"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle." (Saint Francis of Assisi)

I brought the black kitten home.  We were happy, and hopeful that the tiny black kitten was the last of Mama Jackson’s kittens.  He was afraid, but he allowed us to pet him.  We always keep any new cat away from others until they have been checked by the vet.  This kitten was small and afraid, but not feral.  He could be held and petted.  It was a boy and we called him “Cisco”.  His right ear was clipped, so we assumed he had been trapped, neutered and released by someone.  We guessed his age to be the same as Mikey, 2-1/2 months old.  He and Mikey (Leo) were the last litter that Mama Jackson had.

On Thursday, September 26, Charlie took Brandy to the vet to have his sutures removed.  His incision had healed well.  He had taken all of his antibiotics and his temperature was normal.  He was eating normally and playing with the other cats.  We were happy to see that he seemed to be well again.

For the weekend, we had planned to take the RV over to the local KOA campground.  We haven’t done that in awhile, but when we do, we take care of the cats as usual in the morning, go over to the RV for the day, come home in the afternoon to feed the cats and then go back to spend the night.  It just gives us some time during the day that we don’t have to constantly feel like we need to be doing something around the house.  But, with the recent kittens joining the clan, we decided to cancel the weekend RV stay.  It was a good thing we did.

On Saturday, September 28, I fed the cats on the catio as I normally did.  Brandy seemed fine.  He ate his breakfast.  Later, I was on the catio cleaning and I noticed that someone had vomited.  I didn’t know who did it. 

Later, I was out shopping when I received a message from my friend.  She had someone who was interested in giving Brandy a home!  Although it was good news, I knew it would be hard to say goodbye to Brandy.  But, it was the best thing for him. 

I was happy when I got home.  But, when I went to the catio to check on the kittens, I noticed that someone had vomited in a couple of places.  It looked just like the spot that morning.  While I was cleaning, I saw Brandy vomit.  He did not look well.

It was after 4:00 p.m., so our regular vet was closed.  We called a vet who we used to use.  They were open until 6:00 p.m.  They told us to bring Brandy in immediately.

Brandy was examined.  When his tummy was pressed, he seemed to have pain.  Then he threw up again.  The same greenish liquid.  The vet said it was bile.  There was no food in it.  An X-ray was taken to see if there was an obstruction.  Nothing showed, but the intestines had many gas pockets.  We had not noticed any diarrhea though.  Blood was drawn for a full panel test.  The results wouldn’t be back until the next day or Monday.  Brandy was a little dehydrated, but didn’t have a temperature.  He was rehydrated and given an anti-nausea injection.  He was released to us.  The vet said we should keep an eye on him and if he got worse, take him to emergency.

We brought him home, hoping he would feel better.  I fed the cats, but of course Brandy was not hungry.  I checked on him several times and he just seemed to feel worse.  He was also vomiting still.  We decided to take him to the emergency hospital.  He was such a sweet little kitten and he was so sick.  What happened to him?  There were no plants on the patio.  As soon as we got home from the vet earlier, we removed all toys from the patio, just in case.  We didn’t find anything that was chewed.  We were puzzled.

Brandy was checked into the emergency hospital at 8:30 p.m  The X-rays had been downloaded on a CD, which we brought with us.  The technician took Brandy back for the initial exam and we waited in an examination room.  Brandy was brought back to us.  We were waiting for the doctor to come in.  I was holding Brandy and he just seemed to be getting worse every minute.  He seemed cold to me.  I had him wrapped in a blanket.  He stirred a little and I had a feeling that he was just going to die while I held him.  Where was the doctor?  I told Charlie I was afraid that Brandy was dying.  He got up to find the doctor.  Brandy seemed to settle down again. 

The doctor came in and started the examination.  She had looked at the X-rays and agreed there seemed to be no blockage.  The vet who took the X-rays earlier in the afternoon thought he noticed an enlarged liver, but the emergency vet did not.  She said there was a severe gastrointestinal problem.  I guess they use that term for a tummy ache.  They wanted to put Brandy on fluids and anti-nausea meds.  This little fellow was really sick.  Even after the anti-nausea meds earlier, he had vomited a couple of times again.

Three hours later, the vet wanted to keep Brandy overnight.  He was not any better.  We asked to see him before we left.  They took us back to where he was.  We petted him.  He really did not seem to be aware of us.  He was worse than when we had last seen him.  We really hoped something could be done, but without blood work, we really didn’t have any idea what was happening to him.

At 1:30 a.m. the vet called.  Brandy’s temperature was dropping.  They wanted to do more X-rays.  We approved.  At 2:46 a.m. the vet called again.  Brandy’s blood pressure was dropping.  We approved meds to help.  We questioned whether anything done so far was helping.  The vet could not say for sure if it would.  At 3:09 a.m. the vet called.  They needed approval to keep Brandy in ICU.  We approved it.  We were really agonizing over how much more we could do.  We had signed the paper saying that if resuscitation was needed, call us first for approval. 

At 4:22 a.m. the vet called.  Brandy had stopped breathing and was in cardiac arrest.  We told them not to resuscitate at this point.  He had been through enough.  

On Monday morning we went up to the hospital and got Brandy.  We took him to the pet memorial park for cremation.  It was a trip we had made three years before with Taz.  It is always a very sad time.  Even though we had only had Brandy for a little over two weeks, we were devastated. 

Brandy Lopez Bell  3/1/13 - 9/29/13

I’ll always remember that sweet, beautiful little kitten.  He was so soft and gentle.  When he was picked up, he just curled up.  He would have been someone’s special little cat.  I just know it.  It seemed unreal that he was gone.

More later.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not. --Ernest Hemingway

Early this morning I was sitting at my computer.  I had the TV on, but every now and then, I became aware of a cat meowing.  I muted the TV and listened, but didn’t hear the cat.  Then when the TV was on again, I heard the meowing.  I went downstairs to check on our cats.  No one was stirring so maybe the sound was coming from outside.  We do have a stray cat, Mr. Smith, who has been coming into our yard for several months now.  We plan on catching, neutering and releasing him when we can.  He doesn’t run away as quickly as he did when he first started coming around, but he is still skittish.  Ironic that we are helping other people trap and rescue cats from their yards, but we still haven’t caught our own stray!

Mr. Smith at his favorite spot...the birdbath

Anyway, I still could hear the meowing.  I started checking around the room.  I opened the door to the closet and Kaci ran out.  She had been in there all night and was telling me about it.  I apologized profusely to her, but she ignored me and ran downstairs. 

Kaci

A little while later, Charlie came in and told me that Kaci had thrown up again...on the bed.  Apparently she had gobbled down some dry food which immediately came back up when she got on the bed with Charlie.  I told him about the closet caper and he was relieved.  We have had to take Kaci to the vet recently because she has been vomiting frequently.  The vet couldn’t find any obvious reason, other than maybe a hairball that wouldn’t come up.  She gave us anti-nausea meds for her and I was also giving her some Petramalt for hairballs.  The vomiting became less frequent. 

Now back to the kitten rescue:

On Friday night, September 20, I received a text from my friend.  She had caught the “remaining” kitten!  Earlier that day we had taken the crate down and put it away.  We only used it with each kitten when they were first caught so we could separate them from the others before they were checked out at the vet’s.  Of course, as soon as the crate was put away, another kitten would be trapped. 

Big crate holds litter box, bed and food/water

I went over to get this latest one.  We were sure he must be the dad and we had been hoping to get dad at some point to be neutered and released.  This one was also solid black.  It seemed to be as afraid as Mama Jackson was when she was trapped, so we assumed it was feral too.  But, when I got it home and was able to see it in the light, it wasn’t that big.  In fact, it was about the same size as Indy and Annie.

It looked ferocious with its ears laid back.  It growled and hissed and unlike the others, it slapped at me.  We planned to release it after it was spayed/neutered.  We called it “Bandit”and it was set to go to the vet on September 23.

Bandit was neutered and since we planned on releasing him, he had a rabies shot only.  He still wouldn’t let me pet him and the vet said he was only about four months old.  That meant he was part of the same litter as Jackson, Indy and Annie.

When we got him back home, we wanted to make sure he was feral before releasing him.  He actually was friendlier than we thought.  He seemed to like Charlie more than me and allowed himself to be petted.  There was hope that he could be someone’s pet some day.  We decided to keep him a few days to see if he made progress.

Since Simba and Brandy were older, we came to the conclusion that Mama Jackson actually had three different litters.  Brandy and Simba in the first; Jackson, Cali, Annie, Indy and Bandit in the second; and Mikey, the youngest, in the third.  She would not be having any more litters though.

The litters were about two months apart, which meant that mama Jackson had barely given birth to a litter before she was pregnant again!  Gestation is only about 62 days.

When we caught Mama Jackson the first time on August 6 and had her spayed, Mikey, the youngest, was only about four weeks old.  The second time she was caught with Mikey.  Even though she was spayed, she was nursing him.  I’m not sure she still had milk though.  But, it’s good that when we had her spayed we released right away, the next day.  She was able to go back and care for Mikey.  He probably had not yet been fully weaned and needed her then.

Would we ever get all of Mama Jackson’s kittens before they went feral?  And how many were there?  My friend said there was still a tiny black kitten that she had seen before with Mama Jackson.  They were very elusive because she had not seen Mikey, an orange tabby, until he was trapped.

On Wednesday, September 25 I received a call.  The tiny black kitten was caught!  I went over to get it.  It was at night, but we could see that it was indeed tiny, about the same size as Mikey.  As we put the trapped kitten in my car, in the light of the streetlight, I saw a cat across the street, sitting and watching.  It was Mama Jackson.  She knew we were taking her last kitten.  One by one, she had brought her kittens up to my friend’s house, it seemed, for help.  Maybe that’s putting too much of a human emotion spin to it, but it sure seemed that way. 

Mama Jackson, like other feral, unspayed cats, had three litters of kittens in secession.  She had to nurse, wean, provide food, and protect them.  It is quite a job!  Now that Mama Jackson was spayed, her job was over.  As she said goodbye to her last baby, she only had herself to care for.  My friend would still feed her when she showed up.  If we ever caught the daddy cat, we would have him neutered and released back.  It would be better for him too because he would not wander far afield, looking for female cats in heat. 

The lifespan of outside cats is not as long as indoor only cats, obviously because they don’t get good food and are not protected against diseases or injuries.  But, even those cats are more healthy if they are neutered and spayed.  The males don’t have the competition of other male cats.  Females aren’t having litter after litter of kittens that sometimes become mothers themselves at only four to six months old.  And so many just don’t survive anyway. 

Brandy was still taking his antibiotics and I think he was feeling better.  He was playing with the other kittens and Buffy on the patio.

Charlie and I didn’t consciously decide that we would be so involved in rescuing cats.  We started out with one cat, then two, then three cats of our own.  It was that way until 2000.  Then  our three cats expanded to seven cats when Jezibel came to us and had her nine kittens.  We kept her and three of the kittens.  The rest is history.

More later.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

There are Tabbies and Tortoiseshell, Black Cats and White, All happy and purring from morning till night, And though they do mischief sometimes, which is wrong, They're so pretty, you cannot be cross with them long.--Nursery Rhyme

On Wednesday, September 11, my friend called and said she had trapped the “last” kitten.  He looked like Simba.  At first I thought he was bigger and may not have been from that same litter.  But, when I got him into a crate, he was the same size as Simba.  Like the others we had caught, he hissed and growled, but we were able to pet and hold him.  Amazing.  We called him “Brandy”. 

Brandy, you're a fine boy!

Brandy was a very sweet cat.  He was very much like his brother, Simba.  When you picked him up, he just curled up and went limp.  He purred and loved to be petted.  He was very special. But,  he was not the “last” kitten, after all.

On September 14 my friend trapped a mama cat and her orange tabby kitten.  The mama was a tortie like “Mama Jackson”.  But, Mama Jackson had been spayed and her right ear tip was clipped.  We thought this cat might possibly be Mama Jackson’s sister.  My friend had seen this small, orange tabby kitten, and also a small black kitten with this cat before.  The kitten was possibly 2-1/2 months old.  The mama cat’s ear didn’t seem to be clipped, but it was at night when she was trapped so we couldn't see that well.  The kitten was definitely her kitten though.  She was very protective of him and he was comfort-nursing.  We kept them together in the crate for the night.

Mama Jackson with her baby, Mikey (Leo)

The next morning I checked on the mama and kitten.  In the daylight I thought I saw a clipped ear on mama.  Yes, her right ear tip was clipped.  This was “Mama Jackson”, not a new cat!  I was somewhat relieved.

We separated Mama Jackson from her baby.  He was very afraid, but did not bite or scratch.  We called him “Mikey”.  We put “Mama Jackson” in a kennel.  She watched as we took Mikey from the crate and settled him in a bed in a 4x4 kennel.   She did not seem to be distressed that we had her kitten.  We took her to my friend's house to release outside again.  Like the first time we released her, she ran from the kennel and was gone.

My friend told me that she knew there was another black kitten to be caught: Mikey’s brother.  He had to be that real “last” kitten!  But, just how many more "last" kittens could there be?  Mama Jackson was spayed and she could not have more.  Mikey and the elusive black kitten just had to be her last litter out of three that we knew of.

On September 16 Brandy had an appointment to be neutered.  It was complicated because only one of his testicles had dropped.  The vet had to do an incision to complete the surgery.  Brandy seemed fine the first day, but then the next day we noticed that something didn’t look right about the incision and Brandy didn’t seem to feel well.  We took him for a recheck with the vet.  One of his sutures was out and he had a fever of 104 degrees.  The remaining sutures were holding, so he was sent home to take antibiotics.  He was not a happy camper, having to wear a cone to keep him from doing any more damage. 

We’d only had Mikey four days when my friend found a home for him.  He went to his new home on September 18.   His name is now “Leo” and the updates are good.  His new family just loves him and he is going to be a good pet for them.

Buffy and Brandy

In the meantime, Brandy was taking his antibiotics and would go back to the vet in a week to get his sutures out and have his temperature checked.  Hopefully he would feel better and we’d be able to find him a good home.  Someone would be very lucky to have such a sweet cat.  Buffy, the patio ambassador, comforted Brandy in his discomfort.  We’re sure Buffy was sent to us to keep things calm on the catio.

To be continued.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

"A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere." ~ Groucho Marx

Me and Mr. Creme

 

Lexi

We’re in the process of getting our cats up to date with their vaccinations.  Charlie took Mr. Creme and Lexi to the clinic this week.  He was told that after these shots, because of their age, 13 years, and because they had had regular vaccinations through the years, they had built up an immune system and wouldn’t require any more shots for three years.  That was good news because we were undecided about continuing vaccinations because of their age.

Jezibel

Jason and Kaci

The others will go to the clinic too and eventually all will be up to date.  We take two at a time so it will take a few visits.  Plus we have three, Jezibel, Kaci and Jason (6 years), who have had severe reactions to the series of shots.  They have to have one shot at a time and that will require three visits, but we will get it done.

Mr. Creme still continues to be stable on his insulin and Lexi, who is on blood pressure meds as well as thyroid meds, is also doing fine.  I still have to give her Veriflox which helps her with her chronic congestion.  Their mom, Jezibel, 14 years, is in good shape.  She does have to have Terbutaline as needed for her congestion.

Now back to the big kitten rescue:

On August 17, about a week later, I received a call from my friend.  There were two(!) black kittens in the trap!  So much for that last kitten.  I went over to get them.  One was fairly calm and okay to pet.  The other one was very afraid.  The ears were flat back.  It hissed, growled and if looks could kill, I’d have been dead.  I got them home and we separated them because we have discovered that when one is more afraid, eventually the other one will also be afraid.

Annie and Indy

Indy, not as bad as he seemed

The smaller of the two was a female.  She was very sweet and wanted to be petted.  We called her Annie.  I finally got up the nerve to see if I could pet the other one.  It still hissed, growled and laid its ears back.  How ferocious it looked!  I decided to challenge it and reach in to see if I got clawed or bitten.  The kitten just froze and amazingly, I was able to pet and pick it up.  It was a boy.  We called him “Indy”.  So happy that both Annie and Indy were not feral, only afraid.

My friend immediately started looking for a home for them.  We made an appointment with the vet to do the spaying and neutering.  It all went well with no complications. 

Jackson.  His family has come to visit and are still here!  lol

All of the kittens trapped so far, Cali, Simba, Annie and Indy, are Jackson’s littermates.  Now they were re-united.  They remembered each other, but since Jackson was caught when he was only four weeks old, he hissed at them and didn’t really want to be with them on the patio.  They were now about three months old.  Jackson finally decided they were okay to play with though. 

Simba, what a sweet boy before going to his new home

A week later, August 24, Simba went to his new home in Los Angeles with my friend’s son and girlfriend.  He is now a little prince who is very spoiled.  I’ve seen some pictures and he looks very happy.

A day or so later, I received a call from my friend.  They had seen another kitten who looked like Simba.  I jokingly told her that she was seeing things!  At least I hoped she was seeing things.

In the meantime, we still had the black kittens, Annie and Indy, and although there were a couple of possible homes, nothing materialized.  The kittens were now about four months old.  We were beginning to hope that all the kittens were finally caught.....,

but the saga continues.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

The cat and the love you give away always come back to you---Proverb quotes

It was almost two months later when my friend asked me to bring my trap over so she could hopefully catch “Mama Jackson”.  I took it over to her.

Two weeks later (8/6/13) she called.  She had not caught Mama Jackson, but had caught one of Jackson’s siblings.  It was a tiny girl, who looked just like Mama Jackson, a tortie.  I went over to pick her up and brought her home to get her settled.  She was a tiny, sweet little kitten. 

In just a couple of hours she called and said she had found a home for the kitten and her name would be “Cali”.

Cali

Mama Jackson

Later that day she called and said she had trapped “Mama Jackson” (8/6/13).  I went over to get her.  She didn't hiss or growl, but there was something about her that told us that she was feral.  We set up an appointment to have her spayed and vaccinated.

"Cali's" new mom was picking her up the next day.  My friend was hoping to trap the last kitten soon.

“Mama Jackson” was spayed and vaccinated (8/7/13).  Since we were releasing her, we asked that the right ear tip be clipped.  That way if she was trapped again or if someone saw her, they would know she had been spayed.  The vet asked us to keep her overnight before releasing.  If she hadn’t been so wild, we might have tried to find a home for her.

“Cali’s” owner came by and picked her up (8/8/13).  We took “Mama Jackson” over to where we had trapped her and released her.  Although she was feral, I felt a little sad letting her go.  When we opened the kennel, she jumped out and ran.  As we drove away, she was in the ivy in the yard next door.  We saw her ears sticking up in the ivy.  She was in familiar territory though.

The next day (8/9/13) my friend caught another kitten, the last one.....!  We hoped anyway.  It was a pretty little buff-colored tabby.  My friend's young daughter was calling it “Peaches”.  It was a boy.  He was very sweet.  Afraid and hissing, but not scratching or biting.  Although he looked bigger, we thought he was Jackson's sibling since he was seen with Mama Jackson.  He would be about two months old. 

Simba

My friend's son wanted “Peaches”.  He planned on picking him up in a couple of weeks.  He renamed “Peaches” to "Simba”, which was a good name for him.  He looked like a little “Lion King”.  We made an appointment to get Simba neutered and vaccinated (8/13/13).

Simba, sweet boy

My friend said there was another kitten yet to catch–a black one.....

and the saga continues.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

Me and Jackson

.

“The problem with cats is that they get the same exact look whether they see a moth or an ax-murderer.” ― Paula Poundstone

Jackson C Bell (June 6, 2013)

I haven’t officially announced the arrival of our newest addition to the family, Jackson.  Yes, I wrote about him, Jonesie and Ellie, when they went with us to Idyllwild, but I didn’t explain how and when we got him.

Like most of our cats, Jackson was totally unexpected.  It’s been awhile since we made a conscious decision to actually go out and find a pet.  We don’t have to.  They find their way here.

One afternoon in early June I received a call from a friend.  Another friend had found a kitten in her yard.  “Can you take him until she can find a home for him?” 

I told her to bring him over.  When I saw the kitten she was holding I immediately took him and it was love at first sight.  But, I knew I was only fostering.  I brought him in and we got him settled in a kennel.  He was only about four weeks old, just barely weaned.  She had brought some milk replacement.  I fed the kitten with a syringe.  He didn’t know yet how to eat food from a bowl.  By the next afternoon, he was eating fine though.  I called him “Jackson”. 

Jackson had gotten tangled in a bush.  My friend heard him crying late one night.  Early the next morning she went out to find him.  There were other kittens too, but she didn’t know where they were.  The mother cat, a tortie, had been seen in her yard several times.  She wanted to trap her and get her spayed at some point.

I was pleasantly surprised that my friend wanted to help the stray cats in her neighborhood.  There are lots of people who catch, spay/neuter, and release feral cats.  The shelters are so overcrowded and I think if a cat is living in an area and people don’t mind having it around, at least it should be fixed.  It’s better for everybody.    

We had Jackson just a couple of days when we were told that there might be a home for him. I told her I really liked Jackson and wanted to keep him.  She was happy and I thought that would be the end of it.

Charlie took Jackson to the vet for an exam and first kitten shot.  I kept him in my computer room for a few days before releasing him into the house to meet the other cats.  He sat on my lap when I was at my computer. 

When we took Jackson out to the cat patio, he zoomed in on Buffy and they wrestled and played together.  Buffy was so patient with him.  It was amazing.  Jackson was so aggressive, but Buffy didn’t get mad, growl or try to hurt him.

He’s so cute.  He is a brown tabby.  His face and legs are striped, but his body is mottled and looks like a squirrel. His body and legs are long.  The back legs are bowed and he’s pigeon-toed.  When he walks, it looks like he swaggers.   He’s about five months old now and I thought he would have green eyes, but I think they are going to stay gray or hazel.

The only cats who do not like Jackson are the Calicos, Jezibel and Lexi.  But, they don’t like any of the other cats either!  Jackson still tries to be friends with them.  When they hiss at him, he lays down, but doesn’t run away.  He just doesn’t give up. 

Jonesie tolerates Jackson.  He’s three years old now and really has never liked kittens. He was only nine months old when we got the six week old Rhody, so he helped to raise him.  Jonesie is a sweetie though. 

Jackson

So, that’s how Jackson came to become a part of our family. 

But, the saga continues....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_

"Your paw prints will be forever on my heart."

Ellie, 5 years old

We were happy to see that the trip to Idyllwild didn’t seem to affect Ellie.  She was out of her normal routine, but since she ate well and took her insulin well, we thought she would adjust to insulin and we would get her regulated, as we did her brother, Mr. Creme.  Except for her breathing problems, i.e., asthma and chronic congestion, there would be no reason why she might not eat and gain some weight.

One of my favorite pictures of Ellie taken in RV on our move back to CA in June 2004.  It's out of focus, but it captures her face very well

Ellie was always a feisty little cat.  She was the smallest kitten of the litter.  Jezibel had 9 babies that day, which I brought home from the hospital.  Jezibel had to stay at the hospital overnight.  I bottle fed the kittens that night and early the next morning before going to work.  Ellie had a determination and will to live.  She had a strong appetite.

Because Jezibel had so many kittens, seven, to nurse, we had to supplement formula as well.  We have pictures of Ellie nursing from the bottle and her ears wiggled.  That kitten was very strong and we knew she would make it.

When it came time to find homes for the kittens at 8 weeks old, we kept Ellie, along with her sister, Lexi and brother, Grady.  I reasoned that we had to keep Ellie because she was attached to Charlie, but I knew it was because I liked her spunkiness, strong will and courage.  She was so tiny, but she was fearless.

Checking out her birthday cake

Oh cool! Balloons!

I see 7 names on this cake!

Happy 5th Birthday, Miss Ellie and all the babies

Even as she got older and had the muscle atrophy in her back legs, she would go wherever she wanted to go.  Sometimes she looked like a jack-knifed truck going down the hallway, but away she went.  If her “space” was violated by another cat who she didn’t think should be there, she had no qualms chasing that cat and cornering it.  We rescued cats from Ellie’s wrath many times. 

When we were in Idyllwild, we decided to let Ellie outside on the deck with us, thinking she would just stay up there.  But, before we knew it she had gotten down and was underneath the deck.  She ran all the way over to the other side.  Charlie was able to reach under and get her.  If she had decided to go underneath the cabin, I don’t want to think of what horrors Charlie would have seen.  But, he said he would have gone under to get her if needed.  So even though she had the leg problem, she could move when she wanted to.

A couple of weeks after the Idyllwild trip, we planned to go up to Nevada for a weekend to see some of our family.  Our nephew lives there.  His Dad & Mom, my sister, were coming to visit him for a week.  He invited us and my brother and sister-in-law from Utah, to come up for a mini family reunion.

We were going up on Friday and coming home on Sunday.  We talked about bringing Ellie with us since she had only started the insulin 3 weeks before.  We were staying at a motel which allowed pets.  She had done fine at Idyllwild.  But, this was an 8 hour drive.  We were afraid it might be too much for her to be in the kennel that long. 

We decided to leave her at home and give our pet sitter explicit directions on the meds she needed.

Ellie was always very wary and shy when people came over.  At other times when we left her home with a sitter, the sitter would say that she never saw Ellie because she hid.  That was okay because she was not on meds then.  But, now, it was different.  Ellie had to be available to get her meds.  Our sitter was sure she could take care of Ellie and we felt good about it.

We went to Nevada and enjoyed the weekend with family.  When we got home Sunday afternoon, everyone seemed fine.  But, when it was time for dinner, Ellie didn’t eat much.  In fact, not enough to get her insulin.  We thought she would be back to normal later.

The next morning she would still not eat well.  I gave her the asthma meds and the other meds which helped her chest congestion.  She was definitely not the same little cat we had left on Friday morning.  She seemed more congested and was not walking as well as before.

The vet called and said that Ellie’s test from a few days ago showed her blood glucose was still high and she wanted to go from 2 units of insulin to 3 units/day.  I told the doctor that Ellie wasn’t eating and I couldn’t give insulin.  She suggested Cyproheptadine to stimulate appetite.  We picked the pills up and started Ellie on it.

Ellie seemed hungry, but we couldn’t get the congestion cleared up.  She couldn’t smell food.

I decided to try syringe feeding so at least she would get some food in her stomach.  Once it was in her mouth, she swallowed and seemed to want it.  I finally was able to give her a dose, 2 units, of insulin.  By now, we were really becoming concerned.  She had done so well just 3 weeks ago and now it didn’t look good at all.  Of course, I regretted not taking her to Nevada with us, even though there were reasons why we didn’t.  I’m always second guessing decisions made.

I syringe fed breakfast and dinner and if she ate enough, she got insulin.  But, it was not easy.

All week long we tried to get her to eat.  On Friday, we could see that she was getting weaker and weaker.  It was so hard to see her like that.  Her weight was down to 6 pounds.  She didn’t want to struggle anymore.  We knew it and we knew we had to make a decision to let her go.

We had an appointment to take her to the vet on Saturday.  When I went in to see her that morning she was lying on her blanket, weak, and her breathing was labored.  I didn’t try to feed her or give her any more meds for congestion or asthma.  I just wanted her to be comfortable.

We said goodbye to Miss Ellie a little while later.  She peacefully went to sleep at the vet clinic.  We cried and the doctor cried.  The doctor told us that if she was a cat and it was time for her to go, she’d want to belong to us.  She thanked us for loving Ellie enough to let her go. 

We did let her go, but it was very hard.  We feel at peace knowing that Ellie is now running with strong legs again and is breathing easily.  It’s been a long time since she could do that.  And she is with her brothers, Grady and Toby.  Rowdy, Calvin, Taz, Mo, and Chelsi are on the playground nearby.

We have so many pictures of her and memories of her.  She was that tiny black and white kitten who at 4 weeks old, was the first one of the 7 kittens to have the nerve to climb up a 4 foot fence to escape, jump down on the other side and run over to Charlie.  She had kept her eyes on him the whole time.  She was unafraid to run between the long legs of our dog Chelsi while Chelsi stood eating her food or drinking water.

We love you, we miss you,  and we’ll never forget you, Miss Ellie.  Like the others, you will always be in our hearts.

Lexi and Jezibel (left) Taz and Ellie on right

Ellie May Bell 3/22/00  - 08/03/13  (picture taken 8/3/13)

More later.....

My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_