Shell’s auction is now underway. Lots of really nice items here and all of them have been listed!

Auction Link

Someone, and I suspect I know who it is but I have no proof- has dumped a large amount of strays into my property.

Out of desperation, I went down and bought another trap. They didn’t have any Hav-A-Hart traps so I bought a live animal trap. It snaps closed so quickly that while I was baiting it, it snapped on me and grabbed my fingers- OUCH- so I ended up using cable ties and took a large branch, snapped it into pieces and used it to brace the door so it wouldn’t trap a kitty paw or tail.

It works great! In the last two hours, I have trapped three cats. Now, there are six to go. To say that I am hissed off at this dump is putting it mildly. But these are toms and I at least need to get them neutered.

I have heard that the last auction for Shell will launch tonight. If it does, I will post the link and tell you there are some amazing items up for bids.

I also want to share this- I love this video

Owl and the pussycat

This morning when I woke up, I went over to my computer and laying on the seat was this HUGE mole! Squirrel, my barn cat was lying underneath the chair looking quite pleased with herself! Thankfully, Mr or Miss Mole had gone over the Bridge.

To give you an idea, I am 6′ 1″ tall and this mole was bigger than my hand! I’m so glad that it was gone because I don’t know how I would have handled it had it been alive. Maybe Squirrel brought it in as a goodbye present for Samson? I don’t know, but I tossed it up on the barn roof as a prezzie for the raptors, it was that large!

Delilah is missing her buddy today. She is out in the house and she is looking into every corner and under every stick of furniture wondering where Samson went to. I took her in my lap this morning and explained things to her, she seems to be having an easier time now. I know that some people believe cats don’t understand us, but I believe the opposite. Any time a littermate is taken from us, I sit down with the grieving kitty and just talk about the loss. It’s really quite strange though. When the cats have to stay over at the vet hospital, no one seems to miss them. But the instant they are gone- the cats know and react.

Samson can now see, he is out of pain and running the long grasses of Heaven with his buddy Shell.

I took him in this morning, as I said his eye was pouring pus and that is never a good sign. They took the stitches out and his eye was so angry and ugly. The mass had not only spread, but it was now a bulge with these tissue like connectors coming off the sides and attaching to his retina. It looked like a minature octopus in his eye. Really strange, this cancer.

To make matters worse, the other eye was now starting to spread out with an ugly-colored mass.

So it wasn’t just a matter of covering the rest of Shell’s cost, it was doing what is best for Sam and that was to let him go.

I don’t want to lose anymore cats from this colony. But I can’t stand the thought that in rescuing these kitties from another “rescuer” I have turned into a cyber beggar banging my cup in web space and asking wonderful people who are also struggling with their own issues to help out.

Sam would have been an eyeless, earless kitty. At ten years old (or he is perhaps older) to ask him to undergo such stress and pain is unfair to him. Yes, he deserved a life- and to some extent he had one. His last days were spent on our bed, with food, warmth, plenty of love and Delilah for company.

So goodbye sweet boy- you run free and happy now. You left on a river of my tears to meet the angels waiting in the wings. I will see you again- and God, I know you are listening. I don’t want to lose anymore cats. If you could arrange that, I would be grateful.

Thanks to those of you who offered prayers and vibes and good wishes and who sent money. The money raised covers the initial procedure on Samson and it gave us a chance to at least try and save him. In the end, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Tomorrow morning, I need to take Samson back to the vet. His eye is now leaking pus. Please send up prayers that God will give the vet knowledge and wisdom and skill in helping this wonderful boy and that whatever comes down, that God will give me the strength and the wisdom I need to do right for this cat.

He has been shaking his head a great deal this morning but my vet isn’t available until tomorrow.

I think Delilah is tired of the darkness in the bedroom. I have kept the lights off so that they don’t bother Sam’s eyes and am only burning night lights.

This morning, Delilah decided to join the crew and when I opened the door to let her out into the house, she joined the group, no muss, no fuss.

I have to admit being reluctant and even a bit scared to let her into general population. She doesn’t move well on her rear legs. The vet suspects she has no patellas at all in those legs- but since she has adapted to these limitations, I saw no need to run films on her. It’s not as if it can be corrected or that it needs to be at this stage in her life. I still believe based on talking to the owner in one of her lucid moments, that Delilah is Shell’s mom.

So now, she is out and about with the group and at this moment she is laying on the couch sleeping.

I will be putting her back in the bedroom before dark, because if there is going to be a confrontation it will happen after the sun goes down when cats become predatory. But for now, unlike Samson who will have to stay far away from the sun, Delilah as found her own sunspot on the couch and has claimed it as her own.

His eye still looks beat-to-heck but this morning he was running after the nekoflie toy I have trying to catch it.

He did pretty good considering he had to chase it with only one eye and his cloth e-collar in the way. Still a massive amount amount of discharge coming down his face, which the vet (who called me Saturday to check on him) said it is normal and a good sign.

I have Sam’s collar off right now so he can move a bit more freely and drink water as well. He can drink and eat with the collar on, but it is a mess when he does.

He’s probably the friskiest I have seen him since he arrived here so I am hoping for good things for this kitty in the coming days.

This is a blessing-

Reunion

Today the sun actually showed its face and it was wonderful to feel the warmth after so long. I cranked down the windows of my car on the way to town and uh oh- ALL the fur from stressed kitties going to the vet plus all the hair that Brook shed recently just flew out my windows! I had this vision of me flying down the highway with all this fur piling out the windows like the hay trucks losing their chaff when they haul hay from the Straw Palace. I had hair in my nose, my mouth, my ears! I guess I need to shake out that pet blanket more often!

Sam is holding his own. I am a bit alarmed at the amount of drainage coming up out of the drain but I called the vet and they said it was normal. I’ve been removing the e-collar when I go in to clean and feed but he starts rubbing his eye so I have to put it back on. Thank God for Trimline- if this were one of the stiff e-collars he would be miserable.

Pilling Samson is not a fun time. Poor boy he tenses up and starts to shake no matter how gentle I am to him. I gave him a nice meaty treat when we were done. I wish I could tell him that these pills are to help him. With the e-collar it makes it easier on me because he can’t claw me. He can and he does bite though. This morning he bit the syringe tip in half! I make sure to give him water after each pill so they don’t seize in his throat.

I pulled down the screen doors from upstairs yesterday and used these to block the underside of the bed so he can’t escape there. That’s all I need to have him hide underneath the bed with the e-collar on!

His poor eye looks so bad- all goopy and weepy despite being stitched closed. The vet said it would do this- drain and weep which is why they put the drain in.

I just pray the vet is wrong and it isn’t cancer. I saw the spot in question yesterday during the exam and it is a large mass. The vet said when he scraped it, part of it was thick while the rest was thinner. Said he never has seen anything quite like this before (figures).

I had to laugh though after the initial exam. Steve looked at me with some exasperation in his face and said: “Mary Anne can’t you ever just bring me a normal case?” HA! I can handle the normal cases, it’s the complex ones that baffle me.

This is the first time that Steve has examined Samson. He wasn’t available before now.

A friend asked me last night why not just put Sam to sleep? Right now I can’t. I have lost Shell, Manchester, Brooklyn and Frasier in a very short amount of time. To lose yet another one I can’t go there. Sam isn’t suffering. He was actually playing this morning with the tip of my blouse as I got dressed. If he were suffering it would be a no-brainer. If the eye and the ear tips can be removed along with the cancer- he has a chance to finally have a life denied to him before. True, he has to spend his time in the bedroom away from the direct sun- but it beats the alternative.

My friend Delores is coming by later to take Barnaby off my hands. She runs a private rescue over the mountain and is in town for some meetings. I told her about Barn and she said she has room to take him.