Kitten #3 Goes To Foster Home

     A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a couple of beautiful little tuxedo kittens, about five weeks old, that I trapped over in Arroyo Grande at a house on Halcyon. I said at the time they were two little girls. It turns out, they're a girl and a boy, and over the weekend they got a surprise--their sibling, a solid black kitty that I trapped on Friday night, came to live with them.

      This little guy (I'll call him a 'he' though I don't really know what he is; hard to tell when they're so little) was one of the feistiest kittens I've ever seen. He hissed, he spit, he ran around his cage and climbed the bars trying to find a way out. Then when that didn't work, he cried for mom. When that didn't work either, he finally let me pick him up and hold him, but he wiggled and squirmed the entire time, just waiting for a chance to jump free and go racing off into another zip code. It's really difficult on young kittens being alone and this guy was really missing mom, so on Sunday he went off to join his brother and sister at their foster home in San Luis, becoming socialized and getting big enough to be spay/neutered and go on to the Adopt-A-Pet and, hopefully, their forever homes.

       The priority now is to trap mom before she has a chance to get pregnant again and start the whole cycle over.

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     Update on the Little Dude: The Dude is doing great now that his calcium numbers are within normal range. Last night, I was eating edamame, those wonderful Japanese green beans, out of a bowl and the Dude came to check out what I had, as he always does (he is a foodie, no question about it). Suddenly he dipped his little head into the  bowl, grabbed an edamame and ran off with it like he'd just committed grand theft! He seemed so pleased with himself and spent the next hour batting that green bean around the living room floor, having more fun than I've ever seen him have with a PetCo or PetSmart bought cat toy.

     And this morning, I found him sitting on a chair in the dining room, a spot that previously would have been completely beyond his ability to reach. I'm amazed and thrilled that he's able to jump that high! His progress is truly remarkable. In the meantime, I'm going to the store to replenish our stock of edamame.

    

Great News For The Dude!

 

     It's now the middle of May, more than four months into the Little Dude's treatment to get his calcium levels into the normal range. He's been going to the vet every week to have blood drawn. Slowly, his calcium levels have risen, but still remained always in the abnormally low range.

     Until yesterday. Yesterday I took the Dude (aka Doodles) to see Dr. Conn at Cat and Exotic Care in Pismo Beach. He had his blood drawn and this time, the news was wonderful! The Dude's blood calcium level is now 9.3 with normal range being 7.8 - 11.3. This is up from 7.7 a few weeks ago. The Dude is now taking .75cc of calcitriol by mouth twice a day and 2.8 cc of calcium glubionate twice a day, which means his little body is being flooded with calcium. Numbers like this may seem like pretty dry fare for a blog, but I'm including them on the off chance that someone somewhere may one day be reading this who has encountered a similar problem. Dr. Conn has only been able to locate one other case similar to the Dude's, and this is after lengthy research and consulting other vets. There simply isn't much known about this situation where a cat has a calcium deficiency so severe as to be life-threatening.

      But at this point we seem to have turned a corner.

      Not only are the Dude's numbers way up, but he has made amazing progress in his physical abilities.  Last night before I went to bed, I was looking around for him and couldn't find him. This is not unusual. Like many cats, the Dude has magical powers and can become invisible at will, only to reappear instantly when the top of a can of wet cat food is popped. Anyway I checked in the garage, because he sometimes like to hang out there. At the back of the garage is a very large cat tree that stands about my height, 5'5" of so, and I saw a little black face looking out at me. At first I thought it had to be either Sister Bug or Little Mom, my two other solid black cats. Then I realized it was the Dude! Out of the blue, he had decided it was time to climb a cat tree!

     I am thrilled by his progress and I think the Dude's pretty thrilled with it, too. He has gone from being an undernourished abandoned kitten on the Mesa with serious health problems to a plump, happy young adult kitty whose health issues appear to be under control.

     Of course nothing can be taken for granted, and no one knows what the Dude's future may hold. He will probably never be a totally 'normal' cat. That's okay. He's a great little guy who has enriched my life enormously and does so on a daily basis. And when I tell him, "It's Doodles Day!" I know he totally agrees.

These Girls Have Bright Futures!

       About a month ago I got a call from a man in Arroyo Grande whom I'd met on a few previous occasions--he's a kind person who feeds the neighborhood ferals and wanted help getting them spay-neutered. I'd trapped five, but missed out on a pregnant female who now, he was reporting, had given birth to her kittens in his backyard. Now this guy is extraordinary and the world could use a few million more like him--he'd already set up a doghouse as a shelter for mom and she was in there with an undetermined number of kittens. He thought they were a few days to a week old.

      This was a night back in late March when it was not only very cold but pouring down rain. I mean, a deluge--and it had been raining for a couple of days. Even with the shelter of the doghouse, I couldn't imagine how those kittens could survive and I was heartsick thinking about them.

     But this mom did a first-rate job of keeping those little ones warm, dry, and fed, and survive they did!  I wanted to begin trapping for them as soon as possible, since the younger the kittens are when they go into foster homes, the more successfully they can be socialized--something that for feral kittens does not always come easily. But before I could even begin, Mom must have sensed something was up and she and the kittens relocated. This time, the homeowner discovered a few days later, they were living underneath his house!  At this point the kittens were four to five weeks old and really needed to be with humans if they were going to be socialized. The first night I trapped for them, I put out four kitten traps (basically squirrel traps) just outside the opening under the house where they were living. The next morning I had TWO little ones in the same trap--as sometimes happens with kittens, one had undoubtedly smelled the food and rushed in, following by sibling who didn't want to miss out. So both got trapped!

      To update this story, the two kittens spent three nights at my house, where my friend Claudia visited them and they were examined by our wonderful vet tech Anna Stewart. Anna treated them for fleas and also determined they were both little girls. Later that same afternoon, their new foster mom Jamie arrived to take them home with her. By the time she took them, they had stopped spitting and hissing and, while still unsure about all the changes in their short lives, they had taken the first few steps toward being socialized. Eventually they will be spayed and go off to the Adopt-A-Pet to find their Forever Home. Who knows, maybe some lucky person will take both of them!

      Here are a few pics of the little girls with Claudia:

The Dude's Progress

       After several weeks where it seemed we were making no progress at all, suddenly Little Dude got great test results back from the vet yesterday!  The problem, of course, has been his extremely low calcium levels, which cause his bones to fracture at the drop of a hat. Yesterday when he made his weekly visit to the vet for a blood test, his calcium had gone up from 6.3 last week to 7.2! This is huge progress! The beginning of the normal range for calcium is 7.8, so the Dude still has a ways to go. He continues to be on the Calcitrial Oil and Youngevity vitamin supplements and will be tested again next week.

       In the meantime, though, the Little Dude clearly feels better. This is obvious in his increased playfulness and mobility. He scoots around very rapidly now, not running yet, but speedwalking like crazy. Even better (from the Dude's point of view) he has discovered THE GREAT OUTDOORS. Just a couple of days ago, he started going out the back slider, which is always open during the daytime and opens into a fenced yard. On one side of the house calla lilies have blossomed in the warm weather and the vegetation is very thick. Of course, this is where the Dude likes to hide. Last night he was back there and I came out with a flashlight, but the shadows thrown by the lilies themselves made it impossible to even begin to see him and, of course, being black, he merges ninja-like with the night. Finally I just left him alone and he came back inside and went to bed when he got ready.

      It is so wonderful to have a positive report to make on the Little Dude. For all his physical limitations, he seems to really enjoy life and has no inkling there is anything 'wrong' with him or that he is in any way different from the other kitties.

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      On another note, it's kitten season now, alas, and I've already got one nursing mom over at a house in AG and another pregnant female at the same address. The prenant cat's a feral but her caregivers call her Lupe and I need to trap her before she gives birth. I tried last night and caught two other ferals, but not Lupe. In the meantime, it's important that I NOT trap the cat who has already given birth until her kittens are old enough to be without her for at least a day, while she is being spayed and recoverering from that.

      I was up on the Mesa the other day, doing the feeding stations I've set up there, and a young boy excitedly informed me that his cat had had kittens and his family wanted to 'donate' them to Feline Network. I explained that there are far too many kittens as it is but I offered to get his cat spayed. I will talk to his family next time I'm on the Mesa. Last year his parents were both very sympathetic to my efforts to trap feral cats and yet now they have allowed their own cat to give birth. So many people just don't seem to get it! Cats--like many humans--reproduce rapidly, automatically, and with no thought to the consequences or their ability to provide for their offspring.

       As a friend of mine wrote the other day, when will they ever find a method of birth control to put in cat's water or food! What a great day that would be!

A Little Bit of Feline Paradise

     With so much suffering in the world--animals and humans alike--it inspires hope to discover someone who is devoting her life to helping animals whose situations would otherwise be desperate. T.C. Flynn, who created and runs Cat Habitat, is just such a person. This past weekend I went with my friend Charmaine, another Feline Network volunteer, up to north county to visit the Habitat. It's a beautiful sprawling piece of land, safely fenced and enclosed, where little white igloos peak up from among a profusion of almond trees and other shrubs. As soon as Charmaine and I arrived, the more people-oriented members ot the 80 or so cats that live at the Habitat, came strolling up the path to greet us. Some were shy, some curious, others eager for tummy rubs. Several followed us around the entire time.
      Charmaine and I had come up with a particular goal in mind--to see how Socks and Fruity, the Habitat's newest members, were doing. These are two older gals who, until a couple of weeks ago, lived near some apartment complexes in Pismo Beach. Charmaine had been feeding them there every day for six years! I have watched these gals come out to greet Charmaine when she pulled up in her vehicle with their food. Their situation was made impossible, however, by a few unkind people in the area whose lack of empathy and compassion is truly astonishing. They insisted Charmaine 'get rid of" the cats--as if there were anywhere to take them, these two ferals who've been living on the street all their lives.
     Into this dire situation came T.C. Flynn.  After much effort on Charmaine's part, Fruity (originally named 'Fruitcake" for her comical ways) and Socks were relocated to the Habitat, where they spent their first rainy week snuggled inside a shed designed for kitties making the transition to life in the Habitat. After those first few days, when the sun came out, they were ready to go outside into their new world. It's a wonderful world, with plenty of shelter, good food, and no predators, but it's still got to be scary--not only a new environment but one filled with new faces. As Charmaine said, "It must be like going to a party where you don't know anyone."
     On the day we visited, Fruity was being shy and stayed in whatever hiding place she'd discovered (and there are so many places a cat can hide at the Habitat!) but Socks seemed completely at home. She followed Charmaine around the entire time we were there. Other cats perched in the almond trees, watching, while another pair seemed intent on protecting the bags of cat food in T.C's wheelbarrow, sure to be the first one's to eat when it was dinner time.
     Every cat at the Habitat has a story to tell--and all of them, to one degree or another, are sad ones. Fluffy is an elegant grey and white long-haired kitty who was rescued from an area where cruel people were putting ground glass in the cat's food. Mama is a gentle, sweet kitty rescued from an elementary school where kindness to animals was not something they wanted the kids to learn. Oliver is a solid grey tabby who got into trouble for sneaking into a building at night trying to get warm. He was rescued just in time from Animal Services. The little black female I named Braveheart was living in a woodpile up at the Mesa. Another of my rescue kitties, Twinky, was being 'evicted' from her safe haven by a home owner with plans to board up the little crawlspace where she'd taken refuge. Every cat at the Habitat has been granted a new life, free from hunger, cold, and the danger of human and animal predators.
IF YOU CAN HELP:  The Cat Habitat needs funds and volunteers.
             Contact T.C. Flynn at CAT HABITAT, PO Box 577, Atascadero CA  93423

                                                    Two residents of Cat Habitat

                                                      Charmaine with Socks

                                                       Guarding the Meow Mix

                                                         Kitty in almond tree