Yesterday one of my cat-hating neighbors hollered at me over the fence and told me if I didn’t do something about “that damn yowling cat he would!” He was referring to Manchester who is the sole occupant of the deck enclosure (and not liking his new captivity).

Manchester can’t come inside- even with the recent neuter, he is still a tomcat as far as his pee goes and he sprays. I went into the enclosure and talked to him. We had put a calming collar on him but it didn’t seem to matter. He wanted outside NOW!

It is still cold here- like much of the states right now. But, I opened up his door and gave him our blessings and let him go. He raced off toward the trees and I wondered if I would ever see him again. I did remove his collar first as it wasn’t a break-away collar. I did keep the door of the enclosure open. There are pet pads in there that are heated as well as a heated water bowl.

It got down to 20 degrees last night and this morning when I went to feed the outside kitties- he was sleeping inside the enclosure on the heating pad! YAY! So he is in the enclosure, but the door is wide open and I was so glad to see him. He’s not been here that long to where he would consider this his home yet.

On the kitties in the barn- they seem to have vanished for now. I looked high and low for them yesterday but they aren’t here nor is their food touched. The only possibility of escape would require them to climb up to the rafters (no real way of getting there without scaling the wall) and go out the small hay chute we have at the top. There is a door up there, but there is room for enterprising kitties to get out if they work on it. Since they are long-haired IF they did leave that way, their hair would be on the sides of the door. I will wait for a warmer part of the day before pulling out the ladder and climbing up to take a look.

My hope is they are just buried in the straw and hay and playing hide-n-seek with me.

Blake is one of the cat hoarder’s cats. He arrived here on April 10th along with 15 other senior kitties. We were so focused on helping the cats who were visibly sick, and Blake was quite adept in hiding from us. He did go the vet, had a routine check up and was found to not have any teeth but lots of mouth issues. We have cleared up his mouth issues with unprocessed raw honey months ago. He had been living outside in one of the enclosures, but with this severe weather coming down, I have put him in the house with the others. He has adapted well.

Last night, he was on Mike’s lap but he was worrying his ears. Figuring he had ear mites, I grabbed a flashlight and took a look. I am not sure WHAT I am looking at here- but it doesn’t look good, so I am waiting for the vet to open and doing some research beforehand. Both ears look like a mushroom farm inside and at first I thought they were ticks- but we don’t have many ticks around here- plus there are no legs to be seen.

From what I was able to find out- these are either Ceruminous cysts or Apocrine Hidracystoma.. Either way- it doesn’t look like a normal cat ear inside. Poor kitty. It’s odd though, because I remember we treated all the cats for earmites and fleas and worms when they arrived here. I have been using Revolution on them ever since.

This morning while I was mopping the floor in the bedroom- Ms. Pumpkin was chasing the mop! Both of her eyes are open, although she still squints with her right eye. I was smiling as she attacked the monster mop with great vigor!  I don’t know if her eyes will STAY opened. That has been the challenge all along. So far the longest that both eyes have stayed open has only been for a 12 hour period.

The new Siamese mom is getting spayed today. They did indeed confirm my suspicions that she was pregnant. The other kittens are still in the barn and there are so many hiding spots out there. But at least they are warm in the hay and they can’t get outside. It dropped to 27 degrees last night! I welcomed the early frost because finally, now the outdoor cats mating cycle will slowly grind to a halt.

The little captured kitty- the gray one is so darn cute but so unsocial. The kitten did allow me to pet the soft fur this morning and pick up quite briefly before going ballistic. They look like long-haired Russian Blues- not a Siamese in the lot!

The vet put some numbing drops into her eyes and lo and behold, she could open both eyes! She was like a different kitty, she climbed up on my chest and sat on my shoulder and looked at the world. She was gnawing my fingers, she was lying on my chest and she reached her paws up and gently touched my chin. I believe she was telling me thank you. The bad part is we still don’t know exactly what is wrong with her yet. She does have ulcers in her eyes and normally, they would do what is called a third eye flap. They go in and stretch the third eye up over the eye and stitch it to the top of her forehead (to allow the eyes to heal) It is about an hour surgery and a 10 day hospital stay, but he doesn’t want to do it because of all the swelling in her eyelids.

He doesn’t like her skin disease either- it’s not ringworm or demedex mange but what it is no one seems to know. It is spreading. So, for now, she is on a new non-steroid eye drop and special food because she isn’t gaining much weight. We know her immune system is shot- and there are a lot of secondary things wrong with her, but he said he would feel better if he could at least find the primary reason for her eyes to be so swollen (inside the eyelids). He tried to look behind the eyes for a foreign object, but she wasn’t THAT numb and wouldn’t allow it.

She is back home now and hiding from me at the moment because I just put her drops in her eyes. He is compounding some new medicine for her skin condition, but it won’t be ready until tomorrow. She spent the majority of the visit in my arms as she wouldn’t settle anywhere else. He told me I work magic with these cats, and I told him yeah and now I have to work a miracle and get this bill paid down.

By the time I got back home, her bad eye was once again closed, but at least she had a few hours of sight to enjoy. I asked him if he thought she would lose her eyes- and he says right now it is to early to tell. Lets hope the new meds jintimycin sulfate will help her. He agrees with me, she is in a great deal of pain- but he didn’t want to muck up the works and give her pain pills without knowing more about what is going on. He called her my puzzle child! LOL  Amen to that!

This morning, I went out to feed the cats before sunrise. It was foggy and damp and cold. I turned on the overhead lights over the feeder and out of the corner of my eye, I see a Siamese with kittens near the barn! I think I counted 5 kittens before they scattered. I ran over, shut the barn door and slipped inside. They were hiding in the straw and so I put my traps out- managed to catch mom (pregnant) and one kitten. A beautiful long-hair 3 month old. I dropped them at the vet to get mom tested (negative) and to get her spayed (tomorrow).  I had words with one of their girls about the huge bill and I finally told her that we have been clients for a very long time, and yes, I know the bill is high- but it has been high before and if they look back in all the years- have they ever even had to send me a late notice for payment? She admitted they never had to and so I made her a promise. I told her, I would get the bill paid off somehow by the end of this month. I just hope I can deliver on my word. My word is important to me, but we aren’t talking just a few hundred dollars here.

When I was in Alaska the cats we rescued were ones that we went out and captured after someone called us about them. No one, not once dumped an animal on our porch, in our yard, our car nothing. I am so tired of the apathy around cats in this part of the world. And that people think nothing about dumping cats on us- washing their hands of their care and giving all their problems to someone else. I’m not alone, I know this- yesterday in fact, I learned that a woman in Lebanon (the next town over) dumped 40 guinea pigs in a ditch! She got caught thankfully and most of the pigs have been rescued. But what the heck?

I go back to the vet in a few hours with Pumpkin. I just hope I don’t get any flack about that appointment. Time will tell

Just when we thought we might be getting a handle on this viral infection- both of Pumpkin’s eyes have vanished from sight once again. I thought I detected a cloudiness in her right eye a few days ago (right before the eyes vanished). I took her in last night to see our feline specialist and she has suggested a return trip to the vet for an eye stain as she fears Pumpkin may have developed ulcers as a result of this severe URI. Calicivirus or whatever the heck this is!  Since I see her in her home, she doesn’t always have the right equipment there to help us out. She just said this is a pretty bad viral infection and it is taking no prisoners.

So first thing tomorrow morning, I will call my vet and get her in for a re-check. Pretty sad when you know your vet’s phone number to the clinic by heart! That cloudiness could suggest a corneal ulcer and if there is one, sometimes there are more. I was told not to let the eye stick- so I have been doing warm compresses, eye drops and ointments to the eyes. Poor kitty- all she wants me to do is hold her and comfort her for the duration of the day, and I am poking her, putting meds in her, messing with her eyes and the skin around the eyes. She just needs a break.

Mike busted me with my own camera. Housework was put on hold and I was comforting Pumpkin or maybe she was comforting me! Mike took the photo early this afternoon, after we both fell asleep.

It turned out to be a bit of an extensive neuter, because Manchester (his name) didn’t have wounds on his leg. He had apparently shredded his leg in an attempt to get at the earmites! My vet said this was the worst case of ear mite infestation he has ever seen. He dug so deep that he cut into the bone behind his ear and he now has stitches to close in the wound! They also did an ear flush and applied Revolution to help get him out of pain. He is home now and he is a mellow boy. Although he has yet to eat-

After typing out my thoughts this morning, I opened up my front door and gasped. Our porch ramp had blood all over it! My first thought was one of the barn cats had met a car on the highway and I looked around (it was quite foggy and cold) for the victim. That’s when I noticed the cat carrier tucked behind the ledge. Not one of my carrier. I grabbed my robe and slippers and hustled outside.

Inside was this massive tomcat. He filled the carrier and I could see a lot of blood on the floor but he was blocking the wound or injury.  I carried the crate inside to the bathroom and prayed he wasn’t feral and opened the door.

His left leg was shredded! There had to have been at least 8 bite wounds on it- which is typical here for possums to do. He was a long-haired tuxedo boy- estimating him to be at least 8 years old. He was damp, cold and shivering and all he would let me do leg-wise was run warm water over his damaged leg. I called my vet and dropped him off to be seen.

About two hours later, the vet calls. He has multiple bite wounds on his leg, they are vaccinating, de-fleaing and de-worming him and neutering him. He will be back “home” about 4:00 today. Thankfully, I have a warm, safe and empty cat enclosure he can have for all his own.,

Suddenly, what didn’t make any sense this morning just came clear. I can’t ignore these cats. They didn’t ask to be here, to come into a world and find they are unwanted, unloved or they are tormented to the point of breaking. They need someone in their corner and they have me. To hell with the rising vet bill- their care is so much more important.

And shame on the person who thought so little of this beauty to not neuter him and then dump him on the porch of a stranger. May karma rise up and bite them squarely in the ass someday.

Last night in line at the grocery store, buying (of course) my usual load of cat food, there was a couple behind me waiting to be checked out. I had been given enough donations to stock up, so the cart was pretty full of cat food. The couple weren’t what I would call nicely dressed, but they weren’t homeless either. What they exhibited during the entire time in line (about 8 minutes maybe?) was how exasperated they decided to be. Shuffling from side to side, muttering about feeding so many cats and making some pretty crude comments. I finally turned around and smiled and told them I was sorry that it was taking so long, but I ran a non-profit cat sanctuary and when the canned cat food goes on sale, I am the first in line.

The woman looked at the cans of food and looked at me and said: “Honey, if I had THAT many cats, I would just start eating them! Then she winked at me, nudged her male counterpart and said “We hear they are quite tasty!”

I wanted to kick her in the teeth- but I didn’t. Even the clerk who knows me quite well was offended. She spoke up and said “For your information, Mary Anne is one of the few here in town who does rescue stray and feral cats. She has done so for years.” I just walked away with my cart load of food.

This morning at 4:00 a.m. my usual wake-up time, I laid in bed and tried to sort out my thoughts. What am I doing right now with my life? Why do I care so much for these creatures that clearly have a low order on the pecking pole? How did I get here? It just all seemed so overwhelming…sixteen spays in the future, fighting ringworm, the huge vet bill as a result of the challenges of working with Pumpkin and Hope- then the hardest obstacle, finding all these wonderful cats forever homes. It suddenly didn’t even make any sense.

I was praying and talking to God and I suddenly had a flash of memory. My Daddy walking home from work with his mailsack on his back. Peeking over his shoulder, tucked into a side pocket was a calico kitten looking right at me! When he got to my side, he gently placed “Pirna” which would be her name into my waiting arms and this kitten climbed up on my chest and sat on my shoulder just waiting for what was coming next. My Daddy had found her in the field on his walk home.

She would eventually pass away at the age of 21 of cancer. This was before spay and neuter was important and Pirna (or Princess) would have multiple litters, some kittens we kept, others were given away to friends and acquaintances. She would be the family cat, but she was MY kitty and everyone knew it.

So, my path was forged years ago by my Dad and his love for animals and it is something I cherish, a way to stay connected to him even though he is no longer with us. People may not understand me, I am getting used to that- but I am so at home with these cats. Everything else, I hope will be taken care  of in time. If not, I will do all I can to keep these cats fed and healthy, for that is my ministry. That is my life.

Unfortunately, they are still so sensitive to light- so the flash of the camera causes her to close them-

But you can see the swelling around her eyes has gone way down-