Rosey Days

An eventful couple of weeks! We heard from Amanda that Rosie had managed to open a window and let herself outside. Amanda looked high and low for her, but couldn’t find her, and became very worried about it. Daisy was howlingly upset without her sister, making her and Amanda very unpopular with the neighbors. We decided that I should make the trip out after classes on Tuesday, to help look, and see what we could do about calming Daisy down. I arrived at close to midnight (about a 5 hour trip from the shelter), and as luck would have it, I found Rose right away! Daisy was quite happy to see Rosie again, and Rose was none the worse for wear. In the end, Amanda decided that it might be a good time for the girls to come back here for a bit, while she smoothed things over with the neighbors and also made a plan for her trip back to Canada. Amanda adores the girls and has always planned to take them with her when she heads back, given their health continues to be stable. We’re all a bit concerned about the stress of moving them so far, and are looking into it very carefully before proceeding, but we really want to see these two in a permanent home. For the time being, they have happily settled back into life here in the house.

We’ve been processing more adoptions, since everyone started returning from the Holidays. Gretel, Salem, and perhaps Nemo, are all now spoken for, and will hopefully be going to new homes over the next couple of weeks. A nice couple came out on Sunday and chose Skippy. We are so pleased to see this sweet boy find his good home! He was quick to introduce himself and stayed close throughout the visit, making himself irresistible! We heard back that he settled in quickly, and we know he must be enjoying all of the extra attention.

Spay Day International is just around the corner…we’ve registered our event this year on the Humane Society International section, and are starting to organize locations for passing out fliers that detail why it’s best to spay or neuter pets. We’re also encouraging our supporters to enter and vote in the photo contest, choosing our group as their charity, which could help to fund our TNR projects set in low income areas. I entered a photo of Rose last night! At least one of us will be wearing a cat costume again this year, and we’re making small magnets to hand out with the fliers as reminders. The fantastic news is that the regional animal control center contacted us, wanting to join us in helping to organize the event! It makes such a big difference to have a government agency recommending spay/neuter, and we are so very pleased to see how invested animal control is becoming in this vital issue. It’s another big sign that things are moving in a more positive direction, regarding animal welfare in our area, and we have to continue working hard to keep the ball rolling.

Winter seems to be the time when we most frequently lose our chronically ill cats, and this winter has been particularly hard in that regard. The two that we had begun monitoring more closely, after Birdie passed away, have gone as well. Poor Xena had a sudden health crisis, and with her FIV compromised immune system, was unable to recover. Senor’s health also declined rapidly, the vet was never able to determine the exact cause of this sudden turn for the worse. Sumi is still hanging in there, but has lost a lot of her weight and sparkle. She goes to see the vet for a drip and treatment at least once a week, but it doesn’t seem to give her the comfort or results that it has done in the past. She has been going to the vet for treatments almost once a month for several years now, and we’ve tried a large number of natural supplements to deal with the mouth ulcers. She would spiral down on occasion, but always seemed to pick back up again. The vet has wondered about the possibility of sedating her and cleaning her mouth, which is now riddled with ulcers, but has warned us that it would be dangerous and may not even be successful. We tried this with Jumbo, one of our other cats in the past, with negative results…he was never able to eat on his own again after the operation. So, it seems like a bad idea, however we don’t want her to continue having constant pain and discomfort. She still crawls on to my lap for a snuggle most days, and can usually eat her liquid Senior Support diet, but I can see how much her mouth hurts, and we can’t seem to find anything to make it feel better now. I’m hoping that when the time comes, I’ll be able to make the right choice for her, no matter how hard it is to do so.

We’re still coping with a few kitten colds, but most are recovering nicely. Deb, who came in with the same bad cold that poor Seagull had, is having the hardest time. But she continues to eat well, and is visiting the vet regularly for Interferon injections, so we think she’ll be OK. We were a bit concerned about Wybie, as the cold he caught settled in his throat and gave him some stress in approaching food. He was clearly hungry, but afraid to try eating. We had to syringe feed him for a bit and then started offering him pieces of steamed tuna steaks, which he was very excited about. He also had the Interferon injections and is now back to eating like a pro. Not all of the kittens caught the colds that the Biwako kittens brought in, but enough did to have given us concerns about our lack of ability to efficiently quarantine, in the current setup. We’ve been hoping to better organize things, and clear space in the supply room, to create a new separated quarantine area. We have some new help recently, so maybe we’ll be able to finally get that started!

Two International students came out to volunteer on Sunday, and did a fantastic job cleaning some of the shelter areas that we haven’t had a chance to get to regularly. They worked really hard scrubbing floors and litter boxes, despite the cold, and then spent some time playing with the kittens afterward. I’ve almost completed the January photo page, and put up some pictures from their visit. These girls are also interested in helping stray cats that live near their school in Kyoto, and one is getting started on organizing a TNR project there. She’ll be coming out again this next weekend, to help work on the new potential quarantine area. We’re also excited to be welcoming three visiting American students, who will be attending a local University exchange program. They plan to come out to help us with activities for several hours a week, while they’re here studying, and we’ll be meeting next week to talk more about that.