I met the nicest woman this morning. Coming back from town, I noticed in the Narrows there was a person walking with a baby stroller. Not an unusual sight- the highway is the only way in and out of town. But this stroller displayed an American flag and the front part was covered in a thick vinyl as if to keep supplies from getting wet. A baby or a pet wouldn’t be able to breathe inside that set-up. So I wondered what the story was behind the walker.

When the walker passed our house, I hailed the person and asked what the story was about? Initailly, I couldn’t tell the sex of the person because devoid of make-up and  jewelry and spouting an Amy hat, she could pass for a male. Her name is Erin Parate, she is an Army Veteran and she started her walk in Rhode Island! Her end point is Newport Oregon which is about a 110 miles from our home so she is almost done!

She dresses gender non-specific for a good reason. She doesn’t wear makeup, tight shirts, or skinny jeans- she looks like a guy until you hear her speak. She doesn’t want to be assaulted or messed with by the crazy people of the world, she just wants to meet other balanced, creative  individuals as well as other Vets.  She is 43 years old and in great shape!

She tried to do this same Walk Across America last year but was wearing inappropriate shoes and ended up breaking her foot! She showed me pictures on her phone of her feet that had developed these huge blisters between each toe! She said that because of the blisters, she was compensating for the pain by walking more on the ball of her foot instead of the front and her ankle bone just shattered! The blisters were huge. I have never seen blisters like that between toes,

She said she wasn’t doing this for a cause, she just wanted to always walk across America and then write a book about her experience. I’ll bet she finishes both dreams and I bet I will buy her book and walk across America within her pages with her.

My friend Midge came over with her camera and we did a short interview with photos. Hopefully, our local paper will print out her story and maybe inspire someone else to follow their dreams.

I had to laugh, when I brought her in the backyard. We were talking and she looked under the house and said “Wait, is that a skunk?” LOL Sure enough- little Stinker had stuck her nose into the cat’s tray and was eating to her heart’s content. I also told her what I do here with the cats and she met Kota. Mike was asleep and I didn’t want to wake him up so we stayed outside.

What a trip- walking across America to fulfill a dream. She said that when she was going across Nebraska it was so hot that she only could travel at night. She said she met a woman who turned out to be the Chairman of the American Women Journalist Organization and this woman made it possible for her to find homes in other towns (of other female journalists) and she never had to sleep outside the entire time across that state! I think that is awesome.

You can find her on Facebook. It’s a far cry from the last person I talked to while he was walking on the highway. This guy was dressed like Jesus- he had a wheelbarrow he was trundling along the highway and a sign that read “Dump your Loved One’s Ashes Here!”  There were some ashes in his barrow, but I didn’t ask too many questions- this guy was wacked out of his head. Thankfully, Erin is a fully functioning delightful human being!

It is extremely expensive to ship litter to us- BUT if you award CATS Inc., points from Fresh Step, we can order the litter with the points and they pay for the shipping. That works for us- so just wanted to put that out there for others to consider.

This morning while feeding, I saw a stray I am not familiar with feeding. She is in bad shape- possibly pregnant- a long-haired gray with a wound on the back of her leg (probably from a tom) I am going to set my traps tonight- please pray that I don’t capture other wildlife instead of her. Probably only get another one of our free-roaming sanctuary cats. I have taken Bentley out of so many cat traps lately! You would think he would learn not to go in them-but he loves the wet food too much I guess. He has his own supply of wet food in the 24/7 enclosure but that doesn’t seem to deter him from robbing the traps of their wet food! This gray kitty looks quite young and her wound is pretty severe.

This yanking our cat food and litter out from under us has been a real eye-opener for us. It showed us just how dependent we were on those pet food donations and that in a blink of an eye it can be taken from us. We are having to buy food and litter now to supplement everyone- which has depleted us to the point we can’t pay our non-profit fee right now. It is only $50.00 but there is only $27.50 in the account at this time. Like I said, a real wake-up call.

Thanks to Daniel B- Maureen B- Haley and Mercedes and  two others who wish to stay anon. we had enough dry food this month to carry us through. I wish I could pull the food in at night- but visits to the feral feeders in the early mornings have revealed several unknown feral cats feeding from the trays. I don’t want to take that food away from the cats- there is one yellow cat that looks to be in pretty rough shape. I put up some slippery slant boards to foil the coons- but that ended up costing us dearly afterwards. The raccoons got so angry at being denied their free meal that they upended the ice chest that I store the dry food in and spread the food all over the backyard! So back to putting the stored food under lock and key at night. This morning, our donation of food consisted of one 16 pound bag of Friskies and two small bags of cat litter. We have heard nothing from the stores where we dropped our letters off hoping they would start to donate to us.

The skunks are eating the food as well but at least they don’t get angry and throw the food all over the place like the coons are doing.

Two days ago, I had to take Kota outside about 3:00 a.m. so while I was out there, I was refilling a few trays under the house. I felt a nudge at my hand, and so I stroked the fur and thought to myself- that feels really rough for a kitty. I looked under the wooden door and saw that I was petting a baby skunk! Thank God they are used to me feeding them so I didn’t get sprayed. Kota was in his pen so he didn’t get sprayed either- but it was a close encounter I don’t think I want to have ever again! I ended up setting out some scrambled eggs for the babies in thanks for not spraying me.

Yesterday, we went and visited Rosa and Moochie and I am happy to say that Moochie’s diarrhea is gone and she is feeling much better. We started her on the steroids and the anti-nausea medicine as well as the chemo pill. I am not sure why they are giving her the chemo pill, I always thought you got that after the radiation therapy when you are chasing cancer- but I am not a vet and I trust mine. Jerry, Rosa’s husband of 65 years is being placed into a nursing home then will go into a memory center to manage his altzheimers. I am glad we didn’t take Moochie away from her- all the time we were there yesterday, Moochie was sitting on Rosa’s lap and I know bringing her great comfort. I know with our home, Tripp is Mike’s kitty now and brings him a lot of smiles in his day. Cats are important to our well-being so I am glad both kitties are doing well. and can provide support for their humans. Mike has MRSA again (this will be his fifth go-around with it) They did a culture on his leg yesterday because it looked inflamed. His doctor is still a bit miffed at me because I didn’t take Mike to his appointment last week. I was too sick to make the drive and we didn’t have anyone else who could take Mike. I was a bit surprised at how nasty the doctor was to me when I called to cancel the appointment- but I am trying to stay open-minded about this new doctor. He makes it hard to like him though when he acts like a child and throws mini tantrums on the phone! LOL

It was a stressful few days of trying to keep him hydrated and his fever down but I am so happy to say that he is completely back to normal now. Unfortunately, now when he sees me coming- he flees so having him finish his antibiotic is off the table right now. But his temp is back to normal, he is eating and drinking and playing with the other cats.

E-Bay is holding a contest where if you go to their homepage and search for CATS Inc., among their charities and click on us and then click on add to favorites- we will be entered into a drawing for anywhere from $1,000- $10,000. You can also find us by our EIN number which is 45-2849720. The amount of people who click on us will determine if we will be put into the drawing for the monies. It runs to October 4th so please spread the word and tell a friend or two to vote for us as well-

Tripp has been declining lately. It started with vomiting white foam, which led to him not eating and running high fevers 105.9 this morning. I could take him to the vet, but I know the routine. They would give him fluids (which I have done) they would give him anti-nausea meds (which I have here already) and they would start him on antibiotics. So, I have done all of that and more. His temp is now 103.9 F but he is just flat. He is depressed and he is confined to the bedroom where I hope he will start feeling better soon. He is drinking water (which is a wonderful sign because it rules out distemper) He’s had a tepid bath and is sleeping right now. I was up and down with him all night as he vomited most of the morning away. he has turned down, tuna, baby food and baked chicken- so I went and got him some kitty krack (fancy feast) and thankfully, he is eating that little by little. I will keep track of his fever but hope by tomorrow afternoon he is a bit brighter than he appears now. It came on so suddenly- he is Mike’s kitty so my fingers are crossed that he can return to Mike’s lap soon.

The rest of the test results came back and sadly, Mooch has intestinal lymphoma. We are going to give the special food and meds a try for about two weeks and if the diarrhea goes away, then we will put her on Steriods and a chemo pill. But if it looks like she is suffering or losing her quality of life, Rosa has asked me to step in and stamp her Bridge pass. 🙁  Doggone it anyway- was just hoping this would be a matter of an intestinal parasite and not cancer.

Over ten years ago, this black cat was adopted out to an elderly couple and has lived the high life ever since. Her owner Rosa reached out to us tonight- her 93 year old husband has been rushed to the hospital with possible kidney failure and she wanted to know if we could watch Moochie for her while she stays next to her husband. I told her I would come over and pet sit for her and that’s when she broke down on me and told me that for over five months now- Moochie has had severe diarrhea! 5 months- holy smokes. She said that in the time frame her husband had been falling quite ill and she was diagnosed with being legally blind. She had no way to help Moochie and her caregiver refused to do a vet run for her.

I ran over to their place and found Moochie in a really bad way. She was severely dehydrated and dripping goo all over the house. 🙁 I gave her fluids and some of the Wright Stuff for her diarrhea but tomorrow, despite still having a large vet debt- we are going to take Moochie to the vet and have her seen. She is ten years old. Rosa also confessed that because she was so limited, her neighbor had gone to the store and bought Sargents flea and tick medicine and put that on Moochie and Moochie started getting sick right after that. She said she didn’t want to bother us but had no other options. Moochie’s diarrhea is pretty severe from what I saw- so please pray this is reversible for her. Having it so long is not a good thing-so I just hope we didn’t get this call too late. I’ve had other toxic cats from this over-the-counter product and the outcome on a few didn’t turn out in a good way.

About 6 or so months ago, we received an older tomcat from another rescue group. They had no room for him and deemed him unadoptable for a multitude of reasons (especially his high feral state). When we took him in for the neuter, we had a brilliant (or so I thought) idea of having the vet put a calming collar on him to help facilitate his socialization process. He would be put alone in one of our enclosures and we would work closely with him due to his health issues (he was going blind).

As I was carrying him from the car to the enclosure (after his neuter) the handle broke and he escaped! He scrambled under the house and I rarely caught sight of him. I named him Magoo and have been trying so hard to get close to him, not only because his vision is limited but that collar- it wasn’t a breakaway. I was afraid it was going to become embedded.

This morning, I went outside early to feed and Magoo was waiting for me. I have been slowly sneaking contact with him in the early morning feeds with choice food to distract him and while he is eating, attempting to pet him. It’s taken a bit of time, but finally this morning, I was able to slip bandage scissors under that blasted collar and get it off him! He has made pals with Mk and I sense that MK understands his limitations and has become his eyes. It is always amazing for us to watch the transformations of these so-called feral cats- how they adapt to their situation and try to get along within the clowder. Magoo is an old boy, and we have no intention of caging him up and making him miserable. He knows the lay of the land, he knows when the food is going to arrive and now, much to my delight , he is first in line with MK playing the role of his seeing-eye cat!

Our food is our main concern now. This week’s donation consisted of two small bags of dry food and one 12 pack of canned. We are going to have to become quite creative in order to keep food in those trays outside. It’s a challenge, guess we will see what happens.