Jet-Eye’s mom made it to the house and picked him up. He is now on his way to his new forever home! I hope all goes well when he is introduced in a few weeks to the resident kitty. Like I told Robin, Jet Eye may need you as much as you need him, but for now, it is Clancy’s ball court to see what happens. Out of all the indoor kitties here, Jet only clashed with a kitten around his same age- Quinn. All the others, he got along just fine with them. Fingers crossed Robin that this works for all involved.

Turner now has the enclosure all to herself. She’s to get 200 ml of sub cu’s daily for 4-5 days. She is now eating on her own and although a bit vocal about how unhappy she is being inside, she is adapting better than I thought. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

Got a call yesterday from a lady who has a tomcat trapped in her garage. From the description it sounds like an older mackerel tabby. She was asking me what I would do if I had the cat under my care. She said she had called the shelters but was told that if the cat was not “snuggable” they wouldn’t take it. I don’t think Barney is into snuggling from what I have learned. I told what our procedure was: testing, if positive kitty is put to sleep, if negative, they are vaccinated, neutered, socialized and hopefully will find a home someday. If not, they live here among us. So she said “what if I do everything except keep him?” She is willing to pay for all that needs to be done for him which is not an offer that comes our way often.

I went over there early this morning just to try and assess him- and yes, he is feral. He tried to bite me several times as I was attempting to wrap a towel around him and get him into a carrier. So no, Barney is not into snuggling. I did tell Janine that chances are he would get a name change too unless the neuter drastically changes his temperament! LOL  I almost had him at one point but he was way up on a cupboard in the garage and wouldn’t you know it there was just enough space between the cupboard and the wall for him to slide down and stay out of reach. To get to him would have been a major undertaking and taken half the day to dismantle some shelves in the way. So I told her to set the trap up- wire it open. Start feeding him inside and also to drape a dark towel around the trap to create a safe cave atmosphere. Using tuna, bait the trigger, put the food in the back and once he is comfortable going in and out- take the wire off and catch him. We will see what comes of this sort of feral boy.

That’s what my vet said about Turner. Ben said that chances are the cat got locked in somewhere and couldn’t get much to eat or drink. I had given her 180 ml of fluids last night after I trapped her- he gave her 200 more and she started eating! I am to keep her inside from here on in and give her fluids for 5 days and if she doesn’t rebound then I bring her back and we talk about her options. I am so over the moon that she is still with us!

Unable to get near Turner so far. I’ve tried all my tricks and none are working. She is eating a bit but I really need to figure out how to capture her and get her in and see what they advise. Not giving up, it will happen on her time, not mine. That’s the hardest thing when you work with these semi-feral kitties, they call the shots.

Since that “road trip” Hanna has come down ill. Rather than add to her stress and take her to the vet, I am treating her with antibiotics to stop her hacking cough and runny nose. I know it was stress-induced from the ride. She’s not coughing as much today but her nose is still running. Thankfully the discharge is changing color from green to yellow which means the doxy is working.

Took Mike to Portland yesterday for his wound care appointment. The doctor told us that because Mike’s disease is so severe and advanced- his leg will never heal. When they took off the dressing that I put on yesterday- they found a blood clot the size of a baseball on his leg! It wasn’t there yesterday 🙁 He must have bumped it getting into the truck) The doctor said she believes this sudden onset of blood blisters is a direct result of him taking Warfarin for four days (which was almost four months ago!) BAD drug! We are being referred to Willamette McKenzie Wound Care Clinic which is only an hour away from the house! I looked them up and they are rated number 9 in the United States for extreme wound care. Yay! It’s going to drastically cut down our driving time to and from appointments.

I told Jet-Eye to hang in there. Two more days until he is in his forever home! I think Hanna is just going to end up staying here with us. Right now we have 14 indoor kitties and 10 enclosure cats. Kitten season is starting so I imagine the numbers will start changing soon.

8:19 p.m. By the grace of God, I just trapped Turner. I instantly transferred her into a large carrier and wept when I picked her up. She weighs nothing at all. After tomorrow her suffering will end. She is eating right now and she wrapped her paws around my neck. Although she was so hard to get close to, I have always been able to handle her despite her growls of warning. I think she was telling me thank you for not giving up (which I almost did).

We have a senior sanctuary kitty in bad shape. Turner has been here since she was 8 weeks old. Some low-life put her inside a paper bag, duct taped the bag and tossed her on the highway when she was a kitten. She is now 20 years old and she has lived outside most of her life. I did try to keep her indoors but she shuts down- stops eating, gets depressed. Her decision was to be outdoors so that’s where she has been. She has access to the 24/7 enclosure where the cats can come into the patio enclosure or outside, just not in the house.

I haven’t seen her around for a few weeks and the other morning I caught sight of her and she has lost so much weight. We had into the vet late last year where she was showing signs of kidney failure and now, I just need to trick her inside or trap her and get her in to ease her out of this life and into the next. I almost had her yesterday but Delilah did one of her famous crashes inside the house and the  noise scared the patio kitties. They all scrambled to the only exit before I could shut the door to escape. Turner and Gadget arrived at the same time and in a freak occurrence they both went through the door and got stuck! Gadget is a big Maine Coon and there was a lot of screaming as they struggled to get outside. I was trying to intervene but I was in danger of getting bit- finally they extracaited themselves and now Turner won’t go near the patio enclosure neither will Gadget.

I am going to have to set out all my traps at one time and see who I capture and hope I catch Turner in the process. I would say just guessing- she now weighs about 4 pounds. 🙁

It was a total bust. When we got them back home, both the cats were so stressed. Jet-Eye was open mouth panting! A long way to ask these sensitive cats to travel for nothing. Hanna is hiding in her hutch and Jet-Eye is decompressing upstairs.

People are contacting me  privately asking me what happened. I don’t want to go into the details right now- they aren’t important anyway. What is important are these two cats who had to endure such a long ride and are now going to need a few days to recover. Hanna is hiding in her hutch and growls at me when I even approach her and Jet-Eye who I had in the house for a few hours is back alone in his enclosure. He is eating now- which he wasn’t doing before when I offered him food. Hanna isn’t eating either- but I kind of expect that.

There is always a reason for everything and I am sure God will make it quite plain soon why this trip turned out to be a major disappointment.

“Ah- hem may I have your attention please!” Someone who just read my blog and lives in Oregon has contacted me and she wants to adopt Jet-Eye! She is coming over tomorrow to pick him up and no home check is necessary because she adopted from us already and has passed the home check with flying colors!

Here is Odie Cologne after his neuter. I don’t know- looks pretty “feral” to me!

But you know us crazy cat rescuers, we have to test the limits- so deep breath, eyes closed- here goes the first pet……….

Hmm Feral they say? How about a belly rub?

Well maybe not a belly rub- but definitely NOT feral- just one scared kitty who had too many scary experiences in a week’s time! He is an absolute sweetheart and bone skinny! 🙁

Jet-Eye has a home! He is going to meet his new owner on Monday. Ironically, Jasmine also has a heart murmur. She understands the kitty is living on borrowed time, she lives by herself with no other animals and we have been texting and talking since the ad hit online. She sounds like the perfect candidate for him- but will know on Monday when we meet up in person.

I picked up the new stray this morning. A male, now neutered. He  has a white stripe down his back! I have decided to call him Odie Cologne which is the name of a famous skunk of King Leonardo. His name is also significant because he reeks of tomcat pee and I do mean reeks. He is NOT feral and when they gave him back to me, I saw there was blood on the towel in the cage and I said something to the girls. They were reluctant to even tell a vet about it because he was “so unhandable” their words not mine. I was stunned- it wasn’t just a little bit of blood- it was enough to raise my red flag, but they didn’t want to bother? So I took him to my other vet and explained the situation without telling them the name of the clinic where he got neutered. Funny thing about this “feral” cat. I was able to  using a towel, lift him out of the carrier gently and place him on the table. We put a towel over his head, and I  held him while he was checked out from head to toe. No “feral” cat would tolerate such  handling. His blood was coming from his paw- looked to me like being in the trap for five days, he had slashed his pad open on the wire. We put salve on it and I brought him home. He is in the deck enclosure decompressing. I put Revolution on him because he has really bad ear mites and tons of fleas- but his bath is going to have to wait for 8 days. He is so stinky right now- he is about two years old and is really a beautiful boy with that white stripe down his back.

So, as it always seems- one out, one in. If Monday works out, waiting in the wings is a feral queen and six, four day old kittens. I hear they are also crawling with fleas- but I don’t have any place to put them right now- so hoping the person takes my advice about putting diacotomous earth crystals in the nest.

Besides Jet-Eye going up for adoption, we are also listing Delilah the kitty who was owned by meth heads. They left her behind after a drug raid on the trailer park and never came back to claim her. She is a beautiful 2 year old Mack Tabby with copper points. Midge came over this morning and gave her a photo ops moment. I am sure she will end up on our 2018 Calendar!

And here is Jet-Eye who I hope finds a home this week!

Just dropped a cat at the vets. No idea if this cow kitty is male/female. It has been in the trap for 5 days so I left it there to be tested and spayed/neutered if not already. If I had to guess, I would say it is either a female or a neutered male because there are no tom cheeks showing. It was trapped by a farmer who was after a coon. Such a scared kitty too- face is scarred from ramming the cage bars. I wish someone would devise a trap that was kinder to the strays who are scared out of their paws when caught up in them. I will pick the cat up tomorrow and will know by then what gender it is and now all I have to figure out is where am I going to put it? 🙂

Toby Tyler is right where he belongs!

I just have to add- I LOVE the way he matches with the couch! LOL