We’ve been quiet for the last few weeks but not for lack of furry projects. Facial trauma, mangled tails and busted legs clogged our inbox, but none of the “OMG OMG OMG…he’s gonna DIE!!!” rooftop rescues that seem to have defined the brand of late. We believe every fix is newsworthy, but once you’ve dangled two stories off the ground with a scruffed kitten in one hand and a dry-rotted gutter in the other, while onlookers below yell, “Jump!”, a post about staring at an X-ray over Starbucks and handing tissues to a finder—“Breathe…they can fix it…”—seems like a snoozer. Last night, Mamu Su called out my writer’s block, “Every post doesn’t have to be as crazy as your dance moves. Just scroll through your phone.” Wait…whatever…
There was Doodle, an abandoned gray and white male whose bloody tail generated tons of Facebook angst. His shaved butt is now healing fine and at the finder's last report “asks for attention and acts more like a cat”.
And Smoosh, a tomcat with big, testosterone-chubby cheeks and mosquito hyper-sensitivity disfiguring his face. After treatment, steroids and neutering, Smoosh was back home, snubbing his bed for the garage floor. “Just like my husband,” confided the finder.
Gypsy, a black adult with facial scars the vets deemed cancerous and recommended euthanasia. We waved them off, opted for a biopsy (negative) and then wondered if it might be another case of mosquito hyper-sensitivity. Turns out it was and Gypsy startled the vets when she came back for follow-up. “Is this the same cat?”
There was CJ, a long-haired ginger teenager trapped for TNR but then found to be friendly having a sunken eye prone to infection. A friendly ginger pirate? “Meet us at the vet.” The finder brought along Orion, a big, old male ginger with a bum paw for good measure. Of course…no problem…
And Buster, an emaciated gray and white male who emerged from a local park with a yellowish tint to his ears and gums…liver issues? Bloodwork confirmed the field assessment, and that handsome devil is now on a special diet with his finder turned new family. “The yellowing is almost gone!”
And broken legs! Tempura, a beautiful tortie kitten pulled from the PTS list with a savage break to her rear leg. Arlo, a little one who crawled into the engine of a car, tumbled out while moving and shattered his femur in the process. And Chomp, an anemic black kitten with a splintered tail and tibia, also from a car engine, and so named for the way he greeted my offer to help. All three are now pinned back together and getting sMothered by super-foster Stephanie Yeats Cymanski.
We had disappointment and heartbreak, of course. Hazel, a little tabby ferried to us from a West Valley shelter with a shattered pelvis. After X-rays, the vet determined there wasn’t much we could do, but Hazel was standing, pooping and purring (good signs), so we told the foster to limit her movement and check back in a month. “Think positive thoughts” isn’t much of a treatment plan, but sometimes it’s all we have, and the little ones can surprise you!
And Echo, an emaciated black kitten with a shredded rear leg infested with maggots. The vets agreed that it was the worst we’d seen, amputated the leg and then stunned us with a 7:30 AM text the next morning, “OMG…the kitten’s still alive.” When Echo greeted me on all threes, I texted the finder “OMG, you’re gonna ugly cry…”, but the fix took a mean twist when Echo passed suddenly later that evening. The post-mortem suggested blood clot—not much we could have done—but still…it bothers us every time.
And yesterday morning, Stevie, a gray and white fluffy kitten with a badly infected leg (spider bite?) and Scarlet, a charcoal gray long hair female with a prolapsed butt and birth canal (we'll spare you the pics) pulled from a colony by a TNR crew. Both were repaired and are now recovering at the vet.
Tragically, we lost Flash, a 3-year-old Kirkland lifer with stomatitis and other health issues but otherwise perfect, who was one of the few access all areas cats onsite and had become a fixture on Mama Su's kitchen counter and my desk. The post-mortem revealed hemangiosarcoma on his spleen…Flash, gone way too soon.
So there you have it—the last two weeks or at least the highlights. While I’ve been working my “side hustle” as Mama Su calls it, Sabre had his stitches out, Rocky beefed up to 14 pounds, Kirk's been mentoring the foster kittens and the rest of the crew was doing the uncelebrated but far more critical part of what we do—cleaning, treating, socializing and transporting dozens of critters who would otherwise be alone on the street.
In a prior post, I noted that most of these posts rattle around in my head like a nickel loose in the dryer. This one was more like cleaning the lint filter—not very entertaining but still somewhat satisfying. Hope you enjoy the pics and thanks in advance for any help you can give toward to the vet bills!
Doodle, Smoosh, Gypsy, CJ, Buster, Tempura, Arlo, Chomp, Echo (RIP), Stevie, Scarlet, Flash, Sabre, Rocky and all the others.
