Susan:
I am sorry about the fire and that you are still missing two cats. That is heartbreaking. You have been in my thoughts over the past few weeks.
As explanation, well, it's complicated. We found her about three weeks ago (Aug. 4) and that was about the time of your fire so you missed out on my posts about my "Malnourished Rescue Cat." She was in HORRIBLE shape when we found her and that is part of the problem. If she was kept as an outdoor cat, or even outdoor/indoor, she should not have been. Some cats are just not "meant" to be outdoor cats and I have owned enough in my mere 30 years to be able to recognize that. There is an outdoor colony of cats that are owned by a lady up the street from me who live outdoors...they "prefer" it and they do quite well. The whole neighborhood looks out after them and a bunch of us feed them. But my point is, these cats are true outdoor cats, this cat, is not.
She had to have weighed under 5 pounds when we found her and she is not a young cat...the vet approximated 3-5 years old, more on the higher end. We've had her in a room feeding her Wellness kitten wet and dry food, to which I was adding Colostrum, Rescue Remedy, L-Lysine, Brewer's Yeast, Salmon Oil (but not all at once), and tons and tons of Nutrical, as my mom and I were worried about her liver and kidney function because of her severe malnutrition. I have never seen a cat this malnourished. Our neighbor who had been feeding her (clearly not enough) said she'd been hanging out in the neighborhood at least 3 weeks. She looked horrible. She's long-haired, but she had dander and her collar was on way too tight-- it was frayed and shabby looking and it had rubbed all the fur off her neck where it had been. The only tag on the collar was a rabies tag. The vet listed on the tag had closed his offices and it took a while before we were able to reach them for them to give us the owner's phone number. The cat also had a severe upper respiratory infection and when we put her in a carrier, her eyes were weeping all down her face with green discharge and she sneezed all the time. I immediately started treating her eyes with Terramycin and we've already gone thru one tube. She had fleas, but she had no energy to scratch at them. We took her in because that weekend (of Aug. 4) was going to be the hottest ever (100's+) and I did not think she would have survived outside and I know I was right. My mom thought she might die that weekend at her house. We just worked on feeding her and getting her digestive system working again before we took her to a vet almost a week later. We got her on Clavamox.
She's much better now, but her infection is not completely gone; the hair hasn't grown back on her neck; she's ridiculously happy and I have never seen a cat so clearly enjoy the air conditioning as she does. You can still feel the bones sticking out on her body, but her stomach is filling out.
We also discovered today, due to the storm, that she deathly afraid of storms...she's been hiding under the bed and nervously looking at the window. It's kind of broken my mom's heart and she is just extremely worried about the owners in this situation because the cat was in such bad shape and clearly didn't know how to take care of herself while outside. I don't think she was able to eat anything (not a hunter-- clearly!), unless given to her by human.
We just have some major concerns here and don't want to have spent all this time, energy (I have to go to my mom's everyday after work to treat the cat with Clavamox because my mom can't do it and that keeps me away from other things I need to do, my own foster cat, and the colony/street cats that I look after/feed), and money if the cat has bad owners? She is also the sweetest cat in the world, I don't think she knows how to do anything other than purr and knead-- she doesn't seems to know how to scratch or hiss. And because of that, I know that it would kill my mom if we turned this cat over to less than the most wonderful owners in the world and I feel I have to do everything I can to protect both this cat and my mom from making some really unfortunate mistake in judgment....
In the meantime, this cat needed intensive rehabilitation and care that I know that I am more than capable of providing, so because of that, I have not felt bad about not immediately calling the owners to come get their what was "on it's death-bed" cat.
-Caroline
From: Susan Hoffman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: website for Lost/Found cats-TO WENDY
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:33:28 -0700 (PDT)
Why would you not want to call?We're still looking for two cats who were lost during our house fire two weeks ago. The thought of someone having info but trying to make us come to them.....why?
Chris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Just cause Im stubborn! LOLYoure assuming that the tag info is the owners current address. All the flyers in the world are useless if thats not where they live now (you know how many cats disappear when the movers arrive!!!) and all the internet ads are useless if they dont have a computer. Its a whole lot easier to call themyou dont have to give them any info and if you dont like what you hear, just hang up. You can block caller ID so they cant read your phone # when you call. You are in control of the situation!And please remember, people put tags on their pets cause they figure that if the pet gets lost& then found, somebody will do the right the thing and call them. Doesnt it defeat the purpose to just ignore those tags. Hasnt anybody ever had a dog get loose from the yardthats what the tags are for. Hasnt anybody ever had a child disappear under the clothes racks in the mall? Children and pets wanderthats a reality. It is generally the more responsible owner who makes sure they have tags.Christiane Biagi914-632-4672Cell: 914-720-6888Katrina Animal Reunion Team (KART)Join Us & Help Reunite Katrina-displaced Families with their AnimalsFrom: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Caroline Kaufmann
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:13 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: OT: website for Lost/Found cats-TO WENDYWENDY:I hate to do this to you again, but remember the post you sent where you listed all the websites where you could post a lost/found cat? I think I deleted it (I can't find it) and I wantedto see if you could re-post? My mom and I still have the rescue cat (we posted on craigslist, the local newspaper online and we are also going to do a print ad, posted signs at the grocery, the pet store, and we have posted signs in what we believe to be the cat's neighborhood on Sat.- but we haven't had ANY calls!). Yes, we have the owner's phone number and street name (but not street number) and we are TRYING to make the owner come to us. We posted signs on the alleged owner's street, but my mom made me post signs in other places too so it wouldn't look so obvious and um, stalker-ish, which I think is a term you used Wendy!But when we were posting the sign at the pet store, we met an old man that lost a neutered Siamese Seal Point and he struck up a conversation with my mom (of course). I gave him the craigslist info so hecould post there and my mom recommended he make the rounds to the Animal Shelters. Today, I found his post on craigslist with a picture and this cat is GORGEOUS...so I feel really bad for him. I wanted to send him an email to his craigslist address providing him with those additional websites where he can post.I would really appreciate it if you could provide them again!Thanks,Caroline
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