Kodiak has been returned to his owner. I haven’t heard how he is doing, nor do I expect that I will. That is all I am going to say at this point about that. He is no longer under our care, so it is up to his owner to follow through with what the vets would like her to do.
Thank you, to those of you who chipped in to help with his bill. His owner is not able to afford such care, so you took a big stress off our shoulders.
I have started re-introducing the outside clowder to each other by putting them slowly one-by-one into the main cat enclosure. I have wired closed the holes where the tunnels once were, but of course, one of them found a weakness in the underwire and dug out. I had to first find the hole- which was not easy because of the grasses growing outside, but I finally did locate the escape hole and fixed that.
Currently, inside the cat enclosure is Bentley, Pigeon, Baker and PITA, I can tell they are not easy about the change, as they were free-roaming until recently. No more ducking under the house when they feel scared or threatened. Pigeon is the most worrisome, he was the escapee and there are times that he is pacing the enclosure like a caged lion which makes me sad. His wound from the past has not quite healed and there is a spot above his knee on his back leg that keeps breaking open. It is not life- threatening, so I can’t really justify taking him to the vet right now. I am using Vitamin E oil on it to see if it might finally heal on its own. because they are so used to being able to get away from each other when they were under the house, skirmishes have resulted. Bentley is injured now, and in the house inside the patio enclosure. he has an abscess festering between his left front paw pad.
It is still scary here when it comes to the virus. Just as I imagine, it is where you are right now. The governor is getting ready to open up Oregon soon- but in my area, it never really shut down. Only recently when I am at the store, do I see the majority of people taking this seriously and wearing masks and social distancing. Sadly, out on the street, this is not happening. When we first began this exposure, LInn County was fourth from the bottom on the chart tracking the exposure to the virus through the counties. Now we are 6th from the top! Not a good time, in my mind, to open up Oregon even if it is done “softly.”
I heard about, and ordered a book called Deadliest Enemy. It is written by the top epidemiologist in the world: Michael T. Osterholm PhD, MPH. He was the forerunner during the AIDS epidemic, and he writes the facts quite succinctly. He says as long as man continues to encroach on forestland and jungles, killing the animals that live there, pandemics are going to happen. I am only on chapter four but this stood out to me more than what I have read so far. He was talking about how when the primates and other animals are killed, hauled away for meat for humans or other animals, the microbes will jump ship. They will move from animal to human in order for them to survive. He likens it to an alien invasion. (The ET type).The book was published in 2017. Here is the quote that jumped at me:
” AIDS is a horror story that haunts all of us in the business. Once we understood what we were dealing with and how it was transmitted, we were unable to stop or warn off much of the behavior and habits that led to its spread. Evidence, knowledge, and logic aren’t always enough.”
If that isn’t enough what is? I highly recommend this book. It is not just a book about infectious diseases, it also a history of mankind in a most extraordinary way. I can’t read much of it all at once. It’s too heavy but when I am not reading it, I am thinking about what I have read deeply.
Please all of you continue to stay safe, keep your loved ones in your thoughts and prayers and may we soon find a good way out of this nightmare. I know that there is talk of a vaccine in the future, but according to what I have read so far, this vaccine isn’t going to appear magically any time soon. As he says, they have never been able to cure AIDS, only like Diabetes, manage and try to control it with certain cocktails. All of which I know have nothing to do with disinfectant! :
The enclosure where I hope all the cats will be soon:
Is there a way to provide safe havens within the enclosure for the cats? I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, and it may actually lkead to them feeling cornered. They’ll adapt, but it may be a rough ride until then.
The world has always had diseases, of course, but in the past, they’ve spread and killed because medicine was too primitive to stop them. Now, they seem to do it because we are tampering too much with nature. We’ve always done that, too, but not like we’ve been in the last century. And mankind tends to think it’s invulnerable, that it will always happen to someone else. Famous last words…
There are caves, tunnels, hidey holes throughout the cat enclosure. There is a huge warming cave where they have access to heat in the winter time. But these guys are semi-feral and in some cases full feral, so asking them to get along in a confined space is a bit of a stretch. The enclosure is not small by any stretch of the imagination, but they are also used to once they were in there in the past, to be able to get out of it 24/7 and get into the house. Most of them spray even after being neutered, so that option is no longer available for them.
Ah, I see from the picture just a portion of the enclosure, so yes, it’s not small. The cats will adjust, and they will be safe.
They will adjust.
Michigan is still under lockdown for the next three weeks, and I continue to work from home. Have only been out to take Sweetie to the vet’s office, and to buy cat food and litter. The Hubby does the grocery shopping every two weeks.
We still have a high death rate, and infection rate. I wear a mask when outside, which isn’t always fun with on my daily power walks. Usually, I am the only person wearing a mask outside. Everyone is making choices, and I’m going to err on the side of overly cautious. I don’t want to get sick, nor do I want to give it to anyone else, since we really don’t know who has it or not.
Take care!
I sent some of my Covid-19 bonus for Kodiak’s medical bills, along with the prayers, but it turns out the government also owes me a refund from my income tax. So if you need some more $$ for the vet for Kodiak or any of y’our clowder, let me know. It’ll probably be a few weeks till I have the money. I’m sorry things turned out badly for Kodiak, and we’ll keep praying for him — and for you.
Hey guys- it’s me. I am unable to access my blog except for replies right now. I suspect it is because there are so many people online in the day that you just have to hit it at the right time. I am doing okay. Bentley is healing from his bite on his paw and I have heard nothing at all about how Kodiak is doing so I can’t fill in the blanks about that. I ended up giving my vet half of my stimulus check which he appreciated it but it still leaves $700 owing.
Had a scare with Kota the other day when as I was driving down the street (with Kota in the back and the windows down, a dog belonging to a homeless man raced up to the car and tried to jump in the window and get ahold of Kota!! I screamed, slammed on the brakes, told kota to get back and down (he was snarling at that point. I got the window back up and the dog (lab/bull mastiff mix) was still snarling and biting and jumping at the window! I know if the window had been all the way down, Kota would have been seriously hurt or worse. I did call the police and found out later that this was not an isolated incident. Kota was fine, the window wasn’t down that far and the minute I commanded him to back and drop- he went and laid down the his bed still snarling at the dog. I also found out the man beats this dog all the time. 🙁 Some people should not have animals.
Well until I can get online to the back door of my blog, I will wish you all well. I hope you see this- I hope you stay safe and loved.
I check every day for an update, so yes, I saw this, and I am sure others who check often, will too 🙂
How incredibly scary for you with that dog attacking the car. What if it had been a child leaning an arm out the window?? I hesitate to say the dog should be removed from it’s owner, as it’s bad enough being homeless (and who knows how well they are mentally), but this is a disaster in the making and they know it.
Glad you are hanging in there, thank you for update!
Me too, just saw your “this is a test” message. Something else I just noticed or maybe I’m very unobservant and just didn’t see it before. There’s a small balloon icon in the upper right hand corner of each of your blog posts, with a number. Click on it, and it takes me to the replies people have made. The number is the number of replies. Cool!
How well trained Kota is, and how fortunate. He listened to you in a harrowing situation. Glad you and he are both safe. Continue safe, and well, in these strange, strange times.