"TAILS" OF OUR RESCUES

Some of their stories are very upsetting, but all of them have a happy ending. Even the ones who have left us have made our lives better because they were part of our family.

Danny was about 6 weeks old when he was brought to me at work. He was being tormented by some young people and a co-worker took him away. He had been out on hot blacktop and it was melted onto his pads. He was full of fleas, filthy dirty and very, very hungry. A good bath, gentle cleaning and lots of good food turned him into a spoiled, plump, happy kitty. He has a congenital deformity of his hips and he walks funny but it does not slow him down at all. In fact he can jump straight up in the air higher than any cat I have ever seen.

 

The handome grey and white kitty below is Nigel.  He was found on the doorstep of a friend of our's when he was about 5 weeks old and he could not walk on his back leg. His leg had been broken but was already starting to heal. Lucky for Nigel, it was healing correctly. He could not jump right for over a year but he finally learned how to do it. He does not always catch on as quickly as the other cats. He may have gotten a head injury when his leg was hurt or he may have been born with something wrong. But it does not keep him from enjoying his life with the rest of his furry family! He has the sweetest attitude of all our cats and acts like a big baby all the time. His favorite food is bread. He would rather have bread than anything else. If you don't watch out, he will chew a hole right through the bag to get at it. His favorite is Italian!

We rescued 2 cats in early September 2005; a pretty long haired black and white female named Sugar Baby and a spectacular white Persian named Mr. Magoo.  Their people were having a yard sale and the cats were in a filthy cage on the front lawn.  The people were giving them away because they were moving out of state.  These people swore they loved these cats and hated to lose them but only a fool would have believed them.  The cage was foul, they had no food, water or cat boxes and it was very hot out.  The cats were dirty, underweight and both of them had matted fur, hair loss and sores all over their bodies. 

We could not leave them there.  In all my years of rescues, I have never seen animals with so many fleas.  We had to give them 3 flea baths and 2 flea treatments before we got rid of all the fleas.  Sugar Baby  was in better condition and she did well quickly.  Poor Mr Magoo had open sores all over his body and one terrible sore on his side that was as big as a silver dollar and deep down into the muscle.  He had to be treated by the vet several times and it has taken over 2 months to begin to heal.  Everytime we thought it was better, it got worse.  On top of that, he had a severe infection in both eyes.  Both ears were infected so badly that his ears were virtually swollen shut.  We were treating him with one med or another constantly.  He didn't even want to see us because he thought it was time for more medicine.  We felt awful for him.  He had been declawed by someone in his former life and he would use his back legs to try to make us leave him alone when we wanted to treat him.  Poor baby.  It made us sick everytime we thought about those people who swore they loved him.  It took over 3 months to finally get him on the road to good health.  His eyes and ears cleared up and his horrible sore was finally healed.  Mr Magoo finally forgave us for all the treatments we had to give him.  He loved to have his back scratched and would purr for us instead of trying to kick us with those back legs.  He learned that we only wanted to help him and love him. 

Even when he was at his worst, you could see what a beautiful cat he was.  He was what I consider to be a perfect Persian.  He did not have the terribly squashed face that some Persian cats have.  He was just perfect. 

Nellie came to us in March, 2003. It took her about 6 weeks to feel secure and comfortable with the other cats here. Her former person was very ill and went to live with his elderly mother. She would not let him bring Nellie with him and his adult children did not want her either so Nellie was left completely alone in her home. A kind friend would go and feed her every day. Time passed and Nellie only saw this gentleman for a few minutes a day. Eventually she became very fearful and would hide from him or lash out at him when he tried to pet her. He tried to take care of her but knew she could not continue living like she was. Almost 7 months had passed by then. He contacted me and we had to trap her because she was so afraid of people. When I brought her home, she was terrified and hid for several days. Slowly, she began to come to us for special treats and finally for petting. It took her even longer to adjust to being around other animals.
We called her Nellie because she was such a Nervous Nellie! She loved to sleep on her back and eat treats. She would still "disagree" with the other cats sometimes but she got better every day. It took a few years but she finally learned to snuggle up to the other cats and even the dogs.  She spent the rest of her life with us knowing that she was safe and loved and would never be left alone again.

Darren was rescued at 2 1/2 weeks with his sister Samantha and was raised with another orphan kitten named Midge.