Backwards In High Heels

When an animal is ill....

Trulli was discharged from the Vets yesterday and it was such a relief to get him home. I have missed him so much as he is the one who tends to cuddle up on my bed at night.

On the journey home he was his usual vocal self. He doesn’t like travelling and has a very pained waul which starts as high as Jimmy Somerville and descends into Barry White after a few miles. He also had a wee in his carry case which I was more than happy to see in the circumstances! He is overjoyed to be home and, touch wood, it is going well so far.

On the subject of pet health though one thing is making me stamp my feet in paddy at the moment.

As a competition addict I often sift through the women’s and real-life story magazines as they are a great source for comps. One magazine has a psychic problem page. People send in a photo of Great Auntie Mildred’s prized ornament and the psychic writes how happy Auntie is on the other side with some wonderfully vague ‘proof’.

Now, as it happens I do believe in the afterlife, that there are more things in heaven and earth etc and have even had what some would call supernatural experiences. I also believe in charlatans and placebos.

Part of the page has people sending in photos of pets and the psychic dolls out advice. Now if the advice is that the photo of deceased Bunny Wunny tells them they are happy in the endless lettuce fields of rabbit heaven well fair enough, no harm done but these aren’t the only letters.

A recent one was a picture of a dog and the worried owner wanted to know why their doggy wasn’t eating much anymore.

The pet psychic, armed with the photo and vibes, said not to worry the dog was telling her he just has a small appetite.

Really? You don’t think a visit to a qualified vet may be in order. As I say there have been a few letters relating to pet health and I want to know why the answer isn’t a simple ‘GO TO THE VET YOU MORONIC ARSE’.

What sort of pet owner sees their charge come home limping and off their food and thinks ‘oh I know, I’ll take a photo and send it to a magazine psychic, that’s the right course of action.

I’ll go lie down in a darkened room with Trulli for a while…..

cat, cats, cat+welfare, cat+heatlh, animal+welfare, animal+health, psychic, pet+psychic, vets

Revolving Cat Flaps

Time to bring you up to date with some cat news.

Firstly Bomber and Bruiser, the two black brothers we have hand rear from birth are now four months old and are still in our care. The situation regarding unwanted cats and kittens is so bad in the East Midlands there is a huge backlog of animals and not enough new homes coming forward. Sadly Bomber and Bruiser are casualties of this. When homes do come forward a lot of people aren't interested in black cats - its madness! I would dearly love to home them with my lot but would need at least £500 to extend my garden unit and sadly my gardening skills haven't cultivated a money tree as yet. We will keep pushing for them to get a good home of their own and until then they are having the time of their life here.

Of the other set of hand rears from birth, three survived and it was a very tough job. They really were weak little mites and the 2 hourly feeds went on for a long time. There is however the most glorious end to this story. All three siblings have been homed together to a home I'd quite frankly like to go to!! Out in the countryside with a huge garden, orchard and rolling fields around them. They are being spoilt rotten - it is everything I ever wanted for them.

I purposely did not write about this next case until we had some form of conclusion. Some of the initial photographs may upset some of you and that is why I have waited to write this post so I can quell that upset with the (very) happy ending!

These kittens came to us in a very sorry state, in fact one of the worst I have seen in a long time. They came from one household out of which we took 18 kittens and over 30 adult cats. Now you may expect me to get on my high horse about the householders in question but I won't because they did the right thing in the end - they phoned and got help. It is the houses we never learn about that cause me the sleepless night. For whatever reason people get themselves and animals into a mess - ask for help.

We took in four of the poorest of the kittens. All were very thin and needed their rear ends trimming as they were long haired kittens and their bottoms were sore from matted poo and also from suckling on each other for moisture. Two of the kittens turned around very quickly with good grub and Kip went to live shortly afterwards with one of the vet nurses who helped care for them when they were first admitted to the vet hospital.

Pickle was also a fine kitten who just needed feeding up, and he was reserved by one of the vets who had treated the cases. Another of the kittens was Echo:

She was particularly thin, had conjunctivitis and her skin reacted badly to the flea bites she had received. I am over the moon to say she now looks like this:

And better news again, the vet who adopted Pickle also took her. What a life they are going to have!

The worst case of the four was undoubtedly Gabriel. He was also underweight but had a serious eye ulcer. At one point we thought he may lose the eye completely. We've dealt with a lot of bad eye cases but this one even made us squeamish, even this photo doesn't do it justice:

Thankfully he responded well to treatment and though he has been left with a cloudy eye he does retain some sight. Even though this must have been painful, and the eye treatment frightening, he blossomed into the most lovely kitten and soon looked like this:

He has fallen on all four paws regarding a home. The loveliest retired couple have adopted him and simply worship the ground he walks on! They phoned a couple of days ago to give us a report of how well he has settled in. Those are the phone calls that make it all worthwhile.

On Monday we took in another kitten who I have called Dimple Dumpling. I'll put her story in another post as what a story it is so far!

Tech Tags: animal+welfare, cat+welfare, kitten+welfare, kitten, kittens

Goodbye Zuzu

Today we said our final goodbye to Zuzu.

Over the last 36hours she became very tired and withdrawn, and we knew it was time to let her go. This morning she came downstairs and walked across to Wilbur and gave him a little nose rub. She often liked to sit near Wilbur, they seemed to have an understanding of one another but I'd never seen them 'kiss' like that before. She then sat down quietly opposite him and for the first time, let out a little whimper before walking across and getting on my knee. I swear she knew.

The vet and his nurse kindly came to our home to put her to sleep in her own surroundings so it could be as stress free as possible. It was oddly calm. As the vet clipped her leg though she did have a cry out at which point I started to get distressed; then the strangest thing happened. Wilbur appeared from nowhere and attacked the nurse's bottom! For those who haven't 'met' Wilbur I will do a post about him, he is one of the worst cases we ever rescued. He is 14-15 if he is a day and has a Parkinsons like tremor, one of the most unique characters I have ever met (and I'm including humans in that.)

So as not to cause distress to Wilbur I took him out into the garden for a walk and had a good weep stood by the back window as I watched her slip peacefully away.

I do believe in the afterlife and as such believe there's a good line up of Hobbs' on the otherside, not least of all my great-Uncle Tom (great in all senses of the word). I am trying to think of it in the sense that it was time to rehome her to Uncle Tom.

Still, I am feeling incredibly flat and teary tonight.