Eleven days ago in the middle of the night, Molly was sleeping next to me soundly, when Kota decided to leap on the bed and he landed smack on top of her!  I woke up to a piercing, horrific meow for help that was squelched by the weight of the dog on top of the kitty. By the time I got my bearings and turned on the light, Kota was back by the door looking ashamed of himself and Molly was flat on the bed. I gently picked her up, she was so flat, I was afraid she was gone. I put her on the floor and carefully sat down next to her as I could see, although her breathing was shallow, she was breathing. She could only take two steps towards me at a time, before she collapsed. She would then raise her head and look at me and try to get up and fail. I spent the rest of the night with her on the floor and rushed her to the vet in the morning.

Initially, they did not find anything alarming that jumped out at them during the exam. I was given pain meds to rub on her ears and they gave her an anti inflammatory shot. I wanted them to do films and bloodwork, but it wasn’t my normal vet. They did not see a need to add to my  bill. So we went home.

Molly never stabilized and she started eating air. (I don’t know how else to explain it.) She started gradually hiding from me in the house. Which, she is a lap kitty and if my lap is available,  she is on it. She is also a very talkative little girl. She tells me constantly about her day, she yells at me should I take to long to feed her. She never stops talking to me until she is lying on my lap. In the last two days she has been as quiet as a pet rock. 🙁 She also quit eating)

When she started chewing air, what I mean by this, is that she would be sitting on the floor,  she would stretch her neck out in front of her at an odd angle. Then she would tilt her head to the side and started gnawing on the air. The sound she was making, quite bizarre, so I called my vet and told them what was happening and they told me to drop her off! Even though they aren’t doing drop offs yet.

I just got her back home and the news is not good. Since her last visit she has lost 4 pounds! They did a lot of tests on her- some of them they ran twice, (but only charged for running the results once). She is highly anemic, dehydrated and they suspect she has a bleed. The only problem is they can’t find it, so they can’t really help her. I was told the only way they can find the bleed is with an MRI which is a treatment they do not provide. The place that does this is 2 hours away in Salem. An MRI is $1200 and that does not include the anesthesia. Molly would be put under general anesthesia and with neurological issues like she is displaying, this is high risk.

So, I am just going to let her decompress, she went through a lot this morning. They finally did sedate her so they could get good films of her head, neck and back. Right now, she is so upset with me that I can’t even sit on the bed with her. She is so stressed out. They also diagnosed her with PTSD from the incident and she is wearing a pheremone collar now.

If anyone has a few dollars laying around, we could sure use it to cover this new expense. So Yes, I am asking for donations. Here is a copy of the bill so you can see this is on the level. Thank you for anything you can send. I will update as I can, but it is uncertain what is going to happen in the next few days. I might be offline as she is needing a lot of TLC including force feeding as she cannot swallow right. But they ran tubes down her throat- did bloodwork, x-rays and chem studies (in case she was accidently poisoned). I am freaking out inside, I just lost Mike, I do not want to lose this precious kitty as well, although it looks like maybe I might.

I meant to update this two days ago when His Royal Blackness made a very unexpected return! When I saw him (I had given him up for lost) I did a double-take. Was it really  him? After all, black cats are hard to distinguish from each other unless you really know them. I’ve never had a problem in identifying my black cats, but this was definitely him. HRB is cross-eyed (as this boy appeared. He also has a slight white patch underneath his chin. Yes, this handsome black boy had returned and he was not limping, his breathing was slow and regular. He vanished June 25. When he disappeared, so did part of my heart. He may be full feral, but he is still greatly loved here.

I believe what might have happened, is he just went to ground, fell asleep and because black cats possess the highest immune systems of any of the strays, he regenerated instead of dying. So thrilled to see him. I wanted to run up and hug him but failing that, I settled into a lounge chair and just quietly sat, watching him.

He was outside of the shop and pretty soon the other cats came out. Instead of him getting all puffy and ticked off, I watched in amazement as the waltzed up to each of the six cats and rubbed his signature on each one of them! They were friends now. In my heart I knew, he has finally found a home.

Before his disappearance, if I made any sort of a move toward him, he would hiss and bare his teeth at me before fleeing. I had to feed the clowder, so I just started popping cans open. HRB started towards me- then he stopped and just watched.

Making sure that I did not even look in his direction, I eased out of my chair and walked over the feral feeder dished out the food and then sat back down. He went into the cat door of the shop, stuck his head out the entrance and waited. This game of chess was on. It was my move next.

Every part of me was screaming to just walk over to him and see if I could inspect him. The old Mary Anne would have done that, but his actions prior to all of this showed me he is a cat who wants to live his life on his terms, not necessarily on mine. I just got up and started into the house. I turned around to see what he did. Would he vanish again or would he stay? He came out of the shop and jumped on to the feeder table. I could see a great deal of missing hair on his once-injured leg. There was no pronounced limp. His sides were not heaving up and down. Despite being so injured, giving my vet the hardest time of his career (my vet’s words not mine!) He was fine! As I went into the house, I sent a prayer skyward thanking God for returning him back to a place that will love him (from a social distance) for the rest of his life. I believe he has perhaps seven lives left?

He is still here. He will come out when I am outside now. He will not approach me, but he does not flee when he sees me. I have seen him in the last few days, from my bay window more than I did before. This morning, when I just went out to feed, he came completely out of the shop and meowed at me! He started towards me. Just like Twist, I could sense that he really wanted to be petted. Twist is also black and she is a mere slip of kitty now four years old. But due to inbreeding, her growth was stunted and she looks more as if she is 6 months old size-wise. I know both kitties want the connection with me. I also know from my many years of working and watching strays that if I do approach them and “try” to make them like me, all the effort put in to bring about trust, that WILL vanish.

In his absence, I beat the bushes down looking for him. Every morning with dread in my heart, I would go to the edge of the driveway and scan the highway to see if he fell victim to a car. I searched, I put up posters, called the vets and other cat people in the area and finally decided that he had gone to the Bridge and I needed to move on. Thankfully, this was not the case. He is home and I will continue to take my cues from him and perhaps in the future, I will be able to send you a photo of him on my lap. That’s the plan folks, but I am working on his time clock and it could take weeks, months, even years or not happen at all. My friend Haley told me the other day, I should change his name to His Royal Miracle! LOL  I like his Royal Blackness so much better.

There is so much going on right now beyond my front door. So much hate and discontent and killings. What started as a protest has now turned into a revolution in some parts of our nation.There are people acting feral, they are acting rabid. All of it is very confusing and scary. The virus is still here. It is not a hoax. But in this home, when if comes to HRB? Black Lives do matter. 🙂 ALL Life matters whether it has two feet or four. Especially this black life!:)

On the pet food front, it is pretty dismal. I wish that they would just call me before I leave and tell me if the food is there or not. I have been there faithfully or had someone to stand in for me, every Friday without fail. If I drive to Albany which is 45 minutes from here, when I get home, I am crippled up for 3 days. It is disheartening to show up and be told, “There is nothing here for you!” They don’t even say they are sorry. I just drive away empty. I am now buying cat food and paying the vet bill out of my household expenses. My cats will eat before I do. I am becoming very fond of PBJ’s and am so grateful that a Good Samaritan has gifted me with nine months of food for me. I can see God’s plan in all of this- so it balances out. Call it Faith (which I do) call it Kismet, call it whatever you want, but we are still afloat. All cats are healthy and happy and life moves on.

Yesterday, I decided to tackle Mike’s lumber pile. It has been sitting unused now over 15 years, covered in tarps. It was quite the mess. But I started removing the years of lawn debris that covered the tarps (8 in total!) When I got to the very last tarp and finally pulled it off- I saw this mass of shredded plastic shopping bags. They were constructed along with twigs and leaves into a large nest! There was a mama possum and five babies! I screamed because they startled me, mama raised her head, showed me her pearly whites and vanished underneath the pile with her babies. Guess she though playing possum wouldn’t work for this situation! LOL  She had dug a huge hole in the ground at the front of the lumber stack and lined it with her finds. She must have gone into the shop to get the plastic bags, she shredded each bag into long strips for insulation and had quite the cozy nest!

What I ended up doing- as all the lumber was not salvageable. I just restacked it. Over the nest, I placed just the top of a large plastic dog crate (to give her added protection should she return) Then I just covered it with one tarp and let it be. If she wants that as her home, I have no problem with her plans. I did also leave her a large amount of dry kitty food as an apology for interrupting her family time.

John Steinbeck once wrote: “The best laid plans of mice and men.” This phrase aptly describes the situation right now. I had decided a few days ago, to just let His Royalness calm down. He was so scared at the sight of any human. He had been poked, prodded, annoyed and I just wanted him to decompress. So I left plenty of food out for him, lots of water dishes and I just let him alone for 48 hours.

Well he showed me- he has vanished! He has found a weakness in the floor and started digging away at it. He tunneled out and I haven’t seen him in three days now. I guess the fact that he was able to use both of his front legs to dig out, means his front leg is no longer a mess. I have been searching high and low for him, but my guess is he is now under the haybarn (which is where the tunnel ends. So I am putting food under there for him as well as water. I am hoping in the next few days, he will reappear laughing at me. He definitely does not want anyone helping him out in any fashion.

I brought him home this morning. He looks so much better than he did before I rushed him to the vet. Not so skinny scrawny (they said he has a healthy appetite. Right now, he is solo inside of the stall enclosure. We are playing an active game of hide-n-seek. He is doing all within his power to not be seen by me at all!

He is still on pain meds and antibiotics, prebiotics and organ meats because he is so anemic. I just warmed up some bone broth for him.

Oh look, here he goes now up to the highest peak away from me.

Yesterday, after returning from town and picking up all my supplies for the coming month, I came home to find a large box on my porch. At first glance as I pulled into the driveway, it looked for all intents and purposes that it was from Chewy.

When I went to pick it up, it was cold although it was a sunny day and it was a bit wet? I carried it inside and to my surprise, there was food inside of it. But food for me! Fresh food, vegetables, packaged meats, spices, dried fruits. No indication of who it was sent by that I could see. The box came from Dinnerly.com  I was told when I called that the boxes will be delivered every Weds indefinitely!  There is enough food in there to easily prepare at least 18 small meals! Fresh corn, eggplant, cucumbers- exotic spices. The recipe cards I was told would be emailed. They would not tell me who sent it.

It took a little bit of research on my part, but I found out this is being sent by a local real estate woman. One, who in the past would call me about finding abandoned kittens and cats in abandoned houses and I would help her out all I could. This is nothing short of amazing at this time. Because I have to divide my donations between hitting the vet bill and buying food my cats will actually eat, this has dipped into my personal money, which I have no problem with. These cats come first always. It just leaves me a bit on the dry side when it comes to my wiggle room (how much money I have left after payday to run the next month). It just left me feeling so blessed.

I have not heard when HRB is coming home. He’s been on total care for a few days. They still haven’t pulled the IV yet, or taken him off the pain meds. He is finally eating on his own- but not bearing weight on that front leg yet. I can’t even go visit him! I did take over yesterday, a thin t-shirt that has my scent on it. I asked them to please put it into his cage, so he can get used to my scent. I had to tell them I didn’t care if I ever saw the shirt again. I just wanted him to have it to start the socialization period. He does indeed put the F in Feral!

Only by the Grace of God, was I able to catch him this morning. He is at the vet’s office as I type this. Before I went into the shop this morning, I set up a cardboard series of tunnels before the entrance/exit hole outside. I weighted those down. Then I put the trap at the final box entrance with the door of the trap inside the box. Bracing the trap was the existing fence.

Taking a deep breath and saying a fervent prayer, I then opened the front of the shop and he was in the back room and out he went! The other cats followed, but since he was first in line, he is the one that got in the trap.  His paw is extremely swollen. I saw quills coming out of them! He’s messed with a porcupine! I guess with all of the humans vanishing out of sight the wildlife in the hills are coming down into our property now. I was told they will call me when he is done being examined and treated so I am waiting for that call.  I’m just so relieved that I caught him finally. First time I have seen him in the daylight.

Three days ago, I decided to get tricky in trapping this elusive boy. He is still not putting any weight on his front leg at all. This is not a good sign. So since I couldn’t easily block the back of the shop- I went inside to see if I could make one main entrance/exit for them. Of course all the cats scattered to the wind when I went inside the shop, so while they were gone, I boarded up all the small exit holes and made only one entrance/exit for them. My idea was to set the trap right on the outside of the entrance, so as HRB tried to escape, I would catch him..Sounds like a good idea right? Well one thing I have learned when it comes to feral cats is they have their own mindset and agenda.

The next morning, I went out, I swung the door open and saw him with the others, so I shut the door quickly. I grabbed the trap and pre-loaded it. I hustled back to the back of the shop and just as I was getting ready to lay it down to cover the entrance- BAM! Here he came underneath the trap, through the gap in the fence and into the blackberry thickets. As he whizzed by my, I caught the stench of decaying flesh. I have not seen him since and am so worried. I almost had him. I almost saved him. Now he is nowhere to be found.

I miss blogging so much. With all that has gone on here, in the past two years, I find I’m at a crossroads at this time. For the first time in ages, I have a manageable amount of rescues here. I am not running all over God’s Country and trapping cats rushing them to the vet to get them help. I find that although I do miss that part of my life, I am relieved right now that I am taking a breather. Currently, we have a dozen cats. When people do contact me about a stray problem, I do everything I can to point them in the right direction to find the help they need. Only under dire circumstances will I step in and rescue.

A lot of my decisions now have a lot to do with losing Mike. Running a rescue without that strong support. Those broad shoulders and arms that would wrap around me and erase the horrors I just witnessed at the last rescue are sorely missed. The stand up guy- who would give up his own time and sleep to pitch in and bottle feed and care for the babies while I went to catch a much-needed nap… Gone…The ears that carried all my woes and heartaches when a kitty would go to the Bridge. The Love that would comfort me along the way all of it is missed.

Compounding all of these changes is that freak accident I suffered two years ago, when Kota slammed into the back of my knees and I flew up in the air, landing with both my legs under my back! The medical consensus at the time was he totally wracked my meniscus, stretching out the tendons and muscles of my knee. This was after seven x-rays were taken of the damage. They wanted to do an MRI but I wasn’t insured, so nothing was done except a round of pain pills and piece of paper that I carried home with exercises to do (that I could not perform).

It took me months to be able to walk again without shaking in pain. I used holistic means, my own version of the exercises that I could do. My right foot had over time developed a mind of its own. It would no longer walk straight. It “drifted” off to one side- so I learned that in order to walk without pain- just to let it drift off to the right. What I didn’t plan on and recently discovered that this unnatural angle has made my bones in my foot shift to this unnatural gait. In order to correct this- they would have to rebreak my foot, shave off the excess bones that have grown. They would then reset the foot with pins and screws. I would be in the hospital a very long time, and in a nursing home for even longer receiving “therapy.” Let’s face it, I am 65 years old. I do not heal as well as I did in the past. Plus once they cut on a foot- bad things can happen. I witnessed this with caring for Mike and seeing all the harm the doctors did on him in an attempt to “make things better.” Ultimately, this “help” ended up costing him his life.

Could something bad happen if I don’t have this surgery? Maybe, but I know something worse will happen if I do. That’s the state of the medicine at least here in this area. So I am going to be retraining my foot to walk the right way. If the bones can shift once, they can shift again.  I am refusing all pain medication offered and instead I am using CBD oil and a wonderful salve I found on Etsy called Joint’s Joy..I was skeptical when I ordered it- but I put in on at night before bed and in the morning, all the painful inflammation that gathers at my right ankle was gone! The redness had vanished and instead of battling chronic pain now. The pain is intermittent. It feels like someone is shooting hot fireworks into my foot- so it is nerve pain. It really flares up if I drive somewhere. Doesn’t matter how far or short the drive is, and the end of it, I am gimping around and in great pain. For awhile the quarantine was a real blessing for me, because I couldn’t go anywhere!

Friday, I went to pick up cat food (that was not there!) This has been happening so much, that I have been buying my own bags of dry food- Fancy Feast for the kitties. They seem to only like that brand these days. I can’t buy the canned, so I don’t. The majority of the money is still going to the vet. We now owe him $732.00 which is quite a chunk still. Anything off the payments I have been making goes to the FF purchases. But just driving to Albany after finally not being in pain for a few days, set me right back to the beginning. One of my local contributors has graciously offered to make the trip for me throughout June. Kathleen, I am so grateful! Thank you again. You keep telling me it is no big deal, but it really is (Kathleen found my blog a bit ago and now we are good friends). She lives closer to Albany than I do.

So I am dealing with all of this and then I get a notice that the law is changing here in Oregon for non-profits. Apparently now, you can only have ten animals period. You have to have full paperwork on all the animals. If they came from out-of-state you have to have  paperwork signed off by both parties relinquishing the ownership. You have to have entry papers and exit papers and the list goes on. Any infraction after the inspection they launch will result in a $600 fine per infraction! I will be honest with you. When I started CATS it was my mission to take only the cats in dire need. No owner surrenders, no cute, fluffy healthy cats or kittens. We were going to help the throw-aways. The ones everybody said couldn’t be helped. That’s why our vet bill is always so sky-high and that is why my vet now repeatedly asks me: “Mary Anne can’t you bring me something easier?” LOL  The answer to that is no. I currently have a new stray that I can’t even get close to yet. Listening to him breathe in the still of the night, he has pneumonia. He will not go under a drop trap, into a trap, into a carrier- nothing. One step toward this royal blackness and he splits. He is pencil thin. He is a Senior. He is neutered. I have tried peppering his food with antibiotics (didn’t work) He’s not eating much and is rail skinny because he can’t smell.

Despite the $700 bill, I am determined to win his trust, get him to the vet and get him help. I am hampered because my days of squatting down next to a scared cat, or sitting on the ground is over. Even sitting on a chair, the height is still too much for him to trust me. If we are bigger than they are, we are perceived as a threat. So I am working several hours a day with just letting him get used to me being among his new friends, my other rescues.

In the hope that he might just go into an enclosure, I recently cleaned one out  and set it up so the cats can come and go at will. If he gets in there, only two escape doors exist. I might be able to close those entrances off and have him confined so I can really concentrate on working with him. That’s my hope, along with whittling down this vet bill so it doesn’t add to the stress I am under currently. Here are some photos of the new revised enclosure:

So that is why I am not blogging much anymore. I do miss it, I do hope all of you still reading my words are safe, away from the madness that seems to be gripping the world right now. Stay healthy, stay safe and pray that I can make great strides, not only in walking in the future, but if catching His Royal Blackness before it is too late.

God Bless You ALL!

Now that I have done my final tweaking (not THAT kind of tweaking LOL!) I see I can finally post again.

Things here are okay. There are still projects to be done. I have been working on my memorial flower garden, for the cats who have passed over. I still have probably 15 hours more of weeding to accomplish, but the bulbs have been planted and the biggest challenge is keeping Kota from crashing into the sprouting tulips and dahlias! I am going to be bricking in the sides this coming week after the rains stop.

This morning, for the first time in a year, I was able to pet MK. She is a beautiful Persian/Maine Coon long hair. She mats as soon as you look at her. I am so desperate to get ahold of her, but every time that happens, I have to take her to the vet. Then, I can’t touch her or get close to her as it traumatizes her to no end. It’s been about a year since her last vet visit.

Seven of the cats have refused to go into the enclosures and instead taken up residency in the shop. I have been going in there periodically during the day, and just sitting on the step and letting them get used to seeing me. It is working, but it is a slow process and some of them really need help.

Pigeon, Baker and PITA inhabit the main enclosure. Anyone else I put in there (Twist was the last one I tried to introduce) gets pounced on immediately. Bentley was too Alpha to put with Pigeon, so he is in the patio enclosure. The others are still free-roaming.

I finally ended up emptying out the big enclosure of all my furniture and belongings moved in there during the build. I have decided, since there are so many escape tunnels in there now- that I will tear down the wire covering the two stall doors, and clean it out and open it up 24/7 for the cats to go in and out as they please. It’s a  big job, I have at least 100 cat carriers stacked in there. (People have donated them to me for years.) I think what I am going to do, is when I do the clean out- I am going to put some of the carriers out on the front lawn with a sign- FREE for the taking. I know in the future, if I do rescue, it will be on a much smaller scale than before. Without Mike to help out, it is too overwhelming to rescue dozens of cats.

I have finished my floors! I hope you enjoy the photos. It is so nice to be able to go barefoot again in the house without fear of splinters. And the sub-floors were getting so dirty, what with Kota and the cats, traffic and shedding. I haven’t done the patio yet- I’ve run out of supplies and money to get that huge room done, but it is coming. It was a labor-intensive act of love that’s for sure. Not bad for brown butcher paper, Elmer’s glue and Varathane and some back-breaking labor.

With all this new information coming out about cats being silent carriers of Covid-19 without exhibiting symptoms, I am sad for the cats owned by the ill-informed or uneducated. I fear so many cats are going to be dumped by panicked owners. The corona virus is common in cats- especially cats owned by hoarders, stuffed into over-crowded shelters and catteries and in feral colonies. There are scientists now, who are intentionally injecting, not only monkeys, but cats with this virus, then sitting back on their heels to “watch” what happens. Animal testing HAS GOT TO STOP! There are so many better alternatives our there now. I know the biggest lab in Maryland is guarded on the outside like a prison. You can’t even take a picture of the front gate without your camera being seized! They know it’s wrong, yet they keep doing it. 🙁 Lecture over, I know I am talking to the informed and educated here.

Some people do not know this, and I am speaking from first-hand experience here. But there are underground labs who will periodically send messages to elderly people hard up for money. They will pay $50.00 or more, for a specific kind of cat (or dog) and suddenly all these pets are vanishing and no one knows why. My beautiful calico Smudge was a victim of such a snatch and ultimately, before I could get her back, she died. It was heartbreaking and occurred the first year we moved here. I don’t blame the woman (dressed like she was going to church) that snatched her. I blame the unethical basement labs. So watch your animals closely during this panicked pandemic time.People are nuts right now, quick to anger and slow to use common sense. It’s a powderkeg just waiting to explode.

I have been dealing with a bug in my blog, so this is a test post to see if what I finally did was successful