When I took him to the vet, we discovered that the blackness in his ear came from a very bad inner ear infection. The infection was so deep that even after cleaning all the pus out of the ear, the vet could not see what had caused the infection in the first place. While he was being examined, the vet said (I had to stay in the car during the exam). He was animated. I asked how old he was, the vet put him at about 15 or more. He had lost both canines, and although he did not have stomatitis, he had “old man eyes.” The smell that I thought was gangrene the vet said was just all the pus pouring out of his ear. They did a thorough clean of his ear, gave him a Covenia shot and told me to take him home and “give him a week of a chance to rebound.”

I took him home, and again set him up in my bathroom. I stayed with him all night and as I did that, it was clear to me that this boy was on his last legs. He did finally pee and poop, but he did so without getting up. He laid in it, so I gently lifted him up and gave him a gentle bath. The water immediately turned red. As I put him in another carrier near the heater, I pulled his bedding out and saw all the blood there. It was not caused by parasites. There was too much blood. Morning could not come fast enough for me to call the clinic.

I took him in and they euthanized him right away. He was ready to go they said. He went quickly, with dignity and no more suffering will come his way.

He is in a better place now and the only way that I could get rid of the nasty smell of his infection was to leave a bucket of hot water and bleach in my shower overnight. This was after a deep-cleaning of the bathrooom.

Please don’t worry about the vet debt Maureen, it will be okay. I don’t want you to do without. I will always have a vet debt. That is just a given. I am about to have it increase again as I noticed this morning, my black feral girl is unable to pee. Twist is a as skittish as they come. If I try to pet her, she will strike out and bite and scratch me. She means business. She is trap savvy, so I need to come up with a plan to capture her. If she literally cannot pee, she could be dead in three days. She is an avid hunter. I am always dismayed at the amount of trophies she can collect in one day. As I can’t get close to her, I have only successfully been able to deworm her once in the many years she has lived here. I have to figure this out, her life is in great danger.

I only know this because this morning, she was squatting in the deep grass peeing (or so I thought). I was getting ready to feed my other cats, but something stopped me and I stood on the doorstep watching her. She remained in the crouch for the longest time. Concerned, I stepped towards her and she whirled around crying biting frantically at her rear end. The cry was heartbreaking. She is in great pain. Please pray that I find the means to capture her and get her in for treatment. She is on limited time.