Back in June, I was tricked into taking four older cats for someone for “two weeks.” Well it is now October and the cats are still here and the people did finally sign the owner surrender forms on them in late July. The problem is the son keeps showing up at the house asking to see “his” cats and telling me their latest “woe is me” story. I do feel sorry for the family but I have told the son not to come by and expect to see these cats because “legally” they are now the property of the sanctuary.

Dimitri came by a few days ago and one of his cats a big old gray and white male has been living outside. He is outside, because when he is inside, he is a bully and he beats the buggars out of my cats. I have several hundred dollars added to the vet bill thanks to this cat. He is fine outside, he doesn’t fight. He hangs out in the back pasture and as luck would have it, as I was talking to the son in the driveway, Buddy (renamed Bugsby) walks up to see me. The son was in the car and asked if he could get out and against my better judgement, I told him okay. They visited for a bit and then the son started getting all upset that this cat was outside (although he was an outside cat when he was living with them). He demanded, I put him in the house and I told him I would but I also told him that if Bugsby started another fight or dashed for the door, he was going outside where he was happiest. I told the son that I had no problem putting this cat into a carrier and putting him in his car and he could take him with him- but he doesn’t have anyplace to keep him. I find it a bit odd that this kid can keep a pitbull where he is living now, but he can’t even have one cat? At any rate, the son left and about an hour later, Bugs jumped my oldest boy and had him by the neck. I was in the enclosure with the cats when it happened, and had just come through the door when the fight started.

I reached for Bugs to scruff him and was carrying him outside when he launched on to my chest and shredded my shirt along with some skin. The attack threw me off balance, I fell over landing on my back and shoulder and in the chaos, Bugs got loose and took off for the creek. Next time Dimitri shows up, I have to forget my sympathy and just flat tell him that he cannot keep showing up and to stay away until he and his mom have an actual place where they can keep their cats for the rest of their days. I personally do not see this happening- but you never know. All I know is when they see their past owners these cats go nuts and no pun intended- they bug out and go crazy.

We have two eyes this morning peeking out at me from underneath the bottle. His eye very well may be dead, but at least for now, it is opened instead of swollen shut. The kitties are outgrowing their nesting box but the only other place to put them is a tri level cage where if they fell down the ladders, they could get hurt. So they will stay inside the nesting box for now. But Linus has two eyes this morning and I couldn’t be more pleased.

They will have him on a super antibiotic for awhile but they are finally going to release him and let him come home. His youngest son will bring him home saving me a trip to Portland. They did find out that Mike has a larger than normal heart but have also after multiple tests deduced that the heart is large because the man is large. It should not impact him in any way down the road.

I had to take Linus to the vet this morning due to his eye just not staying open. The vet numbed the eye and took a look but it appears I will have yet another one-eyed kitten soon. 🙁 As a last-ditch effort we are switching the drops to his eyes and hoping it will keep the eye open- but the eye is completely dead at this time. I want to wait until the baby is a bit older and if these new drops work- we can wait. If not, we have to take it out before the infection spreads.

Another fund-raiser looms now for yet another eye surgery. Just the fact that he is still alive is nothing short of a miracle so we count our blessings there- Here he is at the vets and he in not a happy kitty!

This kitten was born with contracture. Both of her front legs are bent backward at the elbows. I have encouraged the owner to take the kitten to the vet because this baby can be saved and have a pretty decent life if it intervention is done quickly. Kitty will go to the vet tomorrow! YAY!

I thought Mike was having a stroke. He was confused, muddled, didn’t know my name or who I was when I told him. He had for the last two days been fighting chills, sweats, fevers, projectile vomiting and I told him yesterday he was going to the hospital with me. Those were fighting words and it got ugly, so stupid me dropped the subject. He started feeling better toward mid-afternoon and I was hopeful the worse had passed.

This morning when I came in from feeding, I found him in his chair his teeth chattering, his words slurred. I took his temp 102.8 and just told him that I was done playing games and he was going to the hospital now! His response was to vomit all over me (not on purpose though). I told him to get in his wheelchair, but he couldn’t move. He was pale, clammy hands, sweaty brow- I’m thinking what the hell is going on here? I took his blood sugar it was good- not low or to high. I called his best friend to come over NOW and get him in the truck for me and then we were on our way to OHSU

Once there they determined he had heart issues, but it wasn’t a stroke. He also has a UTI and for those who don’t know in the elderly, this can cause all those symptoms and then they are okay and then are back to the episodes of chills, shakes, fevers, confusion and then fine again. They did a lot of tests on him and are keeping him for evaluation and further testing. I left at midnight and they still hadn’t found him a room yet.

On the way home, traveling the old highway and not the interstate, I got behind two cars who were also stuck behind this huge machine. It was taking up most of the lane and some of the oncoming lane as well. I thought it might be a front loader holding onto a few crushed cars or something. The first car decided to pass and when he moved over to pass this huge behemoth of a machine, the operator decided to be cute and moved over to block the car! I was hoping it might be because the operator didn’t see the car, but now after everything that happened, I don’t think that was a case. But this car was a compact and it finally just zoomed past. Second car same thing- tried to pace, got blocked and then tried again until finally found an opening and sped off into the night. That left me behind this machine and I noticed he was having problems staying in the lane so much so that the oncoming traffic was pulling over and stopping until it went by.

I’m going 10 miles an hour on a 55mph road and saying some rude words to myself but knowing with MIke’s truck I don’t dare even try to pass.It would never have worked. So I just stayed behind it. We got into silverton and there is a section of town that goes up a steep hill. When we got before the hill, I saw all these cop cars on the street- I have gone this way hundreds of times and maybe seen two or three cops during the trip, but suddenly it looked like a major bust was going down. Behind me a cop hit his blue lights, and I was getting ready to pull over when he shot past me and wedged in, in front of me and behind the machine. We were at the base of the hill at this time. I slowed down because I don’t want a ticket and I noticed another car behind me, not a police car, but the other cop cars were coming up fast. All of a sudden, I heard this huge screech and looked up. The machine had reached the bottom of the hill and in trying to go up it- couldn’t do it- too much weight. It started reversing fast and slipping down the hill- the cop in front of me hit his lights and started to reverse faster. But the idiot behind me didn’t give me any room to get out of the way, so I was stuck. The cop realized my predicament and reversed around me- by this time, the machine was on the other side of the street slamming into parked cars, I heard this huge BOOM and I just floored it and got out of dodge. I just missed being hit by something this operator hit. The cop literally saved my life. I figured with 52 cops right there in the thick of it, they really didn’t need a witness and besides I had bottle babies at home to tend to. I did stop a few miles down the road and shook as hard as Mike did when he couldn’t get out of his chair.

Tonight before I go to bed, my prayer will be- God can we not have another day of close calls like that for quite awhile?

I am rushing him to the hosptiat right now more later

and you have some to spare- could someone help me come up with $20.00? I get into these rescues so far and concentrate so hard on the state of the kittens that I forget to also keep my records of my spending accurate. I’m in a bit of spot at the moment and could really use some help here. What happened is lack of sleep has caught up with me and I forgot to write down a check I wrote for a cool air vaporizer and they ain’t cheap!

Thank you so very much for the help! You have kept us out of the NSF zone. I am so humbled that you believe in what we are doing here, and I learned a valuable lesson in all of this. Write everything down!

Would like you to meet- Lionel, Linus and Star the last of the litter infected with the mutated strain of the feline herpesvirus.

Fed and happy for now 🙂

On the way home from picking up the donated food, I stopped at the house where One-Eyed is living. As I pulled up, the new owner opened the door and darned if One-Eyed didn’t come running out and leaped right on my chest! I held him and snuggled him and his fur was a good receptacle for the leftover tears of the last few days. He looks wonderful! He is fattening up but not to much, his fur is no longer oily and matted, and he just looks like the happiest one-eyed kitty on the planet!  I needed that hug so much and the confirmation that we do good work even when sometimes things don’t go as planned.