My wife loves animals, especially cats. We have two indoors, and feed 2 strays and a tamed feral outdoors. I don't need another cat.
So a couple weeks ago, she hears a kitten mewing, and mews back, and the next night he shows up under a car. We feed him, but after eating he disappears. Next time he shows up, I put a plate of food in a carrier, then hid. Suprisingly, he goes right in. I moved very slowly, and crept up from the side. When I got close enough, I slammed the door shut, and he was all claws and teeth trying to get out. If you try this method with a wounded kitten, use gloves, I just got lucky. Because Ralph "Bucky" Philips, the cop killer, had just been caught after a long chase, I named the kitten after him for the coincidental capture date. Ferals are outlaw cats in a way, and I liked Bucky for a cat name.
My wife stayed with him that night, and said he warmed up to her very quickly. She has a way with cats, but we thought it was a little strange for his first night. He was too young to be out on his own really. (8 weeks or so). The other odd thing was that he didn't like to stand up, he would to get to the food, or change position, but would always sit down immediately. When I looked at his tummy, there was a huge bulge down at the bottom. I read online about roundworms causing a swelled tummy, and hoped that was all that it was, but we got him to the vet as quickly as we could.
So the bad news at the vet, was that he had a huge opening in his abdominal wall, and that was his guts hanging out against his skin.
Let's get some perspective, our car is dying, we had to pay rent with the money we were going to use for a car because our account was frozen due to a debt collection issue and the vet keeps saying the phrase "At least $1000" over and over. He described in detail how this usually happens in the lower abdomen, it's tricky to work on, etc. But when he turned Bucky over to cehck more closely he got excited saying that the opening was up higher, and he though he'd have a good chance at recovery.
So we went for it, of course, after the surgery the vet started by saying "It was a real mess in there!" he had a tear from just below his chest all the way down to where his lower belly meets his leg. The doc did a lot of delicate work, but he thought Bucky had a pretty decent chance of making it. I think he also cut us a decent deal on the surgery, but his care has been over $1K so far. He's been a pretty good invalid. These days he's starting to get fiesty, just the way he should, and none of us can wait for the collar and stitches to come out. He could still die, or have something go badly wrong, but I'm happy with what we did, he got hit by a car, his guts hanging out, crying for his mother and looking for food in a neighborhood of tough street cats, raccoons, skunks and the occasional coyote and he never let it slow him down that he was about to die. I'll try to use him as an inspiration, and maybe you will too.
-Cheyenne
So a couple weeks ago, she hears a kitten mewing, and mews back, and the next night he shows up under a car. We feed him, but after eating he disappears. Next time he shows up, I put a plate of food in a carrier, then hid. Suprisingly, he goes right in. I moved very slowly, and crept up from the side. When I got close enough, I slammed the door shut, and he was all claws and teeth trying to get out. If you try this method with a wounded kitten, use gloves, I just got lucky. Because Ralph "Bucky" Philips, the cop killer, had just been caught after a long chase, I named the kitten after him for the coincidental capture date. Ferals are outlaw cats in a way, and I liked Bucky for a cat name.
My wife stayed with him that night, and said he warmed up to her very quickly. She has a way with cats, but we thought it was a little strange for his first night. He was too young to be out on his own really. (8 weeks or so). The other odd thing was that he didn't like to stand up, he would to get to the food, or change position, but would always sit down immediately. When I looked at his tummy, there was a huge bulge down at the bottom. I read online about roundworms causing a swelled tummy, and hoped that was all that it was, but we got him to the vet as quickly as we could.
So the bad news at the vet, was that he had a huge opening in his abdominal wall, and that was his guts hanging out against his skin.
Let's get some perspective, our car is dying, we had to pay rent with the money we were going to use for a car because our account was frozen due to a debt collection issue and the vet keeps saying the phrase "At least $1000" over and over. He described in detail how this usually happens in the lower abdomen, it's tricky to work on, etc. But when he turned Bucky over to cehck more closely he got excited saying that the opening was up higher, and he though he'd have a good chance at recovery.
So we went for it, of course, after the surgery the vet started by saying "It was a real mess in there!" he had a tear from just below his chest all the way down to where his lower belly meets his leg. The doc did a lot of delicate work, but he thought Bucky had a pretty decent chance of making it. I think he also cut us a decent deal on the surgery, but his care has been over $1K so far. He's been a pretty good invalid. These days he's starting to get fiesty, just the way he should, and none of us can wait for the collar and stitches to come out. He could still die, or have something go badly wrong, but I'm happy with what we did, he got hit by a car, his guts hanging out, crying for his mother and looking for food in a neighborhood of tough street cats, raccoons, skunks and the occasional coyote and he never let it slow him down that he was about to die. I'll try to use him as an inspiration, and maybe you will too.
-Cheyenne
