We have been making headway with his medication. It’s come to the point now where I have to just pill him bare-handed. He’s caught on quite quickly that when I give him just a little bit of food in a saucer, he knows there’s a pill in there.  I was getting encouraged about his progress but last night we suffered a set-back. At 2 AM I heard a catfight. By the time I got outside, I realized that when I had gone in earlier to feed everybody, he had slipped out! One of my outdoor lights had been malfunctioning. I didn’t notice that he had darted out.

Unfortunately , we also recently have had a beat-up ol tomcat show up. This boy is hammered; torn ear flaps, scarred face among other battle scars but that doesn’t stop him from being aggressive. I put his age out of probably around 14 years old. He met up with Bentley and he beat the pound out of him.  By the time I got my robe and slippers on and got outside. They both were in a full roll! The noise was terrifying. Bentley is not up to his good weight yet. I finally got them apart. When I looked at Bentley, I knew that I couldn’t do anything for him. It wasn’t that kind of damage.

I had to take him to an after-hours vet. They determined that he’s extremely bruised and swollen. His abdomen especially was affected. I paid the bill. Which made me gasp. But I paid it and then when I got home and had decompressed with Bentley. I went and did my numbers and realized that was $26 short and in danger of going NSF.

if anyone is reading this and they have a little extra money, could you please send it my way? I’ve tried everything I can think of right now, but things are lean right here for me. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of money but when you factor in  I’m currently feeding 22 cats- money doesn’t last very long.

I can certainly tell that Bentley is feeling quite poorly.  He did eat a little bit this morning. They want me to confine him for two weeks. However, I don’t need to confine him. He has confined himself. He has been in his cage with the door open ever since I brought him home he’s not moving much. I keep repeatedly going out there, looking for any type of heat coming off of him. They shaved him, but they couldn’t find any bite wounds. But bite wounds don’t show up right away. And they didn’t shave all of him because of the weather. So far, I haven’t found any wounds on him. I think it was just the fact that he’s so thin, and the Tom is so much bigger than he is, he just did not have a chance to get an upper hand

Please, if someone can help me cover this cost I would appreciate it. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of money but right now for me it is.

Last night coming home from town, on the road two houses before my house, I saw “Mama” and two of her kittens on the road! Now they are resting in peace in the forest behind my home. It has been raining fairly hard and digging in the dirt right now would not work.

I feel like I failed her. I tried everything I could do-all my tricks, but while I was trying all these tricks I had no idea she was pregnant.

Now there’s a new challenge in town. Well, actually not in town. But back by my creek. There is a mom she’s black-and-white long-haired very skinny. I can only see her through my binoculars. She will not let me get close to her. Even though her kittens look to be 6-7 weeks old, she’s still in high protection mode.

Now I am taxed with trying to figure out how I’m going to build something for them to keep them out of the weather. They are not even approaching the house or the barn. Whatever I build would have to be put into the orchard so they would also have the added protection of the bushes and the trees. I have a deal with a local lumberyard where they give me scrap lumber for coin. The guys love cats. But I don’t have any money at all right now. I need baby kitten, food, both canned and dry. Both for the kittens and the mom. I need cat milk for mom. And I need to build a structure that will have to blend in, so that idiot with an itchy trigger finger won’t notice them. I so want to call him more than an idiot!

On a better note , as of Friday, my vet is completely paid off. I thank  those of you who helped me in that endeavor. I never thought I would see the day. It’s such a relief, but it also left me with very little reserve for the month. I certainly wasn’t expecting a mama cat with seven babies to show up on my property .

As a disclaimer, even though my donation button has verbiage that says I am nonprofit, as soon as I can figure out how to remove that verbiage I will.. But I am (as of the end of October) no longer an active nonprofit. That does not mean that I can suddenly ignore this new family, who is in danger from all sorts of human as well as animal predators. They also are in danger of not making it through a very bad winter. So if you can help, please do. Also understand that even five dollars can help st this point.

His work still continues-and now, so will I. Trusting  that He will provide the way forward.

Although this might look like two desks stacked together, The top portion is actually the start of the new mama and her kittens comfort station for winter time. The plan is to get a pallet. Cut the pallet down to size. Put in the floor, the walls, and two escape hatches. One wall will be on hinges, so that I can swing it open if need be. It will then be covered with a tarp. A good Samaritan helped me figure out how to get the roof slanted. This is all stuff that Michael could do in a heartbeat. So I was grateful for this gentleman. I had to make it small, to make it any larger would call attention to it. This is the farthest I can go with it for now. The walls will also be insulated.

She would’ve turned eight years old this year. She never saw it coming.( Thank God for that). Had I been outside at the time and I had seen it coming, someone would have to be nice enough to scrape up bail money for me because I would’ve pounded the person who did this to her.

She didn’t deserve it. She never hurt or threatened anyone except all the mice in my field, and all the mice two doors down that live in the grainery. I know those neighbors will be sad when she no longer shows up to rid their granary of mice. Her sister Poe is still looking for her. I still look for her too- even though I’m the one that found her. I still resist accepting that she is gone.

I called the authorities, even though I knew it was a lost cause. I was right, they don’t care. In our county, you can kill cats and dogs as long as you don’t live in town. The only reason I was told that they investigate it is because firearms are not allowed to be discharged in town.

So my little black hunter Is gone, In all the years that I’ve had her, the only one she ever has really trusted was Kota. They were buds. Now she’s joining Michael and Jeremy plus all of her feline friends that have passed before her.

She will be missed sy hrr unexpected end. Apparently, she was in the wrong place,which allowed this to happen to her. All because someone wanted to use her for target practice.

The yard seems as empty as my heart feels right now.

This new journey with Bentley through the mysterious ailment known as Hyper-thyroidism, is a puzzle to put together slowly and with care. It turns out that old habits die hard, and his spraying issue has made it impossible for him to be in the cat room. My plan after that became evident was to return him to the cat enclosure where he’s lived most his life. (I have not been myself lately)  I gave no thought to what that would do to his feline friends until the next morning when I went in and saw the terror in Ashley, McGoo and Pigeon’s eyes. I can’t put him in the introduction cage. PIITA is in there. So I developed a Plan C. It’s only temporary (God willing) until the medicine kicks in right now. He’s throwing it up every time he’s been given it.

I took one of Kota’s old cages. The problem was putting a cat in a cage who isn’t used to living in a small cage. Although this is not small, they generally get a little bit frantic. Bentley already is frantic. So what I have done is, I found a smaller cage. I took off the door to that, and slid it into the bigger cage. I filled the smaller cage with straw so he could nestle down and stay warm. Thankfully, the cage is large enough that the litter pan and the water bowl and food bowls fit fine. He still has room to move around and when he wants to sleep , all he has to do is snuggle down in the straw. It keeps the straw from getting thrown all over the cage. It also prevents the litter from getting thrown all over the cage because it’s big enough to stay away from the water and food bowls. It’s not the Ritz or the Hilton , but it’s all I’ve got: he has recently earned a new nickname. I call him, “My Energizer Bunny on Crack!” It is very evident to me at this time why they call this Hyper-thyroidisim. They can’t cure it, they don’t know why it happens. Both cat and owner just have to learn together how to live with it. So that’s what we’re doing. At night when the temperature drops, I cover him with a heavy blanket.

Recently, I learned of someone who just moved in up on the hill next to me. The scuttlebutt about this elderly woman, os she’s a hoarder. She doesn’t hoard newspapers, magazines, books, quilts, instead, she hoards cats. Not only does she hoard cats, but she does not believe in spaying and neutering either, which doesn’t surprise me. Most people around here do not believe that that’s the necessary part of taking care of a cat.

Sadly, this rumor is true. This morning while I was walking then now healed, and very happy Kota to the creek, he suddenly went into stealth mode. He had alerted to the path that goes down to the creek.He was stock-still with one paw up. That his tell that he sees something. At first, I didn’t see anything, then all of a sudden six kitty heads come popping out of the bushes. Oh my gosh, cute kitties. Look to be around 7-8 weeks old? What I saw were two white marbles, long-haired tabbies. Two black kitties, one orange kitty, and one white kitty

I put Kota on a “down-stay. I started walking slowly towards the kitties, talking to them softly. The first ones to split the scene were the two black kitties. The others soon followed, all except the orange kitty. He let me get just a few feet from him before he turned around and followed his friends.

Why can’t people just spay and neuter? It’s such an easy thing to do and it solves so many problems. It saves so many cats. It makes what I do nonessential. Boy those would be the days.

I do know a lot of the people that live up on that hill. Most of them love cats and most of them feed the outdoor kitties. I simply cannot do this anymore. For so many reasons. If they get close enough to the house and get along with the other cats, then maybe I can at least get them trapped spay and neutered and released. But other than that, I’m not feeding back by the creek anymore. It’s just not possible.falling in the creek a few months ago has made it almost impossible for me to even walk back to the creek. I forced myself when Kota was on limited activity for two weeks. Every day twice a day, I walked him back to the creek. But I paid for it in the end.

I  had Ia recent scare with Bentley. Overnight, he went from a loving, wonderful kitty, to a very skinny aggressive, over-the-top behavior cat. He lost so much weight so quickly, he was spitting, hissing, growling, open-mouth, panting. I knew he wasn’t rabid. I had a cat when I was growing up that had rabies and I am very well aware of the signs and symptoms. Fortunately, he was not like that it was different. He bit me multiple times. He bit me so hard on my foot,  his tooth went right through my shoe, into the nail of my big toe! That was not pleasant for either one of us. I went to urgent care. I had to fill out the paperwork and the health department requires when a cat bites you it needs to be quarantined. I quarantined him and he does not have rabies. I knew he didn’t.

Took him to the vet fully expecting the vet to put him to sleep for neurological damage. Come to find out he has hyper-thyroidism. I have never had a cat with a problem with their thyroid. It’s amazing how different they become in such a short period of time. His T4 is 9.6. I have started him on medication. The first half a pill he took he threw up. Now he’s completely stopped eating, which is odd because before I swear he was eating so viciously I could’ve given him anything and he would’ve ate it .  He would not stop eating. He was so ravenously hungry. The good news is all his other bloodwork is great! For a 14 year-old kitty, that’s pretty good.

I was told to confine him, however that is not possible because he sprays like a fire hose. He was so unhappy being confined that all he did was cry and want outside. No eating no drinking, nothing just a very sad and unhappy kitty. I finally decided to just let him out and go back to his regular routine where he is outside in the morning, then around six or 7 o’clock he goes back into the cat enclosure. He gets his pill every 12 hours so I’m able to do that, but I have to roll it in tuna which is not very easy if you’ve ever tried to do anything like that. But at least he kept it down.

I received a wonderful donation yesterday from someone in town. Two cat condos. They were in pretty good shape, but they were also drenched in urine. So I got to work with my Urine-Off snd scrub brush. Now both of the condos are inside the cat enclosure. This was an answered prayer because my cat condos are totally thrashed. They have been in there for years.

Well  as I said before, this is the last month of my nonprofit. They will suspend it at the end of this month. I found out that after a year when they go to update their website, my address will no longer be available or my phone number.

I hope this medicine works for Bentley. The alternatives are the gel which is not that effective and doesn’t work quick enough. Radiography using iodine, or the surgery for removal of the thyroid. I can’t pill him. I tried to use those pill poppers. he broke those in half with his teeth! He’s not really a touchable kitty when it comes to his mouth and that’s probably because he has been suffering from stomatitis. Recently, I’ve been giving him powdered deer antler. Dr. Steve was quite surprised yesterday when he was able to actually look into Bentley’s mouth. The stomatitis has sank to the size of a penny on both sides of his throat .

Wishing ieverybody a happy And safe day.

I thought I would show you the startling appearance of Bentley:

This was him before:

I have stripped the cat room down to its bare bones. I am sure that Bartholomew will do some remodeling of his own. Right now he is settling in fairly well, although his eyes do not look like they are relaxed yet. So I am taking it very slow, he has bit me three times when he was outside, so I’m not taking any chances on petting him for any period of time just small pets during the various times that I come into feed him.

The vet puts him at three years old, which makes me sad because that’s a very long time to be a tomcat in this world today. Surprisingly, he had no open wounds or scars, however, he was full of fleas and he is packed with worms. His ripples on his neck show me that he has not been treated well in his life. He’s lost a lot of body mass so we are feeding him very slowly during the day so that he doesn’t gorge himself and get sick.

This morning when I woke up and went in there, he was sleeping on the couch. I was happy to see him up there, because there is a warming pad. It got a little cold last night. But then today it got a little hot so we’re in that in-between Indian Summer type  weather right now.

He is the type of kitty that when you have to kerp your guard up. Thick socks, heavy shoes and your socks tucked under your jeans. If he’s going to attack you, that’s going to be where he will zone in to get you.

Trust comes in time. Once his eyes relax, I’ll start really working with him. But for now it’s just in and out getting things done and leaving.

I’m not sure, but I think that Bartholomew is leaving me a very clear message that he was not happy having his freedom taken from him! L O L. My plan is to keep him in the cat room for a couple of months, introduce him slowly to my outside crew. Then take him around to the sanctuary and introduce him to them. See where he fits the best and go from there. Right now I am cleaning up the cat room and trying to remove everything because I am pretty sure he’s going to spray. One thing is during the rebuild. We did not do the cat room. I didn’t really see the point because feral cats and stray. Cats do spray both male and female and even neutered and spayed. They will spray .

speaking of neuter, he is getting his neuter this morning. He tested negative for all the infectious diseases.

Meet Bartholomew- he is one of the three strays that showed up right after the end of The Jamboree. This country music event draws people from all over. In the past, we’ve had entertainers such as Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, etc. Some pretty heavy hitters.

This kitty when he showed up, his balls are bigger than his head. I’ve never seen anything like it. I knew I had to trap him pretty quick because I think something’s  wrong with him. But he is very Alpha. He’s already challenged two of my Alpha cats. I have been breaking up catfights recently at night.He is little but mighty. He’s also loud, hence his name.

He was eating this morning and chasing the other cats away from the food. I have been working with him very slowly, and he was starting to trust me. I actually petted him the other day very briefly before he tried to bite me.

I went inside and fetched my top-end cat carrier, my No-Cry gloves. I figured that he would take-off the minute I put the cat carrier on the ground near him, but he was busy eating. I distracted him by giving him more wet food. I went to pick him up by the scruff only to discover that he is so depleted he doesn’t have a scruff. This kitty has no fat on him whatsoever.

I said a quick prayer slipped off my left glove. I bent over, I grabbed his neck as gently as I could, and I put my gloved hand underneath him. I  was able to put him in the carrier. He did not act like a feral cat when they are cornered. He didn’t rush the door or start going crazy, but he was yelling very loud. He was not happy that his freedom was taken away.

I called my vet to see if I could get him in this morning for a neuter. They can’t take him until tomorrow. I almost choked when they told me how much a neuter is these days $164.48!! For a 10 minute surgery, on a stray cat, who doesn’t even need a pain pill afterwards!

Because of Kota’s recent surgery, I have $12.32 left in CATS . In my own primary account, I have $18.50 to run for a month. But Kota’s surgery was paid for.

Please, if you have any coffee, money, rattling around in your truck or car. Or maybe some mad money stuffed in your wallet? I could really use it right now. More importantly so could Bartholomew.

When I went outside this morning to feed Momma- she was waiting for me. She startled me, she wasn’t in her accustomed place. She was waiting for me in a pile of brush that I had just cut down. This pile is  in front of her feeding station. She darted in front of me, but stopped short of going out-of-reach. I put her food down in the bowls. Glancing over,  I saw she was still there. Taking a chance, I placed my hand flat on the ground near her. I waited not looking at her. I felt her breath on my hand. then she head-bumped my hand!

I needed that this morning, this is the morning that Kota has his eye surgery. Even since our last visit to the vet which was just a few weeks ago, the growth has gotten bigger. He’s been pawing at it quite a lot. He also has been crying out in his sleep lately. I will be glad when this growth is gone.

Momma is slowly coming out of the shadows! She still won’t let me get very close to her, but I just keep doing what I’m doing and hoping it works. She vanished for a couple of days making me worry more about her. But she’s back now. Isn’t she pretty?