Welcome the 9th member of our family... Baloo

Well, it's official. Unfortunately, with 8 inside, we simply can't add a 9th, so Baloo has to remain outside.

Baloo showed up at the end of this past Winter, and was TNRd on Feb 23 (2011). The vet practice deemed him feral as he "tried to eat the vet." But he became friendly FAR too fast, so we knew he'd been someone's pet at some point. He is probably about three years old.

He's been a regular since then, going on excursion VERY infrequently, and only once for more than a couple of days.

But he's a big ol' cuddle bug. It can be hard to walk around outside with him wrapping himself around our legs. He welcomes anyone who walks by. The other (feral colony) regulars are all female (and spayed, of course), and Baloo loves being in charge of "his" harem.

We were worried about how his winter coat was coming in, and we were worried about a cough. Lung worm is a common problem with our ferals, and as Chum was FIV+, we suspected Baloo may be too. His coat reminds us very much of Chumley's when we first rescued him (Spring 2010).

So we crated Baloo today and off to the vet we went. He did have lung worm, and he is FIV+. As no shelters or foster networks will take an FIV+ kitty around here, Baloo is now officially our baby boy.

FIV can only be transmitted via a deep bite wound. As the cats that turn up here are usually feral, they're unadoptable anyway. Baloo is not the least bit aggressive. If an intact male turned up, Baloo might fight with him - he might not. We don't know. But we think the risk is small that he'd be passing it on, and the vet agrees.

So we brought him back home and released him on "his" deck. He stepped out casually, went to sniff various spots, making sure everything was "right" in his world, then came to eat dinner and enjoy some pets, purring up a storm.

Our baby Baloo:

Thanks.

He sure did! What a sweetie, though.

This winter isn't going to be insanely difficult worrying about the kitties outside or anything...

We'll go take down all of his "Adopt Me" posters we've had up all summer. Didn't get even one call on him. That's OK, he is in good hands, and he's where he's loved.

I guess I should add... the "what if we move?" discussion Gary and I have had alreadyfrom time-to-time had resulted in the decision months ago that Tabby, Babygirl, Little Dot, and Baloo would have to go with us. I guess that means we're technically owned by 12.

I hope Turtle will let you enjoy relaxing in a bath!

Shhhhhhhh! Don't tell Gary! I'm not sure he realizes 8 inside and 4 outside means 12!

He does! He often looks very serious. And because of the white around his nose, to me he looks like an old, serious kitty.

Lung worm - the only symptoms are a cough that sounds like a URI. If you hear it, you're wondering if it's just a hairball, if it's bad, you're thinking URI? And if it's really bad, you rush to the vet because you think it's pneumonia. The other symptom is like with round worm, they eat a lot but don't gain weight - only you don't get the round belly.

If it goes untreated, it can kill them. They basically drown when their lungs fill with worms. Poor Flowerbelle was so bad off when we first rescued her, the vet that discovered the problem said she had maybe a day or two left before she would have drowned.

The ONLY way to get it is eating slugs or snails. And cats cannot pass it to each other like round worm, they can only get it from the host.

We've had a lot of slugs around here the past couple of years.

In fact, when Flowerbelle was discovered with lung worm, it was the first recorded case in the county in at least 20 years. Now it's quite common.

It can be detected in poop. The treatment is a shot of ivermectin, so basically if we hear one of the ferals coughing a couple of times and it sounds a little "wet," we take them in for a shot if it's been two weeks since they had revolution applied.

Of course.... we can only get revolution on two of them at this point.

But when they get sick enough, knock wood, we've been able to trap them. (In fact, we're usually able to crate them. Somehow, they know they need help, no matter how feral they were).

We've only had one injured feral we simply could not help. That was Tabby, earlier this year. She broke her leg or sprained her ankle or something. It nearly broke our hearts. But whatever it was, she healed up just fine, thank goodness.

So are we. It is one of those stories that would be funny if it hadn't been so serious. But we were still new enough to rescue that when she was released from the hospital we didn't run through the checklist. And one of the things they hadn't done was check her poop in a microscope before sending her home with us. She had a bad cough - but she had a URI and herpes. She was home.. 2 days? when Gary said he wanted a 2nd opinion.

So we found a new vet and took her. He listened to her chest, and at first thought she had pneumonia, or perhaps really bad asthma. The xray looked like she had no room for air in her lungs. But they were really puzzled by the xray, as it wasn't clearly anything. But he continued the exam, and used a little tool thingy to get a poop sample so he could look at it under the scope, and came running in the exam room all excited, and said to Gary, "you have GOT to see this!" He'd never seen a poop sample as packed with parasites as hers was. He'd also never seen that parasite. Several other vets got involved and they pulled out all their books, and finally figured out what it was. And that explained the xray. Poor little baby had survived by eating slugs. It was just heartbreaking.

Why THESE kitties outside would be eating slugs, I don't know. They have both wet and dry food and so many little critters to hunt - heaps of field mice around here, and lots of crickets....