Rescue Journal

the broken cats

Carol  ·  Aug. 31, 2012

the problem with going to bed early is sometimes you wake up early....like at 2:30.... which pretty much totally sucks.

tristie barged into my bathroom last night, purring and happy with her successful illegal break in..what a difference from that angry, hissing, swatting, biting cat who came in about a year ago. i hope babette's bitchiness is also soon a thing of the past.

helga wanted a reminder story on the two alberta cats. they are coming from little cats lost...the same group that sent hymie and squeakers (maggie's totally messed up foster cats) and later on...chester (the cute FIV street guy that renee's sister adopted.) the group went in to TNR a hoarders house and found chloe and pokey in terrible shape shut up in two separate bedrooms. pokey i think they said is like 19 yrs old, missing an eye and while he loves people, he hates all other creatures with a very fierce passion. and chloe is a 13 or 14 yr old unspayed traumatized feral who basically goes catatonic with stress. i think most of their health issues have been dealt with during the long wait to get here but pokey still has a ruptured ear drum which is why they couldn't use air transport and chloe has a reoccuring sore on her face that is starting to break down again. the group does not have a shelter and had no long term foster homes able to take on the lifelong care of these cats and neither was a good candidate for re-release due to age and health issues back into the hoarder's house.

anyway...pokey can take over frodo's suite when achilles goes home and i am still trying to decide on the best long term placement option (house or mp communal pen) for feral chloe. she cannot stay confined to a cage forever. i can't really decide til i meet her and determine how much hands on treatment she will need and which group of cats will most likely fit well with her emotional needs.
anway, i am a bit freaked out that she is feral..at first they just thought she was emotionally traumatized and might come around. but now it looks like she won't.

i swore i would never take in another true feral cuz you just can't kindly get your hands on them when they really need and dixie chick forever broke my heart because she wouldn't let me take care of her like she needed for her last couple of years.

oh well too late now, i am already committed to the probable heart breaker chloe. and here is the thing about broken hearts...you actually can keep smashing them over and over. they just keep breaking up into smaller and smaller fragmented peices.
and since i did not go into rescue to save my own shattered heart i guess i better just get down to business and do the best for her that i can.

Comments

Virginia

I can touch Chloe, she lets me medicate her face and stroke her when she feels she's in a safe spot. When she's in the open she feels vunerable and then will hiss and run. She does not like to be picked up although you can do it. The sore on the side of her face was a hot spot cause by years of ear mite infestation which I believe we have under control, however I noticed the other day a very small scab forming and I'm not sure if she scratched herself again or what so I sent the cream I have been using. Chole was self inflicting wounds on herself by licking when we got her but I have pretty much tried to give her a stress free environment while with me, which meant not forcing myself on her. It seems to have done the trick with stopping her licking. She is a kitty that is not wild just very afraid of humans.

Reply

Garry Gabrielle

So true Helga. Being in cat rescue for 19 years I quickly learned, from the cats, that you do not force your way into their world. They will come to you when the time is right and when that happens it is one of the greatest moments of bonding and trust. If we watch and study cats closely we all know they have immeasurable patience from which we must take a lesson.

Reply

NicoleMcC

Reoccurring sore on face = tooth root abscess probably. I don't know if you saw Thorney's but since he was too old for me to be comfortable putting him under GA we pulsed him on antibiotics.

Reply

Helga

If Chloe has medical issues it would be very difficult. Sometimes with cats that wild you just have to make sure they have food, water and good hiding places and then totally back off, let them make the first move. I had one white guy (actually named him The White Guy or Whitey for short) that took a year to trust me. In the beginning he wouldn't even come to eat if he could see you. But gradually he came nearer and nearer when the food was put out until he would come right up when the dish was put down. And then one day I just briefly lightly ran my hand along his back when the dish was down. In between feeding I left him totally alone. Eventually he would curl up on a chair in the kitchen and sleep beside me on the bed. He was only with me a couple of years because he had on going infections that never quite went away. But I was overwhelmed that he came to trust me. With the amount of animals at Saints its not that easy to give one like Chloe the space she needs but you'll work it out.

Reply

suzanne

Sheila,
I sent the check for the Gala to SAINTS. Though I have your address in Surrey I am woefully ignorant of your last name. I did not know if your Surrey address is a house or an apartment building so I didn't want to just write "Sheila" on the envelope.
I wrote "For Sheila" all over the envelope in RED sharpie marker, thank you very much, so whoever gets SAINTS mail should see that it is for you without too much trouble.
It's for my beloved-from-afar Ziggy and anyone else who needs a sponsor.

Reply