This morning, near one of the feral feeders, I saw a cat who looked vaguely familar. Not believing what I was seeing, I called for her- “Mattie?” I knelt down and she came slowly over to me and I wept when I saw her. Mattie has been gone from here for a long time. She was originally from a feral colony I cared for, and I had to pull her out as she is one of those cats that if you look at her, she matts! She was an inside/outside kitty here, and one night, she simply vanished! She is a tortise-shell and now she is half of what she weighed. I took her inside, shaved her and rushed her to the vet.
She has a severe case of gingivitis, she is suffering from being malnourished. I am really the only one within miles who feeds ferals. 🙁 She has flakes of skin just shedding off her from dehydration. He gave her a depo-medra shot, some ointment for the two infections in her ears and some clinidrops. But he said, overall, for all the time she has been missing (over six months) she is in reasonable shape. She tested negative for all the diseases.
She is in the bedroom- Fiona is now in general population so Mattie has the bedroom all to herself. I got head-bumped to death by this loving cat but she is now under the bed, understandably upset about the vet visit. I will be feeding her small amounts of measured food about 8 times a day and will take her back for re-evaluation in ten days. It was absolutely wonderful to know that I didn’t have to worry about the bill, because not only did I pay the vet bill off, but I left some in the kitty for such an emergency.
I have had a lot of cats simply vanish from here. Not many have returned. Some, I find later- victim of a hungry road, or I find pieces of fur in the field evidence that a coyote found my cat before I could. I am grateful that somehow God led her back to us and appreciative that other than malnourishment she should be okay in few weeks-
Maybe I better just leave that cat magnet alone. There are other treasured kitties who vanished from us, perhaps, they too will follow the magnet’s pull and find their path home-
I really appreciate your feelings. Even though we all humans are gifted with a heart, many of them fail to use it, when it comes to animals. Animals are so innocent, they can?t even ask for food when they are hungry or starving. So, with more people like you, earth will be a much beautiful place for all the animals including cats. And I think the term ?feral cats? will be vanished from earth. I wish you all the best, and hope your other cats may also return someday like ?Mattie?.