As I went out front this morning to feed the porch kitties, I looked out in the road and saw a blackness lying there. One of the recently dumped black cats here has gotten hit on the road. I have my traps set and caught three of them, but the other traps remain empty except for local wildlife or black cats already familiar to me. This one, I couldn’t get to in time. Mike said at least in the last of his days, he had food, water and contact with friendly people and other cats.

George, my wonderful cat savvy maintenance man just swung by to talk to me. It appears he is losing his home after a long struggle to try and keep it. He has four cats- one, Sammi is a senior boy. He is so funny- he likes it outside and when he sees George, he runs over and immediately falls down on his back exposing his tummy to be rubbed. The other three cats are younger (one has already been placed in a new home breaking George’s heart) but sometimes you just have to roll with it.

George really wants to keep Sammi. He knows that because Sammi is a senior, the chances of him finding a new home are pretty slim. The new landlord will charge him a one-time pet fee of $300.00 if he brings Sammi to the new place. George only has so much money right now and the $300.00 isn’t going to happen.

I told him, I would put the word out and see if we can raise it for him. I have seen the relationship between these two and it is not something that should be ending because of a dumb pet deposit. If you could spread the word through social media so George and Sammi can stay together- perhaps between all of us trying- the monies will be raised. George and his family has to move in the next two weeks.

Here is the man of the hour- Sammi

Thank you to those of you digging deep. So appreciated! Plus Mike and I talked last night and decided to let George know if he can find someway to build another cat enclosure on our property for his remaining cats, we would let him do so and take care of his cats until they find another home. After all, what’s another cat enclosure between friends? LOL I can’t figure out how to put the settings on the thermometer but we are at $221.00 right now!!!

The last few days of my life have (in my opinion) been manufactured in hell and left me shaken to my core. I wrote it all out yesterday in a private email and re-reading it over just made me shake my head in disbelief, and I was the one who lived it. It reads like a bad Stephen King novel but it is real not made-up and the victims are four-legged, innocent and no one seems to know what happened to a massive clowder of cats owned by a hoarder. A group of stray and feral cats who vanished virtually overnight. The whole incident is simply unbelievable and there are still so many questions left unanswered.

So this afternoon, I received a package from Amazon and someone (I don’t know who) has sent my newly rescued kittens 6 cases of kitten food! Thank you if you are reading this. You have no idea what a blessing it was for us and how timely the delivery of this blessing was on a really dark day where I found myself questioning the existence of evil and why God would allow such atrocities to occur.

I know I am not saying much and it may seem a bit of an enigma to some and perhaps in the coming days if answers start to reveal themselves, I will expand on this post. But for now- I have nothing else to say, except again Thank You to the kitten food angel-

Sweet Patch who just wants to be loved by someone and who was abandoned by her previous family in favor of a laberdoodle puppy now has a new home. I had a bit of reservations when I went inside this home- to say it is cluttered is putting it mildly- but they have so much love (and no other pets) in the home. It is organized clutter- not dirty clutter but the eight year old boy sat quietly on the floor and allowed Patch to come to him and sniff him out. I was praying throughout the entire visit (I was there two hours) but the love just overflowed and the mother confessed that recently she has been diagnosed with a disease that is taking her eyesight gradually. She uses the paths for a purpose to get around the house. I told Mike when I got home, that in the past, I have put cats into clean, immaculate homes and then been sorry for it later; Fog who died when the little boy decided to abuse him after his parents went to bed- and one woman who allowed Tumbles to live underneath the bed for over a week “forgetting” to feed him- so a clean house doesn’t always mean the best place for a cat to be.

When I left, Patch was curled up in Brianna’s lap purring away. Patch is a sweet torbie who came to us about three months ago as an owner-surrender.

I am also turning down so many bottle babies daily. I stand firm at not bringing the newborns here because of the panleuk we had last year. But it kills me not to be able to help these people who don’t know what to do with the kittens they are finding. So this morning, I put a carefully worded ad on CL asking for qualified bottle baby feeders and I immediately got a huge response! I will be meeting with these people in the next week and if they qualify, I will put them on a list and start bringing the bottle babies to them. One woman has been fostering bottle babies over 50 years and I got such a giggle over how excited she was to meet with me on Saturday so she can “help the wee ones out.” She has a Scottish accent and I found her delightful. They must provide two references and a current vet that they work with- otherwise it’s not going to happen. I am amazed at the responses that came in so quickly and the people are all local which helps a lot.

Mike was helping me early this morning to lift a bin of cat food and now he has a huge hemotoma on his chest (the size of Texas) 🙁 I was trying to do most of the lifting, but he just picked it up before I was ready and hugged it to his chest and now he is suffering and I feel so bad. We go to Portland tomorrow so the doctors can take a look at it and make sure nothing major was bruised besides his skin. Poor Mike- his life is not how it used to be. But his kitty Taylor- she stays right by his side and offers him such comfort. It was 98 degrees today and when I came inside, I saw he was wrapped up in a blanket! I asked him if he was okay and he said “I’m hot, but Taylor wanted the blanket!” LOL

I posted something earlier this morning, but for the sake of the security of my cats, I have deleted it. I’ve had enough trouble in the past with people who do wrong by their cats making my cats their target. So after discussing it with Mike, I decided to just do what needs to be done behind the scenes and not make it public knowledge. Everything I do is for the cats and if someone doesn’t understand that, it’s their problem not mine.

It made me cry but then I am a softie when it comes to all things CATS!

Hug of the Century

He was maybe two years old. I got the call about an hour ago about a half-dead cat found in a yard. I rushed over to find this black cat in dire straits. Emaciated, dehydrated, crawling with bugs, abscessed wounds on the body, his tongue kept flicking in and out as if he was so thirsty he couldn’t stand it. He refused the syringed water I gave him (to weak) I bundled him up and called my feline specialist but he died enroute. His ears were torn, his eyes matted shut, his fur matted- poor kitty deserved so much better than he got. I laid him in the forest and covered him with ferns. I know he is in a better place- I just wish he had been found sooner.

This morning, I removed Fiona’s food bowl from the upper ramp and packed it away. It was made specially for her from a talented artist friend of mine when she learned that Fiona had come out on top of a pit bull attack. It is pink and yellow and proclaims “Warrior Princess.” Her pawprints are on our bulletin board and her memory remains strong in our hearts. She was an amazing calico girl whose life was cut way to short for our liking- but the reality is, most cat owners feel that way about the beloved cats who have passed on. They never live as long as we want them to or need them to.

Darcie will be spayed on Monday. The other kittens are still to skittish for me to touch, although we are getting closer to first contact with two of them. I see three new black cats in our yard now. I don’t know where they came from and just pray they are neutered. All three are skinny as the dickens and they slink around the buildings hiding at any sound they hear. They look like adults but until I trap them, I won’t know for sure.

Mike got home late yesterday. He has a big list of what he can’t do and his blood will be monitored locally three times a week. Wayfarin is a pretty nasty drug regarding side effects. I have a long list of foods he can’t eat while on this medication. He is so bruised up- he looks like a domestic abuse victim. Taylor missed him so much. She had been sleeping with me in his absence, but now, I am once again chopped liver and he is the apple of her eye. She won’t let him out of her sight at the moment.

Yesterday, I drove up to see Mike and didn’t get home until late. Instead of feeding the outside kitties, I fell asleep on the couch (my granddaughter would say “My Bad!”) This morning when I went out to feed, Blake and Sawyer were fighting among themselves which is odd because they get along just fine, and it is just the two of them alone in that huge stall enclosure. They heard me pop the can of cat food open and they just went for each other. Thank God they don’t have teeth at least not much to speak of. I guess all those years of neglect living with Karen is triggered by missed meals and I won’t do that again. They have dry food and plenty of it, the problem is they can’t eat it easily because of their mouth issues. I had been scaling back their wet food as we are running out of canned cat food fairly quickly. Lots of dry, just no canned. But they pretty much told me this isn’t acceptable for them. Putting liquid on the dry food doesn’t appease them and it just sits and gets soggy and full of ick when it sits for a few hours.

They both got the last two cans of wet food along with my apologies for my not showing up during feeding time last night. I have a few cans of tuna on the shelf- guess that will have to do for tomorrow. Cats, gotta love em!

Got a call this morning about a family of kittens found in an old shed. The woman was so excited, said they were so cute, the size of newborn mice but momma was hissing and spitting and wouldn’t let her near them. Hmmm I wonder why? 🙂 I told her to just leave them alone, block the mom in the shed, start feeding mom about 5 times a day different things including kitten chow and cat milk and provide her with several litterpans since she won’t be getting out. They are going to block up the shed with some trellis they have on hand so they can give the cats air- and the way she was talking, I suspect she has already fallen in love with this unexpected family. I told her I would help her to socialize the mom but I couldn’t take the family right now. I did tell her to stay away from the new mom (a tortie) they are very tempermental and she could be nailed if she isn’t careful. I told her you can get nailed IF you are careful!