Thank you for the dry food that has arrived from Petco, PetSmart and Chewy.com. It is such a blessing NOT to see Meow Mix or Nine Lives in the mix and instead the cats are chowing down on Purina Cat Chow Indoors and straight Purina Cat Chow. Eight bags have arrived so far and I couldn’t be happier because today’s donation consisted of one bag of 9 Lives and a bag of cat litter.

Sweet Ashley has come up feeling punky and taking her to the vet has shown that she too has bladder stones forming. They want me to get her to drink more water and she goes on the medicated food that we still have left here. I have placed her in a cage which breaks my heart because she has lived with us freely in the house at least for five years! But it is the only way to monitor her intake and output and she has been missing the litterpans now for about two weeks. I always thought stones were more common in the males but my vet said they can occur in both sexes.

I received a phone call yesterday from a lady who wants to adopt a 12 plus year old cat! We don’t get those calls often and I have three that qualify- well actually 2 because Baker sprays and I am sure although she wants to take on any health issues- she doesn’t want that one!  I am going to meet her tomorrow and we will see how it goes.

Again thank you for the food and the monies trickling in- it all helps and goes to the cause for the cats!

Here are updated photos of Pocket and Bindle. They are doing great eating, drinking, playing and getting scads of attention-

Last night we had a experience I hope is never repeated. A severely disturbed young man was out in front of our home yelling at the highway and the cars and threatening suicide. I called 911 while it was all going down. The dispatcher made me stay on the phone with the doors and windows locked until the police arrived. I so glad that Kota was with me- he may be young and we haven’t had him a long time, but I think he would protect us if something had happened.He also has a very formidable bark!  They finally located the young man about midnight. I hope he gets some much-needed help. I felt sorry for him, but I also felt threatened by him. Several times, he started coming down our driveway but something always turned him back around to rage at the road. It was pretty intense, the cops had their machine guns out and they were looking high and low for this guy.

Went and picked up the donation. One bag of dry food needs to be stretched to a weeks worth of food for the sanctuary cats. I don’t want to pull the food from the cats who only come out at night to feed- so now I need to make the feral feeding center raccoon and skunk proof. I know both wild critters mentioned can climb but they can’t jump. Am thinking of using slick plastic sheeting to protect the food trays. The cats will use their claws to find purchase on the slick surface, the coons and possums and skunks will slide off. (that’s the hope anyway).

She didn’t make it. Through it all, she tried. We could never get her to latch onto the bottle for more than a few seconds after that time period, it was as if she had forgotten what she just did. This morning when I went in to feed, she was gone.

She is a constant crier, so I ended up just sleeping with her tucked securely in my arms. I am a light sleeper so anytime she went to move, I woke up- we had about 8 small feedings through the night. Every time she cried I just warmed her milk and fed her.

Here she is with her new snuggle friend-

This little girl is about 3 days old. She was found in a yard alongside two of her littermates that sadly did not make it. There was no Queen in sight and the elderly woman who surrendered her to me said she does not have any cats, she only has dogs. “Eclipse” was ice cold when she arrived. Using a squirrel nipple, she was able to suckle a bit- enough so in her second feeding about 10 minutes later, she drained the syringe! Her umbilical is still attached, but she is still cold even though I put her immediately into my pocket pouch until her bed was sufficiently warm enough for her to go into. She may be tiny, but she has fight in her and prayers would really help her out here. Pray for me too- sleep will not be available to me for the next few days as we try to get her to the point where she is stronger-

Here she is in her pouch pocket: She is pitch black so I guess you could say, she is a total Eclipse. 🙂

Another store from the same chain but in a different location has stepped up to provide some food and litter for our sanctuary weekly. A few other stores have pledged $30.00 a year in supplies for us. Whatever works is fine by me. I just need to know these cats will continue to receive food without interruption.

When you are just hanging there, holding on to the rope for all it is worth but knowing a large fall awaits you should you let go- and you wonder who might catch you before that fatal fall don’t count out the Lord.

With the withdrawal of support of donations yanked out from under us, I have been doing a lot of praying concerning the last three neuters of this year: Slider, Trip and Pita wondering how I am going to provide for three more mouths to feed. They went in for their neuter today and mid-afternoon, the vet office called to tell me that one vet tech had fallen completely in love with Slider and that another client who just lost his 17 year old kitty wanted to adopt both Pita and Trip! So all I had to do was go pick up my carriers and say goodbye to these beauties. You couldn’t find more lovable kitties- and I know they are in good homes and destined to be loved the rest of their lives!

So I just have to continue to have faith no matter what is thrown in front of me to test me. Faith that the vet debt will be paid off soon- faith that someone will step forward and donate the food needed for the remaining 20 sanctuary kitties and faith that we can continue to find homes for the cats here as the year goes on.

For the last two years a major department store has been gifting us with cat food and cat litter every week. Today when I went to do the pick-up I was told that there is a new manager and a policy change. All cat food and cat litter donations to us will stop as of next week. After that the local dog control will get all the food- even though the only thing they do to cats is put them to sleep. There’s no arguing the point, It’s a done deal.

Late last night when I went to check on Quince, I noticed his face looked funny. His nose and the right side of his face was swollen. He was lying on the heated bed and when I went to touch his face, he bit me. I noticed he was burning up. His temp 105.9!  As I set him down near his bed, he couldn’t seem to walk in a straight line- he was circling and going nowhere. He also was open mouth panting and his breathing was rapid and shallow. His right front paw had split open and was dripping this gooey nastiness all over the floor. I took him to the vet first thing where it was determined he had suffered a stroke. It was decided to just end his torment and at 9:45 he took his last breath and left this world.

Quince, you only had a few weeks of love, food, cuddles and care. I wish you had been able to beat whatever it was that had you in its grasp. I wish I had been alerted about you earlier when you had a chance to recover from the abuse and neglect but it was not to be. I do know you are running free- you are breathing unencumbered and I would imagine as you hunt heaven’s grasses you are a speedy boy with those long limbs. Rest well my feline friend until we meet up again. I am sorry you are gone but grateful that pain no longer engulfs you. You blessed our lives the short time you visited and you will be missed.