Feral Cat Behavior

Twirl has to be in such pain. She spends most of her day hiding under the futon. When I go upstairs, she will come out for a few minutes then she scoots under the furniture again. She quit eating this morning. I just sent hubby to the store with a list of different cat foods to buy to see if I can tempt her to eat. I called the vet to see if I could up the medication, but he says no, the pills are to strong and they are dosed out based on her weight.

She doesn’t care for me right now. She comes up to me and headbumps me, then hisses, backs away, headbumps, hisses. I know that the ears are so painful for her. I wish I could explain to her why they are and that headbumping should be off limits for now.

I took Twirl into the vet today to have her surgery. I felt so bad, but she is in so much pain and discomfort, I am hoping I am doing the right thing by her. They gave her a full check-up and that’s when they noticed she has these funny growths on all four of her foot pads. To me, they resemble planter’s warts. But the vets assure me that they are not warts. In fact, the vets say, they have never seen anything quite like this before. They are reddish brown and white, some growths are in the center of the larger foot pads, others appear on the nail pads. I authorized a biopsy to find out what in the devil this is. I wonder if maybe as a young kitten, she walked in something caustic?

Since there were so many hands in the room helping with this exam. The exam was to search for further evidence of cancer- they also determined she is four years old, not like the one vet at the other clinic told me- just over one year old. I swear, some vets shouldn’t be! Oh well, I am not going to start that rant about overpriced vet clinics where I seem to know more than the vets who examine my cats!

So, I just called the clinic, and Twirl has had her operation and is coming out of the anesthesia so she is still groggy. They will be keeping her overnight, because these ear flap operations cause the cat to bleed a great deal, plus she needs to be on pain meds. They have clipped her claws, and will call me if something untoward happens. Otherwise, we are in a wait and see status to see what the biopsy reveals. Poor little girl, she has to be so confused. I just hope that after the initial pain of the surgery goes away, she will be feeling no pain at all.

Came home to find Guinevere in a state. Her right eye is partially swollen, her third eyelid is almost covering her eye and it is rimmed in pink. I wonder if she scratched herself. I put some eye wash in her eye, and some ointment. But if she isn’t better by tomorrow, she gets to go with us to pick up Twirl so she can be seen. When it rains here, sometimes it really pours.

Tomorrow morning, I will be taking Twirl over to Ben for her surgery. He has said he is going to remove both of her ear flaps down to almost her head because the cancer has slowly been encroaching lower and lower so the pinna (ear flaps) have to be removed.

The squamous cell carcinoma if not stemmed will then have the option of invading the nasal and mouth cavities and work down into the lymph nodes. Once that happens, it is basically all over.

This little girl deserved so much better than she got before arriving here. I watch her when she is downstairs with the other cats and she is aggressive in a cautious way. I believe her aggression is a result of the pain she has to endure with her ears. I accidentally bumped her ear one time a few weeks ago. I was feeding her, as I lowered my hand to scoop food into her bowl she raised up to head bump me. Before I could draw back, I hit her ear. She cowered, then she struck. She went straight up my arm, grabbed my shoulder, tore the skin and leaped off onto a shelf. She spent three hours there, growling and hissing everytime I approached her.

Her movements are jerky, her behavior is unpredictable. I know that following the surgery, she is going to have to deal with a different type of pain. I am going to request pain patches, because medicating her any other way would be virtually impossible.

I’m hoping she comes back home tomorrow. But, until she is under and he sees if the cancer has been as aggressive as she is at times, her returning remains in question. I have told him that if he sees she is riddled with cancer, to just let her sleep. Let her have peace so her torment doesn’t continue.

We have a honeybee hive in our chimney! I have been praying for bees, but this is ridiculous! They set up housekeeping the other day. I came home to about 20 honeybees being molested by the kittens. Thankfully, the young ones didn’t get stung. I managed to get most of the bees outside, had to kill a few though and felt pretty guilty about destroying them. They are so crucial to the ecosystem.

When I got back inside the house, there were about eight more buzzing around! I’m thinking WTH? So I start searching, and sure enough in the old wood stove chimney there is activity. I capped off the bottom that comes into the living room, then took out my old stethoscope and listened at the entrance of the flue. I heard the buzzing.

I started calling some beekeepers in the area to see if they want them. After all, the buzz is, the honeybees are dying. Not true, I found out. No one wanted them, they have enough. Said the honeybee shortage is media hyperbole.

Ok, so I call a pest control guy and he says he will come and kill them. I don’t want them killed. They are a necessary part of our ecosystem. So, I call OSU the Bee Lab and talked to that expert. When I explain the situation, he tells me that based on where they are establishing a colony, he would just leave them alone. They are docile creatures, he tells me, they won’t sting unless you really provoke them. They will die off in 3 years, but, and this is the interesting part- the hive will remain a scent beacon for 100 years! Meaning all their pheremones they secrete along with the honey and the wax to build the colony will attract other bees.

So, we are going to leave them alone. I did find a few stragglers in the house today, actually the cats alerted me to their presence. I don’t mind them being in the chimney structure, but I do mind them in the house. Riley got stung, but he was really tormenting this one bee. I pulled the stinger out of his paw pad. He should be fine.

My tarsel tunnel is acting up again. Walking the dogs in the woods has made my ankle flare up again. I am off my feet for awhile until the swelling goes down.

This sweet boy was going nuts in the sturdi-carrier on the way to Dallas, so I climbed in the back of our explorer, made a nice thick pad for him to sleep on (so the vibration of the road wouldn’t stress him out) and he laid on this pad and partly on my legs the entire trip. The dogs were back there with us, but other than licking his face every now and again, there were no confrontations.

Rachel immediately fell in love with him. He is going to have such a good life with her and her family. Her husband (she thinks) is going to have his own special golden and white kitty, I’m so stoked!

Years ago, to long to remember, my mother gave me a quilt that she had started. The quilt is a kingsize quilt, white and antique white. It was a kit that she bought when her and daddy were first married, and the design was in candlewicking. Most of the candlewicking was done, there were a few spots that weren’t finished. Knowing that I would never finish it, I put it carefully away in a trunk in the attic.

Because of my recent assignments for Quilter’s Home Magazine, my path has crossed with some very talented quilters. One woman who I really connected with after interviewing her for my Thread Therapy piece; Rachel Grieco of Grandma’s Attic in Dallas made quite an impression on me.

I shared with her the story of the quilt and she requested to see it. I took it in and she saved it. She ripped out all the stitching in the quilt, except for the candlewicking (flower design) then she discarded the floofy batting replacing it with 100% loft cotton. After she did that, she sent it off to a professional free form design machine quilter.

I received the quilt back today and I am speechless. It is a work of art! The machine quilter incorporated a beautiful design of feathers, flowers, clouds, hearts and leaves into the original design so that the whole thing flows. It is incredible- honestly, it made me cry to see it. Such a far cry from the half-finished quilt Mother gave me long ago.

While I was at her store, we were talking about cats. I told her about Buzzby and she has decided she wants him! I’m so stoked, because he is such a lovey kitty and he is overlooked here because of the numbers of cats I have. He deserves to be in a home where he will get individual attention. I haven’t been able to bring him indoors because he doesn’t get along with so many cats, but she won’t have that problem at all.

I am so happy that it was such a complete day. Yesterday, it was my birthday, but today was oh so special. I will be driving up to my parents this summer. I want my mother to see this quilt for herself. It will only be for 24 hours because of the animals, I can’t leave for a long time. I wish I could, I would love for Mike and I to just be able to get away and go on a vacation for about 2 weeks. That would be so sweet. No cats, no dogs, no horses, no peacock, just the two of us for two weeks. No responsibilities, no scooping litter, picking hooves, grooming, mucking, who am I kidding? When I went to see my friend Mo for a week, I was missing the critters from the first hour. I’m stuck, I’m firmly in love with all the critters here-

Yesterday the cats had a flea-date. When I flea treat them now, I do it during meal time. They are distracted, their heads are down into a plate of smelly wet fish food. They don’t appear to mind the strong chemical smell of Advantage. I buy the large dog advantage and using a syringe with the needle ground down, I put certain measured doses on each cat. This way, it is so much cheaper and the Advantage pack lasts a lot longer. A vet told me long ago that it is the same strength chemical in all the packs. Just more of it for larger animals. I use a formula found online Best way to keep the fleas at bay in a multicat home.

Just finished another writing assignment. One editor told me that one article I wrote is going to be featured on the cover! Yay! Can’t wait to see that! I am keeping the name of the magazine to myself for now, because I don’t want to jinx it. But he said he wants to put three of my articles in one issue. WOW! I am a happy camper.

It’s warmer weather here now, and there is so much we need to do this year outside to get this place back into shape. The winter storms did some damage. Plus Racer has busted three main water pipes. He uses them to scratch his butt on- dumb horse. He has busted the main gate into one of the pastures, removed a fence post and keeps destroying the area near the stall where I dump hay into his bin. I love him, but he is such a bratty Mustang! Time to go, time for coffee- my much-needed wake up juice!

Because whoever had these cats didn’t spay and neuter early, these cats are seriously disabled when it comes to getting along with other cats. Cruiser (the orange and white boy) has taken up residence under the house. He only comes out to eat, or he will come out if coaxed long enough, if I am the only one there. He will rub up against me and headbump me if I am in a kneeling position. If I am standing, he stays away.

Wyatt is absolutely not accepting any male cat, neutered or otherwise. He got out of his enclosure yesterday and I spent the better part of two hours squirming under the house on my belly trying to capture him again. He and Cruiser were doing the Tomcat Tango (that slow circle confrontation) where they just keep circling endlessly while their growls and cries fill the air. Wyatt is now in a place where there are no other cats and very few people for miles. The farmland has acres of woods and hills so he can hunt to his heart’s content. The people don’t own any other cats, they have dogs, sheep and goats. There are several older outbuildings and a barn he can find shelter in. I doubt anyone will take the time to play with him or love up on him, but hopefully, he will be happy there. He was most unhappy being confined here and last night he didn’t stop crying for hours. I am sure my neighbor was less than pleased. Because his pee is still so smelly, he can roam the woods and mark the trees and get rid of the stench easier than he could if he was confined in a home.

Twirl is waiting upstairs for her date with the veterinarian surgeon. I am going to call and see if I can get her in quicker, now that her ears have cleared up. They were horribly infected. Her surgery has been scheduled for the end of May, but I can see that she is still in pain with her one ear, so would like to see if I can bump up her surgery date. As I told the vet, if he opens her up and finds she isn’t carrying kittens but is riddled with tumors, just don’t wake her up. She is a sweetie though-