I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it is that makes cats and our relationships to cats so special. Yes, they are extraordinary in their wisdom and their independence and their beauty. Yes, they provide comfort and company and, of course, fun. But it’s more than that. I think cats provide permanence. Cats don’t change. –Peter Gethers

Ellie has been on Veraflox for about 3 days.  So far we see no really big improvement in her condition.  She is still very congested.  Last night I gave her a dose of Terbutaline, hoping it would help her breathing.  I held her for awhile, holding the Vick’s© inhaler near her nose.  That did seem to help her breathe better.  She managed to take deep breaths, which made me breathe better too!

I feel so bad for this little cat, who struggles to breathe and walk.  But, she does keep moving and she gets impatient if we hold her for too long.  She’s very strong-willed and knows where she wants to be and it’s not usually on a lap.  Sometimes she will come over to Charlie and “ask” to sit on his lap.  He has to pick her up because she can’t jump up.  She stays for a few minutes, enjoying the petting, and sometimes she even sleeps for a while.  Then when it’s time to get down, she wastes no time expressing her displeasure.  But, I think Ellie knows that we are trying to help her and make her comfortable.  In her mind, she has no disability at all.

If, after a week of Veraflox for her cold, she doesn’t show improvement, we will take her back to the vet.  This is so frustrating, having two cats, Lexi and Ellie, with respiratory problems.  We think Lexi’s problem is allergy related, but Ellie has gotten much worse with her asthma and she is very susceptible to colds now.

Lexi is also going through another two weeks with Veraflox.  The first time we did that, it really helped her congestion.  I was hoping that it was gone.  But, after a few days, the congestion was back.  The vet said we couldn’t keep her on it because it is an antibiotic and won’t work if it is used too much.

Buffy continues to improve and get used to his new surroundings.  We are hoping to be able to let him roam freely on the big “cat-io” in a few months.  With our last feral cat, Kiki, we left the kennel door open for her to come and go.  If Kiki got startled, she had the safety of her kennel to go to, which she did.  After snooping around for awhile, she usually went to her cat tree in the kennel and went to sleep.  That’s what we want Buffy to feel like he can do one day.  

Stay tuned.......
My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D =^..^= 

It is indeed remarkable how much these animals can be taught if taken in kittenhood and treated gently. Even as soon as their eyes open, they can be made to understand many things. –Godey’s Lady’s Book, May 1895

Ellie

Ellie’s asthma has gotten worse.  She has more congestion and it never completely goes away.  The Turbutaline that we give her now doesn’t seem to help her as much.  We used to give her a 1/4 pill and within an hour she felt better and could eat.  Now we’re giving her 2 (1/4) pills a day and although she usually will eat and drink water, her breathing is still labored.

Charlie took her to the vet last week for a steroid shot.  She has had shots before, but the vet said this steroid should help her for a couple of months.

We noticed the next day that she seemed to feel better, but is still congested. 

It was really warm yesterday and she didn’t have an appetite.  I gave her a pill earlier.  When I went to check on her before bedtime, I was shocked to see that both nostrils were blocked with mucous. 

I brought her downstairs and gave her to Charlie to hold while I got a warm, wet washcloth to clean her nose.  After I cleaned her nose, Ellie was still breathing through her mouth.  We decided to take her to the emergency hospital because we were afraid she was not getting enough oxygen.

At the hospital, they took her in right away.  Then after a while, the doctor came out.  We hadn’t had the chance to give Ellie’s medical background about her neuropathy in her legs or her constant trembling. 

When the doctor heard that these were chronic conditions with her, she was a little relieved I think.  There were just too many variables to deal with in an emergency.

They gave Ellie “pass by” oxygen, meaning they let the oxygen flow past her nose and not directly into her nose. 

When we were taken to a room and they brought Ellie in, she looked better, though she was still congested. 

The doctor said that Ellie had sneezed in the exam room and quite a bit of mucous came out.  We have never seen that before. 

The vet mentioned antibiotics, but really preferred that we take Ellie in to her regular vet for more follow-up.  We agreed.  We brought Ellie home and by 2:00 a.m., we were all in bed.

The next morning we made an appointment with our vet for Ellie.  Her exam showed that she has a cold! 

The medication that she has to take for a week is Veraflox, the same med that Lexi takes for her allergy. 

We had actually called the vet when Ellie continued to be congested, and asked if Veraflox would help her since it had helped Lexi.  The vet said no, in fact it might harm her.  But, since Ellie has a cold and it’s not congestion from her asthma, but from her cold, she can take Veraflox.  Go figure.

We are really careful about giving our cats meds not prescribed for them, but in this case, we would have been right.

Ellie checked out fine otherwise.  She weights 8 lbs. which surprised me.  I would have guessed 6 lbs. 

Last night when we saw Miss Ellie breathing with an open mouth, it scared us.  We thought of two years ago when her brother, Toby, was doing the same thing.  We took him to the emergency hospital and he didn’t make it. So, we thought Ellie also might be close to the last of her 9 lives, but she pulled out of it and we’re very happy about that!  Long live Miss Ellie.

A few weeks ago we noticed a little cat who was coming into our yard.  He was lying on the new patio (before it was enclosed).  A couple of our cats were watching him from inside the house. 

We didn’t know if this little cat belonged to anyone.  I had seen him in the neighborhood a few weeks before.  Once I saw him down on the corner of our street.  Another time I saw him across the cul-de-sac, walking along the sidewalk.  Then one morning I saw him in our front yard.  When I went to the window, he ran away.

Since our cats go outside, we didn’t want this cat in our backyard, but he seemed to want to be there, maybe because of the cats, who he didn’t seem to be afraid of.

But, one afternoon, I looked out and Mr. Creme was chasing him, (as well as he could) through the yard.  The little cat jumped up on the fence and struggled to get over and made it.  I was afraid he would get his leg caught on the lattice, but he seemed to be okay.

We decided we would catch the little cat and take him to the vet, get him fixed, vaccinated and release him.  He didn't have a collar, so we figured he was a stray.

Charlie called to make an appointment with our vet for the next day.  We set the trap out that afternoon and within minutes, we trapped the cat.

We moved him to a crate on the open patio.  We didn’t want him in the house because we didn’t know if he had anything contagious and didn’t want him near our cats.  He was feral.  Very afraid of us.  We don’t think he had ever been close to a human or touched.

At the vet, he was checked out for feline leukemia and was negative, which was good.  He received his rabies, FVRCP-PN, FeLV shots and was neutered.  The vet said he was about 2 years old.

He was at the vet for one day.  We brought him home and set him up in my computer room in our biggest dog crate and planned to keep him a few days until he healed from the surgery.

After a few days of good food, we noticed his coloring started to change.  He was cream colored, with orange ears, nose, tail, paws, and beautiful light blue eyes.

I went to Petsmart to meet with one of the animal rescue representatives from where we had adopted Jonesie a couple of years ago.  While I was waiting, I looked at the cats that were up for adoption.  There was a cat there who looked like the cat we had just taken in.  He was called a Flame Point, a mix of Siamese. 

I gave her the information on him, who we now were calling “Buffy”.  I was looking for someone who worked with feral cats, and might want to foster him and try to tame him, but was told, frankly, that they had more luck with people fostering feral kittens.  Buffy was already grown and probably no one would be interested in working with him.

Charlie and I watched him and saw how frightened he was, but at the same time, it was hard not to feel compassion for this little cat who had come into our yard for some reason.  I mean, when we went out and he saw us, he had run and struggled to climb that 7' fence, but then later he kept coming back.  We had not been leaving food outside, I have to admit, after  he started coming into the yard, I started putting some dry food on the other side of the house.

I was going out to the back patio one evening, just about dark.  As I opened the patio door, Buffy was getting ready to go under the glider there and get into the cat bed and settle for the night.  He saw me and ran away.  I felt bad, but at that point I didn’t know what to do.

We talked to a friend, who had a friend, who said she might be interested in fostering, but she had to check with her husband.  They had a trip planned and were going to be out of town for a couple of weeks.  We decided to start working with Buffy in the meantime until we found out if she would be able to help.

Charlie did some research on working with feral cats.  He started playing with Buffy and offering him treats.  Pretty soon, he was able to pet Buffy while he ate his food.

There were times when Buffy just couldn’t bring himself to trust and would shrink back into his corner, but for the most part, we could see that Buffy just had such a fear of us and he just couldn’t bring himself to trust us.

I have to say that he seemed to trust Charlie more than he trusted me.  I got nailed by his hard hitting paws a couple of times and he gave me some nasty bruises.  I bruise easy, but his hits really hurt.  I got a little disenchanted with trying to make friends with Buffy.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like Buffy, I just don’t think he cared for me and maybe I was trying too hard.

But, Charlie was progressing pretty well with Buffy.  He gave Buffy his breakfast and would come in to say, “I petted Buffy while he was eating!”  Good news.

When we finally had the enclosed patio completed, we decided to move Buffy to a 4x4x6' kennel.  We were surprised that the transition to this larger enclosure seemed more traumatic to him than when we had first put him in the smaller crate.

But, after a couple of days, he settled down.  When the cats walked by, he “talked” to them.  They hissed back at him, but it didn’t seem to discourage him.  He still talked.

We didn’t expect Buffy to touch our hearts the way he has, but I have to say, we never planned or expected that we would spend our time rescuing cats like we have.  It just happened. 

Buffy is a work in progress, but it looks like he’s our next project.  Charlie is emotionally connected to him.  He reminds Charlie of a little cat who he rescued many years ago in a barn in Cleveland, Ohio.  A feral little orange and white kitten who Charlie named “ET”, because of the way he stretched his little head up to look around. 

Like “ET”, Buffy has the innocent and fearful look of a cat who has never been handled by humans.  His trust has to be earned.  He has that look on his face like, “You’re not going to hurt me, are you?” 

No, no one is going to hurt you, Buffy.  You're safe as can be at the “Bell Haven”.

Buffy