Psycho and Vertigo
My first ferals were also my first fosters. I
never intended to take fosters, because at the time we had 7 geriatric
cats of our own. However, all the people who had agreed to foster them
backed out.
So here I was with two, incredibly angry, fluff balls. I had them in a box, I was so unprepared. First thing, I knew they needed a bath, they were COVERED in fleas. I started to think, I need to touch them, I’m going to get hissed at, scratched, bit, something....big breath, and snatch. I had Psycho by the scruff and she was furious about it. So I bathed her, dried her, repeated with Vertigo. Now I had two, incredibly angry, fluff balls, who were wet and covered in mostly dead fleas...so I started to groom them. Not only was I removing fleas, I was getting all of that feral grime off. They had dirt, lice, fleas, etc...it took a good hour, but I got them clean.
As I fondled them and kept them dry, that anger and scary I was seeing became obvious fear. I was floored. Feral cats aren’t just angry strays, they are terrified cats. So I started talking to them, I had them swaddled, I gave them kisses.
It took about two days for them to trust me. I knew that these babies couldn’t go back to that area. To be fair, the elderly gentleman was doing his best, but the traffic on that street is atrocious and many of their litter mates and their mother became victims to speeders. Meanwhile, I was helping the neighbor behind him try to trap the family. I, sadly, do NOT have the knack for trapping. We all have our weaknesses, mine is trapping. I don’t have the patience or the time. I have the tools and I can teach, but I lack the luck. Here comes the saddest part of this cat family story.
While I continued to nourish and turn these sweet girls into love machines, their grandmother (who was probably three or four) was pregnant and nursing their siblings. We couldn’t do much in the yard as it was very cluttered. Well a few months go by and this cat is STILL pregnant. My trapping partner, now friend, tells me her dog had gotten to her and shaken her a few weeks before we met and she suspected that there was something horribly wrong with this cat. We called her “Grandma Bitch Cat”. She outsmarted EVERY trap, until one day, we got her. The problem was that we should t have caught her, she was smart, but she was exhausted. We took her to be spayed and I got a heartbreaking phone call. The vet, who’s tech is a friend of mine, had put her down. They called me to explain why.
Pyometra is one of the worst things that can happen to an unspayed cat or dog. Essentially, the uterus, after going through heat cycles and back to back pregnancies suffers from infection, causes sepsis, and kills the female after a long and painful episode. GBK had pyometra. The vet opened her up and said it was one of the worst things she had ever seen. I am not sparing details, but if you need to
SCROLL
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.
.
.
The kittens had been killed by the dog attack, the few living had continued to form and expand through the infected and damaged uterus. There were malformed, septic kittens where they shouldn’t have been at all. The smell was horrible, her organs were heavy with infection, including the milk ducts, that she had been feeding my kittens litter-mates through. Those kittens all eventually died from sepsis poisoning.
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END
I cried so hard, I still do. I think that anyone who willingly allows their pets to go through that should be forced to see videos and pictures of what they are doing. The happy ending is that we eased and ended her suffering and the two that we did save and tame as well as the few others we caught and fixed are living fulfilling lives.
Psycho, now TK or Tiny Kitten, is a gorgeous, long haired, dilute tortoiseshell. She was adopted by a colleague of mine and I am currently babysitting her and her adopted sister. She bit me once and it’s how I learned not to touch a former feral while it’s eating without making noise!
Vertigo, now Mosi (Navajo for cat), lives with my mother in law. I get to see her silly face whenever I please. She is a gorgeous tortoiseshell, who due to her markings, looks constantly perplexed. She is a chubby, lap kitty.
Above all, I learned how hard and rewarding it is to let go of a foster.
So here I was with two, incredibly angry, fluff balls. I had them in a box, I was so unprepared. First thing, I knew they needed a bath, they were COVERED in fleas. I started to think, I need to touch them, I’m going to get hissed at, scratched, bit, something....big breath, and snatch. I had Psycho by the scruff and she was furious about it. So I bathed her, dried her, repeated with Vertigo. Now I had two, incredibly angry, fluff balls, who were wet and covered in mostly dead fleas...so I started to groom them. Not only was I removing fleas, I was getting all of that feral grime off. They had dirt, lice, fleas, etc...it took a good hour, but I got them clean.
As I fondled them and kept them dry, that anger and scary I was seeing became obvious fear. I was floored. Feral cats aren’t just angry strays, they are terrified cats. So I started talking to them, I had them swaddled, I gave them kisses.
It took about two days for them to trust me. I knew that these babies couldn’t go back to that area. To be fair, the elderly gentleman was doing his best, but the traffic on that street is atrocious and many of their litter mates and their mother became victims to speeders. Meanwhile, I was helping the neighbor behind him try to trap the family. I, sadly, do NOT have the knack for trapping. We all have our weaknesses, mine is trapping. I don’t have the patience or the time. I have the tools and I can teach, but I lack the luck. Here comes the saddest part of this cat family story.
While I continued to nourish and turn these sweet girls into love machines, their grandmother (who was probably three or four) was pregnant and nursing their siblings. We couldn’t do much in the yard as it was very cluttered. Well a few months go by and this cat is STILL pregnant. My trapping partner, now friend, tells me her dog had gotten to her and shaken her a few weeks before we met and she suspected that there was something horribly wrong with this cat. We called her “Grandma Bitch Cat”. She outsmarted EVERY trap, until one day, we got her. The problem was that we should t have caught her, she was smart, but she was exhausted. We took her to be spayed and I got a heartbreaking phone call. The vet, who’s tech is a friend of mine, had put her down. They called me to explain why.
Pyometra is one of the worst things that can happen to an unspayed cat or dog. Essentially, the uterus, after going through heat cycles and back to back pregnancies suffers from infection, causes sepsis, and kills the female after a long and painful episode. GBK had pyometra. The vet opened her up and said it was one of the worst things she had ever seen. I am not sparing details, but if you need to
SCROLL
.
.
.
.
The kittens had been killed by the dog attack, the few living had continued to form and expand through the infected and damaged uterus. There were malformed, septic kittens where they shouldn’t have been at all. The smell was horrible, her organs were heavy with infection, including the milk ducts, that she had been feeding my kittens litter-mates through. Those kittens all eventually died from sepsis poisoning.
.
.
.
END
I cried so hard, I still do. I think that anyone who willingly allows their pets to go through that should be forced to see videos and pictures of what they are doing. The happy ending is that we eased and ended her suffering and the two that we did save and tame as well as the few others we caught and fixed are living fulfilling lives.
Psycho, now TK or Tiny Kitten, is a gorgeous, long haired, dilute tortoiseshell. She was adopted by a colleague of mine and I am currently babysitting her and her adopted sister. She bit me once and it’s how I learned not to touch a former feral while it’s eating without making noise!
Vertigo, now Mosi (Navajo for cat), lives with my mother in law. I get to see her silly face whenever I please. She is a gorgeous tortoiseshell, who due to her markings, looks constantly perplexed. She is a chubby, lap kitty.
Above all, I learned how hard and rewarding it is to let go of a foster.
Very nice storytelling here. hurt to read about GBK and the dog attack
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