Great news! Caroline Kaufmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Okay, since there's been lots of debate and dare I say, controversy, over the Malnourished Rescue Cat my mom and I took in and have been caring for, I wanted everyone to know that she is GOING HOME and we have successfully reunited her with her family. Long story short, we pretty much took EVERYONE'S advice and tried a variety of tactics (as I previously mentioned-- signs posted, I posted on websites, etc.). As I had mentioned, from the Rabies tag, all we were able to obtain is the telephone number and street name (not number) of the "owner" and the name of the cat- "Nosey." My mom and I pretty much sat on it for a while since by then, we'd already taken her to the Vet and started her on Clavamox and she needed so much rehabilitation anyway. We tried to decide what to do and we just hated the idea of totally cold call to this number...not knowing ANYTHING about the person and whether they were a good owner. We are almost finished with the Clavamox and have finished one tube of Terramycin and Nosey is still exhibiting Upper Respiratory Infection symptoms, thus my mom said we have to either: 1) take her back to the vet this week, as needs more care, or 2) call the owners and make sure they take her to the vet. Since I had the owner phone number, I FINALLY remembered that the Whitepages.com has this handy tab where you can do a "reverse look-up"- using the phone number...it will give you a name and address. Bingo! I got the street address we'd been wanting, which also provided me with the NAMES of the two people living there!!!! So, then I of course googled their names...and low and behold, one of them is a Partner at a law firm here and of course, my mouth dropped open (I am a lawyer too- and although this is a big city, it's a SMALL legal community), thus I knew I had to contact her at that point. I also knew she could definitely afford the vet bill Nosey incurred (they live on very "rich" street- I know that sounds weird, but the property value of the houses on that street is ridiculous). Anyway, I feel like the ultimate pet detective, seriously. Sometimes I think all I need in life is google and the white or yellowpages.com....!!! My mom and I discussed it and I decided to send her an email at her firm's email address from my work email, so she would know where I work and that I am an attorney too. I took the initial vague route first (as was discussed on this list serve)...to feel her out, etc. She replied and said it's their cat and they looked for her for weeks and weeks, but didn't check online sites (which she apologized for) and asked when they could come get her. After another consult with my mom, my mom wanted me to send her another email where I "socked it to her" with the malnutrition, that she would have died if we hadn't taken her in, she went to the vet and this and that was done and the bill is this amount, we've been feeding her this & that, she needs to go back to the vet because the URI is still lingering, I advise she go back and get this treatment (a full blood panel to check liver/kidney function, fecal for tapeworms, etc.). AND then I asked if she was outdoor/indoor cat and said if so, I recommend she NOT be an outdoor cat because she does not fair well outside, she has this URI that won't go away, and she's deathly afraid of storms and if she is out when one comes, she will run and hide. WHEW! All that. I also apologized for hitting her with all this at once and at work and admitted that I wanted to feel her out initially before I admitted that we had the cat in our house and have done intensive care/rehabbing. She responded really well!!! She gave me info about Nosey's background- they've had Nosey since birth and she lives with her Mother and Brother cats. They are mostly outside cats because they live on a large piece of property with a covered porch. She said the cats seldom go beyond the immediate neighbors (who love them), but the mother cat became an indoor cat a few years ago when she developed a URI!!! So, hopefully, now that poor Nosey has one that she can't seem to shake, they will make her an indoor cat now (which I did press upon her). She said they will compensate us for the care we did, thanked us, and said they will continue with further vet care for Nosey. We are going to try to connect tonight to do the hand-off. My mom and I both really happy that we've had a great result, but I have to admit that it took some "detecting" on my part, as we weren't going to turn this cat over to the great unknown! I will never know how Nosey got one mile away from her home, and in so doing, she had to have crossed one of the busiest state roads in Louisville (4 lanes of non-stop busy traffic, 45 mph speed limit) to get to our neighborhood???!! Thanks to everybody who provided insight into Nosey's care/rehabilitation and ideas/suggestions for finding her owners and making sure they weren't crazy people!!! This is such a relief for me now- I can finally get home before 9-10 at night! But I am sure as soon as we hand-off Nosey, another one will show up on mine or my mom's door-step...no rest for the weary you know? And now I really need to do some actual "work"....! -Caroline
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