Yesterday was Mike’s procedure and I lasted as long as I could before I left the hospital. We got there at 8:00 a.m. He went into surgery at noon and didn’t come out until 5:00. Then he was three hours in recovery and the nurse told me it would be four more hours before a room would be ready for him so I just left.

He was alert and himself when I left. They were concerned because his blood pressure was so high (He doesn’t suffer from hypertension) it was 190/80 when I took off. I think they over-complicate things there. They were scurrying around trying to figure out which meds to give him to lower the blood pressure. His standard bp is 120/30. I finally told them that my thought was even though he can’t feel pain in his legs- his body can respond to the harshness of the procedure (they basically sanded his legs smooth) and his body is responding even if his mind isn’t. But hey, I am not a doctor. They did both legs and they shut down the vein in his left leg that was working backwards. On the other leg, it was decided that because all the veins are funneling blood to his toes instead of his heart- they couldn’t do anything. All the valves are malfunctioning in that leg, so they just debrided that leg as well. The nurses called him quite “entertaining and charming.” LOL I told them not to encourage him! *G* He woke up under anesthesia believing he was Tarzan’s chimp Cheeta. LOL We had watched one of the old tarzan movies before he fell asleep the night before his hospital stay.

I arrived home at 10:00 p.m. grateful to find out that Haley had made it over and seen to all the cats’ needs. The new kitty in the bedroom was standing at the door of the room just crying his heart out. I went in to check and see that he had food and water and he rushed me and attacked my ankles. It wasn’t play, it was intent. He’s 6 months old for cripes sake and supposedly owned by this woman since he was 6 days old! Every time I went in there, he would attack me. Yet, when I left him in the room alone, he would sit at the door and cry endlessly until I came back in. I wrapped him in a blanket and sat held him, petted him told him he was safe. He was growling and swearing at me the whole time. We played that game for a few hours. I tried putting him in different areas of the house in cages, that didn’t work. He just kept crying.

When the other cats would come to the bedroom door, he would rush the door and slam into it in an attempt to get to them- he was hissing and growling, but there wasn’t the pure aggression that I have seen on some kittens who come here. At 2:00, out of options, I just opened up the door of the bedroom to let him out into the house. Unlike Mike, who can take out his hearing aids and sleep, I can’t sleep with a screaming kitten in the house. So I figured, I would just give it to God and open the door and let the cats figure it out for themselves. Worse case scenario, I would have an abscess to drain in a few days. Then exhausted, I fell asleep on the couch.

This morning, I woke up and he was on my chest. Calm as toast. Right now, as I type this Franklin is on my computer desk with his paws folded watching me. Who would have thought? It makes me wonder after the incident with his previous owner, what someone did to him immediately after? When I went to fetch him, he was in one of those (horrid) cardboard carriers. Those things are really dark inside. I wonder if they just kept him in there (out of fear or ignorance) thinking that he might attack and hurt her again? But I did everything in my power, used all my tricks when he was crying- left the lights on in the bedroom, played my harp of hope CD, but he was wound up like a top.

I guess he just wants to be with people and all the other cats, he will have to get used to. He goes on alert sometimes, especially when Chauncey starts talking to me about her day yesterday. I swear this black kitten is a Siamese traveling incognito! She talks a lot!

He hasn’t met everybody yet- but he will in time and hopefully, he will go to a good home sooner than later. I need to get him adopted before Mike comes home, because Mike will fall in love with him and his golden eyes and want to keep him! LOL

So sometimes, I just take a chance and hope for the best. In this instance- my gamble has worked so far.

Mason, Maybelline and maybe Teo are getting neutered today. I did voice my concern to his owners about the neuter possibly bringing on another episode of FUO. I told them if they did decide to get him neutered, that CATS would pay for the neuter as well as the preliminary bloodwork and depending on what the findings were, the vets were to decide if they wanted to do the neuter or not. I was a bit concerned though. The gal dropped by the other night to see her other cat “Girlcat” she showed me a video she had on her phone of poor Teo exhibiting the same symptoms as he had here- with the same swollen and white tongue, the drool the open mouth breathing, snapping at the air. I kept hearing her ask him what was wrong and the video was long- really long. I asked her how long she observed him like this before taking him to the vet. She said 2 hours! I couldn’t stand to see him suffer for ten minutes and she video’d it? I told her to show the vet the video. I believe once Steve sees it, he will decide not to neuter at this time.

I don’t think that they don’t love their cats. I just think that they need to become better educated when it comes to cat care. I had to laugh though- when she came to visit girlcat, I went out with her into the enclosure and sat down on the straw. She was in the chair and she called her kitty out from the catio. Girlcat came out and went directly over to me! LOL She kept coming to me and headbumping me. Katherine goes “Well, she certainly loves you!” LOL

When GC came, she has all these scabbies all over her body. She was crawling with fleas an she had worms. I de-flead, dewormed and then sprayed Schrieners on her scabbies and they are mostly now gone. I love that stuff. She had so many scabbies from scratching her ears, so I attacked her earmites. Now the mites are gone and the scabbies are vanishing. Yes, I would say, she probably does love me- LOL

Okay, I have a day without Michael and as bad as it sounds, I am going to enjoy every minute of it! I’m off to feed and greet my kitties and get on with my day. Thanks for reading my novel. *G*

Well, so much for at least one day of rest. The hospital just called. They are discharging Mike today. I am going up in a few minutes to fetch him home. He will have dressing changes several times a day now. The bandages have been coated in a sort of petroleum jelly so they don’t stick to his wounds. He will be followed up weekly with appointments in Portland. No rest for the weary I guess.

New kitty just arrived. 6 months old, fully vaccinated, neutered even! Feel like I hit the jackpot here! 🙂 He is beautiful, the color of a creamsicle. Suspect he won’t be here very long but he is a bit hissy so it will be a few days for him to calm down. He’s under the bed right now- what a surprise.

His name is Wolfie- I will be changing it soon. His story is he belonged to an elderly woman who lives in a mobile home park. In the last few days, he got a bit rambunctious (as kitties do) and he scratched the woman but he hit a vein. She bled all over the place and it caused a bit of an uproar with everyone. Some wanted him declawed and de-fanged! Others wanted him to be turned over to animal control (they only euthanize cats). So I was called and here he is-

As I said, he is a bit scared, a bit hissy and hiding under the bed right now.

In our front yard, there is a long strip (runway) of brick running vertically out to the front of the property. Years ago, roses and other blooms were planted there. Recently, yard work has been on the back burner and long grasses have taken over the majority of the bed. Last night, after it cooled off considerably (103 here yesterday!) I took the weed wacker out and decided to trim up the grasses. As I was running multiple extension cords from the carport, I happened to look at the bed because I heard rustling in the grasses.

Squirrel raised her gray head and looked at me with some disdain. How dare I disturb her rest! As I walked over to pet her, I noticed that the long grasses contained other surprises. Bentley, Baker, Sullivan and McGee were all hidden in the long fronds, using the shade they offered as respite from the heat.

I walked back over to the weed wacker and started disconnecting extension cords to put the machine away. I will take the beauty of cats resting over a trimmed up flower bed any day!

I am so glad that some friends of ours have fallen in love with this wonderful girl. They started out saying they would foster her until I could find her a “proper” home but they have quickly found out what a sweet girl she is and she is now being adopted. She will be a shop cat in Lebanon and I know she will thrive under all the attention the customers and her new owners will give her. There are already two cats in the shop but they are all getting along well so it is a match made in heaven. She was so unhappy here and I couldn’t spend near enough time with her that she needed. In the morning when I was pouring out the food, she would jump up on the large platform and headbump my forehead over and over. I kept promising her I would find her a forever home and God heard the promise, smiled and delivered.

He is alive! They did not take him to the vet. They “nursed” him back to health with damp rags, ice beds and siphoning fluids into his mouth. I am going to go ahead and put his neuter back on the books for CATS Inc., on the 18th. We feel if we don’t foot this bill, this opens this cat up to such inherent risks in his lifetime and he is such a nice fella. They claim he was “broken hearted” I don’t know. I just know that getting him a vet was his best chance of surviving that horrible fever. Whether he is brain-damaged now is yet to be determined, but at least he is still alive.

rushing him to Portland now! 🙁

Just woke up, here is the update:

He has a bad infection in his leg (again) but it is superficial (just underneath the skin) and because he is going to have his legs surgically scraped on Thursday, that procedure will take care of the issue. They once again did films and ultra sounds and they were “inconclusive” about a osteomilitis (bone infection) We got home at 4:00 a.m. this morning and I have to turn around today and take him back up to his pre-op appointment at noon. Brandy went with us and she was such a champ. The er room was so crowded and it was a hot night. She had to keep crawling under the chairs to get out of everyone’s way, not a small feat for a 123 pound dog. She just laid there all those hours (10) and took the abuse. Such a good dog.

I call her GiGi and this morning when I went in to visit her, she crawled right up on my lap. I know she misses Teo (still no word on the whereabouts or the fate of this beautiful boy). She has been tearing her hair out around her tail which is usually a sign of worms, so I dewormed her. She also has a major reaction to fleas-she has scabbies all over her body. I put flea treatment on her the second day she was here because she was covered with fleas. Now, I will be putting some ointment on her bites to help her find some relief.

She has the worst case of earmites I have ever seen, so those were tackled today. Through it all, she just hugged my lap- pretty impressive considering what all was done to her in such a short time. She was shaking her head and blowing chunks of gunk all over the place. I don’t think her ears have ever been messed with?

I just called the ER clinic and they have not brought this cat in for treatment. Hopefully, they just chose another vet that was closer, but I have a feeling after listening to them debate about what to do, they have done nothing. If he stays at his 104 temp, he will be cooked by morning.

I hope it didn’t seem like I was being heartless not taking him for help. But technically, I couldn’t because if the vets’ chose to euthanize him, I could have gotten into some pretty hot water taking that leap. I won’t call them and ask them what they decided to do. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. I see their thinking going in the direction of “well he survived this once, he can do it again.” 🙁

I just called the owners and got a bit tough with them. Hopefully, it works and they have come and picked up Teo and are supposedly going to take him to the ER clinic where he was seen before and surrender him to their care. I sort of have a feeling that isn’t what is going to happen though because the woman seems to feel the clinic will just euthanize him without chasing what is wrong with him. All this has happened before to him (they say) snapping at the air, the high fevers (up to 106!) the tremors etc… I did talk to the clinic earlier and they did keep him for 24 hours for fevers of unknown origin and wrote it off as an infection. I told them about the circumstances this time and like me, they are plenty worried about the symptoms and want him surrendered. I told the kids that in surrendering him, they will lose all control over what happens to him and they won’t get him back unless they can pay the bill in full. I told them please don’t argue, discuss, procrastinate, stall just get him the hell over to the clinic and turn him into them for care. I told the kid that they don’t euthanize because it is a teaching clinic and the students learn a lot about emergency vet care there. I hope they do the right thing- and now I have to go and scrub the heck out of my isolation room and let it air out because I have no clue what the devil this cat has- the clinic said if they do turn him in- they will call me and let me know the findings.

Note to self: Gosh mary anne NO MORE “owned” cats! Stick to the strays- the ones you can help!

Teo has suddenly spiked a high fever. 104.4 and despite subcu’s and antibiotics prescribed for him, his temp is going up not down. He is chewing on air- I thought at first he was grinding his teeth (which is a sign of pain) but that ain’t it. I have separated him from his feline friend, put him on an ice bed and given him the prescribed Zithromax but he isn’t responding to anything. He has heavy drool coming out of his mouth and his teeth and gums look okay. His owner said he did the same thing about two months ago and was down for three days until he recovered. It was an expensive visit for them (they took him to the 24 hour er vet) and they don’t have the money to help him now. They said I am doing more than anyone else would and they understand he might not be here in the morning. I’m just so perplexed? He was fine earlier, eating and drinking and even moving around the enclosure exploring. I’m a bit frantic here and just left him 104.8 now! I don’t know what to do- they said the vets never determined what exactly was wrong with him and he is up to date on all vaccines? Please if you are awake, please pray that Teo makes it till morning when I can get him to my vet. But he is having severe tremors and I have my doubts that he will be here in the morning.

Putting on the coffee, no sleep tonight for me.

6:50 a.m. Saturday morning- Teo is remaining at a constant 104.4. I don’t know about anyone else, but if this was my cat- I would have been on the phone at 6:00 a.m. calling to see how he came through the night? They know I was up with him all night. He acts like he has been poisoned (to me) but I am not a vet and until they make a proactive choice in his favor, I am pretty powerless to do much else but supply sub cu’s. I know our town is poor and these young people are struggling, but I also wonder if perhaps I have been hoodwinked.This wouldn’t be the first time that people play on my sympathies and passion for cats knowing the cat(s) are sick and they are unable to care for their needs. I am going to email someone who is an expert in feline vet care and get her opinion on this. I can’t just sit on my hands and watch this gorgeous boy struggle.

8:30 a.m. Called and left message on machine that their cat needs to see a vet pronto! He is staying at 104 and if this keeps up his brain cells will be toast soon. I’m at a loss here. My clinic is closed today so that option isn’t even open for me to take him there, He’s not my cat legally so I can’t really treat him- this poor kitty-