Today the temperature warmed considerably and I wanted to get those kittens from the abandoned farm house caught. Family came by in the morning and headed off to shop in Owego. I cleaned the cat facility, peeled some vegetables, threw a pot roast in the oven, and jumped in the truck around 3:00 pm. At the top of a snowy hill in Erin, I called the woman who was feeding the kittens, completely lost. I didn't want to go down the hill if I had already past her! But she was in fact at the foot of the hill, and the snow melted away down below. I picked her up and she took me out to the old farm house where two kittens and a mom cat were dumped two weeks ago.
Is this where you would leave two kittens and a mom cat if you wanted them to find a good home? To the people who dumped these cats I have one line for you: Misdemeanor. Up to one year in jail or $1000 fine. Gosh, I would love to meet you in court.
Momma is a sweetheart. We shoved her in the trap and she just wanted to turn around to be petted. The male tiger sniffed the food and also was happy to be given a good hard shove into a kitten trap. The female hid in the house until we walked down the truck for a fourth trap. When we returned, she was already in the kitten trap we had left behind. Easy catch! They are all purrboxes but the kittens need to get FeLV tested, neutered, and on line as soon as possible, while they still have those cute kitten faces. Mom cat may already be pregnant, so she needs to be spayed ASAP as well.
Because their house is slated to be removed via burning this next week, we named mom Tara, and the kittens are Rhett and Scarlet. To the woman (and another neighbor, I believe) who fed these cats the last two weeks, and who handed me $50 to help pay for their care, thank you for caring. So many people just drive on by and make a phone call, and think that is enough. I'm honored to have met you. There are so many good people in the world. We could use a few more of them!.
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Tom update:
He's back from the first vet trip. It was confirmed that he indeed had a broken back right leg paw at one time, that didn't heal properly probably. That'll cause some arthritis, and will likely give him some trouble later. All of his tests came back negative- for FeLV/leukemia, mites, fleas, worms, etc. He had his first FeLV vaccination shot too. His ears are healed as much as they are going to, and he can hear fine.
His eye was my main concern. The good news is that he may not be permanently blind in the left eye. He does have conjuntivitis but that's secondary to the main problem. The eye has two chambers - the large one behind the lens and iris and the front one. The vitreous humors in the eyes are made in the back of the eye and move to the front chamber where they eventually drain out. Somehow,his ducts have gotten blocked and the front part of the eye is huge. His pupil is closed and pushed way back into the eye. So we will need to give him drops to open the pupil and open the ducts, (as well as amoxicillin for the infection of the eyelid), and he'll go back for a recheck to see if that helps.
Giving a cat eye drops is never fun. Considering how much blood I got to shed in the doc's office trying to hold him for the vet, he's not going to like the procedure at all. It will inevitably involve a towel or a blanket, and both of us. He will not be a happy cat. But hopefully, at the end of that time, he'll be able to see with both eyes.
A pic for the curious: http://runningscared.org/files/jazz-tomathome.jpg but he shut his eyes in it.
Wonderful! Those kittens and the mama cat are gorgeous. Hooray for Tara, Rhett, and Scarlet! I'd love the *dumpers* in court, too. (B@stards!)
hey, georg. Great shot. Is that an eartip from a spay/neuter clinic or did he lose it by accident? I've discovered if I tuck the cat between my legs while kneeling on the floor I have a little better control. But there are some cats who are just plain hard to hold no matter what you do. He's a lucky cat to end up in your household.
I don't know how he lost the eartips (the one that isn't clearly gone is shredded). They say he was living on the streets for a while before he was picked up, and he came into the shelter that way. He has a lot of little scars that look like teeth or claw marks on the ears, so I assume he lost them in arguments with others. But he's being nice to our collection. Tom and Spider took a lap on me this morning (with my arm draped between them). Last night for his second dosing I had to hold him pinned to the seat of a chair. This morning, I was able to hold him up the way I hold Colin (the other cat that needs 2 to 3 pills a day) and it was easier. The hard part is trying to keep picking him and holding him often, so he doesn't completely associate being picked up with the vets and medicine. So once an hour or so, it's cuddle time. Not that I object to cuddle time. :) The atropine for his eyes makes him try to spit it up a few minutes later, so we have to give the amox and the atropine at different times.
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