I Feel So Helpless...

I live in an apartment complex and went to take one of my cats outside to play and saw a skinney stray. She was SUPER friendly and besides being skinny, looked OK. Of course she could have any number of problems. I want to help her soooo bad but am completely dead broke. (I had to pay tuition and am living off of roman and p&j's, type of deal), Anyway I was wondering if anyone knows of any facilities I could give her to, or at the very least could spay her for free or low cost. I live in Arlington TX (DFW area)and would be willing to go about 100 miles in any direction to help this sweetheart of a kitty. :angel2: I would like to get her tested for Fivfeliv, but that test around here is $50 or more...There are a few no kill shelters, but I don't think they would take a cat that they know nothing about(sick ect..)Any suggestions?

Try calling one of the No-Kill shelters before you write them off. Also, get in touch with Alley Cat Allies, they may be able to help.
http://www.alleycat.org/

Best of luck.

Here is a pic of her. She is sooooooooooooooo sweet.

Click here for a listing of no kill shelters listed by state.

Thank you,
I've been looking at the ones around my area and will give several a call tommarow morning. Her hair is falling out pretty bad but she doesn't have any bald spots or any kind of bad looking skin. Could it just be due to poor diet? Also, is there any special food that I should be feeding her since she is skinny right now. I have kittens at the moment and feed them Purina One Growth and development, the firt two ingredients are Chicken and chicken byproduct ,who knows what that could be!!

I'm glad you're going to call the no-kill shelters in your area. They are there to take in homeless cats. If the cats are sick, they will get medical attention. If they have a lethal illness, they will be put to sleep.

If the no-kill shelters are full, then try calling local area vets to find the local "crazy cat person." Do not be afraid to ask this question! Vets (or one of them) is likely to know if there is someone in the area who can help. Our vet certainly knows who to call!

If the no kill shelters are full, don't most of them have a waiting list? If so I'll put her on one of those. And in the mean time, get my fiance to spot me the money to get the fivfelv test and if it's negitive I'll bring her in and keep her in the bathroom. It's better than being out there with all those dangers. I went outside a while ago and called to her she came inches from getting run over just to come to me. I don't know what I would've done if she had got run over, the truck had to slam on it's breaks....

From now on there is not going to be a car in sight when I call for her.

Is there anything else I should get checked before I bring her into the house? If only I could keep her I would in a heartbeat. It's breaking my heart right now cause she's meowing pitifully at the door. She want's in soo bad. She sees all of my other cats at the window and shes wondering what shes done to deserve this. I'm almost sure that she's either got lost or maybe she even has an owner who's just not taking care of her. Either way I've made up my mind to find her a GREAT home.

You can bring her in but you can't let her near your cats. She has to be isolated from them until she is vet checked. Have the vet look for the standard diseases, as well as ringworm, lice, fleas and ticks (if they are in your area) Royal Canin has an outdoor blend formula that is good to feed. But if she were meowing at my door, she would be in my bathroom- but that's just me. SAP written all over my face!

Just bring her in and keep her isolated away from your other kitties!

Good Luck with finding her a no kill shelter, and hope she's healthy.

keep us posted,sam

Thanks for everyones replies.
I called all of the No Kill Shelters in my area and every single one of them said they weren't taking cats. I have an appointment with the vet at 3:00 this afternoon after my last day class. I wanted to bring her in soo bad Hissy, but I know she has fleas and my only bathroom is carpeted and one of my kittens isn't vaccinated yet. I just didn't want to take a chance with her. I did at my old apartment complex and two out of the four cats I brought in had feline aids and luekemia ,and I was worried sick untill I moved(that's one of the main reasons I moved)that I didn't clean the bathroom good enough and one or all of them were going to be sick.

There is a really ritzy neigborhood right down the street from me and I'm thinking about putting out flyers there in case anyone is interested in adopting her. I just hope my rules aren't too strict! I want her to be an inside cat only and make sure that the people have had experiance with cats and if not fill them in on what they're getting into. Do you all think that's a good idea? Or do you have any other suggestions? I still haven't tried calling all the vets in the area asking for the 'crazy cat lady'!! That's a good idea though. Pray that everything will be OK with her!

I just got back from the vet and she's clean!!!!!!!!!!!
She's acting like her ears are bothering her but she doesn't have ear mites. A yeast infection perhaps? I let her loose in the house after walking her around the grand tour and she seems to like it fine! The other cats were not friendly with her but they didn't his either. My cats are pretty good around others. She's under the coffee table sleeping right now. She got a dose of advantage along with her check up and test and the doctor said it looked like she was about 2 1/2 years old. Umm...Oh, is the putting up flyers in the neigborhood thing good or bad you think? I would like it if she was close and I could check up on her from time to time.

That's wonderful news! She must be so happy to be sleeping inside your comfy home. I hope you will be able to find her a furever home soon. Thanks for being her

You're so wonderful! I'm so glad she's healthy. She sounds very much like a stray - I'd put up fliers if I were you.

If you want, there's an adoption agreement in the Rescue Resources section of www.savesamoa.org . (Click on the link in my signature line). It's in Word and PDF. If you download the Word version, you can change any of the conditions you want to. It's VERY stringent right now! (We had a bad experience adopting out two kittens once, and we never want to repeat that again!). But it sounds to me like you'll probably like it as is.

And there'll probably be some fighting among the cats at some point until they get the new order sorted out. It's usually best (less stress for all the cats) to keep newcomers in a separate room and introduce them slowly. But I know EXACTLY how you feel (and we do it all the time) - your heart aches thinking of her all alone in the bathroom or bedroom when there's this whole house out there.....

YOU GO GIRL! And keep us posted!

She's been inside for two days now (well, one and a half), and she slept in the bed with me all night right at my feet. I have never heard of a cat as sweet and as good as she is. She was an angel in the car, went straight to the litter box, hasn't scratched on anything except the cat tree, loves my beagle, (and she can be pretty playful!), hasn't even hissed at my other cats (6).... the list goes on and on! She's a licker too, 'bout took the skin off my arm this morning! If I only had three or four cats I would keep her! I opened the door and put her outside to see what she would do and she walked right back in!! I kindof knew that would happen though! Whenever I get the extra time I'm going to put up flyers and post those stipulations that were in the last post from LDG. Thanks for everyones concern and I'll kept you posted!

This is great news!!!! You are an absolute angel!

Good luck!!

I'd take the cat but I don't live in texas yet.. I plan on moving in the DFW area next summer. blah.