This is an ongoing story I have been writing for the newsletter at the shelter where I volunteer.
Hello There Human
By Howard Jones
Hello there human, my name is……….. Strange, I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to remember my name anymore. I had a name once and a human family who I thought loved me but it has been so long since I have seen them and I am so sick and hungry…..
The only reason that I got anywhere close to you is I am dying and things canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get any worse now. Since my human family abandoned me my life has been a feline Hell. I have starved because I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t know how to hunt like a wild cat does. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve had to drink bad water, eat rotten garbage, been attacked by dogs and had rocks thrown at me by humans and almost hit by a car. I have worms, fleas ear mites and am sick.
I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t know why I was abandoned. I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t do anything wrong, I loved my people but one day they loaded up most of their stuff and drove off leaving me behind. I waited for days crying for them and searching the neighborhood but I couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find them anywhere. What did I do to get left behind like that? I loved them purred for them played and made cute for them. I kept their laps warm and their feet too. I always used the litter box and never peed on the rug or anything.
What can I do to make you see that I cannot live without people to care for me?
I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want to die all alone. Please take me home or to a shelter but please help me.
If I live or if I die it is up to you now.
To Be Continued……
When I first saw Alexander I was absolutely appalled by his appearance. He literally was skin, fur, and bones. He was a fully-grown Tom who couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have weighed 6 lbs. When I weighed him on arrival at the shelter he weighed 5lbs 4oz. And this was a cat that was at least 5-6 years old.
I had the duty at the reception desk answering the phones, doing call backs and greeting people when I took a call from a woman in Eagle Point, a community about 12 miles from Medford who said there was a dying cat laying by a shed near the High School playground. I asked her if there was any way that she could gather up this cat and bring him in and she said that the cat has fleas and is dying and she would not put it in her car because she had a 13 mo. old baby and didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t really want to take any chances with her.
While a bit inconvenient it seemed like a good enough reason to me so I turned over the desk to one of the other Vols. And told Jan what I was doing and drove out to Eagle Point.
When I got there I saw this group of kids standing in a bunch and looking at this cat. I went over and say one of the saddest sights I have seen in a long time. He was this filthy, flea & tick infested, matted, rack of bones that quite honestly looked like he should have died a week before.
I squatted down to him, and he looked at me as if to say what took you so long? I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have an answer for him but to go get the blanket that I had brought and wrapped him up in it and put him in the carrier I had. I could literally feel every bone in his body and with all the fleas, ticks and ear mites it is a wonder he had any blood left.
When I got him back to the shelter Jan & Heather and I tried to get a blood sample but we couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t so we started him on a saline I.V drip and started to clean him up. 2 hours later we had gotten more than 50 ticks off of him and God only knows how many fleas. We put him in a cage with some food and called it a night. Only I found myself back at she shelter 3 hours later where I sat with him and a couple other sick ones the rest of the night.
I was sitting in one of the chairs asleep when Jan let herself into the Isolation building at 0530 that morning. She came in with a big cup of coffee and a roll that she went and got for me at the Dutch Bros kiosk when she saw my car in the lot while she was on her way to the gym. Alexander, I had decided on that name sometime during the night, was sleeping and had not eaten anything during the night but woke up when Jan came in and seemed to be a little better. She was ragging on me a little bit about not paying my rent or something since I was sleeping at the shelter and I said that I just couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t stay at home cause I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t think he needed to spend the night alone as sick as he was.
More later………………………………………………….
Hello There Human
By Howard Jones
Hello there human, my name is……….. Strange, I canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t seem to remember my name anymore. I had a name once and a human family who I thought loved me but it has been so long since I have seen them and I am so sick and hungry…..
The only reason that I got anywhere close to you is I am dying and things canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get any worse now. Since my human family abandoned me my life has been a feline Hell. I have starved because I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t know how to hunt like a wild cat does. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve had to drink bad water, eat rotten garbage, been attacked by dogs and had rocks thrown at me by humans and almost hit by a car. I have worms, fleas ear mites and am sick.
I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t know why I was abandoned. I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t do anything wrong, I loved my people but one day they loaded up most of their stuff and drove off leaving me behind. I waited for days crying for them and searching the neighborhood but I couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find them anywhere. What did I do to get left behind like that? I loved them purred for them played and made cute for them. I kept their laps warm and their feet too. I always used the litter box and never peed on the rug or anything.
What can I do to make you see that I cannot live without people to care for me?
I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t want to die all alone. Please take me home or to a shelter but please help me.
If I live or if I die it is up to you now.
To Be Continued……
When I first saw Alexander I was absolutely appalled by his appearance. He literally was skin, fur, and bones. He was a fully-grown Tom who couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have weighed 6 lbs. When I weighed him on arrival at the shelter he weighed 5lbs 4oz. And this was a cat that was at least 5-6 years old.
I had the duty at the reception desk answering the phones, doing call backs and greeting people when I took a call from a woman in Eagle Point, a community about 12 miles from Medford who said there was a dying cat laying by a shed near the High School playground. I asked her if there was any way that she could gather up this cat and bring him in and she said that the cat has fleas and is dying and she would not put it in her car because she had a 13 mo. old baby and didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t really want to take any chances with her.
While a bit inconvenient it seemed like a good enough reason to me so I turned over the desk to one of the other Vols. And told Jan what I was doing and drove out to Eagle Point.
When I got there I saw this group of kids standing in a bunch and looking at this cat. I went over and say one of the saddest sights I have seen in a long time. He was this filthy, flea & tick infested, matted, rack of bones that quite honestly looked like he should have died a week before.
I squatted down to him, and he looked at me as if to say what took you so long? I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have an answer for him but to go get the blanket that I had brought and wrapped him up in it and put him in the carrier I had. I could literally feel every bone in his body and with all the fleas, ticks and ear mites it is a wonder he had any blood left.
When I got him back to the shelter Jan & Heather and I tried to get a blood sample but we couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t so we started him on a saline I.V drip and started to clean him up. 2 hours later we had gotten more than 50 ticks off of him and God only knows how many fleas. We put him in a cage with some food and called it a night. Only I found myself back at she shelter 3 hours later where I sat with him and a couple other sick ones the rest of the night.
I was sitting in one of the chairs asleep when Jan let herself into the Isolation building at 0530 that morning. She came in with a big cup of coffee and a roll that she went and got for me at the Dutch Bros kiosk when she saw my car in the lot while she was on her way to the gym. Alexander, I had decided on that name sometime during the night, was sleeping and had not eaten anything during the night but woke up when Jan came in and seemed to be a little better. She was ragging on me a little bit about not paying my rent or something since I was sleeping at the shelter and I said that I just couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t stay at home cause I didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t think he needed to spend the night alone as sick as he was.
More later………………………………………………….
