The Sad Story of Franklin

Last Sunday I got a call from my Brother-in-law. They had found a cat outside their house and he was not moving.

He went in for a closer look, and there were flies all around the cat's face. He couldn't see his eyes and thought they were missing, and same with his nose. He didn't know what to do, and asked for my help.

I went over to their house, not knowing what I would find.

The young cat was maybe 6 months old. He was all black with a sprig of white on his chest and a few stray white hairs on his paws. He had long, soft fur. He was, at one time, a beautiful boy.

His eyes and nose were not missing, and this had not been an animal attack. This was just a very sick kitty. His eyes were dripping with pus and swollen shut. His nose was caked with mucus. Flies had started laying eggs on his face. He was skin and bones.

You won't lay here and die, not like this. We're going to try, and if we can't see some positive signs by tomorrow, we'll do what's best.

I didn't have much hope, but I would make every effort. Maybe we could find a miracle.

I had a spare box of liquid antibiotics for just such an occasion. I also had all the eye medication from Simon.

After getting all of the fly eggs off his face, I started him on the meds, then fed him some watered-down canned food through a syringe. I went back in 2 hours and gave him another eye ointment and some more food.

He did eat and drink when I gave it to him, and I was a little encouraged. I named him Franklin, because everyone needs a name.

I checked on him throughout the day and into the evening. I put him under the towel with the heated disc and he crawled out. Hard to imagine he would be too hot, but apparently he was.

That night, after I fed the rest of the cats, I took him out and held him for a bit. When I moved him, he cried a little. He was so sick and I felt so terrible for him and these circumstances. I rubbed his paw pad and in between his toes. He flexed his claws out as if to hold my finger.

The next morning, I tried to feed him and he didn't make an effort to swallow. The food just sat there on his tongue. He didn't look good, and I knew that I needed to take him in to confirm my suspicion that he was too far gone.

I took him in that afternoon. His temperature didn't register on the thermometer, it was so low. He cried out when the doctor felt his belly.

We looked at each other and knew that the best decision was to ease his suffering. And she did, as I cried in frustration, unable to heal him. I was thankful that his suffering was over.

A Feral’s Prayer

Another gem from the Richmond Craigs List. As an aside, they are trying to get a local Animal Control facility to go no-kill, as there are big grants for facilities that do. Say a prayer that this comes to pass, for the sake of our 4-legged darlings.

Your short daily visits are my moments of joy.
Please give me your best, as these gifts are all I have.

Come often, even in cold, rain, ice, and snow.
I anticipate your arrival even on the worst of days.

I do try so to trust you; be patient as I learn who you are.
I need kind words to soothe my fears.

Walk softly and slowly when near me.
I am fearful of sudden moves.

Shelter me if you can; for if I have no warm place to go,
I may be quietly frozen on the coldest night.

This is my colony, these my brothers.
Consider carefully before you separate us from one another.

Each time you leave, may be our final goodbye.
Please know that in my own way, I loved only you.

Kitty updates

Things are finally settling down here.

Simon's eye is doing much better. He definitely has sight out of it, and aside from a little cloudiness, it looks almost normal.

He is also getting into the ornery kitten phase where he bites and fights with everything. His main companion is Percy, and I find it hilarious when Percy gets annoyed with him. Percy does the very same thing to Mouse, and its amusing to see him getting a taste of his own medicine.

In outdoor news, Paulie is doing very well, too. I managed to medicate him nearly every day for a week and his eye junk has cleared up as well. He wasn't nearly as bad as Simon, thankfully.

Paulie spends most of his time with Alice on the warm pads. He does like to run around, playing with the leaves and making a general nuisance of himself to the other cats.

I managed to snag him yesterday and give him some loving. The only times I've picked him up were for medicine, so we're on new ground with this lovey holding. He doesn't fight to get down or hiss anymore, although he is still scared of me. If I don't get him at just the right moment, he will run from me.

He did have his first bites of wet food last night. I had offered it to him before, but he had no interest in it. Hopefully he will keep warming up to me.

Some pictures of them...

Simon, the only time that wasn't blurry. He's all over the place!



Simon and one of his favorite pastimes.



Mama Alice



Paulie, the luckiest kitty in town.



Paulie



Paulie

A Feral Love Affair

This poem was posted on Craigslist here in the Richmond area. There is no author credit I can provide, only the tears of my knowing, kindred spirit.


A Feral Love Affair

Cool morning with gentle breeze, I bring Kirkland Dry Cat Food and Friskies Ocean Whitefish and Tuna Dinner to my beloved.

We embrace behind the dumpster at a local restaurant.

His auburn fur is soft against my legs.

I murmur his name and whisper endearments near his ear.

He bends down to the bowl and takes the first delicious morsels into his mouth, purring with pleasure.

I say goodbye and throw him a gentle kiss as a car approaches, pulling into the parking lot in our direction.

The driver pauses, and captures our tender farewell in bright headlights before the morning dawns.

Crazy!

Simon is doing better on his triple medicines for his eye. Still too early to tell if he will manage to keep the eye, but things are looking up overall.

As of a week ago, I still hadn't seen any other kittens, but I knew from Alice's milk that there were more somewhere.

I finally spotted another one a few days ago sitting in my car's wheel well, and Alice laying underneath. I couldn't grab him, and just knew I'd be seeing him in there again.

On Wednesday, I needed to go to the post office during the day, so I needed to drive my car. I popped the hood and what do I see but 2 little furry faces looking at me.

I picked the one up that I had seen previously, and put him on the ground, thinking he would just run away. Wrong. He went right back up into the engine with his brother.

I got the brook and managed to poke them both out of the car, but didn't see them run away. Kittens are pretty fast, though, so I was pretty sure they were gone.

I looked at the engine and couldn't see them anymore. I got in the car and honked the horn 3-4 times then started the car, praying. Nothing happened so I think ok, let's go. I let the car roll and hit the brakes to jostle it several times in a last ditch effort to warn anyone in the way that we were on the move.

And with that, we were off. We hit the Post Office then were stopping at the grocery store on the way home. As I turn into the parking lot, I pass the Fire House, and an engine was pulling out for a call.

I made a hard-ish left toward the store and happened to look in my side mirror just in time to see a kitten fly out from under my car and roll across the pavement.

OH MY GOD!

Somehow, the kitten was still mobile and had run into the bushes that line the driveway. I pulled the car over and ran at top speed to the bushes.

The kitten was walking through the bushes, dazed I'm sure. I grabbed him and looked at him, expecting the worst. What I saw, however, was just a bloody nose and mouth.

I went to my car and got a towel out of the trunk. I wrapped him in the towel and took a moment to catch my breath, cry a little, then pull myself together and drive home with the kitten in my arms.

(I did take another look in the engine at that point, just in case the other kitten was still in there, but saw nothing. I never did find him and fear that he was either lost on the way or made a break for it at the post office. I drove the route later that night but saw nothing, so I'm not sure what happened.)

I covered his head with the towel and he fell asleep as we drove. (Alice was there waiting for us, looking around for her kittens.) I put him in a big carrier and let him sleep for awhile.

Later on that night I gave him a bath, dried him, applied some flea meds and gave him a dose of antibiotic drops and some meds in his eyes, as they were gunky, too.

He was definitely more feral than Simon, and a bit bigger, too. I'm thinking that Simon must have been the runt.

I did get him to eat a little wet food and he was back asleep before I knew it. Until 5:30am, anyway.

I heard him crying and got up to tend to him. He walked around the house, meowing, looking for his mama. He was not warming to me at all, and not to Simon either.

He was clearly going to take lots of work to be tamed, and that was just something I didn't have time for, nor did I have an appropriate place to keep him. His incessant meowing did not win him a place in my husband's heart, either.

I ended up letting him back outside with his mama (after another dose of meds for good measure), who did take a few disapproving sniffs but later was snuggled up with him, so I'm sure all is well.

I know that this is not ideal, but I really had no other alternative. Now that Alice is somewhat trusting of me and lets me pet her, I'm confident that I'll be able to get the kitten for neutering when he's older.

I was going to try to trap Alice and get her to the Operation Catnip clinic this weekend, but after all this I think I will wait another week or two so that the kitten doesn't freak out. Not to mention he's obviously still nursing.

What a crazy few weeks it's been!

Without jumping the gun

I hate to be too optimistic in this very early hour, but I think Simon's eye looks better this morning. Maybe the triple meds are working. I hope so!

As much as I would love to keep Simon (and Percy would love to keep Simon, his new BFF) I promised Brian that we would only be his temporary family while he gets better and then gets fixed.

It's times like this that I wish we loved in a bigger house so that we could have more room. Not that our house is small, per se, but we don't utilize all of it because of our lack of storage area. I guess what we really need is an attic or a basement. And a kitten room. And a workshop for my tools. And a work area for Brian and his computers.

I think today's general theme is patience. :)

Little issues

Simon's eye is not getting better. Last night I wiped a tear off of his eye and a little jet of pus shot out of the corner. I knew I had to go back and have Dr. Jack look at it again.

I had called mid-week and the other vet (who's name escapes me *sigh*) suggested I switch to another eye ointment that I had on hand. They had some kittens with eye issues that wouldn't go away for a month or so, and they tried several different medicines to try to break the infection.

I took him in this morning and she was concerned about his eye, which had definitely gotten worse.

Now I'm using both medicines twice daily, as well as a new eye drop twice daily. It's a lot of medicine, but at this point, it's his last hope. If this doesn't work for him, he will probably lose his eye.

While this would be terrible, I think he would handle it well. He has lived the majority of his short life with only one eye, and probably does not know any better.

One of my old cats, Ali (who passed a few years ago), only had one eye. I got her from a shelter, so I don't know if she had been without it for a long time, but she got around just fine without it.

Simon will be fine either way, but we will hope and pray for the best.