Here is Aurora with her two newly adopted kittens-

The one that is tuned into something greater than yourself? The one that sometimes gets drowned out by cell phones, car pools, errands to run and alarm clocks? I received a call from a local shelter. They had cat food (dry) and cat litter for me! I jump in my car, I’m tooling down the road thanking God for this call and I pass a box (Jim Beam whiskey box) just sitting at the side of the road. It was all sealed up in twine. It looked really out-of-place.

The voice said: “Stop!”

I said in my head- “Can’t, places to go, people to see!” The voice again stronger said “Mary Anne STOP the car! I sighed, slid over the side of the road and backed up closer to the box. I got out, picked it up (heard the meows) and tears just slid down my face. Cats do not get any breaks around here.

Once I got to the shelter, I borrowed a room and opened the box. Inside is this adorable ((probably 7 week old orange kitten) and a mackerel tabby. I picked up the older one she is about a year old. She was friendly. I turned her over and saw evidence that she was nursing. The kitten in the box was way to old to belong to her- but somewhere, she has kittens. More alarmingly, she had poop dangling from her rear. I borrowed a warm rag and gently tried to release the pressure for her- she is stuffed full of grass and pebbles! She is bone thin- and out on the porch right now. She feels “pregnant” but for now, she will stay on the porch while I try to get her unbound up with Laxatone, Lactulose and wet food.  The kitten is in the bedroom in a cage- he’s a cutie- a long hair. I am thankful I stopped and at the same time sorry that I did because I really don’t have any room right now. For the first time, the mackerel who got spayed this morning is forced to stay inside a large dog carrier until I can figure something else out. My hope is she might accept Yin and Yang and they can all be feline friendly in the deck enclosure.

The two kittens who froze this morning and came back are now with Aurora! She accepted them with open paws. When I left her, she was cleaning them as they were nursing. Give that queen a big crown! Mother’s milk is so much better than what I could give them. I will keep checking on them- but the warming cave is sitting at 70 degrees so they are warm, warm warm right now next to mom’s belly.

Mike just shook his head when I came home with more cats. He said if he could figure out how to disconnect my cat magnet, he would do so. I told him he would also have to shut off that small voice in my head- the one voice, I know, belongs to God.

Someone left a box of kittens and a pregnant mom on our porch last night. It dropped down to 39 degrees last night! I didn’t know the box was there and this morning when I went to let Brandi out of the house, she wanted to go out the front door (not normal for her). I let her out and she ran over to the box, started pawing at it and whining. I knew it wasn’t a good thing.

I picked up the box and carried it inside. There were 5 kittens (about 2 weeks old) and a pregnant (anxious mom) inside. Three of the kittens had already had their Bridge pass stamped. I worked for a few hours bringing the other two back- they are barely here. The family is at the vet right now- the kittens for evaluation- mom is getting spayed.

The remaining kittens are bone thin. Mom was friendly enough for me to examine her. She has had multiple litters this year (her tummy is almost hairless around her nipples! But she is bone dry- no milk- no more. Do I have room for them? No! Do I have the resources to care for them- barely. But I cry for the three who did not survive: a small golden boy, a tuxedo kitty and a tortie. Mom is a torbie. The two surviving kittens are both girls a mackerel tabby and a white kitty with black ears and a black head (a miniature Hope).

I was determined despite our huge vet bill that this queen would never have to deal with kittens again in her life. She looked like she would have them tonight. Now, she won’t have to worry about it. People don’t understand the stresses that a nursing mom faces, and like the Tortie Aurora, this torbie looks to be under a  year old. This should have NEVER happened on so many fronts!

Just got back from the vet with Hope and we have decided to try her on Doxy and also pet tinc for now. I asked him what in the world non-regenerative anemia is and he pointed out her blood results. Normally, when people (and cats) are losing blood- the body (bone marrow) goes on alert and manufactures more. Her reticulocyte should be 7.0-50.0 and it is sitting at a 5!

In other words according to my awesome vet who makes this technical stuff easier to understand: Her bone marrow is chillin out and not worried about the blood loss. Why? Could be several reasons: cancer certainly in the forefront- lyme disease another concern although ticks aren’t common in the valley. Also a chronic infection that is just slowly bleeding her out. She isn’t a candidate for a blood transfusion yet- but she is darn close! She just needs prayer and time.

As with all of the cats here, I have to determine if she is adoptable, is she a lifer- or is she one who just needs to be put out of her misery? Right now, we are at a wait-and- see mode.

We have given her a two-week window of TLC and meds and then will run the hemocrit again (It’s a fairly cheap blood test) If it is up- then we are good to go- if it stays at 22.5 (should be 28.8-52.7) then we will assume it is cancer and once she starts to really suffer, we will do the dirty deed.

But through all of this since she has arrived (she came on the 23^rd) she is gaining weight rapidly. Even between vet appoints (42 hours ago) she has gained 2 quarters of a pound! Now there is a rare lymphoma where all the nutrients in the body go into feeding the tumor and that could be what is going on here, but I don’t think so. Years ago, I had a kitty with this type of lymphoma and she bulged in one spot on her side. Hope is gaining weight all the way around.

So that’s where we stand right now.

Just to let you know, the sanctuary is in need of money to cover the vet debt. But we also need canned cat and kitten food badly. Winter is setting in and the cats outside need the wet food to keep warm. Dry food is donated here now twice a week! YAY! So for now, we are good with that. But if I had to put out a wish list it would be:

donations of $
canned kitten/canned cat food
garbage bags
PAM cooking spray (makes cleaning litterpans a snap)

Thanks for listening, thanks for caring- please pray for Hope and Tweedledee and that the new kitty (Licorice) Isn’t pregnant! I can’t take her in right now. I wish I could.

One more thing. Because we are NOT a selective rescue. We take the hard cases, the ones who are sick, afflicted with PTSD not the easy ones, the beautiful ones (although sometimes we luck out and get some beauties here!) Our vet bill will always be high. If you want to cut out the middleman and send a donation to our vet clinic- here is their information:

Animal Clinic
185 North Santiam Highway
Lebanon  OR  97355

Make it to the attention of Eartha and say within the context of the envelope the monies are for CATS Inc., or Mary Anne Miller

Hope’s bloodwork is back and it doesn’t look good. She has “non-regenerative anemia” which can mean only a few things: chronic pancreatitis, inflammatory bowel disease or lymphoma.

To narrow the field and try to figure this out would cost us additional hundreds of dollars because they have to rule out things first. To do the short-cut version of a firm diagnosis would mean an ultra-sound- which could run up to $500.00.

It seems like it always boils down to money in the end. Money we don’t have and as I was talking to another friend this morning who does fundraising- it gets tiresome asking for money all the time. But if you don’t have the money, the diagnosis stays in limbo. So what to do? I have decided to start her on B-12 shots weekly and keep the thought of prednisone on the back burner for now (I hate using pred for cats- never a good thing). I will keep her comfortable for as long as she is able to stick through the day and we will go from there. Our vet bill is once again higher than I would like it to be and adding another $500.00 on it for a cat who may or may not be able to be saved doesn’t make sense. The money when it comes will go to help those who I actually can help. The vets are pretty certain this is cancer.  Her weight gain is still a puzzle- 2.5 pounds in under a week is pretty unheard of- all I know, is she is inside, she is warm, safe, eating and drinking and that’s pretty good for now.

This just came in my email and made me smile:

Hello May Anne,

Lake, renamed Ona, is climbing on me at this very moment. Sorry not to respond sooner, I’ve been working a lot.

    Ona has been going back and forth with me, to work and then home. She seems very agreeable to everything that pleases her. She has a very strong personality.

    She walked into the house and when the chows came to give her a disinterested sniff, she attacked with great fury, they’ve gone back to chowy behavior of ignoring her completely, which is just what she wanted. She jumped up onto the counter where the cat food is and while allowing Tuck her place at the bowl, staked out her claim and now demands loudly whenever she decides it’s time to be fed. Baked chicken suits her just fine. I think she downed one and a half chickens that first day! She’s mellowed out since then. She and Tuck mostly ignore each other but have no issues. It’s good.

    She has a very, very strong personality. She’s not a princess, she thinks she’s the Empress! Right now, after climbing on me like a jungle gym, she’s square in the middle of a dog bed. The dogs have given up protesting.

    I’d say that you have no worries. She’s no fragile, shrinking violet as I first thought. I expect her to annex California next week if she keeps going on like she is.

    Time for my dinner. Talk soon.

rose (written under the direction/command of Empress Ona)

—– Original Message —–

Tweedledee and Rumbles were negative for the nasties. The missing toes on the back leg is a mystery to the vet. She is missing toe #2 and also toe #4 which he has never seen before. He said sometimes, young queens get a bit aggressive with their grooming and will remove a toe, but this doesn’t look like that is what is happening here. He wants to give her time and see if she can work through the handicap and get a bit bigger before running films on her.

Hope had her blood drawn. She has gained over 2 pounds since she arrived!  THAT’s a LOT of weight gain in such a short time.

Decided against naming the one kitten Tweedledum- I don’t wish to put that type of dum label on anyone especially this kitten. According to Dr. Vicki both kittens are about 5 weeks old, pretty depleted, suffering from URI and malnutrition/dehydration. Plans include taking them in tomorrow to the clinic to be tested- upgrading their food from baby food to pureed kitten food mixed with formula. Her concern on the calico’s deformity lies in the direction of future issues with pooping. The pelvis is extremely narrow, but she could not feel any stool in the system so somehow this little one is coping.

Young girl came to me tonight. Her and her friends were out riding (horses) and they saw two kittens in a field in the middle of nowhere. Before he could be stopped, one of the dogs on the trail ride ran over and mauled one of the kittens. She did her best, she said to stop the molestation, but she was afraid the dog had really hurt the kitten.

I have both of the kittens now here with me. The little calico pictured only has a three-toed back foot which means that she was either inbred or its a genetic mutation. There is no wound, so it isn’t the dog’s fault for this abnormality. Both the babies have high fevers- loads of fleas and the little tortie girl (what is it with all these torties this year?) has goopy eyes. I have started them on amoxy- the calico seems to be okay- other than the fever- she is eating, the tortie is not. I call them tweedum and tweedledee for now-

Aurora is responding to her meds in a positive way. I put a thermometer inside the heating cave so I could monitor the temperature better. The pet pad the kittens are lying on is unplugged during the day, then turned on around midnight. The heater is set to lowest setting and right now the temp inside the cave is 69 degrees. The kittens are active, warm and feeding. Mom is eating, drinking with no visual signs of upset. The vet mentioned the “D” word. I guess he had to seeing that Distemper hit here almost two years ago now. But as I told my feline specialist, if the kittens have distemper, they are awfully darn healthy with it! Decided to name the two orange kittens Run and Rerun. The tortie girls are Brooklyn and Ursa.

Hope is better this morning. I added forte flora in with her feedings and it seems to have settled things down. Perhaps she just isn’t used to the food yet and the bile in her belly got the best of her. But, I still want to get her in on Monday and run a full panel and fecal on her to see what we might be facing with her. She is food aggressive- VERY- do not get in the way of her food bowl once she gets it. In cats this isn’t very common. We see it in dogs more than cats.