Feb. 27, 2007 - Five Cats & Many Dollars Later.....
So yesterday I spent the morning taking a cat to the vet. A wild cat. Not my cat. A cat that belongs to no one. A cat that cost me money. To understand this post, I'll have to take you back a bit.
Three years ago, we moved to our current house. We were so excited because this house was double the size of our old house. This house is two minutes from my in-laws. It is in a nice subdivision. It's quiet and pretty. There were nice trees/woods behind the house (they aren't there anymore since Century 21 decided to level it and put in apartments or townhouses or something....they're still working on them). The neighbors are nice.....except the cranky one across the street who hates animals. It's only a short drive to two different towns. It's the perfect location really. The most important thing is that's it's only 10 minutes from Walmart :-o) We had lived here about six months when it all started. It was late spring and the girls were outside playing in the backyard when they spotted a big, black cat. We could tell he was wild because he scared easily. He decided he would lay in our yard but was sure to stay a good distance from everyone. He was thin and we felt sorry for him so we started to feed him......Mistake #1. A few months later, a pretty wild gray mixed kitty appeared. She was just as scared as the black male cat and would not allow any of us to come near her. Eventually, after a year of trying, she allowed us to pet her on the back and began coming to our deck to eat. Speed forward a year........black male cat still comes around to eat and finally allows us to pet him a bit. He basically just wants to eat and sleep. If he wants a pet, he'll let you know. Female gray kitty has been pregnant but birthed the kittens in the woods. Eventually we come to the conclusion that they are dead since she starts hanging around back alot and the kittens are never in sight. Speed forward several months later. Gray female kitty is pregnant again. It's strange because the same thing happens as the last time she was pregnant. She shows up fat and about to pop, eats and leaves, comes back a few days later and viola! Flat stomach! No kittens in sight again. Speed forward several months (stay with me here)......yep, you guessed it! Pregnant again. She has the kittens and we are able to see about 4 or 5 kittens that make it to about 5 months old. They are skinny and we get worried for them. A couple of them look perfectly healthy but a couple are deformed (strange looking tales, etc.). Gray kitty is playing with two of her kittens in our yard one day so I do what any good citizen would do.....stalk the kitties and successfully snatch one of them up. We proceed to keep him until he's about 8 months old and then determine he must go the animal shelter to get adopted. He does get adopted and all is well in kittyland. We were never able to get our hands on anymore of the kittens from this litter and eventually the momma shows up with no kitties in tow. I'm sure they died as well. Hubby and I get the idea that we'll snatch up momma kitty and take her to get fixed so that we don't have to deal with anymore dead kittens. A month goes by and we try our best to trap her but no dice. Then we start to notice that she's looking a little plump.....yep, pregnant again! Can you believe this cat! LOL! By this time, she trusts us a bit but she's wild so she's still scared. We do get her inside the house and basically hold her hostage until she gives birth. Five kittens are born in our house. We keep them for about six months and then start looking for homes. One of them goes to the home of someone in our church. Two more are taken to the animal shelter and eventually adopted. The last two remain in our home even now. They are bob-tailed cats and we feared they would not get adopted and be put down. Anyway, we go through an organization called PUFA, who helps us get all the kitties fixed for half the price. This is a blessing because we had three kitties that needed it! Keep in mind that these are not our kitties. They are wild....strays from the woods behind our house. Speed forward to now.....Black male cat has continued to come here to eat and sleep for the past three years. Sometimes he shows up with fur missing.....sometimes he's skinny because he hasn't eaten in forever......sometimes he's got a cold and yucky eyes. Last week he shows up with some hideous looking paw injury. It looked like he had a massive tumor hanging from his front paw. So, last Thursday I go buy a pet carrier and I call the vets office. They are closed until Monday! Grrrr! All weekend, I've had to keep the cat locked up in our garage......while he gets blood all over the place. He can barely walk, he's sneezing, his eyes are runny, he has hair missing, and he just wants to come in and lay on the couch. Uh, I don't think so! Finally yesterday morning I was able to get in touch with the vet and took him down there. Turns out that the huge mass hanging from his front paw is the middle pad of his foot. Gross! For some unknown reason, it busted out of his skin and was just laying on the outside....raw, gross, and I'm sure very painful. The vet has to remove the middle pad and informs me that the opposite "good front paw" is about to do the same thing. So, he removes the middle pad from that foot as well. Sheesh! $70 later, the cat is resting in our garage with two bandaged front paws. He looks pitiful really. He got a rabies shot, had surgery on two paws, was neutered, and got a couple of high dose shots of penicillin. Hopefully he's good to go. I suppose it could have been worse. We really thought the vet would want to put the cat down. He's not our cat but it would have been hard to deal with that. I guess what makes me most angry is that people have animals that they don't get fixed and those animals go out and populate the area around them, which makes it hard for people like us. Of course, we could have left the black cat to survive on his own but if he came crawling up to your door in the shape he was in, most of you would have tried to help him. It's pitiful. If people are going to have animals, they should realize it's a big responsibility and they need to get with it! We hope the black kitty will recover quickly and then get back outside. We've saved the last cat we can afford to save for awhile. I hope no more decide to show up :-o)
