Friday, June 15, 2012

Meet the newest foster!

My newest foster, Shadow, was rescued about 2 years ago and until joining the home for wayward cats, was living with an Italian couple. His rescuer writes "They are wonderful cat lovers and have several in their home. But Shadow basically lived in a back room in the rafters for quite a long time. In the last 6 months he has ventured into the living area with the other cats. He has no confidence and is simply scared of people, except for his foster family."



Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Fantastic news!

Wee Hiro had his vet appointment yesterday, and it went better than I could have hoped for. He ended up seeing my personal vet, the always amazing Dr. AndrĂ©a Bravo. She agreed with my assessment that his leg was either malformed at birth, or when he was a kitten. But most importantly, she determined that it does not appear to be causing him any pain, which is fantastic news as it means it is not necessary to amputate!

He does have an incredibly wicked case of Rhino, complete with lung congestion. But he was given a shot of antibiotics (Convenia) which will last for 3 weeks and should clear it right up. It also turns out the poor bugger has not a single tooth in his head. He was neutered and had what was probably his first bath ever - which was great since he was more than a little ripe. Several of the vet techs came out to the front to see what was causing the smell when we first brought him in, and there were more than a few jokes cracked about his wonderful aroma.

He is currently recovering with my partners in crime. It was a close call, but they managed to successfully sneak him in without notice. He is doing amazing and is responding better than hoped to the love and care they are giving him. I am now hopeful that he can be rehabilitated.

But now the rush is on to find him a longer term foster and hopefully, a forever home. Sadly, this will prove difficult as it is high kitten season, meaning all of the local rescues are swamped. But we've come this far.... we can't give up now!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Trapping success!

Turns out the trapping tips I received were definitely the ticket. In the last 24 hours, I've managed to trap 10 of the neighbourhood cats. And as luck would have it, Hiro was number 10!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Hiro update

Well, I have some good news. Not great news, but it's promising at the very least. He showed up in my yard this morning (almost 5am) and although he didn't quite make it far enough into the trap to set it off, he did go in pretty far. Seems the trapping tips I was given are working. (I also managed to trap 5 different cats throughout the night, so I know the technique is sound :P)

Even though I didn't manage to trap him, this is still a very positive development as it means that he is not linking yesterday's ordeal with my yard (which is where it all began), so we still have a very good chance of trapping him here. And the fact that he was willing to investigate the trap is also positive, since it means I've now got a better handle on what to tempt him with. (Turns out the magic ingredient is catnip.)

So, while it may not be the best news, it's still certainly promising news. And that's better than nothing. 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Jasper update

I think the thing that amazes me the most about Jasper is his genuine desire to be friends with everyone here in the home for wayward cats. Although he is easily the biggest cat here, he is quite content to take a lesser role in the hierarchy and often goes out of his way to look out for the younger cats (Joni and Mina included) before tending his own interests. This is best seen during mealtimes, where he will patiently (and not at all fearfully) wait until the little ones have started eating before he does. You can almost see him doing a mental count to ensure they're all there and that they all have access to their food before he's content enough to begin eating.




I've been promising his rescuer that I would post a video of him playing with the little ones, so I snagged this one of them playing with the laser pointer the other day. You can really see the size difference between them. Even wee Durango, the youngest of the lot, is bigger than my two mini cats, Joni and Mina. But Jasper is huge in comparison. It's so ridiculously cute to watch them playing together, I honestly don't know how I stand it. ;)

His progress is best described as slow but steady. He gains just a fraction more confidence with each day that passes. He's still painfully shy, and unlike Durango, he still runs and hides when the doorbell rings. But he is still making progress, which is the important part. :)

Durango update

Wee little Durango is progressing in leaps and bounds now thanks to the influence of the brood. Although he still runs away if I move towards him, he has gained enough courage to stay in the room when I'm moving around and no longer runs and hides when the doorbell rings.

He's also starting to feel more secure about being in my lap, and we've had a few occasions now where he climbs into my lap and settles down for chin scritches when I'm sitting on the floor. But I think his biggest step forward this week was when he decided to join Kitty and Joni and I on the couch while I was knitting / watching movies.
d'awwww

It took him almost an hour of sitting on the arm of the couch, watching us all, before he worked up the courage to join us, but join us he finally did. Surprisingly there were no complaints from Capt. Crankypants (aka Kitty). Even more surprisingly, Durango was far more interested in settling down for a snooze than going after my knitting. ;)

Update on Hiro

With the help of my new partners in crime, we managed to catch wee Hiro this evening, but unfortunately he escaped again. Turns out he can run quite fast for a cat in his condition. Much faster than the three of us had anticipated at any rate.

The good news in all of this is that we've discovered that he has more caregivers than we originally thought. There's 3 or 4 of us that are doing our best to make sure he stays fed. And our neighbours were surprisingly sympathetic as we raced around the lane trying to catch him. Not one person refused when we asked permission to enter their yards after explaining our goal.

Although it was devastating to lose him after successfully catching him, I am still hopeful that we can catch him again with the trap. Thanks to the tips I received from C4P's more experienced trappers, he finally started showing at least minor interest in the trap earlier this evening. And the three of us have agreed.... we're not giving up. Even if it means we need to stake out that alley every night, we will do so for as long as necessary. He deserves nothing less.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Hiro

Hiro is one of the many cats that comes to visit my backyard. But unlike many of the backyard kitties, Hiro is a stray. And although the photo below doesn't show it, one of his back legs is mangled.

He's willing to sit quite close to me when eating, but if I so much as twitch a muscle, he gets ready to run.
There is a covered trap not inches away from him when this photo was taken. But no matter what kind of tempting yummies I put inside, he avoids it like the plague.

Whatever happened to his leg, obviously happened some time ago as there is no visible wound. The leg itself is bent upwards along his body and is considerably smaller than his other hind leg, adding to my suspicion that whatever happened, it was when he was much younger. It might even have been deformed at birth.

I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to trap him for about a month now as his overall health is taking a turn for the worse. I suspect he may have full blown FeLV based on the fact that he is constantly sick and the lymph nodes in his neck are obviously very distended and are different sizes.

The last few weeks have seen quite a lot of heavy, flash flood type rainfall here in Montreal, and the lane that runs behind my house is so flooded, it's practically a river. In a normal week, there are upwards of 16 kitties that take turns hanging out in my backyard (most are family pets), but over the last few weeks, there's been almost no one. And although Hiro was starting to make daily appearances prior to the rain, I hadn't seen him at all in over 3 weeks. Given that he is in such rough shape, I feared the worst.

But thankfully, he's still with us. He showed up on my back porch tonight, desperately hungry and a little skinnier than I'm used to seeing him, but still fighting to survive. I have promised him that I will do everything in my power to help him. After all, he is my little hero.

UPDATE:
Synchronicity, thy name is .....
By amazing coincidence, another kind soul contacted C4P early this morning about a cat matching Hiro's description. Turns out she has worked with C4P in the past. As if that's not coincidental enough, it turns out we're on the same block & her back yard faces the very same lane way mine does! It's definitely my wee Hiro! She has also been feeding him, and is working to try to trap him as well.
I am so ecstatic to have a partner in crime for helping poor Hiro, I'm almost at a loss for words. Looks like the universe listened to my heart felt promise last night. More as develops!