RESCUING CATS AND KITTENS

1.

I got a call earlier this week from a lady I'd helped a while ago. She regularly feeds strays where she lives but because she's elderly and lives in a small flat, she doesn't feel up to actually taking them in, but she does what she can. A cat she feeds had been injured in a fight and she was worried about it so I agreed to call round and, if she could get it inside, I'd take it to the vets. This she did and it turned out to be a fairly placid animal despite having been on the streets for at least two years -the period she'd be feeding him.

I got him to King's Road Vets where he was seen by chief vet Wendy. She bathed the wound and gave him a couple of vaccinations which he endured without complaint of any kind. He's about 6, hadn't been neutered and the lady -let's call her Ms A- didn't want him done because she felt he would lose his edge if he was. By the time I got him back I'd had an idea and I told her: if she'd keep feeding him I'd arrange for him to be vaccinated and then neutered and take him our Ferry Farm Re-homing Centre. This changed slightly as I had a cat in my conservatory -more about whom later- bound for there (today as it happens) and when he went, I'd take her cat in. And so, to shorten a longer story, that is what has happened and he's here now and will be for three weeks. I've also decided to apply my original plan to another cat Ms A is feeding.

I'm a little concerned about him as, before he could go in the conservatory I had to put him in a cage for a few hours. When I moved him I noticed he'd emptied bowels and bladder where he sat. He's also not eating and just sitting on the window. It's probably just nerves. Some cats take a while settling in to a new place and not eating is one of the main symptoms.

2.

I agreed to take in two 12 week old kittens (sisters) which arrived yesterday and are living in my bedroom. They'll go to the vets on Monday for a check up and first vaccination at the same time as I pick up a ginger cat which is hanging about an old people's home and which I'll also get checked and vaccinated. Incidentally, both reek of cigarette smoke. I've often wondered about the effects of passive smoking on animals but that's a subject for another time.

The grey tabby is very friendly and confident coming to me for cuddles while  her sister is extremely nervous and runs away from me. Give it time.

3.

Quite a few photos below and all taken at independent local rescuer Carole O'Brien's house. In this case I'm just the transport and always happy to help her.

The first kitten is only 5 weeks old and was founded and handed in to the local PDSA hospital where they did what they could for it and contacted Carole to ask if she'd take it. Not having transport, she asked me if I could collect it. I was going to nearby Kings Road Vets (see 1. above) to collect the cat in the photo anyway.

Once at Carole's she put it in a mother cat, the cat's sister, and mother cat's kittens which are about the same age as the new one in the hopes that MC would nurse him and kittens would accept him. It was a little awkward while I was there but I've since heard from Carole that all is well. There are no guarantees but the kitten now has a good chance thanks to the PDSA and Carole without whom he'd be dead by now.

4.

Houdini is the cat who went to Ferry Farm today. I gave him that name because he is a feline escapologist. Basically he's never seen an open door he won't run through whether you want him to or not and he combines speed with sheer determination. He's also a incredibly friendly cat who likes people but does intimidate other cats with his sheer ebullience. Anyone who takes him on should like a cat with a lot of personality and also possess fast reactions and an airlock to stop him getting outside when they want him to stay in.

By coincidence he also came via the PDSA (who removed the tip of an infect tail), then on to Carole (I collected him with her) who later begged me to take him because he needed space that he didn't have in one of her cages.

ONE BAD, TWO BAD, EHHH, NOT GREAT, DAYS

Tuesday. I'm starting this on Wednesday evening and it already seems like the semi-distant past. Hell, I can't even remember what I did on Tuesday morning. I know I went swimming and probably watched an episode or two of Murdock Mysteries Season 1 DVD but that's about it.

Tuesday afternoon is a different matter. About 1.45 I went upstairs for a nap, a regular ocurrence, and was half awake an hour later when I heard a knock on the door. The window cleaner wanting to be paid. I was half asleep and fumbling with change when I noticed Burnside halfway up the stairs and a second later he was through door, out the gate, under a car and then dashing across a thankfully, luckily for him, car free Leechmere Road. Bleeping great, I said aloud to the window cleaner as I gave him his money.

I'm sure you can imagine how I felt. I'd taken the cat on (for details see recent posts) and had just begun to think I might be getting somewhere with him when this happened. It's not the first time either but it's been oncee before, at least a year ago, and on that occasion, and thanks to neighbours and Facebook, I got the cat back and later re-homed him.

Luckily, if that's the right word, I soon had something to take my mind off Burnside's escape. I remember now that some time in the morning I wrote an email to a guy who was interested in adopting Hero from the re-homing centre and mentioned that, while I was generally free, something unexpected often came up.

Like an 80 something lady realising that she couldn't cope with a five month old male kitten. She gave me her address and where it was near -I knew the near- but I couldn't find it on Google maps and it wasn't in my quite new A-Z. So I went to the near and called in at a corner shop (the near) but nobody there knew exactly where it was. After some driving around and asking several people I ended up back where I started from and saw it on the other side of the road, about ten yards from the shop.

If only that had been the end of my confusion. The elderly lady said the kitten had had his vaccinations and his original owner, who lived nearby, had the documentation and she gave me directions to the place. She also said the kitten had been neutered. I couldn't find it and it wasn't in my A-Z or on my satnav so I went to the nearby PDSA centre where it had been apparently registered. After some discussion during which I discovered they couldn't give out the information I wanted because of data protection -which was fair enough- but they could give it to a vet- which was also fair enough as I was on my to one -Wendy's, our regular vets which was only half a mile away. So, do you have the information I want even though you can't tell me? As it happens, no they didn't. It took around 20 minutes, including waiting to be seen, to establish this. Look, it happens. I think the PDSA do a great job and they're in my will.

I took the kitten to Wendy who checked him out. Not neutered. Being a kind person, she agreed to keep him in overnight and neuter him in the morning.

I went home and felt depressed about Burnside.

Next morning the usual swim and a little later coffee in the city centre at Starbucks with my cat-loving retired colleagues, Denise and Sylvia. And then the unexpected happened again in the middle of me showing them photos of Jeff and her baby kittens. My phone rang. It was the lady who had originally contacted me about Burnside to tell me he'd turned up on her doorstep about a mile and half from where I lived.

I celebrated by getting a new phone on contract with EE-a 4G Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. Kidding. I was going to get a new one from them anyway. I also bought a case for it and after the phone fell out of it half a dozen times ordered a much cheaper but more secure case from Amazon. I  put the box in the bin but if I can clean it up after being covered in used cat litter I take the case back for a refund.

Lunchtime, mini cheese and ham quiche interrupted by phone calls. Then, just before I was about to ring the vets to see if the kitten (he's called Dusty) was ready for collecting, another call, this one from a guy who'd found a very ill cat lying in the bushes in his garden; so ill it couldn't even walk. Well, I could hardly say no, could I? I rang the vets and if I brought it in at 2.15 vet Holly would see it.

It turned out to be a very frail elderly grey female with a collar and a disc with a phone number on it. Time was getting on so I drove to the vets before trying the number. I was talking to, as it turned out, the cat's previous owner, when Holly beckoned me in and was busy checking the cat while I was on the phone. The cat was seriously ill due to kidney failure and was suffering. The person I spoke said he'd contact the cat's owner, which he did and she rang me while I was still in with Holly. I passed the phone over to Holly with the upshot of the upset owner agreeing to have the cat put to sleep and to pay for it.

Me, I think the cat had wandered off to die but at least I'd been able to help reduce its suffering and let its distraught owner know what had happened. A good deed done, but a sad one.

I took Dusty home and locked him in my bedroom with food and water. Later he repaid my kindness with a series of bites and scratches. 

Around eight o'clock I went and brought Burnside home. He had something to eat and disappeared upstairs.

Okay, photo time. Starting with Dusty, followed by a rare photo of my five cats all in relatively close proximity to each other, and a couple of Jeff who, unlike certain other arrivals, is a friendly no problem cat.

(All the above was written late last night. It's now 7.50 next morning and I can authoritatively state that Dusty is a little sod. He is playful but his idea of play is to launch an assault with teeth and claws on the nearest part of human anatomy. I have the scabs and blood loss to prove it. I kept him away from the other cats last night but let him meet them this morning in the hopes that they'll have a calming effect. And he is playing, he just hasn't realised that you don't attack people they way you do another cat. Another bloody problem feline. To be a cat rescuer is to suffer endlessly.) 

ANOTHER WEEK

My cold has gone but, as usual, it's left me with a phlegmy chest which will make me cough and retch for a few more weeks until my chest finally clears up. This also stops me swimming. But not running around after cats.

Sunday evening I got a frantic call from A. who owns Tammy, a grey cat we'd taken in for a while. I told her she'd have to wait until the morning when I'd take it to the vets, which I duly did. The vet checked her over but couldn't find anything. I asked about temperature which he hadn't checked her for other than by touch. He got the thermometer out and Tammy did have a temperature so she got a jab. I brought her back the next morning and her temperature had gone down a little but antibiotics were needed. Hopefully these will have worked.

Monday I picked up a cat from an elderly couple at Houghton who were going on holiday until Friday and Carole was looking after it.

Thursday afternoon and I took a couple and their shar pei, Kaiser, to the new PDSA hospital on North Hylton Road not that far from Carole's. It had developed an ear infection which needed treating. To my surprise, the place wasn't packed and we didn't have to wait very long, which is not my usual experience with the PDSA. Don't get me wrong, unlike the RSPCA, I have a very high opinion of the work the PDSA does. The dog was treated but their qualifying information was out of date which necessitated a trip to the Housing Offices, thankfully not too far away. Kaiser was a placid dog, just big and strong. I chatted to a few people while I waited, plugging Animal Krackers at every opportunity.  Here's Kaiser.

 Friday, morning, I picked up three females for neutering at Roker Park. Later that morning I got a call asking if we could take a 6-month old neutered male. Yes we could. I collected him on my way to the vets to pick up the others. Not surprisingly, he was older than 6 months but still a young cat with a lovely soft coat and a friendly placid manner; very re-homeable. 

At Roker Park, I had to see the vet about one of the cats, about 3/4 years old who'd had several litters poor thing. During the operation there'd been a large bleed and they'd had to open her along her underneath to stop it, so she needed monitoring and bringing back for a checkup the next day. Paid a bill of over £900.00 while I was there and called in at JP Pet Supplies on the way back to Carole's to pay off her cat litter bill. After dropping off the cats I took the one she'd been fostering for a week back to its owners at Houghton.

Saturday morning, picked up the cat which I decided to call Jessie and went to the vets and waited and waited. For nearly an hour as there'd been a series of emergencies. These things happen. I spread the AK word, made a fuss of any nearby dogs, spent two minutes with the vet who gave Jessie some antibiotics, then back to Carole's and then back home. Over two hours for two minutes. And just as I'd shut the door, the phone rang.

A lady, who had been told several weeks ago that she was being moved into a tower block, and had given her cat over to Carole had just found out that she wasn't being moved after all and wanted the cat back. Said cat, however, had since been re-homed. Carole offered her the young cat I'd brought the day before (see above) and she accepted so it was back to Carole's  to take it to its new home. The woman was delighted with him, as I knew she would be -he really is a loveable little thing.

Today, Susan and a heavily loaded van and several other AK people have gone through to an animal event at Newcastle. So I have the house to myself for several hours and no running around. Bliss.

Lastly here is a photo of a very friendly neutered male 2-year old wanting a new home.

CHARLIE & M'S STORY

Charlie is a cat and M is either his owner or fosterer, I'm not sure which. Charlie's not a young cat and M took him on a few years ago. Last year Charlie developed an infection in his left eye and had to have it removed. Cats are adaptable and he's fine with it. Today, however, I had to take him and M to the PDSA first thing this morning as Charlie had to have an operation on his right eye which involved cutting and stitching his eyelid. If he goes blind we'll have to have him put to sleep -he's old and not that adaptable.

M is a bit of a sad case and you're about to understand why I'm just using an initial. He's in his 40's and has a long history of substance and alcohol abuse. It's left him mentally impaired and he mumbles and stutters when he speaks, his thought processes only vaguely coherent. But he's beaten the drugs and the booze and even gave up smoking over a year ago so all credit to him. A pity he didn't do it sooner as he's now waiting for a date for a triple bypass heart operation at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. A much less serious heart op knocked my buddy Barry for six (see earlier posts) so lord knows what effect it will have on M. He certainly won't be able to look after Charlie and his dog Tess, a small yappy friendly mongrel, for quite a while. I shudder to think what state his flat -already pretty grungy- will get into. It's so bad that Susan and Andrea were thinking of taking Charlie off him until his eye healed properly in case it got infected.

In the afternoon I got a call from a young woman who, as a result of a series of operations, is physically unable to look after her cat so I'm going to pick it up on Saturday and take it to Carol's. Sounds quite rehomeable apart from one thing -it chews electric wires.

Charlie was the last animal to be operated on despite the fact that he was third signed in this morning so it was nearly six o'clock when we finally left the surgery. I had to put the surgical collar on when we got him home as M's co-ordination or lack of it makes even a fumblefingers like me look like I have the dexterity of skilled surgeon. I told M to leave it on until Monday then take it off and if he needs it, I'll come back and put it on again. Back to the PDSA next Wednesday for a checkup. Hopefully all will be well.

Count your blessings, folks, count your blessings.