In 1999, when I was relatively new to the feral cat
“community” and Trap/Neuter/Return I answered a call from a very nice woman who
needed help trapping a litter of 8 – 10 week old feral kittens. She had managed to trap the mother cat and
her semi-grown kittens from a previous litter and get them all fixed through
Orange County’s CARE program. In 1999 I
had recently become the president of CARE and we did not normally go out and do
the trapping. She was a very sweet woman
and desperately worried that the homeowner’s association would call either
animal control or critter control and the kittens along with the ones she had
already fixed (and bonded with) would be trapped and killed. I talked at a meeting of the homeowner’s
association and convinced them to hold off on trapping, explaining that CARE
worked in partnership with Orange County Animal Services to trap, alter and
vaccinate cats. My intention was to trap
the kittens and return them “to the wild.”
I only managed to catch one kitten on my first attempt. She was absolutely beautiful, but completely
wild. Being a novice I felt she was too
old to try to tame/socialize her. So,
once she was spayed and recovered, I returned her. She died within 2 days, which devastated me. I decided once I trapped the rest (actually 4
remaining littermates and 2 from the litter of another female), I would make
every effort to socialize them and find homes for them, although CARE did not
do adoptions. I felt I had enough
contacts in the rescue community that I could easily find a group who would
handle the adoptions. I was ridiculously
lucky, trapping all 6 kittens at once, something I never managed to do again in
the following 8 years of trapping expeditions.
After dropping the little ones off at the clinic in the
morning, I saw a kitten blithely walking across a normally very busy road as I
was driving home. Of course, I stopped
and picked him up and took him home. He
was about the same age as the kittens, but he was the friendliest kitten I had
ever seen. He cuddled on my chest and
purred all the way home.
Within two days of bringing the 6 kittens home, I noticed
one of them (Chaz) had a beard of bubbles on his chin. I called my veterinarian and she told me to
come in the next morning with all of the kittens because, at least, Chaz had
calicivirus, which was/is highly contagious.
No doubt they had contracted it at the animal services clinic and that
is probably what caused their sister’s death.
Charlise, Chaz’ sister was the only one in the 2 litters who got sick,
seriously sick. However, Clark, the
sweet boy I picked up off the street, got deathly ill as well, along with one
of my adult cats, Catherine. All were
bundled off to the veterinary clinic, where both Charlise and Catherine spent 2
weeks for treatment and force-feeding.
Clark was the sickest and spent a month at the vet’s office before he
began eating on his own. Whew – we had
dodged a bullet. It is always dreadful
to lose one of my animals, but losing kittens is the worst by far for me. As of tonight, Charlise is the last of this
little family of kittens/cats.
 |
| CISCO |
I lost Cisco suddenly on February 16, 2008. I had taken him to my vet because the
nictitating membranes (third eyelid) in both of his eyes were partially
up. He had no other signs of
illness. He hadn’t lost weight, he was
eating, so I didn’t suspect there was anything seriously wrong. Within 2 or 3 days, he had died. The vet suspected either liver or pancreatic
cancer.
Darling Clark, the kitten rescued from the 6 lane highway
died, after a long wasting, undiagnosed illness, on February 25, 2010. He had grown into a Velcro cat. He would leap through the air, almost like a
bird, to be in my arms. He would leap
from the floor, from a countertop, the bed or the arm of a chair, flying into
my arms without scratching me or digging in with his claws. Turning my back did not do any good in
dissuading him from his goal, so there were many times he would end up on my
back, much like a living backpack.
 |
| CHAZ |
Chaz first developed plasma cell stomatitis, a common result
of having had calicivirus in early 2008.
I had most of his teeth removed in April, 2008. He was fine for awhile. By the end of 2010 it was obvious he had a
problem with one of his ears. Cordelia,
one of my dogs, would continuously clean Chaz’ ear, while Chaz would lie there
seeming to enjoy the cleaning, grooming process. I took Chaz to my vet and she found that he
had a cancerous, inoperable tumor in his ear.
His health deteriorated and I had to have him euthanized on February 12,
2011.
 |
| CHARLIE |
As Chaz was going through his illness, his brother Charlie,
another sweet, extremely affectionate boy began losing weight much like Clark He would lose weight, and then seem to
recover and start putting some of the weight back on he had lost for a period,
and then start losing weight again. I
took him to the vet on numerous occasions, had tests run again and again to no
avail X-rays, blood tests, nothing revealed
what was causing the weight loss. I had
to force feed him from time to time, as well as give him sub-cutaneous fluids
to keep him hydrated. Finally, it became
obvious that he wasn’t going to recover and his weight loss was decimating
him. I had often brought him to work
with me, and everyone on staff fell in love with him. He was happiest in someone’s arms. I let him go and had him put down on June 14th,
2011.
At that point, I had only 3 cats of the original 6
remaining. Of those one had never become
tame, Chandler. Over the years, I had
only managed to get a quick “pet” of him while he was eating. Generally, If I got within about 3 feet of
him, he would hiss and take off.
Courtney, one of Chaz’ and Charlie’s sisters who was among the three,
had remained feral for the first year after joining my herd of cats. Then, surprisingly, she lay on the edge of
the bed, rolled onto her back and looked up at me, asking for a belly rub. At the top of my can’t resist list is a kitty
tummy. Regardless of the potential danger,
the soft fur of a kitty tummy is totally irresistible to me. From that moment
on, I could pet her and love on her and she never failed to offer me her tummy
for a rub.
 |
| COURTNEY |
Courtney developed a snuffing noise during the time I was
dealing with other seriously ill cats. I
assumed it was an upper respiratory problem, so I used a vaporizer to try to
clear it up. I tried a nebulizer, but
neither did any good. I took her to the
vet, who insisted it was, in fact, an upper respiratory illness despite my
insistence that wasn’t the problem. In
late 2011 she spent a week at the vet’s office, but she continued snuffling
when I took her home. I did some
research on the internet, the vet did x-rays because I was certain she had a
nasal tumor. I ended up taking her to
the area veterinary specialists, where they did a CAT scan. Unfortunately, I was right. She has nasopharyngeal carcinoma. It was an inoperable, fatal condition. She was fine for a while, but one morning she
started having seizures. I rushed her to
the vet and had her euthanized. That was
on January 12, 2012.
About a month or two after losing Courtney, Chandler began
losing weight, much like Clark and Charlie had done. After visiting two different vets, both of
whom failed to diagnose either Clark’s or Charlie’s conditions, I saw no need
to go through the frustration and enormous costs just to be told either “don’t
know” or “can’t treat”. Chandler
continued to eat, quite a bit, being the first cat with his head in a bowl of
food. As he continued to lose weight, I
called my vet’s office to alert them that I would be dropping him off,
explaining he was feral and would have to be sedated to be examined. The problem? I couldn’t catch him. After making several attempts, I gave
up. Then one day, to my great surprise,
he allowed me to pet him. Within a week
or two, he allowed me to pick him up, and even carry him around. I took him into the vet and she postulated,
due to feeling a mass in his abdominal region that he either had a kidney tumor
or one in his spleen. By this time he had
lost a considerable amount of weight and certainly could not withstand a major
surgery.
 |
| CHANDLER |
I refuse to sanction surgeries to remove tumors, especially
internal ones. Every time I’ve had that
done to other dogs or cats, the cancer spread like wild fire throughout their
bodies. I had put Cricket through 5
surgeries for mammary cancer, many years before. After the 5th surgery, the tumors
returned within 2 days. The vet
suggested subcutaneous fluids daily for Chandler after giving him an antibiotic
injection. He lasted 2 weeks. Although he ate a small amount yesterday
morning before I left for work, and the fact that I knew his remaining time was
very limited, I chose not to take him to the vet on Thursday to have him euthanized. I wasn’t ready to give up and he didn’t seem
to be ready either. However, when I got
home from work, it was obvious that it was time. He’d spent the day in a
carrier. When I first looked at him, lying with his head in a awkward, unnatural position, I feared he had died while I was at work. He was alive but terribly weak, so I arranged to bring him to the vet in the
morning. It became obvious within the hour that he probably wouldn’t last the night. He was uncomfortable and probably in pain. I
took him to the nearest emergency clinic and had him euthanized. At least, after 13 years of longing to touch
him, pet him and hold him, I had the opportunity to do that for the final weeks
of his life. It was a special gift he
gave me in the end that I will always treasure.
To hear him purr for me when I petted him and hold him was a reward that
I shall always cherish.
Little, petite Charlise, stunted by her early illness,
remains the last of the group of kittens saved from a shorter, more difficult
life on their own. May she live many,
many more years.
 |
| CHARLISE |
