This morning, I met with Kathy of MeowVillage and presented her with Odie. Odie is destined to go to a barn- which he will love because he is quite the hunter. Generally, the females are the best hunters as they have to provide for their kittens. I will never be able to adopt this beautiful boy out to a home because as desperately as he WANTS to be petted- he can’t handle the stimulation and he lashes out. At least at the barn, he will have the freedom that cats need and he won’t have to just live in the cage for his entire life. They will keep him inside of a cage for 30 days before letting him out and at my request, they will keep the cage available for him 24/7.

In exchange, we got a 9 year old black cat who has infected eyes from some sort of injury. Right now, Stryker is in the cage vacated by Odie and he is scared to death. I finally went out and covered the catio with the catio cover and now Stryker is hiding inside of his new, quiet cave. I call him Stryker because that’s what he is doing right now, he is striking out in fear not aggression. I know he is not aggressive, because he tried to climb the walls of the cage to escape and the walls are not climbable. They have been covered with linoleum because this cage is where the toms live post neuter. So to prevent Stryker from hurting himself- I covered the catio.

He won’t go back inside of a carrier, so I put instead, a big cardboard box with a heat pad inside. It may be Spring in some areas but right now it is stormy, cold and blowing like a banshee outside. he is a pretty boy and he already made a huge mess in there that I managed to clean out while he was inside the cage. To his credit, he did not attack me although he had ample opportunity to do so. Another way I know that he is not feral.

Mike has a new doctor now, and I like this guy. He is a vascular surgeon and he pulls no punches! Mike got a big dose of reality yesterday as this doctor told him what is what. On the ride home, Mike was unusually quiet and I have to hope and pray that he was digesting all that the doctor told him which was this:

Mr. Miller, you are too fat. You need to eat slower, and eat less. You need to stay off the leg all day if possible. If your leg isn’t elevated, it will swell. When it swells ulcers form and you risk losing your leg. If you don’t elevate it you will spend the rest of your life in wound care. Do you want to spend the rest of your life in wound care?

If you don’t exercise any way you can, you will lose your leg or your life. If you don’t use your CPAP on a nightly basis, you could lose your leg or worse. You have to wear compression stockings no matter how much you hate to! If you don’t, you lose your leg- simple as that. You are not like most people- not only do you have Diabetes but you have DVT, neuropathy, veinous statis and congestive heart failure. Your kidneys are borderline, your heart is struggling. Using your CPAP will in time reverse the damage to your heart- from here on in, I want you to write down everything you eat on a daily basis and also record how long it takes you to eat the meal in front of you.” (Mike tends to gulp down food in seconds).

We will go back in 2 weeks where they will perform an ultrasound of his leg to determine if they can do an ablasion on the leaky valves in his leg. If they are going to do this procedure it will be done the very next day because as the doc said : “Time is of the essence!”  So far, Mike has been staying off his leg today and elevating it. I just hope it lasts. He usually stops doing what the doctors ask him to do a few days after he gets a lecture. I told the doctor thank you for his directness and told him I was tired of being a nag and asking Mike to constantly get off his leg and get back in his chair. The doctor told me that I can’t do that- I can’t police Mike’s every move. he has to WANT to get better and do it himself. So he essentially gave me permission NOT to be a nag! 🙂

Also today the rest of the unclaimed kittens are at a local adoption event with a friend of mine. I hope they all find potential new, loving homes as they will be spayed/neutered in 3 weeks-