THE TRUTH ABOUT KITTENS… or what my kitten, Cagney, has taught me

1.       RULE #1 – if it moves grab it or pounce on it

2.       Cats have tails for kittens to play with

3.       Everything is a potential toy

4.       It’s possible to squeeze under anything

5.       It’s imperative to squeeze under everything

6.       If kittens have an OFF button, it isn’t easy to find

7.       It’s the job of a kitten to inspect EVERYTHING

8.       Nothing is off limits to a kitten

9.       The universe, as they know it, revolves around a kitten

10.   A kitten is the most adorable and precious thing in existence

TNR under attack in Mother Jones too

It's always maddening whenever another FERAL CATS ARE KILLING MILLIONS OF BIRDS EVERY YEAR article appears in the print media.  The authors drag out the same old tired "studies" of why cats are to blame for all things bad on the planet:  toxoplasmosis in the ocean killing sea otters, songbirds rapidly declining, eating all the prey so other predators can't compete and so on.  This time, however, was beyond the pale.  I have been a fan of this magazine for over 30 years.  Mother Jones magazine's tag line is  Smart, Fearless Journalism.  From their website, they describe themselves: "Mother Jones is a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting." (http://motherjones.com/about) Yet in the most recent issue's back page, journalist Kiera Butler writes another lame excuse for scientific certitude about bad cats and stupid cat people who practice Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR).

A dear friend emailed me about the story.  It wasn't online yet, but I signed up for their email access here: sign-up for free access.  Once you sign up you can either read it online, download it or print it.  I emailed Peter Wolf, the amazing creator of Vox Felina (Vox Felina) and he put up a well researched, footnoted critique.  If you care about cats and want the ammunition to support your TNR efforts, you MUST READ Peter's blog.

I wrote a letter to Mother Jones (backtalk@motherjones.com), which I'm pasting below.  Feel free to write your own letter and send it off to them.  The more the merrier! 

Dear Ms. Butler,

No, I am not a subscriber to Mother Jones, although I was for many years.  I have stopped all of my magazine subscriptions, primarily to cut costs.  I do, however, frequently read Mother Jones online and remain a fan of the generally well researched journalism contained within.  That is, until now. 

No doubt the so-called crazy cat people have buried you in hate mail by now.  We are renowned for doing that when our beloveds come under attack.  I just wanted to express my disappointment at your failure to, at the very least, talk to even one person with a differing opinion of those you consulted for this story.  Had you done this, your story might have been quite different.  There are some reasonable, highly educated and well-informed folks on the side of the cats.  You could have contacted Becky Robinson, the Executive Director of Alley Cat Allies (www.alleycat.org), or Dr. Julie Levy, the founder of Operation Catnip (http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/college/departments/sacs/catnip/)  or Peter Wolf of Vox Felina (http://www.voxfelina.com/) .

As for myself, I’d like to give you a bit of my personal background and experience.  I have a B.S. in zoology and have worked as Director of Operations since 1993 for an environmental organization.  I served as president of a volunteer trap/neuter/return non-profit for 8 years and chair of the Animal Services Advisory Board for 4 years.  I currently share my home with 26 cats and 2 dogs, all of whom were rescued from the streets in my community.  Not unlike myself, many of the women and men who are involved with TNR remove cats and kittens from the street and either find indoor homes for them or welcome them into their own homes.  Not every cat trapped and fixed is returned to the street, a point that is, all too often, overlooked in this contentious discussion.  Adoption, when possible, is part of the process. 

Peter Wolf’s detailed analysis of the studies you cited are the best source for you to consult.  I only intend to add a couple of points, again often overlooked.

·         NOT ALL CATS ARE KILLERS:  while some cats are prolific hunters, not all cats hunt.  And, not unlike human hunters, cats do not always succeed at catching/killing their targeted prey.  A large percentage of outdoor cats are former pets who have been abandoned or dumped.  They never learned to hunt and rarely learn to do that as adults.  Unless they are fed by compassionate, caring people, they will most often die.  Unspayed females are more likely to hunt than other cats.  Kittens, who during the spring and early fall make up the majority of the outdoor cat population, do not hunt.  They rely on their mothers to provide them with food.  It’s estimated that 50% or less of all kittens born to feral mothers survive to breeding age.

·         SHELTER IS HARDER TO FIND THAN FOOD:  It’s a fallacy that if YOU stop feeding a cat, he/she will move on.  Look around, there is trash everywhere.  We humans are slobs, leaving our trash trailing behind us and/or surrounding us.  Animals, including birds/cats/rats, take advantage of the mess we’ve made and feed on our detritus.  However, finding someplace to get out of the rain, cold wind, snow or to be safe from cars, roaming dogs or other predators isn’t as easy to find.  Think about this logically.  If your local grocery store closes, do you sell your home and move somewhere closer to a grocery store?  Not likely.  Cats, and other animals simply trying to survive, will just travel further afield to find food, but they will return to the safety of their “home.”  Of course, this increases the threats they will face and can further endanger their survival. 

·         CATS FALL PREY TO PREDATORS:  Cats are always portrayed as predators.  I haven’t seen any literature addressing the fact that they are also preyed upon themselves.  They fall prey to humans who poison and shoot them.  They are hit by cars or killed when taking refuge in a warm car engine.  They are killed by dogs and in suburban areas they are killed by other predators like birds of prey, coyotes, bobcats, foxes and sometimes raccoons.  Kittens even fall prey to snakes.  Here in Florida where irresponsible people release their boa constrictors and monitor lizards (truly invasive species), cats, small dogs and kittens are food for these animals quite frequently.

·         IT’S LESS EXPENSIVE TO FIX CATS THAN TO KILL THEM: Data collected in Florida shows that it costs animal control agencies between $100 - $150 per animal to capture, house, feed, care for, kill and dispose of their bodies.  Orange County Animal Services estimated it cost them an average of $50 per surgery.  That cost covered not only spay/neuter for cats, but spay/neuter for dogs of all sizes, including females in season and dogs or cats where both testicles had not descended.  If, for the same tax dollars, 2 – 3 animals could be spayed or neutered or 1 animal killed, which would you think is more cost effective?  If put to a referendum, I firmly believe that most people would opt for surgery over death, where their tax dollars are concerned.  This is also an economic question:  no animal control department has enough funds to round up every outdoor cat, indefinitely.  Nor do they have a shelter large enough to hold all of the unwanted animals.  Nor do they have a staff large enough to accomplish this task.  By limiting the SUPPLY (fixing more animals), DEMAND is bound to increase.  With that the value of these precious lives would, no doubt and based upon simple economic principles, increase.

Life on the street is dangerous, frightening and generally unfriendly.  While very little has been or can be done to prevent uncaring individuals from abandoning their cats to fend for themselves, providing food for these victims of heartless humans is the compassionate thing to do.  Getting them spayed or neutered improves life for them and limits the number of unwanted kittens born.  Better yet, providing them with a safe, loving home whenever possible is the right thing to do.  Your kitty deserves your compassion and assistance.  Choose to be humane, instead of misguided and uninformed.

Connie Graham

House of Cats….and 2 dogs

Is there anything cuter or funnier than a kitten?  Cagney, unlike my adult cats, LOVES toys.  She entertains herself with mice, especially if they have feathers.  She tosses the mouse across the floor or stands on her hind legs with the mouse in her front paws.  I can’t help laughing in delight as I watch her play.  It cracks me up when she carries her prey in her mouth and struts across the room.  But, with a house filled with cats, none seem to want to play with her.  So sad.  For a few passing moments I consider getting her a playmate………….but then I come to my senses.  She will grow out of this kitten phase, and I do not need another kitten/cat PERIOD.

I’ve misplaced the instructions for my camera.  I’m sure they are here somewhere, or probably downloadable.  I did a check of my “cat list” and I don’t have a picture of Campbell, Ciji, Cinja, Cora, or Claudia.  Got to add this to my To Do list.

So here are the kitties:

                Littermates Cowboy, Crystal & Cho-Sun 

Littermates Courtney & Charlise (Charlie’s & Chaz’ sisters)

Mom & littermates Bob, Colt, Crockett & sister Chaka

         Littermates Cassandra & Celeste

Littermates Chow-Li & Crosbie

Connor

Culpepper

 Chatsworth

 Cagney

  Chandler

  Charm

 Clint

I'll never make a career out of photographing my critters.  You "get the picture" even though they aren't very good pictures.  Trust me, these guys are much more adorable in person.   You might notice some tipped ears.  These were trapped kittens who, instead of being trapped/neutered/returned, were trapped/neutered & remained with me.  Chandler, Connor & Culpepper never tamed.  Crosbie was the first in his litter to tame and then reverted to a semi-feral state. Charm was a fixed feral turned into animal control.  I pulled her out moments before she would have been euthanized.  That was 6 years ago and she's as feral today as she was then.

The rest of the story

Dear Readers,

Remember last September when I recounted my misadventures in hospitalization, surgeries, hyperbaric treatments and pain?  As more and more of my right breast disappeared with each progressive surgery, I worried that I had the dreaded FLESH-EATING BACTERIA.  Through the full course of my treatment I contracted practically every bacterial infection known, some of them more than once.  I was under the impression, source forgotten, that it was MRSA that was the medical term for the flesh-eating bacteria (and in some cases it is).  MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.  Now, I knew from my college days that staph aureus is one of the most common bacterium known – it’s almost always present nearly everywhere.  Normally it’s relatively harmless.  When the culture results were finally reported, I think it came back as a strain of Streptococcus.  Little did I know at the time….

The biggest concerns that the nurses and doctors had for my recovery were due to the fact that I’m diabetic and a smoker.  Neither of those is conducive for healing.  Fortunately, my blood sugar levels remained quite low, under 100, nearly each time they were checked.  I was on the “patch” while in the hospital for 23 days, so that helped as well. 

The nurses and doctors assured me that I didn’t have MRSA while I was in the hospital.  My surgeon told me that the reason for the multiple surgeries was that I had necrotizing fasciitis.  His delivery was cool, calm and collected.  No problem, we’ll just cut off more skin and tissue and I will live happily ever after.  Nothing to worry about.  After 4 surgeries and what would result in half of my right breast being sliced off, I was sent home.

Following my release, my hyperbaric treatments continued daily for several months.  In between I contracted more infections, one of which was MRSA.  A co-worker’s husband is a nurse and he told her to assure me that MRSA was nothing to worry about.  Knowing it was staph aureus coupled with his reassurance, I didn’t worry and after several more rounds of various and sundry antibiotics, the MRSA was gone.  I think it was around October that the infections were gone, and I got the rollicking opportunity for a skin graft.  I’ve detailed just how not fun that was in an earlier blog post, so I won’t bore you with more details.  The graft took on about 60% of the wound, leaving a decent size open area yet to heal.  I had about 12 derma grafts to promote skin growth.  Derma grafts are pieces of skin grown in a lab…..grown from the foreskin of some anonymous penis.  Those grafts were working until, once again, I contracted another infection.  That was cleared up with more antibiotics and the wound was allowed to heal on its own.  Finally, after just over 10 months, there is a good chance that my final appointment with the wound care staff will be this coming Wednesday.  It looks, to me, as if the skin has finally covered the entire wound.  All is nearly right with the world, or is it?

So USA is running promos for their show Royal Pains and in one spot the doctor says something like, “I’m sure it’s NOT necrotizing fasciitis.”  Well, after hearing that spot several times, I decided to Google necrotizing fasciitis.  Guess what I found?  DRUM ROLL, please.  Necrotizing fasciitis is none other than………. FLESH-EATING BACTERIA, and the culprit is Streptococcus pyogenes.  I read on and discovered that, left untreated, about 70% of people who contract this DIE!  Those who survive have lost appendages or limbs, depending upon the location of the infection.  Guess I was lucky it was my breast.  After all I just look lop-sided in my shirts.  No one checks out the breasts of a 61 year woman, so for all intents and purposes, it’s not noticeable.  Only the occasional curious cat sees my half eaten breast if they decide to check out what I’m doing in the shower.  They just think I’m weird for standing under running water. 

If I’m able to get copies of my medical records and ya’ll have really strong stomachs, I’ll share the wonderful photos of the deterioration and recovery of the “wound.”  I got a slide show about 2 weeks ago and it brought back all those painful memories.  I hadn’t seen just how bad it was in the early stages.  From its worst to where I am today is an amazing transformation.  If I believed in them, I would count my blessings.  

If you're interested in more info on necrotizing fasciitis, check out these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrotizing_fasciitis and http://www.nnff.org/

Charlie, Cissy & Cagney……and HAIR

I finally decided it was time to let Charlie go.  I took him to my vet on Monday, June 13^th and put him down.  He and I had struggled off and on since May, 2010 with his drastic weight loss.  All of the recriminations were and are there.  It’s tough, but rarely have I lost one of my critters and not questioned myself and what I could have done better.  Losing them brings me face to face with the fact that I do not have all of the answers, I do not have super powers and DEATH is a fact of life.  Death is too powerful an adversary for any of us.  We may win some victories, but we can’t win in the end.  Even though it is inevitable that Death always has the final victory, I will continue to fight for as much time as I can salvage.  I did that with Cissy.  I took her to the vet on Tuesday, June 14^th and again on Thursday, June 16^th, prepared to put her down.  My guilty conscience over not giving her as much attention as I should have while treating Charlie overruled all else.  I tried treating her chronic renal failure and for a few days, she responded, but by Friday,  June 24^th it was obvious she was not going to make it.  I had her put down Friday morning. 

In between this, on Wednesday morning, June 22^nd, Cagney the new kitten, wasn’t able to walk on her left front leg.  She was lethargic and not eating.  She was very hot to the touch, so I knew she had a fever.  I took her to the vet early Wednesday morning and her temp was nearly 105 degrees.  Normal for a cat is between 101 & 102.  Although she had her first vaccine about 2 ½ weeks earlier, I felt certain she had limping kitten syndrome from calicivirus.  Calici is hard to eradicate in a multi-cat household.  It first appeared here in 1999 after bringing kittens home from surgery at animal services.  One kitten, Chaz, presented with symptoms.  He didn’t get sick with it, but Clark, Charlise and Catherine got deathly ill from it.  My vet pulled them through, but the ramifications from this disease caused a plague of plasma cell stomatitis to hit my cats, who included Chase, Carly, Bob, Charlie, Chaz, Colt and Courtney.  All of them had most or all of their teeth removed.  Of those cats only Bob, Colt and Courtney are still with me.  I have also lost Clark and Catherine in the past few years.  Needless to say, I was seriously concerned about little Cagney. 

Limping kitten syndrome was seen several years ago and was attributed to vaccinations.  Most kittens showed symptoms within 48 – 72 hours following their vaccination.  They limped, had inflamed joints and fevers.  In many cases, the symptoms went away within a few days.  Since Cagney’s vaccination was over 2 weeks earlier, my fear was she had contracted calici from a carrier in the house and her recovery wouldn’t take the normal route.  With some fluids, to reduce her fever, and force feeding she started showing improvement within a few days and by yesterday she was more active and walking and eating normally.   I can only hope this incident won’t have long term ramifications for Cagney.  It’s to be expected to lose older cats, but it’s devastating for me to lose a kitten.  So much potential never realized. 

The one bright spot this past week was seeing the road company of HAIR at the Bob Carr.  OMGoddess!  This show has been such a big part of my life since college.  I played and played and played the soundtrack to the Broadway play in my dorm room.  I saw the road show at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in 1970.  Yes, I tend to be “a bit” obsessive and HAIR has been an ongoing obsession.  And, if you aren’t familiar with it or haven’t seen it, please DO NOT see the movie.  It’s a complete bastardization of the original play.  If the road show is coming to a town near you, run – do not walk – and buy a ticket.  You won’t regret it.  Most of the road show company has been a part of this play since its revival on Broadway a few years ago and the London company following its run on Broadway.  Although the play dates back to 1967 and is about the Viet Nam war, it is still relevant today.  Some things stay the same:  calls for peace, freedom & clean air. 

PEACE