The little black and white tuxedo boy- Mike said we should call him Bones- he eats like a steam shovel! I am feeding him small bits at a time, and when I go to remove his plate to put a bit more food on it- he will attack my hand! Poor baby- he is but 3 months old or he could be older and in such deplorable shape. I pick him up and weep, you can feel his ribs protruding and his backbone and leg bones protrude as well. He really is a walking skeleton, it is a wonder he is even alive. He is out in the living room in a large cage getting used to being warm and having food. I am hoping in the next few days his food aggression will stop as he realizes food does come at certain times and kibble is down all the time. He allows me to pet him but not too much as his skin is very thin. he will bite if I inadvertently hurt him. But he is a sweet boy and I just hope he survives. If he does- then he will find his own name in time.

I think I will call him Quinn. Here he is:

This is Riggs- he is what I would call a Christmas gift gone wrong because the person he ended up with wasn’t keen on keeping him. She had called “everyone” and no one would take him. I was their last hope. So there you go- one more through the door. I took him in, got him tested and he will be neutered on Monday then up for adoption after the first. I kind of suspect he wore out his welcome quickly because he is extremely talkative. Extremely-

He is really a cutie about 3 months old-

This morning, I received a phone call from a farmer’s wife. She was near hysterics. There was a wild cat in the barn and she thinks the cat killed her baby lambs! Her husband was going to put a bullet in the cat because not only was the cat a killer- it was wounded. I raced over and they let me in the dark barn. I could hear the cat moaning underneath a bench and I let my flashlight look for eye-shine. When I saw the shine-back I was surprised. it wasn’t green, it was blue!

Talking softly to the cat, I approached on my knees and using a towel, I carefully got it out from under the workbench and into the carrier. It wasn’t easy the kitty was flipping upside down and sideways. I saw the leg dangling but there wasn’t a way to lower the cat down into the carrier without bumping the leg. Snarling and spitting at me- the cat was finally captured. Turns out it is a Persian! A sooty white Persian with a broken leg and a microchip. Kitty has had surgery and the owners have been called but apparently they have been out of the country for some time and not due back until after the 1st. Kitty is being boarded and watched over carefully.

When I got back home, I was late in the  morning feed. When Pebbles came out to eat, I saw her eyes they were such a mess. I was able to trick her into going inside the carrier and I took her to the vet. She has been drinking a lot of water since she arrived here a few weeks ago but I see very little return in the litter boxes which worries me. We did a pre-op blood work- her liver and kidney values are normal range but she is showing highly anemic and dehydrated which doesn’t fit for a cat who is drinking four cups of water a day. The vet searched for a mass (fearing cancer) They gave her a long-acting antibiotic shot for her URI but said that in three weeks if her appetite doesn’t improve and she continues to empty the water bowl daily they would suspect she has cancer. They also said she is a old, old girl with only four teeth left in her mouth- three of which are rotten. We are going to give her three weeks, change her diet to AD and hope she improves, if not, we will let her go so she can travel out of pain. Although I had not that much trouble getting her into the carrier- they couldn’t get close to her without giving her sedation. She is still loopy so I am going to let her spend the night inside the carrier and let her back out in her cage in the morning.

When I was getting ready to just relax, the phone rings and a gal down the street who maintains a maintenance yard said there was a new kitten running around the yard and she couldn’t get close to it- but she was worried because the kitten was young and bone-skinny. Off I go again to find a really sweet looking tuxedo boy about 3 months old. He looked like he had never been introduced to food! Chris said he just showed up two weeks ago, but she couldn’t get close to him and had tried. Half an hour later, I scruffed the little boy and we put him into a live trap. Chris looked at me in amazement and said “How did you do that?”  I just smiled.  I took him to the vet, where they tested him and neutered him, de-wormed and de-flead him and battled his earmites. He is home now inside the cage on the back porch. He is a walking skeleton so I am feeding him bits at a time of AD. He is not feral- just unsocialized and he needs a name which will come to me soon. Right now he got neutered under the name of “Barn Cat.” I have been able to pet him without it going to war which is a relief. I told Chris I was keeping him because he would never survive being outside in these frigid temperatures. he is sleeping in a heated cat house right now and I blocked off the access to the outside catio for now. He needs to stay warm until he gains some weight-

It’s 7:00 p.m. right now and I am going to sit in my recliner, see how many kitties want to keep me company and fall asleep. Here’s hoping it doesn’t rain kitties today- although it did also rain gifts for kitties and for me from some of you so THANK YOU SO MUCH for the cat food, the catnip cat toys (my cats went nuts for these homemade bags) and the Universal Scanner so now when I find a stray- I can scan for the chip without going to the vet.

May you all have a safe, warm and lovely Merry Christmas- those of you brave enough to have Christmas trees in your homes please know that tinsel is toxic to kitties. They love to play with it- but eating it can be deadly.

God Bless You One and ALL

After being involved with that cat hoarder late in 2015 and then learning later that most of the kittens we did rescue from her hoard passed away from FIP- I cannot find it in my heart to watch this. I learned about this project through my feline specialist and she asked me to pass on the link- which is what I am doing. My FB page got hacked so if someone can put this link on their FB page, the kitties would sure appreciate it.  I flunked linking webpages on blogs the last time I tried so if the link isn’t active, my apologies- just copy and paste  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulcastrojr/aeris?ref=thanks_link

Didn’t work you will have to copy and paste

FIP

Mr. Raleigh (the kitty locked in a local business for five days) is turning into quite a challenge. I swear he is polydactyl (but he isn’t I looked). He has been inside the kitchen trash twice now. I found him under the bathroom sink with all my brand new toilet tissue shredded beyond belief! He opens up my kitchen cabinets and climbs inside. If the dishwasher is open- he feels quite comfortable going into it and taking a nap! He is a counter jumper and with this cold weather, I keep the faucet in the bathroom dripping so the well won’t freeze up and he will lie in the drip until the sink fills with water! He does not make a good drain! LOL I had to blow dry him fast because he can still get out into the tunnels and into the enclosures and if he did that while he was so wet- he would freeze on the spot. Silly kitty!

Thank you to whoever sent cat food- trash bags, litter scoops and cleaners for litter pans. There was no note who it came from inside the boxes. BUT the gifts are so appreciated!

We are finally at the tail end of renovations on the cat enclosure. I will be posting photos soon. It is so nice to know that they will be able to weather these ice storms in comfort instead of just huddling down under the house. Most of the outdoor kitties are now inside the patio enclosure at night- huddled around the heater. it’s a sight for sore eyes.

Bitter cold, freezing rain, some snow which means if it continues, the  mating season for the strays and ferals will finally stop! It’s been three years since we have had a bitter cold winter and the kitten population has just exploded. So I just bundle up and smile and head out the door!

She went to her new home yesterday-

Here is the blind- flamepoint who was recently adopted. He is such a love and once he moves beyond his scaredy cat nature, he will be a dream kitty!

This morning, when I got up and went out to the patio to feed the cats- there was a flurry of “Oh My Gosh everyone! Run someone’s coming!” I recently added some motion detector lights out there and to my amusement and surprise, I saw all my “escapees” running for the only exit! They had all come in to get out of the cold last night- ALL of them. Dash, Chappy, Gidget, Twist, the whole clowder. Ever since George insulated that large enclosure and I put the heater out there, they have been taking full advantage of the heat. I also could buy a large kennel pad that is heated which has been a godsend thanks to a large grant I received a few weeks ago, that was QUITE the wonderful surprise!

As I scooped out the food, I was reflecting on all the cats that have come here this year and fallen under our care. Some, like Sierra and Smuckers and Squirrely McGee have had fairy tale endings to their life that was once so rough and uncertain. Others, like Sterling, Riley, Turtle, Gracie and sweet Bella (the kitty found on the side of Upper Berlin Road) they are now in another life free from pain. But while they were here by golly, they knew someone loved them. We are not a no-kill sanctuary here. I wish we could be, but we take the outcasts, the unloved, the neglected, the tormented. Sometimes, it simply isn’t fair to keep them alive just because they are so beautiful and you “want” them to live.

I thought about yesterday and Squirrely McGee- what I didn’t share with you is when I got him home initially and opened his crate to put him into his cage, he got away from me. Now it makes sense, knowing now he was blind, but he was running around the patio crashing into things, climbing things that made no sense (like the side of the big dryer) I was terrified because I had no idea if he was feral- I just got him home. But I calmed myself down and just made it the goal to capture him. When I had my hands on him- he calmed right down and I was so thankful that he wasn’t feral. He could have torn my face off. I put him back in the cage with water and food and just left him to decompress. I didn’t want to stress him out any more than necessary and came back a few hours to discover him NOT in the cage! Where the devil was he? It took me climbing up (the cage is up on a 7 foot table) and into the cage and standing up (I am 6 feet tall) to find him wedged down in the fiberglass between the walls just looking miserable. I had to dismantle the wall to free this poor kitty. My thoughts continued. If he was born blind-did they notice? When he went blind was someone there who cared? Apparently not and now this kitty has a chance at a glorious life with a woman I completely respect and admire. He has hope.

I found out from Kim that he would always appear with another kitty she called Friend Kitty. I swear with Kim, next time I get a cat, I am calling her for names! She is the one who was feeding Hamilton- the Siamese who escaped from me and walked 9 miles right back to her arms! She called him Mr. Persnickity! LOL he is still with her, now an inside kitty after she discovered he is highly allergic to grass *not the marijuana kind either*

So, as I am scooping and feeding, the tears start to fall, as my thoughts race and I think of all of them that have passed through here and all of them yet to come. I got a call last night from a woman in Washington and even after over an hour conversation on the phone with her- I still don’t know what she wanted from me? She is living near an alley with a group of cats that have migrated over from another house where someone is feeding strays and ferals and NOT spaying and neutering. Near as I could figure out- she is moving and she wants to take 8 cats with her, or she wants me to take the 8 cats because she is moving to Sweet Home? Again it was just too much for me on an otherwise overwhelming day. I told her I couldn’t take 8 cats- we have 25 currently and one more arriving today. I told her about my blog and said if she needed help- just use the email and I would guide her as best I could.

There are stories like hers all over the United States. For some who care but don’t know how best to help out, they can make a situation worse instead of better. I have said this so many times in my life and I repeat it here now. If you can’t afford to spay and neuter PLEASE do not start feeding outside kitties. You are not helping the situation- you are creating a larger one.

As I close this, my final thoughts. Iit has been a tough year for me and for so many others out there. I know this. But I wish to thank you , all of you, because it seems when I am at the end of my rope, or I have had to make the difficult decision to let a cat go to the Bridge, or I have five cents left in the kitty fund. One of you reaches out and sends money, a personal email, a letter in the actual mail, or just cash in the mail. Supplies like trash bags and litter scoops or heated cat beds arrive at my door. A case of cat food, coupons or paw points arrive (Tidy Cats promotional) appears. This year on top of everything else, I find CATS Inc., has been gifted with over 300 pieces of jewelry custom-made and most of them vintage!

ALL of these gifts from the hearts of the givers, whether it be five dollars or one hundred it all validates what we do here. Despite the pain and the heartache suffered, the personal stuff boiling over, I just keep going- I keep trying to make that difference in a cat’s life without the hoopla, the major fund- raising dinners, the radio spot. In my spot in this world, I just keep going. I couldn’t do this. I wouldn’t do this alone. I do it with the help of all of you by the Will of God and I am so very grateful. You have no idea. So thank you- all of you for caring, for loving, for following- for being. May next year we find a way, all of us, to make a difference in our corner of the world,  be it big or small.

God Bless You All-Merry Christmas to All- Guard your trees well! LOL

M.A.