Gender switch!  I had to laugh because when the kitten first arrived here, I thought it was a boy. But nine times out of ten, I am proven wrong, so I said it must be a girl. Nope, male parts coming in- it is a boy.

His temp is 89.1. I did take him back to the vet as the bloat was way out of control. They believe he is wormy but he is way to young to put chemicals on him so I was told to be more “aggressive” when I stimulate him. I don’t know how much more aggressive I can be.

He did poop for them BUT he had to travel with us this morning when I took Mike to the hospital for his procedure. I told the vet, the only way this kitten poops is after a car ride of at least 20 minutes!  They told me to keep him warm- I am- the bedroom is right at 90 degrees and he has three heaters inside his box.

Now he has a 60/40 chance of surviving.

Mike had his ablation. T hey put a liter of fluid into his leg to hydrate it and cauterized his non-working blood vessels closed (said this is to promote the other working vessels to work harder). No anesthetic beyond one diazapan so he is hurting right now and will soon be asleep- I hope. He’s wrapped from foot to thigh in ace bandages even though I told them this is not a good idea (But what do I know?) I’ve only been taking care of him for 8 years. As soon as his leg starts to swell, the ace is going to cut him wide open and here we go again. So I am hoping I am wrong as he has gone through enough pain and torture with this leg that he deserves a break.

Purrcilla is showing me that she wants to be here, but everything she attempts to do just drains her. She was screaming every time she tried to poop. I thought it might be because she was impacted, but instead, I found that her rear has been attacked by what looks like fire ant bites!  No wonder she stopped screaming after I put the Desitin on her.

Her temp went down overnight, so we made her two additional sock heaters and put them in the box with her. She immediately found her way to the warmth and snuggled on down into its comfort.

Come on little girl, your week birthday is two days away- you CAN do this!

On the way to the vet this morning, Priscilla left a big present in the box and cancelled the reason for the appointment in the first place. Monster poop- hmm babies fall asleep in cars and Purrcilla poops in one! Next time she is unsuccessful in pooping, perhaps I will drive her to Mt Hood!

Vet said she is under 5 days old, has a 50/50 chance of surviving, He is amazed she is still here (so am I) She is 2.6 ounces

She gave me her first big purr at last feeding, so I changed the spelling of her name. This feeding was the most successful of all, she fell asleep with the nipple still in her mouth. She is no way out of the woods yet and I won’t breathe easy for at least 30 days. But here, you might be able to tell how her coat is changing and getting oily. In my experience this is always something that precedes a bad illness in cats and kittens.

But she is a trooper and she is hanging in there for now. Praying she stays in the here-and-now.

This little one was discovered by the homeowner lying in his grass when he turned on the water to water his lawn. As the water started making this baby cold, she cried out in distress and that’s when she was found. She was stone cold, but she has been given a warm bath, a quick dry and she is a warming cage now. We had to bathe her, as she was crawling with fleas that were larger than her!

Her umbilical cord is still attached and she is fighting to stay in the here and now but she is suffering from mini-tremors from the cold. She has eaten, she has pooped and peed- all good signs. She will be fed round the clock every two hours and we are calling her Purrcilla and hoping she will be able to survive all she has gone through. It’s going to be a long night

I had to make a quick emergency run to the store for supplies for her, so if someone could shoot me $20.00 I won’t be so stressed out come Monday morning.

Stayed awake all night last night and was out every two hours looking for skunks. Only saw one baby at around 4:00 a.m. No more families or groups just one visitor  looking for new territory to set up camp. Our No Vacancy sign is out in clear view.

This morning, I used 15 bags of clay litter to seal up the entrances to the two dens. Once they were sealed, I ran chicken wire around the entrances and secured all the edges down tight. I buried the wire about 8 inches below the ground as skunks are excellent burrowers. We had some old bricks piled behind the shop, so I used those bricks to further anchor my handiwork and discourage the skunks from digging.

There are now three of our cat traps that sustained some substantial damage from the adult skunks. Mike said two are beyond repair.our fishing net that we used to help capture the babies became another victim, skunks,   being such excellent burrowers, their claws are extremely sharp. Two managed to escape out of the net by shredding it in a matter of seconds. These items have been added to our Wish List.

Kota (who usually has to stayin his pen when he is outside) gave me clear confirmation this morning that the skunks were gone. When I let him out of his pen (after I finished my work on the dens) instead of running up the back stairs of the house, he took off like a crazy dog and did wide laps all the way back to the creek! After he got sprayed- he wanted nothing to do with the areas where the skunks normally were found. He must have done 20 laps and it was just joyous to watch him be the happy, energetic puppy. He was telling me, Look Mom, they are gone, I can be free again!

Our property still smells like skunk every so often but within a week, I am hoping all that will go away. Gone with the wind, so to speak.

This has been a very sobering lesson for us here. What a senseless waste of wildlife. Food at the feral feeder at night is now non-existent. During the day, the food trays are set up on the highest platform that is five feet high. We are not even setting out the food on the shelves below. Isn’t going to happen any longer.No food on the ground now period.

We still have to solve two more problems. Chessa, our outdoor kitty we got from Meow Village three years ago who also has hyperthyroidism- how to feed her because she can’t jump due to early abuse, where and how do we feed her? And how to add another entrance/exit to the new 24 hr.feeding room because I have a kitty ambusher who guards the only entrance/exit and won’t let all the cats inside to eat. But once we figure these last two problems out, our property will definitely be a skunk-free zone.

Last night was supposed to be my last night of sleep depravation regarding the skunk issue. I left food on the ground at 9:00 p.m. just to be sure I didn’t miss a baby in this round-up of sorts.

I went out at 11:00 to discover, there was not one baby feeding but two! I quickly set the traps thinking that if this was just Mike and I in the middle of the boonies living with no neighbors- we’d just let these animals alone.That’s sadly not the case though.

Something inside told me to bait up four traps, so I did. It is now 5:00 a.m. and there are four more babies trapped and in the shop covered with tarps! How in the world could we have 18 skunks and NOT know it? These trapped ones, I think there are three adults and one baby. Hard to tell in the dark and ducking skunk spray! I know that there were times in the past when I wondered how the babies got so quickly from the feeding station to under the house. After all, skunks are not cheetahs when it comes to speed. I just figured, since they are excellent burrowers that they had elaborate tunnels they were using. I didn’t have a clue that we had more than 10 skunks here. 🙁

I am sitting here trying to get everything under control within myself based on the last few days and what has happened. I’ve learned more about people  than I care to know. I learned that skunks, although they are beautiful and beneficial creatures not everyone sees that. They only see (and smell) what comes out of their backend anal gland when they are startled, upset or cornered. Funny the skunks aren’t the anal creatures in this scenario.

It came down to the fact that even though, we did everything possible to prevent them from liking it around here. They had turned into habitual feeders and they did not want to leave. We built elevated feeding platforms for the outside cats to use. We completely stripped one of the outside enclosures and are using it for a feeding room at night. There is not one ounce of cat food outside on the ground of this property and hasn’t been for awhile. There is no food left out after 7:00 p.m. not even on the elevated platforms because the coons would come to feed and throw kibble everywhere! Didn’t matter, the skunks came back. They were out day and night- started challenging and fighting with the cats. Something  I had never witnessed and hope never to again. They were spraying neighbors, neighbor’s pets, me- in other words, they were pissed off.

So I called around and tried to find out if I could trap them and relocate them. Nope, not since 2015 can you do that. I had called biologists, wildlife locators, wildlife controllers they all said the same thing. You have to kill them.

I don’t kill animals, I rescue them. I knew I couldn’t do it, so I asked one of the controllers I had talked to previously what his cost was for his service. (He said he was the cheapest in the valley). $225.00 for initial evaluation and set up, then $65.00 a skunk, $75.00 removal fee plus travel costs. He was very nice, told me the “best” thing I could do was bait and trap them- then shoot them right between the eyes. He added “Don’t get sprayed, but if you do, mix up 1 quart of Hydrogen Peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and a splash of DAWN liquid soap. “Works wonders!” He said, he was right about that.

The family is gone now. They won’t be coming back. I did not do the dirty deed and I cried for days after it was over. One of my neighbors, I overheard him say to his friend. “I told you she was crazy, she’s crying over dead skunks!”  Yes, I am crying over a family of ten skunks who wanted nothing else but to survive and in the end, they lost the battle in a major way and now they are headed for the landfill..

A few days ago, I had to run to town and it was so hot, that I left Kota inside his cage inside the house. (Mike was asleep).

On the way home from town I looked down the highway and saw a big, black dog with a wavy tail running down Hwy 20! My first thought was “How in the world did Kota get out of his cage and the house and follow me?” To my horror, the dog that had been running along the side of the hwy suddenly veered into the road and almost got hit by the car in front of me.

My heart was in my throat and I pulled over and jumped out of the truck screaming Kota’s name over and over again. I had left the side of the truck door open and the dog appeared behind the truck and jumped into the truck. Shaking, I slammed the door and jumped into the driver’s seat and turned to give holy heck to Kota only to discover, it was NOT Kota at all!

I took the dog home, scanned him for a chip and he was chipped thank the Lord, and so I called and got in touch with the owner. She was driving the narrows looking for her dog when I called and was at our house within 20 minutes. When she got there, she was still in her pj’s. She told me that they had adopted this dog about six months ago and the dog hadn’t even been out of the shelter long enough to figure anything out. The dog was adopted out twice but returned the next day both times and they were her last hope for a good home.

The gal was really nice, I took her inside to meet Kota and Mike and she saw all the cats and asked why there were so many. When I told her we were a non-profit cat sanctuary, her eyes grew big and she smiled and said that she wanted to help out.

This morning, we received a delivery of several bags of Whiskas, a new larger than life litter pan, a gallon jug of Nature’s Miracle and a new four level cage! I can use the cage to continue Solo’s introduction into the house and the food was such a blessing. We met all over a rescue of a dog who doesn’t know what it is like to be a dog and we have formed a friendship that I believe will last a lifetime.

Here is our new cage-

Small strides are being made with Solo. During feeding time, he can get along with the other cats, even going so far as to sharing the same food plate as PITA. Take away the food and he becomes the great stalker and will pounce and attack anything on four legs that moves.

Right now, we have decided to let him take up residence in the bedroom. We have a cat proof screen door we use for first-time introductions and although he has been here now for almost two months, we are starting from scratch and allowing the cats to meet only through the door.

So far, no one has stepped up to adopt him. Will run other ads this weekend to see if I can generate any interest in him. There was one instance where a family contacted a friend of mine who posted him on her FB asking if the tip of his tail was white. (it’s not) They sent a photo of their cat who vanished three years ago and he really does resemble their Pumpkin kitty same age and all. But his orange tail is simply orange no other color visible so it isn’t him. I suppose I could put white-out on his tail and say it’s good? LOL  I did ask them if they wanted to adopt him in their cat’s stead, but right now they are homeless as well, living out of their RV with three other cats while their home is being built which won’t be ready for 6 months. Not ideal. But for a minute, there was a glimmer of hope.

I’m in the process of working with a wildlife controller to trap these skunks and turn them over to him. He is sanctioned by the Fish and Wildlife Department- so everything is legal. The sad part about it, is when he does get the skunks trapped and in his hands- his only option according to Fish and Game is to euthanize them. That’s what they do here in Oregon. They can’t allow the family to be relocated to another area for a myriad of reasons, so that makes me sad, but it is clear, they can’t stay here any longer. They are not moving on and according to the wildlife biologist I had a spirited conversation with, I have turned them into habitual feeders and they will not move on- just keep on having more babies.

Once they are gone, my whole feeding routine will have to be changed to discourage any other skunks from coming here. My fingers are crossed that I can trap these critters in the coming days and turn them over to him before they cause more damage to the neighbors property and cause more problems between us.