My declawed kitty has been moved into a foster home with a lady who fosters for me about 6 years ago until she fell in love with Sonic and adopted him. He died recently and she called yesterday and told me how much she missed her tuxedo kitty. He was 18 when he passed. She asked me if I had any tuxedos available, and I told her about this boy. We went to see her and I’ll be dipped if he didn’t just walk out of his carrier and go and sit on her lap! I told her he has to potential to strike out unexpectedly, but again, there are other cats here and Patsy has no kitties. She just laughed and said it was love at first sight so I don’t have to worry. She said she will be in touch if they have issues, but she doesn’t forsee any happening. When I left, he was curled up asleep in her lap.  I am not sure, but I think an adoption is looming.

Just received this email that made me smile:

Good Morning Mary Anne,

I know you had concerns about Clawdius and his first night here (do you like his name?) He has shown no aggression towards anything but the bowl of water on the floor. He tries to bathe in it! He sticks his feet in the darn thing and splashes water everywhere. I had to mop anyway this just gave me an excuse.

He slept on the bed until 6 and then I was woken by a soft pat on my forehead. His telling me it was time to get up and get fed. He is delightful and eases the ache in this old heart. I decided I am not going to foster him, I will adopt him. Please send me the proper paperwork and let’s get this done!

Thank you Mary Anne. My smile has been discovered again-

Trying to unwind from the last few days, I took a can of soda out and went to pop the top and heard this horrible noise…………..the photo speaks for itself. (No soda or human were harmed during this event). I just got a bit sticky and the cats had a ball licking up the floor!

I can’t wrap my head around the fact that this is distemper that took Avis. First of all, until just a few days ago she was eating like there was no tomorrow. With distemper they don’t eat. She was also drinking a lot of water (until she shut down) there was no vomiting, no bloody diarrhea, no lethargy. They tested her for distemper and although it isn’t conclusive because it is designed for dogs. It’s the canine scratch test, she came out negative. Maybe I am in denial, I don’t know but if it were distemper how in the world did her newborn kittens survive for over a week?

When distemper hit here 8 years ago, we lost 17 cats/kittens in two weeks. NO one here is ill- and the two other cats who came from the same trailer park are doing well- eating, drinking, hiding from me, using the litterpans, normal stool. Distemper shows no mercy and takes no prisoners.

I built the bonfire- burned two cat condos, all the bedding, the nursing box, the litterpans all of it went up in flames. I am not going to take the chance and say definitely that this wasn’t distemper but it sure didn’t act like that dreaded disease. I have to wonder if it might have been FIP instead? Only a blood test (white blood count) would say if it was distemper, but that is a moot point now as Avis was put down early this morning.

She has been laid to rest this morning alongside her babies. The whole family was put to sleep. The vets fear distemper. This shuts us down for five to seven years now to help kittens and we can’t help the adults until they are vaccinated against distemper and put somewhere safe for 5 days for the vaccine to take effect.

I made a huge bonfire this morning and burned everything that Avis and the kittens laid on or used. Lots more cleaning and sterilizing to do- grief and mourning will come later. Her temp this morning was 105.9 and we just decided to stop being heroic and let her find peace.

Here is the cover of our 2017 Rescue Calendar- I am so pleased with the entire content, the whimsy and artistic expression that went into the photos, the captions, the lay-out everything! God Bless two of my blog readers who made all this possible. I am still in shock and awe over it all~

Avis will be at the vet till Monday. She isn’t doing good and could use plenty of prayers-the kittens are doing great! She is still nursing them and when separated from them, she goes ballistic. I think they are the only reason she is still alive right now. Her mothering instincts are over the top.

She will hopefully be coming home today with her babies. I will know more after noon. I have to run and pick up donations and will stop at the clinic after to see how she spent the night. She is such a good mother that even at her sickest point, she was nursing those babies. She figured out a way to prop herself up so her throat was arched (she couldn’t breathe) so she could nurse and care for her little ones.

She is not out of the woods yet. Her temp is still in the 104 range and she isn’t eating. I went back to say hello to her and she looks like death warmed over.:( They tested her for distemper (negative thank God)  She looks  so sad but God Bless her, she is still nursing!

Our rescue calendars will go to print on Monday- if you wish to order one they are $10.00 each plus shipping. Please email me and let me know at catsatrisk@comcast.net  Avis her bill right now  is $385.91. I was only able to give them $50.00 at this time but at least there was something there to give.

The vet just called, they have no choice. After looking at the films they are going to open her up and spay her. Her temp is 105.9 but again there is no choice. There is a bone showing now in her films and they believe it has perforated her intestines and caused peritonitis. They will not know until they get in to assess the damage, but if it has punctured through, they will euthanize. One of the baby kittens is also at risk- he isn’t breathing right. I told her that I had a bad feeling about this last night and she said they all share that feeling which is why Avis is now headed into surgery despite all the risks.I guess when she was at the trailer park trying so hard to survive, she ate the wrong thing and now, she is paying the price in a very big way. This also helps to explain the loss of blood she has gone through since birthing those babies. And that is the sad facts of what happens with cats get tossed aside as if they are nothing and left on the streets to survive. They do the best they can and sometimes, it leads to a very fatal conclusion.

4:30 update: She has made it through surgery and will remain at the clinic for a few days until her fever breaks!!!

She is at the vet and hopefully being seen. I did a drop off even though I had an appointment later today. She started open-mouth breathing and I didn’t want to take the chance of losing her and rushed her in.

Looks like our carrier has finally fixed their connectivity issues. Here is Mason the poor boy who was four pawed declawed: 🙁  Not the best photo but he is quite shy at the moment.

Last night, Avis went into high resp.distress. Her fever went up to 104.5 and she was acting erratically. She was removing the kittens from the nest and putting them all in different spots, then she was moving them back again into the main nesting area. I  was watching her and she had heavy drool coming from her mouth, she would not open her mouth so I could see inside. She stopped  eating  and she was choking, coughing and sneezing. I went to give her the clavamox prescribed and she was fighting me tooth and claw. But right after it was finally deposited down her throat, she threw up and about twenty minutes later her face started to swell up!  I contacted my feline specialist and let her know what was going on. I did some research and I think Avis is allergic to the drug. I honestly didn’t believe that she was going to make it through the night. I finally left her at 2 a.m. and went to try and catch some sleep. I had done all I could do, subcu’s, alcohol rubdowns, just sitting with her apologizing and trying to give her some cuddle comfort. Through it all- she continued to nurse her young ones. I put a cool mist vaporizer in with her and left her propped against the back wall with her throat arched so she could breathe.

This morning, she is still here. She is not eating yet, she is still having problems breathing and I DON’T want to take her back to the vet and stress her out further. I am waiting for either my feline specialist to advise me or the clinic to open to see if we can find another drug that is safe to give her to fight this URI. Maybe sitting back and doing nothing is the answer here- I don’t know. But I do know, I do need her to eat. She was eating like there was no tomorrow until last night.

So I’m in bed and about to close my eyes when I hear this sound like baby birds chirping in distress? It’s almost 3 by this time and I am bushed. But then BAM I hear a cat moaning (under the house) and then the major stink starts! One of my outside kitties has discovered Cotton the resident skunk and the smell is penetrating the air and it is rank! I grab my clothes, run outside with our strongest flashlight- do a head count and only one cat is missing MK- he is still missing as of this morning and most of the night- I could him moaning under the house.

Years ago, I rescued 5 baby skunks whose mom got hit on the road outside our house. We hand-raised these skunks to release them into the wild and that is what we did. It was the neatest thing to care for them-they had such personalities.

Even though we put them far afield from our home- no one told me that skunks instinctively come back to the place they were born until they die. Would have been nice to have known that back then *G* Anyway, they do return every year and I have even been sprayed in the face by one of these babies when I stumbled on her in the middle of the night. It is not pleasant- it is a thick oil, it stings, it smells, you hurl it’s nasty. So I know MK is in a world of hurt right now and I can’t get to her. Not only is she under a part of the house you have to be a munchkin to reach, but Cotton left her odor behind. I can’t crawl under there- I will toss my cookies for a week, I kid you not. Skunk oil is bad-

Worst case scenario is that she has it in her eyes.I know from experience that it clouds your vision for at least 12 hours before multiple flushings of water takes it away. I need to get to MK and get that started (and I am only guessing it is MK because she is the only kitty missing this morning) it could just be an unlucky stray who stopped by for a bite and got a big surprise instead. That initial noise I heard (the birds chirping) that is the noise skunks make when they feel threatened. Then, they stomp their feet, turn their back and you need to run when they stamp or you are doomed! LOL

So that’s my day. Need to ask you to please pray for both kitties and stay tuned for the next update here at Miller’s Outpost!

here I am feeding one of the babies

and here they are in their feeding pool

That’s about all I can say regarding yesterday’s situation. We got a call from a local shelter. They had a cat for about 2 weeks but he isn’t “adoptable” (they said). He is a biter, it was explained. He would make a great barn cat- could I come and get him?

We are in the middle of a huge kitten season. I cannot take any more cats here without giving up one I have here already. One who although is very loving and “adoptable” has been repeatedly overlooked. Of course he is black, but the swap was made.

I got the cat a tuxedo male back here and put him in the Introduction cage and just let him decompress. I had a scare with Avis earlier (she developed a bleed) and had to rush her to the vet- get x-rays to see why she was passing so much blood- was there an unborn kitten left inside of her? Thankfully no- but more about that in a minute. So I was concentrated on Avis and her needs and left mason alone with all his immediate needs taken care of.

This morning, I went into his cage to test his temperament and see what and why and how he was aggressive. This kitty is a LOVER not a fighter. he was head-bumping me, rubbing my face and hands, begging for chin scratches, loves ear rubs…I’m thinking to myself: “He has bit several people?” Couldn’t figure that one out. So I was just watching him, petting him, seeing if had a PTSD trigger that would fire at a second’s notice and he would nail someone. Nothing- that’s when I noticed his feet. They didn’t look right. For all the attention seeking he was doing, he wasn’t kneading his claws which is instinctive in cats.

George was coming this morning to work on some projects, so when he got here, we both went into Mason’s cage. George introduced himself carefully. Nothing but good reactions back. So he picked up Mason carefully and I explored his paws. This sweet boy has been FOUR-PAWED DECLAWED! (Insert expletive here!)

On his front paw, since it was a botched declaw- one claw has come back and grown into his pad. I was able to oil it really well with olive oil and clip it and treat the wound.

No wonder he was biting people! If you don’t really know what you are doing around new stray cats and they have been declawed- getting bit would be the first on my list! So for now, we will treat his URI and when it all better, I will hopefully find him a home with an elderly woman who loves cats and doesn’t want to get scratched.

Having some issues with photos right now, so instead of showing Mason at the moment, here is Avis with her babies. The blood she dumped on my floor yesterday turned out to be just from her uterus but she was so full of poo. They gave her an enema at 4:00 p.m. she had a bit of fever but the stool was soft and they expected it to make a showing in the clinic. NOPE- actually no poop arrived till 3:00 a.m. this morning! Not the first time (or the last) where I find myself praying for poop!

And on a Mason note, tonight when I went to feed him his dinner, I accidentally brushed up against his front paw and he bit me. Not hard- didn’t draw blood but he was telling me- Lady watch it- that hurts!

OK here is Avis (I hope) Like I said, having photo issues-