I put the queen in with the kittens after letting her out of the trap. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt as the kittens crawled toward her belly. It was approaching the midnight hour, so I then tried to lay down and just listen in the quiet. I was worried she would harm them. She is so scared and out of her element. I don’t even think mom is eight months old. I didn’t hear any signs of distress, so I drifted off.

I woke up a few hours later to the sounds of kittens in distress. I scrambled out of bed and ran over to the cage. She was sitting on both of the babies and growling. The little orange one was trapped under her. I tried to reach in to save them- bad mistake, she launched herself at me and I had to slam the cage door closed. At least I got her off her kittens.

When I looked in again, she was sitting in the litter pan waiting for my next move. Her kittens didn’t look right. They were just lying on the small blanket not moving much. I cracked the door and grabbed Mike’s grabber. I slid that through the crack and grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it toward me.

Mom watched and growled, snarled and hissed, but didn’t try to protect her kittens or further harm them. I quickly slid the kittens out of the cage and put them into a separate carrier. I checked them, they were warm and breathing. Before I did anything else, I warmed up the formula and fed them. They both drank greedily, confirming my worse fear- she wasn’t nurturing them at all. I weighed the babies, they weigh 3 ozs each so they are about 3 days old.

So now, I have a scared, pissed off aggressive mom in our homemade wooden cage. I don’t think she would go into another trap-so I have to figure out how to get her recaptured into a small carrier and just go and get her spayed ASAP

When I saw her at the farm house behind a couch on their patio in a shoebox she was so scared, just trembling. She’d already lost half of her litter, how they died is anyone’s guess- but I do know that she just isn’t mom material. If I can capture her and get her spayed that will tone down the aggression quite a bit.

Dang, I wasn’t going to do this anymore guys. Mike needs me now more than ever. He will be home on Monday! I don’t know what possessed me to tell the gentleman who called me for help that I would take on yet more cats. He was just an nice, elderly man who wanted some help and no one would help him until he called me.

CATS Inc. has yet another vet debt to pay off- thanks to two euthanizations from the outdoor colony, the cost of a testing the brain of the poor kitten who bit me. It’s just a never-ending battle trying to find funding to pay for all of this and it is a battle I didn’t want anymore.

I look at this gorgeous calico girl and my heart breaks for her. But I know based on her actions that if given the opportunity- she would tear me up one side and down another. Did she kill her other kittens? I don’t know, but I am not going to give her the benefit of the doubt any more. It’s bottle feeding the remaining two survivors every two/three hours and praying they aren’t going to fade on us anytime soon.

So the coffee is going and I hear Marbles and Cooper the two babies crying- time to get back to work. Mike may need me, but these cats need me more.

I have 2- one week old kittens and a trap set for mom (a very young and beautiful calico). Please pray that mom gets trapped soon. The farmer’s wife just called to tell me the mom is laying near the trap her head in the door.  She really needs to be with her babies. I even took a bit of the shoebox that she had the babies in and cut it up and sprinkled it into the trap, hoping the scent of her babies would get her into the trap quicker. Will it work? I don’t know. The babies are so beautiful- one calico and one cow kitty

Yesterday, I took the kittens in to be spayed. The vet went ahead and examined them and said that they were okay to be done and he would do them late. I could pick them up in the morning. Lovey turned out to have calici but he said that if she stopped breathing during the operation, they would assist her. I left feeling relieved, because Little is so close to birth.

About two hours later, my phone rings and it is my vet. He says “Mary Anne, the kittens went through the neuter just fine…but… ” and then he paused.

My heart sank and I thought “Oh no, not another issue?” I said “There’s a but in this?”

He replied yes, it seems that when he opened up Little, she had 4 enormous kittens inside so she has a bigger incision. Then, he opened up Lovey and thought “This doesn’t look right?” The techs had shaved both the kittens bellies- but unfortunately, Lovey is a boy! He said that being a vet can be a very humbling profession and he just got a big dose of humble pie. He said he should have caught it, the techs should have caught it- and I am thinking I had the cats in the bedroom for four days I should have caught it. The poochiness of the belly was a ball of roundworms which have been dispatched! So now, I give back to the caretakers a male kitty with a spay scar and he isn’t even a hermaphrodite! Try to explain that one on top of all the other problems that have occurred in this colony! LOL

It does say in the Bible that when God keeps you humble, He also allows you grace. I hope Dr. Steve gets a huge helping of Grace fairly soon. He sounded so embarrassed at this rookie mistake.

And God’s Grace comes into play. The two people caring for this colony have relinquished custody of Lovey (Now Mischief) and Little over to me. I was asked to find them a new home!  They talked about it for two days and realized the kittens would be better off in a loving home than roaming the yard and woods.

Today, the two pregnant girls have an appointment with my vet. I am praying that Dr. Steve will tell me the kitties are well enough to be spayed. One is so young to have babies, the other is so tiny- the risks are to great for these litters to come into the world. Once they get spayed, I will have to give them back to the caretakers but at least they have had their meds and treatments to the point their discharge from their noses and mouths have lessened a great deal. I really want to hang on to the long-haired gray girl and find her a loving home. She is ultra-sweet, but my hands are tied in this matter.

This shows up on social media.

My friend Dusty told me about this story and even though I trust Dusty with my life, my mind could not wrap around the fact that this person (I use the term lightly) is a veterinarian!  Thankfully, she is no longer working in that profession

Vet voices her feelings about feral cats
(warning graphic, sad images and story)

On a much better note- although this looks sad in the beginning- the end result will make you smile!

Freeway the cat

The three cats trapped today do not have good stories to tell. I am making this short because I have my hands full at the moment. The crippled Tom had pillow paws which if you don’t know about that (thank your lucky stars) 7 years ago, I had a cat with this autoimmune disease and it eats the soft tissue of the pads of the cats infected with it. It is not curable, not really treatable and extremely painful. The tom has been euthanized by order of the vets.

The two girl kitties Lovey, and Little are both about 5 months old VERY pregnant and very close to having those babies. They are also too ill to put under (the vet said they would die) They have nasty URI’s they are not eating or drinking and snot is just pouring out of their noses. They are due within a week and it is the thinking that they won’t be well enough at that time to undergo the necessary spay and neuter. There is a chance the kittens being born won’t survive either. I have the kittens here now, they are on meds, fluids, saline drops, vaporizer, heating pads.  I have them in the bedroom and will keep all the doors closed so no one of my cats get infected.

The problem is the people who are caring for these cats – and they do care and love these cats are upset with me. They didn’t want the tom euthanized- and only for right now, I have the kittens for 24 hours. They wanted me to leave them there- but I persuaded them to let me have them at least till tomorrow and get them started on everything they need. I don’t know if they trust me anymore, which makes me very sad, but I can understand their feelings. I didn’t know they were euthanizing the tom- in a colony situation that decision is made by a vet for the better of the group and of course to get the cats out of pain.

Please pray that the right decision is made tomorrow on the fate of these kittens. I have done all I can to state my case, but the bottom line is it their decision to  make. I did tell them if they did (God forbid) decide to keep the kittens with them, I will do all I can to help them out but I won’t be there 24/7. And that is what these babies need right now, round the clock care. Don’t post anything negative or ugly about these two people. They really do love and care for their cats. Most people don’t even give a damn about them. I just know because I have been through so many high-risk cat/kitten pregnancies that things can go south in a hurry and if you don’t know what you can do to prevent some issues, it can all go bad quickly.

Please also pray for my actions with these two lovely kitties. I have given them clavamox, had to force feed them baby food because they can’t swallow well- their tonsils are inflamed (did you know cats have  tonsils) I have given them fluids and they are probably calling me names right about now! They are warm, the vaporizer is going, drops have gone in their eyes and their noses- they didn’t ask for this. I don’t need this especially right now- looking at another vet visit in a few days maybe. But I’m in it for the long-haul because that is how it goes. I have set up multiple “nests” in the room- but with my luck, they will probably have their litter under my pillow!

Thanks for your prayers-

We only managed to trap four. There were spay appointments for ten but the cats are now wary of the traps and not going in them even to sniff the door. That happens when you break up a colony trapping them. I try to always go for all of them all at once- it just seems easier that way. But we did trap a crippled tomcat, and a pregnant kitten they are being neutered as I type.

Took Mike to Portland yesterday where he received his new leg! He can only do bilateral weight bearing right now. Which means only using the parallel bars.He had a mid-afternoon appointment and it went long. I took Quincy with us and left him in the truck in the parking garage with all the windows down. He did not jump out.

But what did happen to this boy happened later when I pulled into the rest home to drop Mike off. My intention was to jump out of the truck, unload the wheelchair. get my husband into the chair and take off. The windows were all up because it was night and getting cold. I left the keys in the ignition, unloaded the chair and set it up. I went and shut the doors and when I turned around, I heard the click of the automatic locking engage! Mike had decided to get out of the truck by himself and leaned on the locking mechanism. Before I could shout don’t shut the door- he shut the door. There we were- with keys inside, dog inside, windows up and no way to get in.

Called a locksmith and was told they could come in an hour. I was frantic because Quincy was inside and it isn’t cold inside a locked truck at this time of year. I kept stressing we had a dog locked inside. They said an hour was their best time they could do. So I called George and asked him to pick up the set of spare keys at the house. I know he drives like a bat out of hell. He made it to the hospital in record time and saved the day! Quincy was hot but not over-heated and I learned not to keep the keys in the ignition.

We start training him to pull the wheelchair today. He has a nifty harness to wear. I would never ask him to pull Mike alone so two of my friends are going to help out. One will be in the chair and one will be pushing as I do the leading. Quincy has a good heart and even though I have had him such a short while, I can take him out to the back pasture and let him go off lead and he doesn’t run away. He’s bonded to me as strongly as I have bonded with him. I’m glad I didn’t lose him last night.

Such bad timing, but CATS needs to come up with $150.00 quite quickly. I have some of the money needed to get these last cats spayed, but not quite enough. If anyone can help us fill in some of the financial cracks, that would be appreciated. These last remaining strays are so pregnant and so young.:(

Quigley, who we are now calling Quincy (seems to fit him better) went swimming in the river today totally unplanned. I had taken him for a walk and he broke away and flew into the water where apparently, he was in his element.  I held my breath because out in the middle of the river, the current is quite strong but he stayed near shore. Next time, I will take my lunge line and I think that Brandy’s life jacket will also fit him. The cats in the house have become accustomed to him. The only time I am a bit anxious is when some of the cats are under the hospital bed and he sticks his head underneath and whines at them. He doesn’t go for them, just wants them to come back out and say hello.

I am glad I have worked with him about chasing cats inside- the outside cats are still his challenge and we are working through it. He can be a bit headstrong. I took him to see Mike again and “Nurse Bella” came into the room at that time. Nurse Bella is a 7 year old tuxedo girl who used to belong to a former patient. The woman got better and took her cat home with her when she was released after several months there. Once home, Bella vanished and showed up later at the nursing home crying to get inside! Apparently, this happened more than once so her owner relinquished her to the nurses and Bella has it down. She has several places she visits, she gets scraps from the kitchen. She does not pee or poop inside the home, she cries to go outside! She met Mike a few weeks ago, and he fashioned a cat toy for her, so she comes into his room and sleeps on his bed for awhile, then goes on to her rounds. With Quincy in the room-she ducked under the bed and hissed until we left. I don’t think large dogs are in her rounds and NO she is NOT declawed.

Starting Monday, there will be a second and last push to get the rest of that  outdoor colony trapped-neutered and released. Twelve of the twenty cats have been done, now it is the tricky part- catching the rest of the fourteen cats without re-catching the ones done last week. It had to be done this way though- as the slots for the spays and neuters fill up fast.

It means another several trips driving the cats up to Sa and then picking  them up the following day. I find it interesting that several of the kittens done last week are now following the caretakers around like pet cats. I think maybe they are trying to say thank you as some of them (not even 6 months old were very pregnant.

Donations would be wonderful to have right now as the spay and neuters are done on a donation-basis. Most of the cats were lured inside the traps thanks to some canned food arriving a few weeks ago via Amazon.com. “Thank you M- for that much-needed arrival.

I received an email yesterday about an abandoned baby found at one week of age and suddenly after just a few days, refusing to eat at all. I responded with everything I know about helping the wee ones, and this wonderful man took this kitten to the vet. She was given fluids and they were instructed on how to properly stimulate the kitty so things can keep moving. But the little one- it just wasn’t meant to be and she passed away peacefully last night. I am including her story and her image on this blog because so many abandoned ones just never get the chance to touch love. This little girl, she hit the lottery of love, even though her Bridge Pass was stamped way to early.