittens and $55 for adult cats, $70 if already altered, $50 if considered senior. They don't spay/neuter before adoption but they do give a microchip, vaccines, de-wormer, FeLV/FIV test, and Revolution. That's a great deal!

That is a great deal, but not all shelters do that, even when they charge the insane fee.

 
In Calif all shelters make sure a cat is neutered before it is given up for adoption. Some give a voucher for the vet of your choice for the other things the cat  needs. They are deflead  and checked for any diseases, usually they have all the shots and you are given a certificate; When I got my Chamouti at Petsmart he had all his shots, etc, he had been given up by someone who had moved to smaller quarters and had too many cats ( 9! ) and I was given the papers of the previous vet and some coupons from Petsmart for food, litter and toys. He also came with his own blanket and 2 toys.

Because he was already 8 1/2 years old Petsmart lowered their usual adoption fee by $25.00. Chamouti is missing one fang and several of the smaller teeth so his "smile" is a little lopsided, he has dark markings on the inside of his lips and on that side you can see the dark marking. Although he obviously is a pure bred Maine Coon he had to be advertised as a Mix because he has no papers, the previous owner did not want him shown and so would not give up the papers showing he was pure bred (he can't be shown anyway because of the missing fang).

Prices for various vet procedures vary wildly. In my relatively well-off neighborhood prices go through the roof. I take my cats 12 miles down the road to Santa Ana which is much poorer, many non-white neighborhoods, and the price many times is at least 25% less than around here and sometimes even lower, I also get a senior discount of 10% and sometimes I get a discount on the office visit simply because I have gone there for over 20 years, I've seen several of the vets retire and newer, younger ones coming in buying a share of the clinic.

Many cities in Calif also prohibit declawing and I've heard a rumour saying that is going to become a law as it is considered to be cruelty to animals, YEAH! Not many people live close enough to state borders so that it will not become common for people to travel across the border to get their cats declawed.

They took an opposite approach here in SC. It's state regulated that a declawing procedure cannot cost less than $600, and most charge $1,500 for it. I guess they figure that if someone is going to do it anyway, it's best to make sure that the people who do are financially well off enough that the cat in question isn't abandoned later. (Clawless was the exception, not the rule.) One of the upsides (and I discovered this when I took Clawless to the shelter) to this policy is that if a cat comes in declawed, it's usually adopted out very quickly.

Side note: We didn't adopt Rose from a shelter. (I didn't think we could afford any more pets, because at the time we had both lovebirds and turtles.) IB just brought her home one day. He'd been over at a friends house and had noticed the kitten getting bullied by the other cats and ignored by the humans, so he had to bring her home. Long on heart, my little IB. Short on responsibility though. Very short.) Personally, if it had been left to me, I probably never would have gotten a cat in the first place, since my history with cats is not--the best. (Case in point; when IB brought Clawless in I donned leather coat, leather gloves, and real denim jeans because I knew her first reaction would be to attack me. I was also right.)

 

[NewYork1303]

At the shelter I work at we often pull older cats from local shelters as we know it takes time to find homes for them. One adopted recently was at our shelter (in various adoption locations) for three years. Once they get to a certain age, they often become office cats so they can nap around the place and stroll about to their heart's content,  since it is too cruel to keep such old cats in cages for the rest of their lives (although the actual shelter is cageless, with the exception of cats that don't like other cats). The pet store locations have someone letting cats out of cages at least twice or three times a day, still no life for an old cat. 

Adoption fees at our shelter:

$100 dollars for a cat over 6 months

$125 for kittens

$150 for a bonded pair of adult cats (over six months)

Senior cats are often 50% off for various events.

I think this is entirely reasonable. The shelter is never making a profit as in addition to caring for the cats they are adopting out (vaccinations, flea medication, worming, getting them checked out, sometimes getting them a dental) they also care for cats that are unlikely to be adopted. They have a space at the shelter for a feral colony that are adopted out only as barn cats, a space for cats with FeLV, and a space for cats with FIV. Also a space for cats that have behavioral issues that have made them unable to do well in homes, such as innappropriate urination. People can adopt any of these cats, but candidates for this are few and far between. 

In addition to this, many completely adoptable cats stay at the shelter requiring food, additional vetting, and more for a long time because they are shy or old. We have a beautiful orange kitty who has been at the shelter since September. Nine years old and shy. Another in the adoption room, I work at is one that is 11 and black. Also a bit crabby. She's been in the system for a year. 

Charging more for some of those kittens would be reasonable too as they often come in with URI and without moms. Meaning they need round the clock care and lots of expensive KMR and sometimes real heroics requiring emergency vet care. The shelter definitely spends more than 125 for each of those babies. 

 

[NewYork1303]

We also have a room at the shelter that we call "Florida". This has a large enclosed yard and plenty of space for old cats to live out their days if they aren't adopted. 

 

[arouetta]

What's on my mind.....

I really, really need to look at what I have before I go shopping.

It was bad enough when I cleaned the cabinets that act as my pantry.  I use tomato sauce for one thing - meatloaf.  And I had 8 cans of tomato sauce.

Today there was a sale on cheese and I was pretty sure I was low on cheese.  They were sold out of mozzarella but I grabbed a block of cheddar (used for everything) and colby jack (used only as a snack).  Got home, the cheese didn't fit in my box, so I pulled it out to organize better.  I already had a block of mozzarella, two blocks of colby jack and three blocks of cheddar in addition to what I bought today.

So yeah, I see a lot of cheesy meals in the near future.

 

[Alicia88]

I looked at the website for our humane society - which is the only shelter we have here.  Their adoption fees are really low, but they charge more for adult animals.

Adoption Fees

Puppies (under 6 months)...$25.00 AND UP--$40.00 deposit fee

Dogs (over 6 months).......$85.00 AND UP

Cats and Kittens...........$70.00 AND UP KITTENS $20.00 AND UP--$40.00 deposit fee

Purebred...................$100.00 AND UP 

 

[Willowy]

Oh, wow, they really should charge more for puppies and kittens, to encourage people to adopt the older pets.

 

[arouetta]

I just did something I didn't think possible.

I'm finishing hemming the last skirt tonight.  I'm doing a stitch pattern where on the inside I'm allowing just under half an inch of thread before poking the needle through to the outside, making the exterior stitch as tiny as possible and then moving on another half inch.

And just now I ran the needle and thread through the fabric, made that exterior stitch as tiny as possible, poking back through the material...and managed to put my needle through the exact same spot in the fabric.  The thread went through and then popped right out as if I hadn't made that stitch.

With fabric having as such a tight weaving of the fabric threads, going through the exact same spot seems like it would be impossible.

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
At the shelter I work at we often pull older cats from local shelters as we know it takes time to find homes for them. One adopted recently was at our shelter (in various adoption locations) for three years. Once they get to a certain age, they often become office cats so they can nap around the place and stroll about to their heart's content,  since it is too cruel to keep such old cats in cages for the rest of their lives (although the actual shelter is cageless, with the exception of cats that don't like other cats). The pet store locations have someone letting cats out of cages at least twice or three times a day, still no life for an old cat. 

Adoption fees at our shelter:

$100 dollars for a cat over 6 months

$125 for kittens

$150 for a bonded pair of adult cats (over six months)

Senior cats are often 50% off for various events.

I think this is entirely reasonable. The shelter is never making a profit as in addition to caring for the cats they are adopting out (vaccinations, flea medication, worming, getting them checked out, sometimes getting them a dental) they also care for cats that are unlikely to be adopted. They have a space at the shelter for a feral colony that are adopted out only as barn cats, a space for cats with FeLV, and a space for cats with FIV. Also a space for cats that have behavioral issues that have made them unable to do well in homes, such as innappropriate urination. People can adopt any of these cats, but candidates for this are few and far between. 

In addition to this, many completely adoptable cats stay at the shelter requiring food, additional vetting, and more for a long time because they are shy or old. We have a beautiful orange kitty who has been at the shelter since September. Nine years old and shy. Another in the adoption room, I work at is one that is 11 and black. Also a bit crabby. She's been in the system for a year. 

Charging more for some of those kittens would be reasonable too as they often come in with URI and without moms. Meaning they need round the clock care and lots of expensive KMR and sometimes real heroics requiring emergency vet care. The shelter definitely spends more than 125 for each of those babies. 

I agree. Given that the cats are getting vetted, that's a real bargain.

 
What's on my mind.....

I really, really need to look at what I have before I go shopping.

It was bad enough when I cleaned the cabinets that act as my pantry.  I use tomato sauce for one thing - meatloaf.  And I had 8 cans of tomato sauce.

Today there was a sale on cheese and I was pretty sure I was low on cheese.  They were sold out of mozzarella but I grabbed a block of cheddar (used for everything) and colby jack (used only as a snack).  Got home, the cheese didn't fit in my box, so I pulled it out to organize better.  I already had a block of mozzarella, two blocks of colby jack and three blocks of cheddar in addition to what I bought today.

So yeah, I see a lot of cheesy meals in the near future.

Fun thing about most common cheeses (like cheddar, mozzarella, and colby jack) is that they can be frozen for about three months. (Not much longer. Surprisingly, it will  spoil even in the freezer, even if you press all the air out of the freezer bags.)

Oh, wow, they really should charge more for puppies and kittens, to encourage people to adopt the older pets.

Well, that depends on what the shelter gets. Every spring our local shelter has "specials" on kittens, because idiots who don't understand that cats breed  will dump the litters at the shelter--sometimes in a box overnight. They just want to get as many animals adopted out as possible, which is understandable. (They also have three thrift shops in the area to attempt to support the shelter in addition to donations.)

 
I just did something I didn't think possible.

I'm finishing hemming the last skirt tonight.  I'm doing a stitch pattern where on the inside I'm allowing just under half an inch of thread before poking the needle through to the outside, making the exterior stitch as tiny as possible and then moving on another half inch.

And just now I ran the needle and thread through the fabric, made that exterior stitch as tiny as possible, poking back through the material...and managed to put my needle through the exact same spot in the fabric.  The thread went through and then popped right out as if I hadn't made that stitch.

With fabric having as such a tight weaving of the fabric threads, going through the exact same spot seems like it would be impossible.

You know what's worse? What's worse is when you're sewing through a folded corner with two different types of fabric and having that happen. Want to know what's even worse? When, for some unfathomable reason, the thread fuses  to one of the fabrics mid-pull.

Well, something funny happened this morning, before I got off work. A guy came in and paid for a little under three dollars worth of gas with bills, coins, and three spent bullet casings. Seriously--three spent bullet casings. (I took them home to show AWM because I knew she wouldn't believe me. And no--he didn't get a monetary amount of gas money for the bullet casings.) That was weird. 

 

[arouetta]

You know what's worse? What's worse is when you're sewing through a folded corner with two different types of fabric and having that happen. Want to know what's even worse? When, for some unfathomable reason, the thread fuses  to one of the fabrics mid-pull.

While it wasn't a different type of fabric I had to cut off about 4-5 inches of fabric and to keep the edge from unraveling I had folded and then folded a second time so the raw edge was inside.  So I managed to put that needle in the same hole as the previous stitch through all three layers.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And for those who desperately want to share their homes with a cat, there are, in some areas, permanent fosters (special needs cats that the shelter provides medical care for but who remain with their fosterer for life) and even trust-fund kitties, whose owners left funds that provide for their medical care and upkeep.  That can help.  Someday (PLEASE let it be many years from now), I will probably look into a permanent foster.  A cat who would be considered unadoptable due to medical needs, but who shouldn't live out their life in a cage.

LOL...Sean, our maintenance man, just left from installing my new fridge.  As he was pulling out from in front, Little Bit was knocking on the back door, looking for his supper!  BOY was that timed just right!  Although, Sean is a sucker for animals, and despises our manager, and wouldn't say boo about it.

 

[arouetta]

Side note: We didn't adopt Rose from a shelter. (I didn't think we could afford any more pets, because at the time we had both lovebirds and turtles.) IB just brought her home one day. He'd been over at a friends house and had noticed the kitten getting bullied by the other cats and ignored by the humans, so he had to bring her home. Long on heart, my little IB. Short on responsibility though. Very short.) Personally, if it had been left to me, I probably never would have gotten a cat in the first place, since my history with cats is not--the best. (Case in point; when IB brought Clawless in I donned leather coat, leather gloves, and real denim jeans because I knew her first reaction would be to attack me. I was also right.)

I'd rather have a cat attack me than a dog. My absolute worst cat scratch only required three stitches. I've heard of people needing over 100 stitches from a dog attack.

 

[Alicia88]

I have a small scar on my cheek from a dog bite I got when I was 4 years old.

Well, DD is on her way to her bf's with all her stuff.  Looks like mom followed through.  I hope this works out well.  I don't know the bf or his parents very well, but anywhere has to be better than living with an abusive meth head, right?

 

[Margret]

I've been wanting a small (but not too small) electric saw for some time, so that I can make Jasmine a cat tree and make Roger a tray for his walker, but I can't afford too much.  I have a very nice Dremel, but it's not big enough for the kind of jobs I have in mind.  Well, Harbor Freight is having a sale, and I found this: http://www.harborfreight.com/32-amp-variable-speed-jig-saw-62405.html, but, except for the fact that I can actually afford it, I don't know how to evaluate it.

Does anyone here have the experience with tools to tell me whether I want this?  Fortunately, the sale runs through Sunday so I don't have to rush out and get it right this minute, and since we have a Harbor Freight practically within walking distance I don't have to buy it online and pay shipping charges.

Margret

 

[DreamerRose]

I'm no expert, but I don't think a jigsaw is what you need to do those tasks. You need a circular saw. Home Depot had one a few years ago for $40, and it will do what you want.

 

[Margret]

I'm no expert, but I don't think a jigsaw is what you need to do those tasks. You need a circular saw. Home Depot had one a few years ago for $40, and it will do what you want.

A while back I called a local Woodcraft store and asked for advice on this, and I was told that what I probably needed was a hand held jigsaw.  They recommended that I check out garage sales and estate sales.  They also very specifically recommended either a DeWalt or Sears jigsaw, but when I start getting that picky the chance of finding it becomes vanishingly small.

The thing is, the cat condo plans I have recommend using branches.  I've been saving branches specifically for this, and with a jigsaw it becomes easier to select the right angle for cutting.  At least, I think that's the issue.

They do also have this: http://www.harborfreight.com/7-14-in-10-amp-circular-saw-69079.html.  The thing that bothers me about this saw is

This all-purpose circular saw makes bevel cuts from 0° to 45°

That sounds to me like it requires some sort of mount, in addition to the saw, that it's not hand-held.  And I don't know how much the mount would cost.

Margret

 

[Margret]

 

Side note: We didn't adopt Rose from a shelter. (I didn't think we could afford any more pets, because at the time we had both lovebirds and turtles.) IB just brought her home one day. He'd been over at a friends house and had noticed the kitten getting bullied by the other cats and ignored by the humans, so he had to bring her home. Long on heart, my little IB. Short on responsibility though. Very short.) Personally, if it had been left to me, I probably never would have gotten a cat in the first place, since my history with cats is not--the best. (Case in point; when IB brought Clawless in I donned leather coat, leather gloves, and real denim jeans because I knew her first reaction would be to attack me. I was also right.)

I'd rather have a cat attack me than a dog. My absolute worst cat scratch only required three stitches. I've heard of people needing over 100 stitches from a dog attack.

The other side of that is that cat scratches and bites have a very nasty tendency to get infected.  However, you're right.  My worst cat scratch required a tetanus shot and a couple of butterflies, plus a little bit of time explaining to the ER doctor why it wasn't Pretzel's fault.  My most recent cat scratch required a thorough cleaning, some salve, and a bandage, plus which I kept my eye on it for a few days to make sure I didn't need antibiotics.  Fortunately, the hydrogen peroxide appears to have been adequate.

The thing is, vicious dogs will attack for any reason or no reason.  Vicious cats will pretty much leave you alone if you leave them alone.  And most cats and dogs aren't vicious.

Margret