Previously, in my blog, I mentioned that behind the scenes it was getting quite stressful for us. For a recap- we discovered that we had a leak in our house, but because this house was built in the 30’s. The people before us instead of taking up old tile when they put down new, they just layered the stuff on top of each other. When it got down to it, there were five layers of tile down on our floors and the water was leaking under the third layer! So we didn’t notice it right away.

When we finally noticed the water, it was on our living room carpet, right at the edge of the kitchen. Initially, I thought Kota had slipped up and peed there, so I just sprayed, blotted it up, dried it up and thought how strange, because he doesn’t pee in the house. But the stain was too big to be a cat pee stain, unless said kitty was in full renal failure.

The next morning, there it was again! So I did the same thing, only this time, I did the sniff test and it didn’t smell like pee. It smelled like mildew! I mentioned it to Mike, and he suggested that I put a board over it to see what happens. So I did, and when we removed the board the following morning (after I had cleaned up the stain) there it was again. Very puzzling, so I called the plumber.

The plumber came and located four small leaks way in the back of the kitchen sink and fixed them. then he went away. But the next morning, the stain was back again so he came back and this time, he found a leak in the bathroom sink pipes and fixed those. But these were such small leaks. It didn’t make sense to me that they would cause that much water to appear. I was right, and the following morning the stain appeared again this time wetter and bigger.

One more time, the plumber was called and I was pretty upset. He isn’t cheap labor and he was missing something I was pretty sure. He finally took the front panel off our dishwasher and he couldn’t see under it- but I could hear water running, so he stuck his cell phone under there to video it- and it was running like a small brook! He pulled the dishwasher out and fixed that leak. He felt responsible (or so he said) so that visit cost us nothing. I showed him the bathroom where the floor was starting to buckle. I had already torn up the layers of tile in the kitchen and hallway, but the tile in the bathroom, when I started to tear that up- it was full of dry rot.  This flood had been happening a long time apparently by the look of things.

I quizzed him about the possibility of the shower or the toilet also leaking and he assured me that the way the floor was “behaving” this couldn’t be happening. He did check the floor and said it was “dry” and “nothing to worry about.” Then he left and since that time (it has been a month) the floor has continued to buckle and cause concern.

So then we called the contractors and they came, and they looked, and they went under the house, and they promised to get back to us. No one ever did. It was frustrating to say the least. We had a dozen men come here to look at the job.

Last Monday, a guy came out from another area and he was really nice, he looked at the “job” said he would work out an estimate and “be in touch.” Before he left, I cornered him and just asked him why no one was getting back with us on this? It was getting to the point where I was afraid Mike was going to crash through the floor in his wheelchair! He looked at me and said “Ms Miller, I will be honest with you, the job is too small. No one wants it, including me!” Then he left.

Meanwhile, our floor is getting worse and in our good days, Mike and I could have fixed this ourselves in a heartbeat. So yesterday, I went to a lumber yard where the guys know me quite well. (They give me discounts on lumber when we are working with the cat buildings). I was pretty stressed and started telling them my story and I couldn’t hold it together any longer, I just had a meltdown right there in front of God and everyone..

One of the guys handed me a slip of paper that had two numbers and two names on it and said- “Call these numbers, one of them will help you. I swear it.”

I went back to the truck, got myself under control and called the first number which was answered by a human and not a machine. Instead of being told that he was slammed busy and couldn’t even come for weeks to look at the job, he instead told me that he would meet me at the house in 20 minutes with his brother, and we would go from there! I drove home, but I have to say, I was skeptical he would show up.

Well he did show up, and told us the job was going to be a bugger because of the dry rot and  water damage. He would have to gut the entire bathroom as the shower and the sink were now sinking down. Plus there was a leak in the ceiling that was also old (he pulled some ceiling tiles down) and when he told us how much this gutting would cost, our hearts sank. We didn’t  have that kind of money, not even close.

His brother went outside, he made one phone call and came back in and told us that it would be okay. It was all “handled” someone had made arrangements to donate all the material needed for the job, and he and his brother are not going to charge us for their labor! I was flabbergasted! I kept expecting them to say it was all a joke, and walk away like the dozens before them had- but they are on the level. It is not going to cost us a dime and while they are fixing and finding the leak (they suspect the shower is leaking) they are also going to widen the door so that Mike can at least get his wheelchair somewhat in the bathroom instead of just in the hallway. The doorway should be 32-34 wide and it is only 20.

I’d gotten the point where I had just given up believing in people anymore. I wasn’t sleeping much worrying about this situation and other financial concerns. I just wanted our bathroom to be safe to use and no one seemed to want to touch it at any price. Now, these guys are going to donate their time and effort and a home improvement store will be donating the material needed to make our life here so much easier and I am floored! (no pun intended).

They have three jobs they are working right now, but when those are done- we are next in line to have a new, functional bathroom! This is such a random act of kindness for us and we will be paying it forward in the near future.As for Mike and I, we are doing a happy dance (although his looks a bit funny being performed in a wheelchair!) 🙂

Bent just returned from his recheck on his stomatitis. It has not resolved itself completely , but it is a tad bit better since his last depo shot, so he got another one. The vet said that the pain level is down in his mouth as well and there are only two lesions in the back of his mouth instead of seven. I am hoping that the second shot will take hold and he will be good to go with only taking oral prednisone here at home. He huddled in my lap the entire time- poor scared boy. He’s not crying anymore when he eats and the vet was on-board with the slippery elm bark mixture he is getting five times a day. (Thanks again Pat!)

I wish we could resolve this vet bill- but as Mike likes to say: “If wishes were fishes, the creeks would be full!”  Right now, our creek is just trickling along. There were a few comments made about the $900.00 still owing. I am doing the best I can.

They will call me in three weeks to see how Bent is doing and go from there. I know how he shows pain, so I will be on guard against him losing a lot of weight suddenly, pawing at his mouth, or crying when he eats. I also will pray he doesn’t get that skanky brown drool that Shimmer got which is a sign of more severe lesions forming in his mouth. I was given some Advant-guard which is basically a probiotic for the mouth. I am to give him this four times a day and not worry if he swallows it or spits it out. It just has to get in his mouth to do its work.

For now, he is home. Of course in true cat fashion,  he serenaded me the entire ride up and back to the vet’s office.

First thing Bentley did when I brought him home was dart outside and hide in the pine limbs that came down in the storm last night! I think he is hoping I wouldn’t notice his handsomeness among the branches.

She finishes her medicine today and she is doing so much better now. She is miserable being confined, so we talked it over and decided when she gets her last dose of antibiotics that we will just open the door and let her back outside. Her feline buddies have been clustered around the catio when she is out there and keeping her confined could mean that she could slip back into sickness just from the stress. She will live out her life on her terms and not ours. Some cats are just that way.

I have managed to establish a bond with her which I hope will continue after she is released. Time will tell.

This girl has been with  us a long time- she has lived under the house for over ten years following being dumped here in a canvas bag on our porch. I took her in, got her spayed and when I came home with her, she managed to escape the carrier and duck under our home. Never been able to successfully capture her until Friday night. She didn’t look right and wasn’t eating and was matted to beat heck!

As you can tell, she is partly Persian. It took us about three hours to remove all the intrusive mats on her:

Knowing that the clippers would get hot if we used them and I risked cutting her with scissors to remove this, we opted to use a seam ripper to take out these mats. It works great, and once you loosen up the root of the mat, you can easily just pull the whole thing up without injury to the cat.

She has been to the vet. She weighs 19 pounds, he puts her age over 20 and except for a lot of constipation and parasites, an URI and a small conjuctivitus battle, she is doing good. She did really well at the vet- although her hiss can be quite intimidating! Someone who I rescued a few cats from in the past was over at the clinic when I was there and she put some money down on our account! After bloodwork, exam, x-rays and medicine we only owe $38.00 on the bill. I was so grateful beyond words. Allura is on vera-flux for four more days and was given an enema and some Profender. Hopefully in a few days, she will start eating on her own and I can integrate her into the house with the others.

I won the battle of the bloodwork and it came back, that in addition to all of her other problems, Shimmer’s kidneys were also shutting down. We decided ending her pain was the only humane way to help her out.

In celebration of her life with us- here are just a few of the hundreds that did make it despite early trauma, abuse, neglect. I hope you enjoy the photos below:

Madison

Hurricane Charlie before

Hurricane Charlie after

Bibbens

Darby

Dickens (the kitty with the missing femur)

Bram (thrown on the freeway) before

Bram (after)

Jazzy and Serena (left in a box in a local park)

Glade and River (left by the river to die)

So today, in honor of Shimmer, a kitten found in a wild patch of blackberry bushes with her brother and mom, we choose to honor her by remembering those who did survive the ordeal of being abandoned or being victims of abuse or neglect living on in this world.

I also wanted to share a recent moment with Shimmer that was nothing short of a miracle.

We had just returned from the last vet visit, and she was so stressed, she retreated to the bathroom and laid down behind the toilet. She didn’t move all that day or the night, so the next morning, I went in and just sat down on the floor and talked to her. I knew, being with her 24/7, that something more than what we were seeing was going on with her. I told her to hang in there and as soon as possible, her pain would end.

In the five years that we have had her, Shimmer has never sought out either one of our laps. If we even DARED to put her on our lap, she let us know by teeth and claw this was not a GOOD idea. She preferred to remain by herself in the bedroom or in a cabinet alongside the stairwell converted into a cat bed. Medicating her was almost impossible.

I had gone to sit on my recliner after talking to her, when suddenly, I see her coming into the room. She headed straight for my recliner and jumped on my lap! She had this really nasty sticky brown drool dribbling out her mouth but I didn’t care. She was on my lap, head-bumping, purring, kneading me. She stayed on my lap for five hours. I ignored the dirty dishes needing my attention, the rug needing to be vacuumed, the needs of my bladder. Not until Mike asked about  dinner, did I even move as Shim and I shared this final moment together.

After I got up, she went back to the bathroom and laid down behind the toilet, staying there until the vet called with the results. I will hold this challenging girl  strong in my heart and she will be missed. RIP my girl.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so at this point, I will just stop typing and say: “Enjoy Pita, settled at last!”

She is still fighting a bad case of oral mouth ulcers, goopy eye and poor appetite. The vet was disappointed that the depo shot didn’t do much for what is going on with her. He did give her one more convinia shot and we got more eye medicine for her. Since her last visit, she is down 2 pounds. Although she is one cat who can afford to loose weight, he wants me to monitor her weight for the next two weeks then bring her back. I won’t be taking her back. She is so stressed from all these vet visits she has been peeing all over herself since she got home. It’s not worth it, especially knowing that what they are doing for her doesn’t work.

We pulled her health file and looked it over, searching for answers and he has determined that the covenia shot does not work on her in the past, and he hopes that now that she is older it might. She’s had several of these shots in the past with no results. Bummer. I am going to increase the L-Lysine that I am feeding all the cats including her and looking into holistic ways to heal her ulcers (perhaps unprocessed honey?) I don’t know the answer- but hope for her sake, we find it and soon.

Shim is due for her recheck in under an  hour from now. She has steadily been progressing downhill since her first visit. She is barely eating, but she is drinking water almost continually all day with no pee showing in the pan. Her clear discharge is now goopy and her third eyelid of her other eye is showing. She’s also taken to sleeping in the bathroom way back in the corner behind the toilet. She has never visited the bathroom that I know of so I am quite concerned as None of these are good signs. Part of me wonders if some of this is because of the stress she is under when we take her in to the vets office- or if there is something more than just stomatitis she is fighting. I remember when she and Benson first arrived here, anything that changed in their environment threw both of them into health issues all URI related. Take the changes away from their environment and in less than 24 hours they were both fine again. It’s been two weeks since she has been in to see the vet and instead of getting better, she has worsened. I hope he can tell us why.

Thank you to those of you who donated to the vet debt. We were able to put $143.00 towards the debt and we are grateful you opened up your hearts and your wallets to the cats here.

Please pray for Shim and I as we seek answers to what is going on.

PITA has been returned to us as of today. He was found to have some off-putting behavior (hissing) Just once, he never bit, scratched or struck out with his claws. Just one hiss as he considered his new caregivers and if they were worthy of his trust. I think they were worthy- but I know they have the kids to protect and when you get a new kitten in your care and he hisses at you- yes, it can be off-putting.

He was a bit stressed upon his return. His two brothers are still with us and he yowled so loudly when I confined him to the bedroom, that to save my eardrums, I let him out. No fights so far, but Molly, the one kitty he scuffled with from time-to-time is still outside. She will come back by dusk as she always does, so if there is going to be a confrontation, it will be after dark.

I had to take Bentley to the vet and Mike said while I was gone, PITA leaped upon him, headbumped his face one time and took off again. So hopefully, he is as glad to be home as we are to have him home.

Mr B- is in a bad way. Like Shimmer, bad stomatitis- one infected eye and lots of gingivitis on this 11 year old boy. I felt so bad for him- so we did the antibiotic, he got a pain shot and a depo shot. He is pretty unpredictable in his behavior thanks to the after-effects of surviving distemper when he was such a baby. They were so nice, they did everything for him with me holding him in my arms seated in a chair! I told them my knee was giving me fits and what happened as to why it was giving me such a fit and they just said, “Hang on to Mr. Bentley- we will work with him that way!” I love my vet.

He’s only been there a few times after his initial two week stay fighting distemper. He was there with pancreatitis that almost took his life, then he came back with massive diarrhea unstoppable until he got The Recipe and then got better. Then he came back with massive bite wounds when Mr. Gnarly got ahold of him before MG was neutered. He was there for two days on that stint. So he has been through it and they admire him for his strength and his character.

Our vet debt is now at $1,300.00 so if anyone has loose change rattling around in their car or inside the sofa in the living room- we SURE could use it. Just sayin-:)

Here is one of my favorite photos of my boy Bentley

Many thanks to those of you who are gifting us your Fresh Step Paw Points. Through these donations, we are able to buy trash bags, scoops litter and other items necessary to keep us going. If you enter our unique shelter code SHELTERBONUS914 they will gift us 250 points immediately. We are again in need of 13 gallon trash bags and another outdoor water fountain now that the weather is getting warmer (although last night it was 22 degrees here!) But it is April now and warmer weather is just around the corner.

Chandler and Bronson have become best buds. They are sleeping inside Mike’s shop which sadly, he hasn’t been in for three years now. He’s decided it might be time to sell some of his heavy shop equipment like his mill-drill-lathe which weighs well over 1,200 pounds as well as his contractors table saw (which is pretty much an antique as he has had it a long time. I set up some cat carriers with heated cat beds in the back of his shop and that’s where Bronson and Chandler have settled in.

Shimmer’s mouth has simmered down a bit, I am hoping just a few more shots and she will be right as rain. I have to take Bentley in next- he stopped eating a few days ago and he also looks like he might have stomatitis starting- although right now, his red patches are located in the back of his throat and none of his gums are bleeding. He goes in Monday- he’s my boy, my distemper survivor and vet visits with him can be pretty unpredictable. The disease left him neurologically challenged- so we will just have to see how it goes.

We had a minor flood in the kitchen of late. Our dishwasher sprung a leak and unknown to us, it leaked underneath the tile and ended up leaving a stain on the living room carpet that at first I attributed to the dog or the cat- but it kept appearing and never had an odor like pee- so it was a matter of elimination to figure out we had a leak somewhere. The plumber came out and fixed it and now we have to tear up the tiles and linoleum in the kitchen and dry the floor out. We are going to try and do it ourselves- and then if we find that doesn’t work- we will call in a professional. But the insurance didn’t cover much for repair work. I’m not sure why we have insurance in the first place? They seem to always find a way NOT to cover damages in older houses. The people who lived her prior to us, instead of tearing off old tile or linoleum they just covered it with new- so this is going to be quite the mess I think. But there was a lot of water damage and Oregon is known for mold and dry rot. Next week, we will get to work.

Speaking of work, I best get going. It’s time to get the cats fed as well as the husband. Everyone please have a peaceful day today and hug those around you who you love and who love you-