Rescuing cats isn't an easy business. In the six months I've spent doing this Ive seen far worse things than I saw in four years of soldiering.
I got my start in this when a neighbor brought me a one-day old kitten she'd found. He lasted less than 48 hours despite our best efforts. A week later we were presented with a cat with massive internal injuries--she didn't last 12 hours.
Enough!!! Time to to gain control over what was/still is an out-of-control breeding colony of cats who would end up dead in the street, on the curb or off to the side.
In late July I captured a young pregnant feral female--very feral, and I had little knowledge of how to handle such a cat. She escaped as we tried to transfer her from the trap to a holding crate; she ended up behind our bathtub. Two days later--still behind the bathtub--she gave birth to three kittens.
For a day or so they appeared healthy so I left things as they were. On the third day I noticed the kittens weren't moving. They were dead. We captured the female and had to use scissors to remove a dead kitten from her tail; we caged her and buried the kittens. Several days later, I observed a hunk of hair on her food dish. Only it wasn't just hair--it was the tip of her tail. She'd chewed it off.
To make a long story short she was treated for a respiratory infection (which I believe killed the kittens) and was treated for her self-amputated tail; and then she was released. I still see her, and she seems to be doing well.
Those of us who work with feral cats must keep a few things in mind: I't's not always a pretty business--tough choices need to be made and the consequences need to be lived with. Sometimes you get lucky, most times you don't and it occasionally comes together. In the end this is worthwhile work, no matter how ugly individual cases get--STAND FAST, AND CARRY ON...!
I got my start in this when a neighbor brought me a one-day old kitten she'd found. He lasted less than 48 hours despite our best efforts. A week later we were presented with a cat with massive internal injuries--she didn't last 12 hours.
Enough!!! Time to to gain control over what was/still is an out-of-control breeding colony of cats who would end up dead in the street, on the curb or off to the side.
In late July I captured a young pregnant feral female--very feral, and I had little knowledge of how to handle such a cat. She escaped as we tried to transfer her from the trap to a holding crate; she ended up behind our bathtub. Two days later--still behind the bathtub--she gave birth to three kittens.
For a day or so they appeared healthy so I left things as they were. On the third day I noticed the kittens weren't moving. They were dead. We captured the female and had to use scissors to remove a dead kitten from her tail; we caged her and buried the kittens. Several days later, I observed a hunk of hair on her food dish. Only it wasn't just hair--it was the tip of her tail. She'd chewed it off.
To make a long story short she was treated for a respiratory infection (which I believe killed the kittens) and was treated for her self-amputated tail; and then she was released. I still see her, and she seems to be doing well.
Those of us who work with feral cats must keep a few things in mind: I't's not always a pretty business--tough choices need to be made and the consequences need to be lived with. Sometimes you get lucky, most times you don't and it occasionally comes together. In the end this is worthwhile work, no matter how ugly individual cases get--STAND FAST, AND CARRY ON...!
