This morning I woke up and found to my dismay that my cats and kittens were all sneezing. As I watch the cat nose spray mist in the air, my mind was furiously moving. What could I do to prevent the others from catching this, whatever this is?

I am so full up right now, there isn’t a spare room to put everyone. So, what I decided was to put Matuse and Charlie together upstairs because they are the worst off. I put Jasmine (the small creampoint kitten) in the large dog crate downstairs and covered it with a warm blanket. I don’t know if Jasmine is going to make it, she is one of Onions kittens and her brother has already passed. We almost lost her twice already, so all I can do is medicate her and hope she has in her to beat this.
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I wonder if because Onions has been found to be an active carrier of the calicivirus and feline herpesvirus if she passed this down to her kitten? There is really no way of telling and so I will just enter each day with prayer and hope that the round of antibiotics everyone is getting will be enough to stop this in its tracks before to long.

Charlie is eating this morning, not as much as I would like him to, but enough to help him out. He met me at the door and was meowing between sneezing and coughing his morning greeting to me. I have left an old set of coveralls upstairs that I change into when I get up there and an old pair of beat-up sneakers. I had a momentary panic attack thinking I might be dealing with distemper, but even the sickest sneezing kitten/cat are eating and drinking.

I guess the kitty sickroom is in full swing. This morning I went out and covered the one side and front of the cat enclosure with warm packing blankets. This will keep it substantially warmer in there. I moved the love seat to the front of the enclosure so they can lay out of the wind.

Here is the kitty sick call: 🙁

Rocky- sneezing and coughing
McKinley- sneezing
Matuse-coughing, sneezing plus has ringworm (thank you very much Lazarus!)
Charlie- coughing, gurgling, sneezing, poor appetite
Onions- sneezing
Baker- coughing, sneezing, gagging
Everest- sneezing
Hailey- sneezing, eye and nose discharge
Laz-nose and eye discharge
Chilkoot-sneezing, nose and eye discharge
Jasmine- eye and nose discharge, sneezing, lethargic

I suppose God it was no coincidence that during the last vet visit, I was gifted with 3 containers of amoxycillin and enough syringes so that each kitty can have his own. I just pray that this illness claims no victims and you help me stay on top of this and nip it quickly.

Started him tonight on an appetite stimulant and some pain meds thanks to my special vet- Dr. Vicki Thayer a Feline Specialist. She feels he has a really bad URI that is complicated by ulcers not in his mouth, but perhaps in his esophagus or tummy.

About five minutes after I gave him the appetite stimulant, he attacked the plate of canned cat food as if he had never seen food before. I was so glad to see him eat! He didn’t eat a lot, but he did eat and this is the first time in three days that he has eaten anything. I made him a slurrie and I will just let him alone until tomorrow and see what is going on.

Yesterday, I feared he was dying. Tonight, I am hoping that he has once again pulled another life out of his hat and will be around for a long time to come. But, time will tell and I don’t want to jinx this moment by any means.

Last night, I received a wonderful surprise. A phone call from Atlanta Georgia, placed by cat writer Dusty Rainbolt. She was there with a group I belong to The Cat Writers’ Association.

They were having their annual conference and Awards Banquet and this year, I did not attend. She told me a website where I am editor and writer had won for best online cat-related website and I was stoked! Felinexpress.com is a labor of pure love.

Then she told me that Amy Shojai had something to share and handed the phone off to Amy. I was quite puzzled until Amy told me I won a prestigious award with the group! The Amy Shojai Mentorship Award! I was stunned, honored and flattered all at the same time, so Mike took me out to breakfast to celebrate this morning.

Before we left our favorite restaurant, one of the waitresses came up to me and told me about a kitten someone had dumped in the back lot behind the restaurant. The kitten was outside (in 32 degree weather!) in a carrier, in the parking lot! Well guess where he is now?

Meet Dawson, a muted tortie/mackeral tabby mix about maybe 4 months old?
He has been merged into my group which now is the size of a herd- forget about a clowder!

The news was not good and the vet doesn’t know what is going on with Charlie at all. He was given a shot, some pills and Ben said under most circumstances he would keep Charlie in the clinic, but Ben feels that Charlie is better off here at home with me. I could not get Charlie to eat while at the vet’s nor could Ben which is quite unusual because he is the type of vet who can get an animal to eat almost every time.

I had to work tonight, and I just got home and found Charlie upstairs in his room open mouth breathing. 🙁 I set the vaporizer on high and made sure he has food for the night (he still hasn’t eaten) but his eyes are going vacant and I have a sad empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just suddenly dread what morning will bring….

He is failing and I just made him a promise. “No more Heroic Measures, Dear One.” He has gone through so much in his short, little life, but I came to the realization years ago, that sometimes, what we do for our cats, we actually do for ourselves.

Since he arrived here almost a year ago, he has been through more health issues than any other cat. So, he is checking out soon from this kitty hotel that is sometimes just a transfer station to someplace so much better. I see it in his eyes when I go upstairs to visit him, try to get him to eat (without any success) or give him his meds.

Last night, quite late he started slipping away from us- open mouth breathing, panting. He is hot but not febrile which can point to heart failure. I suppose I could call Ben and tell him to put Charlie into Isolation, tube him, force feed him meds and then wait for the next few days to see if these results would be successful or not. But I have been doing this a very long time. I have seen the light fade from hundreds of kitties eyes, the special spirit slowly being sapped from them and I see that look in Charlie’s eyes now and though it breaks my heart, it is time to stop trying for him.

I have Chalie upstairs with all other cats barracaded from having access to the top floor. His mouth is open as he tries to breathe and if it gets worse, I have a call into a feline specialist who lives moments from me, and she will come here and end it for him.

Pray for this kitten of great courage who has endured what most of us could never even fathom living through. Who was tossed like a piece of trash on the side of the highway with his littermate who never even had a chance as cars whizzed by. Whose early diet consisted of gravel and bugs when he should have been filling up on his mother’s milk and surrounded by her warmth.

I pray that whoever gave up on this kitten over a year ago will suffer worse than he has in whatever is left of his lousy life – and I thank God for blessing me with this orange spirit even though the stay may be brief, who has claimed my heart and become part of my soul forever.

Charlie will be the one going to the vet this morning, as soon as the clinic opens and I can get an appointment. His tree-climbing and getting stuck up there for 24 hours has caused him to come down ill. I was up and down with him all night as he vomited and gurgled and cried. He has been lurching his throat trying to swallow and I am hoping this is just a case of kitty tonsilitis (did you know cats have 6 tonsils?)

My greatest fear is that when Allen dropped him feet first from 15 plus feet in the air and I caught him in my down-filled coat- that I might have hurt him as well. That was a long drop, but he didn’t know Allen and therefore tried to get back up the tree and away from his rescuer. Allen was standing on a fairly large limb, hanging on to another with dear life and then had Charlie in his free hand. There was no way that he could descend the ladder and keep both of them safe, so the decision to drop Charlie was made by me.

Gosh, I don’t want to go the vet yet again but I have no choice. I have no money for the visit, but will have to take bill-paying money and use that to pay for this. My cat is more important, even if it means stalling the utilities company yet again for their payment. The clinic opens in an hour. I will let you know what the outcome is when I get home.

I have been receiving comments in my blog that I am not approving for personal reasons. I just want to clarify something- I am NOT a vet. I do not medicate any feral, stray, or kitten without it first being approved by a vet either by phone, email or in an actual visit. Those of you asking me to diagnose your cat’s illnesses- I will not do this. I am not qualified to do that- heck, you would be hard pressed to find a vet over the Internet that will do this!

When I talk about email- it is with a specific vet in the area who has given me her email address for use during emergencies only (after hours) Most of the time she has seen the cat or kitten before, and I am careful with weighing the kitten, explaining in great detail what is going on and I don’t self-medicate any of my crew- EVER! Self-medicating is a dangerous practice especially with strays and kittens. Your best bet is to see a vet in your area and go with his/her recommendation. Please don’t expect to find the “magic cure” on some Internet site, especially mine!

Now all that being said, I took barn kitty to the vet this morning because she was sneezing multiple times, she has clear drainage from her eyes and nose and she sounds like a washing machine. Ben looked her over carefully and thankfully proclaimed her lungs clear, and just said she has a massive URI mostly concentrated in the sinuses. She has been put on a heavy duty antibiotic twice a day, and she is now moved downstairs into the bedroom where she lives with Guinevere and Fiona. He agrees she needs to be spayed, and if I can successfully keep the kittens off her for then next 10 days, she should be dried up enough to get spayed. He won’t spay a lactating queen because it causes the female to be in great pain depending on the size of her mammary glands. He agrees with me that four litters in her short life with multiple kitten deaths is unacceptable and she needs to be spayed quickly. I haven’t contacted her owner about her illness because quite frankly, I don’t want to hear her tell me she will “care for the family.” I have seen how she cares for this family and her schedule is just to busy to accomodate this feline family’s needs.

This morning bright and early, a friend of ours Allen climbed up the tree to retrieve Charlie. Unfortunately, Charlie didn’t know him, so the minute Allen finally had Charlie who was about 20 feet up in the tree in his arms, Charlie tried to climb back up the tree- but Allen grabbed him.

There was about a 10 minute claw struggle until Allen finally disengaged Charlie’s claws from his shoulder and dropped him down to me. God was in control because I caught this pesky orange kitty safely in a down-filled coat and hustled him inside.

Now, he can’t get enough loving and he seems to be okay. He isn’t eating, but that is to be expected after the stress of being treed overnight. I will continue to watch him for signs that he might be ill, but for now I am smiling, because God was in control and Charlie is home again!

Today while I was finishing up the wash, Charlie darted outside. I tried to catch him, but he ducked out the window on the porch and vanished under the house.

I looked for him in vain during the day and it wasn’t until later tonight that I discovered he is up in the pine tree about 30 feet up. This tree is home to a nasty male coon and Mike and I tried with the extension ladder and bribes to get Charlie to come down lower. I tried to climb the ladder to the very top but it was perched precariously against the tree and I couldn’t overcome my fear of heights to rescue my golden boy. We used canned food, the laser light and gentle calling but he is stressed out and tired and up there for the night. I left the ladder against the tree and a bowl of food at the bottom and although it isn’t going to be bitter cold tonight, it is going to be foggy and 40. God please bring him down because I cannot.

I feel like the house now belongs strictly to the cats. All the kittens are upstairs in one room, Onions is in the room across from them. I am waiting for her milk to dry up so I can get her spayed (thank you Kim!) and then return her back to her owner. After three litters, this almost 2 year old girl deserves the rest coming!

Lazarus and his ringworm are now under control. The kittens all play together now and Mudslide and Perch seem to get the brunt of all the rough play as they are the two weakest in the bunch. Even as kittens, the group knows who is most vulnerable.

The older cats suddenly being denied access to the upstairs have their noses clearly out of joint and there are skirmishes nearly every day. Baker and Trump seem to be the most put out by this sudden denial of the upstairs and they race down the tunnels chasing each other out into the enclosure at least 4 times daily. I have Toots in the hall closet- not to worry folks, we cut holes in our canning closets on the stairs so the cats can have access and air. He likes to hide in the dark, so he has that spot, Onions is in the cat room and the kits are in the room across from the cat room.

Mike says he gets vertigo every time he walks into the kitchen because all the other cats follow him and he swears the floor is moving. The cable guy came by the other day and he had to contend with Charlie stealing his screwdriver, Matuse swatting his behind as he crouched under my computer following the cable lines. Perch climbed up on his back and I think he was really glad to leave this place, although he was a good sport about it all.

Mike and I talked about it and there will be no tree this year. We have had problems in the past with the cats climbing the tree and Lord knows the kittens aren’t going to let a wonderful opportunity of tree climbing pass them by. I just wish we still lived out in the middle of nowhere, but progress has advanced on us and the road has widened so the cats have to stay in the house or the enclosure instead of having the run of our acreage and being able to climb their own trees.

This morning Ripley our barn cat raced by me on the way to the barn, scampered up the walnut tree and leapt from branch to branch having the time of his life. I noticed McKinley and Mercedes watching from the enclosure and I could just hear their thoughts about why they don’t get to come outside too. Cats need to be outside, to play in the grass, chase prey and run up trees, but people around here would hurt them or even kill them if I dared just open up the enclosure and told them all to go play.

There has been no signs of Madison. I am sure she just found a dark place and went to sleep. I feel like I failed her and I hope someday to meet with her and tell her so.

I haven’t been very faithful in writing in this lately because even after the big speech at work that my boss was cutting back our hours, my hours have increased. Tonight was the 5th night in a row that I closed and I am bone tired. I need to sign off, go feed the horses, feed the kittens and the cats and then drag my tired self to bed. I am sure I will have plenty of company once I find my pillow- and I hope to be able to sleep in tomorrow. I am supposed to have two days off and I need it to put this house right.