Broken jaw needs wiring

[catwoman707]

 
Would a donation to MECATS help them?  If they need help, the cost of sending her overseas may be enough to help them relieve their financial pressures.

You read my mind, I was thinking that while working at the humane society today.

 

[jtbo]

Would a donation to MECATS help them?  If they need help, the cost of sending her overseas may be enough to help them relieve their financial pressures.

I don't know how much effect that would have, if there are over 200 cats, that share living quarters which each other, it would probably require quite major funding to get enough help so that they could build condos and separated areas for cats, maybe even find new location with more space. Every little helps of course to keep things at current level, but what image I have got from what Banana has wrote, only major funding would help enough to change biggest issues which I believe are limited space limited possibilities of privacy for individual cats and lack of separation of cats that have less medication / treatments done / health.

But at least cat litter costs should be minimal in UAE, if one has backyard, just dig a little and there is sand, but I don't know how much cat food costs there.

Over 200 cats means quite lot of poop however, good if one has lot of flowers, here they sell chicken poop in bags with high price as fertilizer for garden, maybe they could get more funding by cat poop fertilizer, only problem is where to find people to actually do the 'dirty' work.

Sadly I have no funds or much of room for more cats, also it seems to be that chicken poop company has covered the market too, so it is perhaps not realistically possible for me to help with relocating cat here, however if I hear someone needing a cat, I make sure to mention about this possibility to them.

edit: Maybe selling a cat with very high price could work, who would not want a cat that is most expensive in whole world? There is then of course one challenge of finding that reliable home where cat is cared for, but as cat has now interesting background, survival story actually, it might be special and for enough high price perhaps new owner would be hiring some person to train and care for a cat.

Something like 10 million might be good price, of course 1 million would be most expensive cat, but for some it might be so little that good home part is not happening?

Catch would be that all the money would go for rescue organizations.

Maybe crazy idea, but more crazy things happen every day.

 

[feralvr]

I'm a bit concerned about sending her so far away, I am in CA.
That is one LONG trip, and I have no idea how it works. 

I hesitate because of this, I suppose if I actually saw the conditions of where she is currently it might prompt me to go for it................it seems awfully stressful to put her through unless it's absolutely necessary.

I completely agree it would be extremely difficult to do BUT the fact that you even offered and thought of this just warmed my heart. :grphug:

 

[banana]

 
I'm a bit concerned about sending her so far away, I am in CA.

That is one LONG trip, and I have no idea how it works.

I hesitate because of this, I suppose if I actually saw the conditions of where she is currently it might prompt me to go for it................it seems awfully stressful to put her through unless it's absolutely necessary.

As mentioned before I recently imported two cats to the UAE one from Russia which is roughly a 5 hour flight and the other one from the UK which was roughly 8 hours. I was concerned about my 12 year old coming from the UK on a long flight because she is old and very timid but surprisingly she arrived in perfect shape.

The UAE is a country of about 6 million people and less than a million are actually natives. All the rest are expats working here. A great deal of these expats bring their pets with them when they move over here and take them back when they leave. The airline companies have plenty of experience in shipping pets.

It will not be cheap and I have no clue how much shipping to the USA would be but I will enquire out of curiosity.

The pets travel in a special part of the aircraft in the cargo hold which is temperature controlled and pressurised. It is also dark which is supposed to calm the pets down. I've read that once the airplane has taken off and is cruising most pets end up sleeping.

This cat has already spent about a month in a cage at the vet and I believe the cargo hold of the plane would be less stressful for her.

I need to visit her or call Petra to see if the cat is now approachable because the vet at the airports would need to examine her in Dubai and at her final destination as well as at any other airport she might transit through.

Last week I read on the facebook account of one of the cat rescue organisations in Dubai that they sent 5 cats to new homes in Germany so it is doable.

This particular cat will probably never get adopted because she is simply an adult black and white Arabian cat like thousands of others. If she was a fluffy white kitten she would POSSIBLY stand a chance of finding a home but I believe in the UAE this cat will end up spending her life at the shelter where she is now.

If you saw the condition of where the cat is at you would want her to find a home. Mecats are trying their best. They are keeping the cats off the streets and offering them a shelter and food  and love but they are struggling for space and money.

It would be fantastic if I could find a cat rescue society in the USA or Europe who is willing to work with me in collecting donations to find as many safe and happy homes as possible for these cats even if it's a cat at a time. But that would be in an ideal world.

I will start by getting a quotation for shipping to the USA to see if it's financially possible and then hopefully I can find a forever home outside the UAE for her. I love the following sentence that you have embedded under your name:

Saving one cat won't make a difference in the world, but it makes a world of difference to that one cat. So I want to try my best to make a world of difference to this cat.

Regards

 

[banana]

 
Would a donation to MECATS help them?  If they need help, the cost of sending her overseas may be enough to help them relieve their financial pressures.

For sure donations to Mecats would help. The cost of taking care of so many animals is extremely high and as I mentioned previously they are really struggling. But what would help them more is finding homes for the cats to reduce the financial burden on the rescue organisation.

 

[banana]

If there are over 200 cats, that share living quarters which each other, it would probably require quite major funding to get enough help so that they could build condos and separated areas for cats, maybe even find new location with more space. Every little helps of course to keep things at current level, but what image I have got from what Banana has wrote, only major funding would help enough to change biggest issues which I believe are limited space limited possibilities of privacy for individual cats and lack of separation of cats that have less medication / treatments done / health.

But at least cat litter costs should be minimal in UAE, if one has backyard, just dig a little and there is sand, but I don't know how much cat food costs there.

Sadly I have no funds or much of room for more cats so it is perhaps not realistically possible for me to help with relocating cat here, however if I hear someone needing a cat, I make sure to mention about this possibility to them.

At the moment the cats are confined to indoors only. If over two hundred cats were allowed to roam the neighbouring villas or even the grounds of the premises which acts as a shelter, the neighbours would complain and the municipality would shut them down for sure.

The food bills are high, the cat litter bills are high and the vet bills are very high.

Regards,

 

[banana]

I will contribute financially towards the transportation of this cat to a loving and secure place which she can call home If anyone might be interested. I've already done most of the work and the most expensive thing left to do is the transportation cost which might be surprisingly reasonable depending what country you live in.

Regards,

 

[catwoman707]

Just a thought, and others might know better than I do what is actually available, but there are online sites like gofundme (?) where they can have an acct and when kept well updated with photos of the place, and what the latest donations have done to improve/help things, people are very generous in donating to a cause like this type.

Regardless of the cat's staying there or not, just something she should know about.

Especially if she can have a fund in the U.S.

 

[banana]

UPDATE 27/DEC/14

Just an update for anyone that has been following this story and would like to know the current fate of the cat.

I visited Mecat's premises two days ago and as I thought the cat still hasn't been adopted. I don't expect her to be adopted anytime soon either. For potential adopters she is just a regular black and white adult cat. If a potential family is found willing to adopt a cat they generally go for the rarer or ''more beautiful'' cats at the shelter.

The good news is that she is now approachable and you can even touch and stroke her. This makes me both happy and angry.

Happy that she stands a better chance of possibly finding a home.

Angry with everyone including the original vet that suggested that I euthanise her as she is too wild and feral to ever be tamed. Of course she is still a long way away from becoming a lap cat and she most probably will never become one but at least she will let you touch and stroke her which is a good sign and a step in the right direction.

Regards

 

[misterwhiskers]

I haven't been able to read but the beginning of this thread and the last few entries but goodness, thank you for helping her. She is quite pretty and I hope she lives a long and happy life.

 

[msaimee]

Banana, that is great news. Perhaps some day your living situation will change and you will be in the position to take her home with you. I suspect she will never forget you.

I think many vets and vet techs do a great disservice to people when they tell them that ferals can never be socialized or be suitable for being cared for by humans. A better way for vets and vet techs to communicate with clients who bring them ferals for treatment would be to tell them that it takes a great deal of time and patience to socialize a feral cat, and that some may never become affectionate or adjust to living indoors only--but that most can adapt to being cared for by a human caregiver in some capacity. When a feral or semi-feral is trapped and brought to a vet office for neuter/spay and other veterinary care, they are not at their best--they're scared out of their wits. You cannot fairly make a judgment about how a cat will respond to people based on this type of traumatic situation. Once a cat is released and cared for either inside a home or outside a home by a loving caregiver, it can relax and start to trust, and its true personality will come out. Some ferals are meant to remain outside and free, cared for by a caregiver, and others can adjust to being indoors, but one thing is for certain--there's no way this can be ascertained while a cat is in a cage in a strange veterinary office, being handled by strange hands and having sharp needles poked into its skin. This is such common sense that it makes me angry, too, that vets and vet techs aren't more educated about something so basic.

 

[jtbo]

There are so many places where I have read that cat can't be socialized after 8 weeks, or how over 1 year old feral is better put to sleep as it is too stressful for feral to be indoors and impossible to be socialized.

It is not really so, at least I have not yet found such feral that would be such impossible, but it takes time and one can't really force it, things happen at cat's pace.

I guess that misconception comes from people who really can't read cat, from people who don't truly get that one can't force cat, you can force dog or horse, but cat is not such, their skull is too thick, making them way too stubborn to be bend to other ones will by force and I think even many professionals don't quite get that.

For example I can pick up one of mine, he will struggle and jump off from lap immediately given the chance, but I can also play, gently stroke him, make him into mood where he wants to get onto my lap and he will happily jump onto my lap and spends great deal of time one my lap purring and begging for belly rubs.

At vet assistant attempted to get him out of carrier by grabbing and pulling him, so he clawed and bit assistant, it took just blink of an eye, I could not even see what happened, but I could see glove was cut and blood was dripping.

Indeed ferals are not impossible, they take more time, sometimes they are bit more challenging, but given the time and space one can learn what they truly are and with time one can build up trust and socialize far older ones than many places claim being impossible.

It is indeed odd how at vet they seem not to really know or understand how cats actually work, or maybe they just don't believe people might have ability to care for those more difficult ones, who knows, but it is really great that there are people who don't believe all that and give cats another chance

 

[msaimee]

Some ferals are indeed meant to remain outdoors, and would be too greatly stressed to be kept indoors. There's nothing wrong with being a caregiver to an outdoor feral cat. As long as ferals have someone to feed them and some sort of shelter for cold weather, many ferals can live long, happy lives outdoors. Most people who TNR ferals release them back outside instead of trying to keep them inside.

In my case, I've socialized 2 ferals to live indoors--one was 3-4 months old when I took him in, and I successfully and completely domesticated him in 5 weeks. He already was familiar with me because his father cat used to bring him to my porch to get fed, so I was not a stranger. The other was a 10-12 month old female who somebody had shot when she was young. She cannot jump very high or run very fast, so once I trapped and spayed her and took her inside, she has never had a desire to be outside again. She is socialized to the point of being semi-feral--she tolerates some petting, but doesn't tolerate being picked up or held. The feral I take care of outdoors is a true feral who enjoys my care for him, but has no desire to come inside--for him, being kept captive inside would be stressful and depressing.

The point is that most ferals can at least be socialized to be cared for by a human caregiver, whether indoors or outside, but it takes lots of time and patience.  

 

[jtbo]

Some ferals are indeed meant to remain outdoors, and would be too greatly stressed to be kept indoors. There's nothing wrong with being a caregiver to an outdoor feral cat. As long as ferals have someone to feed them and some sort of shelter for cold weather, many ferals can live long, happy lives outdoors. Most people who TNR ferals release them back outside instead of trying to keep them inside.

In my case, I've socialized 2 ferals to live indoors--one was 3-4 months old when I took him in, and I successfully and completely domesticated him in 5 weeks. He already was familiar with me because his father cat used to bring him to my porch to get fed, so I was not a stranger. The other was a 10-12 month old female who somebody had shot when she was young. She cannot jump very high or run very fast, so once I trapped and spayed her and took her inside, she has never had a desire to be outside again. She is socialized to the point of being semi-feral--she tolerates some petting, but doesn't tolerate being picked up or held. The feral I take care of outdoors is a true feral who enjoys my care for him, but has no desire to come inside--for him, being kept captive inside would be stressful and depressing.

The point is that most ferals can at least be socialized to be cared for by a human caregiver, whether indoors or outside, but it takes lots of time and patience.  

One of mine that I have not seen long time ago was also very feral, she was 4-5 years old according to vet when I took her indoors, had lived wild before that, she did run straight up to vertical wall at the beginning, it took months until I saw her after first days, despite sharing living space (well, she had own room back then with door closed and cat flap on door so she could access my side when wanted), but I got to point that she tolerated some petting when she was at her bed, she even learned to come back in after visiting outdoors, but one day she did not returned, it was warm summer then, I know she did spend good part of summer at one nearby farm, but when I went to trap her she had begone and haven't seen her or heard from her since.

Two boys were about 12 months old, before I took them in, they were outdoor ferals before and I fed them, but took months to even see them at indoors too, now after few years both are purring lap cats, other one just recently has learned to enjoy to be on lap. Other one who jumps on my lap is also odd one, he gets spooked very easily so if I move too fast he hides, he stuffs himself into between mattresses so that his tail and rear end sticks outside, thinking he is hiding. But generally after few strokes to head he relaxes and comes to ask petting or jumps on lap.

Three of the little ones were maybe 4 to 6 months old, it is really hard to tell, before I got them, their mother were shot and she gave them birth in forest, so they had no human contact, two one of those is very friendly, but does not like being on lap.

So even one of mine preferred outdoors, she learned to enjoy indoors too, she loved to play with me and even tolerated me sitting next to her on sofa, but it took time, more than a year and I'm quite saddened that I have not been seen her since, also by now all progress probably has gone wasted and it would be needed to be started from scratch, if she even is alive, but I'm still hopeful that at some point she will emerge somewhere and will return.

Oh yes, two boys did test few times how strong my 2nd floor windows were, but they quite soon realized that being futile attempt to get out.

Surely it is stressful time, but I really have not yet found any cat that has not learned to be relaxed indoors, I don't know if I find such in future, but I think that anything is possible, I doubt that many have given cat more than 12 months of time to get used to indoors, so that cat can be pretty much in own privacy with other cat as company, which I think is important in getting wild feral to get used to new way of living, it is quite unpractical for most, but I think needed to avoid overload.

 

[Norachan]

That's great news @BANANA  .She's made absolutely wonderful progress, considering she is at a shelter with so many other cats and probably not getting a lot of individual attention. To allow herself to be petted already is just amazing.

I think a lot of vets advise putting down injured ferals because they think people won't want to spend all the time and money nursing a cat back to health when they aren't going to have that cat as a pet once they've recovered. Of course it shouldn't be that way, all lives are equally precious regardless of whether it's the life of a street cat or the life of a beloved pet. Even the wildest feral responds to kindness. My avatar cat was feral for years before we met. It's taken three years, but now he's happy to have a home and lets me pet and pick him up. He goes out whenever he wants to but spends every night on my sofa.

You really were her saviour.

Does she have a name yet? Did you ever introduce your other two cats? You have a Russian Blue and a British Short hair, is that right?

 

[banana]

@Norachan

The boys at the shelter have given her a name but I forgot to ask what last time I was there. I was too busy meeting the roughly 300 other cats there and taking a small tour of the overcrowded premises.

I really fear for this shelter. They are really struggling financially and are in desperate need for donations. Money is drying up and unless some money is found soon there will be about 300 homeless cats, 11 homeless dogs and 2 homeless tortoises not counting the many street cats that visit the shelter's yard daily to be fed.

They really need some sponsors from outside the UAE as sponsors from within are few.

The rescue cat is still being held in a large crate but she is given short periods out of the crate to stretch and slowly mix with the other cats. The boys at the shelter can touch and stroke her and handle her without gloves or a towel. I believe that she will be able to adjust to being an indoor cat as she has already been confined to life indoors since the accident. It's huge progress from the first day that I found her and hopefully someone will adopt her one day.

You are right I have a Russian Blue and Domestic Short hair. You can meet them in this post http://www.thecatsite.com/t/287976/russian-blue-and-domestic-short-hair .

They have now finally accepted the fact that neither of them is going anywhere and actually greet each other in the morning by touching noses. The 12 year old occasionally hisses at the 1 year old after touching noses which I still do not understand why. They occasionally chase each other around the house when the 1 year old initiates play with the 13 year old.

Usually it's the younger cat running at full speed up to the older one and fluffing her fur while making herself look big and then running away again. The older one might ignore her but she also gives chase sometimes. The younger one will also get up on the sofa and wait for the older cat to walk past then she swipes at her from above (not with her nails) then she will jump down and run away. The older cat will give chase most of the time. They then turn around and the younger one will chase the older one back.

It's great watching my timid, grumpy old cat run around like a kitten. When the young one pushes her luck the senior cat will hiss or swipe at her to calm her down. But the little one will not give up and comes back for more playtime.

Regards