I received a call from a guy who told me that his wife had unexpectedly divorced him and left behind two cats when she moved. He said he had been trying to get ahold of her for a year, with no results and he is not a cat person and he can’t keep these two siamese anymore. So off I went to pick them up.

I arrived home and put them both upstairs in the kitten room and just let them decompress. They are 6 years old and beautiful seal points.

About an hour later, I went back upstairs to see how they were doing and the minute I opened the door- I had a full- attack mode Siamese in my face! He was scratching and clawing and yowling and biting MAN ALIVE! I am used to that from a stray or a feral but NOT an owner-surrendered cat. There is a large cat bed by the door, and I blindly grabbed it and placed it over my face- shoving the cat away from me and beat a hasty retreat. I sat on the top of the stairs until I stopped shaking. I could hear the cat inside and he was sounding like he was being tortured. He was not a happy kitty.

I called the gentleman back and simply told him I wasn’t going to deal with his cats and what had happened and he LAUGHED! He told me I probably didn’t know what I was doing and the cat in question was a complete love. I told him regardless, I was going to bring the cats to him as soon as I could put them both in a carrier. He told me good luck with that! Then just said drop them in the yard, they will know they are home.

This time I went into the room prepared, with two long sleeve shirts, leather gloves, jeans tucked into my boots and a wool blanket.

In twenty minutes i had both cats inside carriers and out the door. The screeching they made when I was trying to get them inside was loud enough even Mike downstairs heard them- and he can’t hear much of anything these days!

I took them back, dropped them into their yard and apologized to them for doing so because someone has put a lot of hate into these beauties. I am getting older and if they were strays, I would have worked with them- but these are cats that are bonded to one person whether or not he likes it or not. They are already on edge because of the divorce and heaven only knows what this fella did to them when his wife moved out. I have had a lot of siamese here- both older and younger and have never actually been scared of any of them until yesterday. Guess I flunked cat rescue 101 yesterday but at least, I have finally stopped shaking.

Yesterday, Mike and I decided to use a bit of our tax money to go and say goodbye to my Dad. It is over 500 miles to their home and I drove up and back in one day as there was no one available to stay with the cats. All volunteers otherwise busy.

All I can say is I am glad and sad and sorry in one breath that I went, but it was something I needed to do. It built bridges long needed between me and my mother, and as for my dad- well- the man I “met” yesterday was a far cry from the man I remember him to be.

But goodbyes have been said and with a mad dash home- life goes on. I came back to a home only partly demolished by kitties thinking they had been abandoned again and that was a traumatic to witness as the trip was for me to undergo.

I leave with this note: There are no such things as perfect families. Each unit has its flaws even the families whose Christmas portraits hang over the mantel every year. We all get along as best we can, do what we can to survive with the tools we are given to survive. Yesterday, I very much felt like a feral cat fighting to keep alive in my mind the image of the father I knew him once to be and not accepting the man who now puts on his shoes.

Of course on the way as hurried as the trip was- I run into what else- cats in need of help. Another time when my emotions aren’t so close to the surface, I will share the story of the Carl’s Jr cats one which might make many grin and even chortle. As well as on the return trip in the town of Weed running into rest stop kitties who were starving and who “no one” could get close to…well guess who did?

Are they added to my family now? no, but I have alerted other cat lovers in the area of their existence and hopefully soon they will be safe in their new families.

Love each other as if tomorrow is only a promise and hug your furry friends tight-

Please keep voting and ask your friends to do the same or I may slip down a notch. They changed their format so when you get to the link, look at the toolbar below the purple button see the shelter challenge click there for a pull-down menu then click vote for shelter. Find CATS Inc in Oregon and click to vote then validate. Getting down to the wire and I am in so close to gaining some ground-

Vote here

He hasn’t recently had anyone who gave a hang about him.
He was left to fend for himself outside while trying to avoid being poisoned
Today, Sebastian lost his fight and was put to sleep
It happened so fast, my head is still trying to process it all
Couldn’t afford to let him suffer any longer- he had been suffering mightily for 24 hours
Suspect he had gotten into the poisons set up around the park to get rid of “nuisance cats.”
They got their wish, he paid with his life

Bye sweet boy- I will see you again

The little black kitten I found a year ago in the trash has now found a new, forever home. He was adopted tonight by a no-nonsense lady and her grand-daughter. I have to laugh at her expectations of him and her other cat- but nothing I said seemed to penetrate her mind. I know she loves cats and is good to them- her kitty is evidence of that-plus she uses my vet which is where she heard about me in the first place.

I will miss this black devil- he had the oddest habit of when I was working on the computer, he would jump up in my lap and take his back left leg and drape it over my left arm and fall asleep like that!

Here he is the first day of his arrival here-

Wish I was talking about a spider or an ant, but I am talking about a virus I found myself wrestling with. It put me down- I was wondering if I was going to walk upright ever again! And I took a flu shot too-

On the Google front- they think she just has a high sensitivity to any type of food. Have tried her on everything under the sun including raw and her body just can’t digest it well. They ordered some new enzymes for us to try and beyond that it would mean more bloodwork and questions being sought. She did inhale an chicken mcnugget the other day- snatched it right out of Mike’s hand and ran under the couch with it! Silly kitty…

On the Cyclone level additional bloodwork shows he had blood in his urine, low white cell count and very concentrated urine as well so he is on antibiotics and pain killers. He is gaining weight he is 10 pounds now.

I am so grateful for the personal emails and messages checking on our status- but honestly- it hurt to move and laying in bed seemed like a much better option.

I have found a home for Truman and Tover but Truman came down ill and I won’t adopt out a sick cat so until his eye clears up he is here. Tover leaves this weekend to spend his life with a lovely lady who just lost her 17 year old black kitty to cancer.

Speaking of Truman he has a vet appointment now so I have to go-

Her temperature started climbing and she quit eating this afternoon. I gave her an alcohol rub and she is asleep in her cage. I will take her to the feline specialist in the morning. Her temp was hard to take as her rectum is so sore she screamed like a banshee when I tried to take it. Mike was holding her as gently as he could and it was only inside for under 30 seconds and it went to 103.7. I don’t have a good feeling about this but she feels cooler now and she is still eating. Dr Vicki thinks it is FIP but she doesn’t have many of the symptoms of FIP kitties. I echo Dr. Vicki when i say “I hate FIP.”

Preliminary bloodwork results are back and he has some high numbers where there shouldn’t be. The overall diagnosis is that he has feline hyperthyroidism. The other bloodwork won’t be back until Tuesday. This is why he is dropping weight, drinking excessive amounts of water and filling up the litter pan. It is also why his eye is so messed up.

He is on medication for now- then in three weeks we go back for more bloodwork. If his levels keep climbing there are other options which for older cats contain quite a few risks, but for now, they have prescribed him a special diet and he is on Tapazole.

He is back home now in his enclosure and I think he is happy to be home. I know I am happy to see him- He also has high blood pressure which I am told is normal for cats with hyperthyroidism and that too can be controlled with diet and medication. Because he does live alone, putting him on a special diet will work as he doesn’t come in contact with any other cat or any other food.

Cyclone is on another sleepover. They want to try and get some urine from him so they can include it in the extensive bloodwork panel they are doing on him.

Sebastian is back, meowing his head off at the indignity of having his privates removed. Between him and Cyclone and just this day’s visit, my challenge is I need to raise $402.00 to pay for all the treatment.

A friend of mine just told me that I should only accept the easy ones and leave the others alone. Everyone does the easy ones, they tend to ignore the ones needing the most work- the challenge is to do the hard ones and do your best for them to have quality of life.

If anyone has spare change rattling around their pocket- Cyclone and Sebastian would love to put it in the kitty- Dr. Steve wants Cyclone to be seen by a cat opthalmologist. It just isn’t in the budget at the moment. 🙁 His eye is starting to look concave now underneath and swelling over the lid.

Here is Sebastian- Speaking of eyes, I need to not catch those eyes in the flash-

Sebastian is in isolation at the moment at the vet’s office. Thankfully, he tested negative on the nasties and even underweight he is BIG cat! He is 10 pounds and skinny as a rail so he must have Maine Coon in that gorgeous body of his. He has a growth on his one testicle so they will neuter him tomorrow and send the lump off the lab for testing. This boy is a champion sprayer- he sprays so magnificently that inside the carrier on the way to the vet he actually got urine on the roof of our truck! Pretty impressive if you ask me! LOL He hosed down his cage last night and I just finished scrubbing it out and will just let it air-dry. If he continues to be a sprayer, he will not be able to be adopted out as an inside kitty which makes me sad. He is about 2 years old right now and the vet had to laugh because during the exam, Sebastion kept leaping from the exam table into the sink! I told Steve, maybe he just knows he smells and wants a bath!

On the Cyclone front- his eye is still not healing and now every time I go to put the ointment in or check his eye- he bites me pretty hard. I try to avoid it- but he is quick. He is also dropping weight so we are going to go ahead and opt for the extensive bloodwork on him to see if he has thyroid issues or other things working against him getting healthy. The puzzle is only one eye is so inflamed, so if this were herpesvirus or conjuctivites he would have both eyes engaged in active infection. Not sure what is going on with him, but noticed last night he kept bumping into things in his pen. Bless this kitty- I may go broke trying to find the answers- but hopefully soon the answer will be here and we can fix him right up. As i told Steve, “He’s a keeper!”