She was indeed spayed today and she went through it with flying colors. They had her on oxygen the entire time and they had a tray of “what if’s” nearby should she suddenly take a turn for the worse. But my vet uses a three cocktail drug combination that doesn’t even include the original drugs she was first given. She was in there a bit longer because they were being cautious and they saw evidence that she has had a LOT of litters. NO more of that now!

She is back in isolation, hiding under the supply cabinet- so I just draped it with a blanket and turned the heater on fairly high. It is going to be 20 degrees tonight! YIKES! She did come out and went into her customary hiding place (between my knees) but she is still loopy because they kept her under so long. I think she will be fine and hope the food I left for her will be gone in the morning.

I believe I well keep Agatha as a name for this calico beauty. I just got back from the vet and he kept referring to her tail as a “mystery” tail. Since I am a librarian’s daughter and I love to read and was hooked on Agatha Christie’s mystery books- Agatha fits her. Besides, if I adopt her out to an elderly couple, Agatha would fit there too.

She is going to be at the vet’s for a few days until they spay her and in the meantime, they will do a few prelim tests to be sure her heart is sound. It is a bit rapid but there is no discernable mummur. She was a champ and negative for the nasties. YAY!! Hoping they will be able to spay her tomorrow, but if not then they will do it Weds. They will have precautions ready but the vet believes the problem was with the vet who did the initial spay and the amount and the combination of drugs they used (all repress respiration) He doesn’t anticipate a problem but will have a trachotomy tray ready just in case and some other measures. I told him if they do encounter a problem they can’t readily fix- then just let her go to the Bridge. She is not 8 years old, she is about 4 years old according to her teeth and condition. She was loving everyone there-

If this new kitty got any more aggressive trying to get me to pet her- I would need protection! I am still puzzled where her “feralness” is? But I have always maintained that in this part of the state anyway, “ferals” are few and far between. Most cats I have worked with fall into the category of “strays with feral tendencies.”

Phoenix is eating which is a grand sign! Some cats won’t eat for days on end and then it gets troublesome. But she gave me some activity in her litterpan last night and a bit of the kibble is gone.So even though she has cats peering at her through the window, it doesn’t seem to bother her all that much.

She will go to the vet today and hopefully they will just keep her and do the spay tomorrow. It will depend on how heavy their spay schedule is right now.

Here is her tail which is more than likely a genetic mutation. The fact that she threw two polydactyl kittens in her last litter sort of confirms this tail was this way from birth.

Tail

Glad to see that Phoenix is warm this morning. It was bitter cold last night. She hasn’t eaten, she worried the cat litter but didn’t produce anything. When I knelt down to see her, she scrambled for her favorite spot, between my knees, demanding to be petted and loved. Her eyes are still wide and not relaxed and I am sure she is thinking, “What in the world happened to my life?”

She is just so loving. One of the kittens jumped up on the ramp outside and walked by the window, and I could feel her stiffen. No growls, just an alert posture. She did not charge the window and I take that for a good sign.

This morning, she got a hot meal, but I suspect she won’t be eating any of it. She is still trying to figure out her new world. I wish I could just bring her inside, but without adequate protection, testing and the spay- that is impossible. I’ll be out to visit her again later and give her more lovins.

One of the cats rescued from that hoarder’s home months ago, has been crying almost non-stop. I am so close to gaining her trust and being able to capture her and get her to the vet. This morning, instead of ducking under the deck, she sat some distance away and just cried as I filled her food bowl and gave her fresh water. I am sure she is full of fleas and other parasites, but she won’t go in a trap (that’s how I caught her in this man’s filthy home. She won’t go under the drop trap or into the wooden box that Mike built that doubles as a cat trap as well. It is just a small building of trust that will capture her and get her the help she needs.I have found that males trust quicker than females. I wonder if it has to do with some maternal instinct that keeps strangers at bay?

Phantom is staying indoors for the most part now, but she is still just within my reach. It’s frustrating to know these cats need help and wanting to help them becomes almost a full-time job. Patience is the key. Hmm maybe that would be a good name for the hoarder’s cat, because that is what it is going to take to catch her.

I see no trace of an aggressive feral. She was hiding underneath my knees just minutes ago, begging to be petted. Of course I caved! 🙂 She is scared out of her wits, but she still just wants to be the center of my attention. Sadly, the place she will probably spend the night is between the two litter pans. I put a heated cat pad there as tonight it is going to dip into the 30’s. I made her a snug little cat cave to keep the warmth in as we haven’t insulated the room yet. There is also a small space heater (oil) electric that I will plug in at midnight to keep her warm.

Phoenix is beautiful and has a puzzling tail. It isn’t manx- it isn’t full-length it is half of both. Either a genetic defect or she got injured in her many years outside.The first owner “lost” her five years ago- although looking at the photos, I don’t think they are the same cat.

Regardless, she is here, scared, confused but she has food, water, litterpans, warmth and a roof over her head. She will go to the vet Monday and we will see what happens from there. But my evaluation of her is she is just scared not aggressive. She would make someone an awesome companion-

Here she is scared but alive:

Her cage is ready to go and she sits in Portland and waits until I can get to her or get halfway to her. After paying most of my expansive vet bill, there is only a little left in the Kitty. I am not sure what her spay will entail- we won’t know that until she is actually here, been accessed by my vet and evaluated and the operation is underway. If they have to use special breathing machines or different anesthesia the cost could be substantial. But I will not let her be a victim of her hormones much longer. No reason to take an aggressive cat and not do all that is possible to stop the aggression. If you can contribute- God Bless You- We stay afloat on top of the kindness and compassion of others.Otherwise, we would sink like a stone.

Just got off the phone with the woman who rescued Agatha. She was found July 2nd of this year by a neighbor along with three kittens about 7 weeks old. The neighbor couldn’t keep the cats so this other woman took the family and found homes for all the kittens. She kept the mom and took her in to be spayed- (they used phenobarbital, morphine and ace-promozine during the process) and Agatha stopped breathing. She was brought back and it was decided NOT to spay her suspecting a cardiac issue.

The woman has two other cats, a husband and a small child, and she suffers from depression/ anxiety attacks. The cats don’t get along which intensifies the depression and she just wants the peace in her home to return.

Since the arrival of Agatha, the other two cats who have gotten along- are now fighting (which is fairly common). The gal doesn’t want to invest any more time in trying to get everyone on the same page. She has contacted all the different rescue groups and shelters only to be turned down for various reasons: to old, too aggressive no room…

When asked if she took the time to try and find the original owner, she said she had tried and on a fluke, did find someone in Newburg who claimed to own the calico and wanted her back. The rescuer lives in Beaverton (that’s about 30 miles) But, when she tried to give the cat back to the owner, she was told suddenly the girl couldn’t take her back and didn’t want her. So there you go.

I go to pick Agatha up in the morning. We will meet halfway so it will be a two hour drive on my end. My vet called tonight, he got the faxed vet records and there is confusion as if this cat has even been vaccinated- SO she will go into my isolation room at first and I will vaccinate her from beginning to end before putting her into the main enclosure cage so she can get used to the others.

We talked about just having her treated with a new pet exam. If he hears anything abnormal in her chest or finds something alarming, then he will do chest films and bloodwork if warranted to find out if something is wrong with her that would prevent a spay. She’s never even been tested for any diseases, and so that will be the first thing we will do just to be safe. If there is nothing alarming found, she will be put into the spay schedule and they will not use the drugs previously mentioned (they don’t use two of those drugs anyway and haven’t for many years). So that’s the plan.

The hope is the spay goes well, over time, Agatha will accept the others, or I can find her a home where she will be an only cat. Sometimes, cats get the short end of the stick, and it sounds like Agatha is one of those cats. We will see how it goes-Poor thing- 8 years old and she has had kittens-more than one litter you can bet. That’s a lot of stress for a cat to handle.

The woman cried when I told her I would take Agatha. She said she will be glad to cancel the vet appointment where Agatha was going to be euthanized for “extreme aggression.”

Just finished reading about a group of scientists in Uganda who are attempting to trap wild cats for study. Unable to get them into the traps with dead meat, the scientists instead turned to Calvin Klein’s Obsession cologne for men. Seems to have done the trick- so just putting it out there for people trying to trap wild cats that won’t go into cages.

Speaking of cages, just painted Agatha’s future home. We set up a heater to help dry the paint and once that is done, we will put in the linoleum and it will be ready for her. I wonder if she is ready for us though? 🙂

A few weeks ago, I received an email with a plea for help. There is a calico kitty in Portland with a timeline on her life. She was rescued by a lady who then took her in to be spayed but she had a bad reaction during the operation and they declined to spay her. She almost died. The woman took her back home where she got pregnant, had several kittens and was an excellent mom but her aggression factor became almost intolerable.

The woman has other cats and they are now being threatened by this calico’s behavior. The gal has contacted (according to what I have been told) all the humane societies, shelters, and rescue groups. No one wants to take her on- I was asked “Could I take her?”

My first inclination was to say no, but instead, I wrote to the owner and explained all that has transpired here recently. She immediately contacted me and said she would get the cat fully vaccinated and keep her long enough for all the boosters to take effect before bringing her here to the sanctuary.

I gave her a list of things I would need for this kitty and told her the first thing I would do is take her in to my vet to be spayed. I needed all chart notes on the first operation so we could see what drugs she had a reaction to and avoid putting her in harm’s way. She was initially supposed to be spayed at a low-cost clinic, but they do keep chart notes I would think.

I will be starting on her new room today. It will be inside of the old enclosure- essentially it will be 8’x8′ two rooms- one room inside the other with a long corridor. One room being the introduction room, the other the sick room. The walls will be insulated, there will be a plexi-glass viewing window and if a cat does get inside, there is a long narrow corridor to capture the cat before it gets inside either room.

It will have a linoleum floor and the shelves will also be covered in linoleum (hard for germs to stick on that substance!) So, I better get to work. We are short some of the supplies, but we can make this work temporarily. The motto of this sanctuary is “We take cats others won’t.” I am so tired of death and the fact that this cat has a date with a needle, just chills me to the bone. No one wants to spay her and no one wants to live with her aggression. Unless my vet decides otherwise, her spay will be the first priority after she arrives.

Meet Agatha

poIt is so nice to just be able to relax for a time. esterday, Chance went in to get spayed and she was my LAST (can I throw a party?) After all the euthanasias, the necropsies, the cremations, the mounting vet bills and all the worries, I made a payment on the bill when I picked her up. To my relief, my remaining balance is $97.04!!! (May I throw another party?) I again thank those who helped me wade through the tremendous vet bills and whittle it down to a manageable level. I couldn’t have saved the cats and kittens I did without your support.

Cagney, Sophia and Kojak got their last boosters and are now in with the general population. Mike is thrilled because I made the bedroom off limits to him while they were recuperating from exposure to feline distemper. He had never even met them yet! B-Dog scares the hair right off them, but she just lies down and looks at the spitting hissing kitties and knows that this too will pass.

This morning as the fed in Cyclone’s enclosure, Phantom stuck her head in the door. I just turned my back and continued to feed the others. As I left when I turned to set the lock, I noticed she was in the with the others eating (I am throwing a lot of mental parties these days!)

I am going to go for it with the contest that Halo and Petco and Ellen Degeneres have put together and I thank the person who called my attention to it. I am going to share the story of Reed a kitty who was poisoned by a product the person bought off the shelf.It was a flea shampoo (a very popular brand) but it harms cats and can even kill kittens). Why it is still available is beyond me. Despite being shampooed and dipped with this product, Reed survived. She grew all her hair back, no internal damage to her and she went on to be adopted by a wonderful lady who lives in rural Oregon. At my last visit, when I saw this wonderful fluffball and remembered how she looked when she arrived- the transformation was remarkable. It is amazing what TLC and vet care can accomplish. There are several grants available in this contest, so wish me luck. The composition can’t be over 500 words.

I need to go, I slept in this morning a rare treat for me. Mike needs to get his shower, then I have to wrap his legs so he can put on his therapy boots and get on with his days. Cagney has leaped on this keyboard no more than 7 times as I wrote this. Maybe, she is an aspiring writer too-

Take care of yourselves, hug those you love and smile at those you see on the street. I noticed the other day, no one smiles anymore. After losing all my tears to grief and heartache, I am tired of being sad and look to change my outlook when I am in public. My friend at the grocery store this morning told me she was glad to see me looking “chipper” again. I never thought I would smile again and am glad that I was wrong.