This concoction arrived out of Texas and is made up personally by an excellent cat vet. My cats see it coming and they tremble in their paws! This gruel is so thick, I believe I could caulk the shower with it and it is so bitter. I know I tasted a bit of it. It kills everything (but the cat) or so I am told and I hope it turns the tide for the three remainding kitties whose diarrhea is still flowing.

Watching their reactions to this stuff prompted me to write the following:

“Oh no everybody-
Quick! All of you hide-
Here comes Mom
With pill pusher by her side!

She doesn’t think we’re smart enough
Can’t see with these eyes,
She’s trying to hide that plastic tube
Tucked close to her side.

This mixture is nasty
It makes mouths foam
Where can we hide out?
Why won’t she leave us alone?

Don’t be silly- the shower
Is the first place she’ll look.
She’ll see our pink noses,
Our goose will be cooked!

Can’t hide in the rafters,
Because she’s so tall.
And Kojak is trembling
So surely she’ll fall.

Under the bed with the dust bunnies.
We could all fit with ease.
Then we could scatter
When she bent down to sneeze.

We could all run upstairs
Remember she hates heights.
It would be better than staying
For stuff that kills parasites.

What is that wise Cagney?
What are you yowling about?
You say we don’t swallow
We just spit it out?

Oh what a smart plan
Ok everyone stay-
Just remember to spit
When she turns away!”

Not sure if the recent buy-out has something to do with the fact that Catster is going offline, but I feel sorry for the people with all those photos there that are just going to vanish. Websites seem to be short-lived anymore on the net unless they are able to be accessed easily by phones or are connected with social media.

I took jedi to the vet today. She has only gained a pound since last being seen there (over two months ago) She still has diarrhea if she eats something other than her prescribed diet and she sprays like a fireman! “Is that tree on fire Mom? Step back, I’ll put the darn thing out..” and off she goes. If it wasn’t so sad, it is very impressive. They are running some tests to see why she is spraying. The results should be in by Friday. Keeping me on these toes these kitties are-

Once more the topic is diarrhea (do I hear groaning out there?) Trust me, I am groaning the loudest :). I am fortunate enough to be connected to one of the best feline specialists who often works with the cats and kittens here in the sanctuary and she has a wide network of fellow cat vets. My kittens were the subject of a get-together yesterday and here was what has been determined:

They will now be put on Hills Prescription H/D canned only. No dry food as dry food is full of carbs and come to find out a lot of kittens can’t handle high carbs and digest them thoroughly. Dry food also pulls in more water into the intestines and causes loose stools. I called my vet and he no longer carries this brand of food but after calling several vets in neighboring towns, I located 15 cans and have ordered more. The cans are small and are $2.00 a piece.

If this doesn’t stop the runs then there is a special enzyme we haven’t tried yet Pancreamyzine which will be next on the list. Failing that, Vitamin B-12 injections will be given weekly to each kitten and if THAT fails, we go to the extreme drug (that I personally detest) prednisone. But that is our last resort.

Thankfully, these babies are bright, active, eating, drinking and not looking anytime soon to be cashing in on a Bridge Pass. But it is so damn frustrating. I am also giving them squirts of panalog into their bums to stop all the inflammation and redness. Poor kitties. If you want to remember them in your prayers- they are Jedi, Cagney, Kojak and Sophia. God knows their names quite well now. I have been discussing them with Him a lot lately.

Here’s hoping the canned food will work and these kittens will finally get some much needed relief.

Who comes tripping out of the shadows this morning to walk all over my shoes? Why Ms. Patience does and she is back! I sat down next to her and talked to her and told her that if I picked her up at all it would be to help her. I promised her that I wouldn’t put her in the house, a cage, a carrier- nothing. As much as I wanted her to be safe, I explained, I knew that her past experiences with being indoors was nothing but nasty.

She just let me talk(after all I am the crazy cat lady). Then she followed me slowly to the barn where I put her up on a table and cleaned her wound. It looks like she has been bitten. There is a bite mark on top of her right left paw and also underneath and a bit of a tear in the skin. Whoever had her didn’t want to let her go. I told her I hoped she got some good whaps in on her behalf.

She was so good and only cried once when I had to lance open the abscess and gdrain it. She growled but didn’t bite me and she allowed me to tend to her wounds. I followed with a dose of clinidrops and then she rolled over on her belly asking me to pet her! When I finished feeding everyone and went back in the house, I could hear her crying for me softly in the bushes and again my heart broke.

I will keep my word to her and not try to bring her in and get her socialized. I guess she is just destined to be our cat here outside the sanctuary.

Glory Bee’s owners never contacted me, so I wrote them a letter giving them a brief history of how she came to be here, and sent them some photos of her. I told them to please contact me if she was indeed their cat and I would bring her right over. I know they got the letter but there was no word back from them. So Glory is back with us and I will continue to find her a home where folks do care about this quirky calico kitty.

This morning, Patience showed at feeding and her leg was just hanging up. It looked quite swollen (on the pad) and she looked miserable. Without thinking, I scruffed her and picked her up supporting her rear and walked her quickly toward the house. The closer we got to the house, I could feel her tense up, but feeling that I was pretty protected from all the layers I was wearing (It was 16 degrees this morning) I kept walking.

Suddenly, as we neared the door, she went ballistic and nailed me but good. She sailed out of my hands, latched on to my shoulder and bolted behind me and disappeared. Great Mary Anne, way to go, I know how she identifies houses and it isn’t pretty. I should have just medicated and treated her without catching her and now I have destroyed the trust she had in me and she is loose, scared and injured. From what I could see she has part of her pad torn off so either she got in a fight with a predator or a car and either way she came out on the bad side.

I hope she comes back, but i Have my doubts. All that work destroyed in seconds when I get in the moment and react to what I believe is best and forget about how a cat sees things, sometimes it just doesn’t work. This is one of those times.

This morning during feeding, she bounded out of the shadows and demanded I pet her! What a switch that is for the two of us. She is so skinny and she was soaking wet although it hasn’t rained for days so she must have traveled through some pastures to get home. We had a bit of pet fest before she turned to the business of eating. I am relieved to see her back at her post and hope this time, she sticks around a bit longer.

Denver, the new black boy in the bedroom is now out and about and sitting on the window. I pulled the bed back yesterday and laid on it dangling my arms over the front edge and we too had a pet fest. Guess he figured I am not a predator, because pretty soon after i put the bed back, he came out and has stayed out. His sister Trinity is still hiding but enough food is leaving the bowls that I think they both are eating. Torties tend to be very skittish and shy by nature. My last two tortie rescues hid for weeks and are still a bit shy around people. It will just take time for everyone to adjust.

Crazy weather! Wild winds, slamming rain, hail then snow. It hardly ever sticks, but this time it seems to be hanging around. This is our front yard and Ghost admiring the view:

Snow

One of the employees of the shop where the donation jar is just called me. Someone walked off with the donation jar! I had heard some of the merchants at the food stands etc., had people walk off with the tip jars- but those are outside the business, not inside. Dang- she said there was money inside of it too. 🙁

I don’t want to jinx this, but the three kittens seem to be getting better. The custom e-collars I made from old x-ray films worked really well to keep them off their bottoms. Even Jedi has improved. They still have 5 days on the pills, the finished the wormer today. I am crossing my fingers and hoping this works-

Scott Rundle, owner of felinefurniture.com has four catio sets that he will sell at a reduced price and donate all the monies (but $30.00 shipping) to our cat sanctuary! I have three of these sets and my cats love them. What I like best about the catio furniture is the wood is so hard that when the cats’s scratch on the wood it blunts their nails.

He said to let me know if you want to buy one and then send the monies to me. I will then send him the shipping cost (he can only ship throughout the continental United States because this furniture is sturdy and heavy. The rest will go into the kitty.

They regularly sell for $360.00 but he is offering them for $230.00. Here is a photo of the set-

If you can share this on social media I would appreciate it. Plus if you have outside cats- check out his cat barn on his website

I have been beta testing it- okay my cats have and since it has arrived and been set up, I find a cat in it every morning. I can’t say that about some of the other outdoor cat houses I have here.

Looks like I have no choice though. Sophia who was given panacur two days ago is now pooping pure blood which is NOT normal. She isn’t bleeding out, it’s not distemper, I think it’s a worm obstruction but I am not sure and so we go in tomorrow morning to find out. No fever, she is bright, although she just wants mom to hold her all day. She is eating and drinking, just bleeding. Not normal for panacur which is one of the most easiest wormer out there on kitty’s system. I wanted to try and keep my vet costs down- that was an actual new year’s resolution- but it isn’t working.

Also THANK YOU to the party responsible for sending us a big bag of Pure Elements today. There was no name of sender so whoever you are- bless you for helping these cats out.

If you can, please pray for Sophia, I know she feels punky and as soon as I can, I will be curling up on the couch so she can have my lap.