this is going to be long and rambling. i'm upset and frustrated but i need to get this off my chest. my neighbor across the street, who is a math professor at UCR, single and has 2 cats.they're about 8 years and sisters. she goes to Germany during the summer for 2-3 months. the guy doing the catsitting is a weirdo. he's in his early 50's and is, according to her, a genius re: math. he's so focused on his math that he doesn't have a place to live, he house/petsits for people. but he dopesn't know anything about cats or even how to inter-act w/people.for example when asked for the street address of the house of my neighbor he turned to me with a blank stare. he had no clue re: # or streetname. and he's been staying there for 2 months ea year for 3 years. she had told me she was going to germany the day before she left from june 12th to aug.16. and if the 'mad genius' had any questions or needed a ride to the vet would i? i said okay.
he comes over saturday at 11:30pm and tells me one of the cats, Tatra, is acting kind of lethargic and seemed out of it and if he could bring her over for me to take a look. i went to 'his' place instead. she was sitting on the kitchen floor looking dazed. there was a puddle of pee next to her, which he insisted was water. i asked if she went in the backyard that day. he said he thought so and why? i was thinking poising of some kind and went out back to look around. he said thats impossible, like i was crazy. he shut up when i said half a tsp of antifreeze could kill a cat.
anyway, i went back in and coaxed her to the waterdish and got her to drink a little water. the inside of the house was very hot. i asked him if the windows were shut all day and he said yes. he doesn't ever run the air because it didn't feel that hot to him. it's been about 95 this week-end. i told him to keep a close watch on her.
when i got back i e-mailed the cat-owner. that was 24 hrs ago. the sitter comes over this morning and asked could we take hm and the cat to the emergency hospital, 6 mi from here. so there we went and after x-rays etc the vet told us that 1 of her kidneys is shrivelled up, the other enlarged, she is full of very hard stool (neighbor only feeds dry-food) her white blood cell count is way up and her temp below normal and very severely dehydrated. she could get better with fluids for days or weeks or it could get bad very quick, like deciding whether to euthanize. by then i'm in tears. so now she's there on fluids and iv's. the clinic closes at 8am and the sitter arranged for transportation from there to her reg vet. sitter only rides a bycycle and my husband has the car to go to work.
what i'm upset about is i've been calling and e-mailing the owner for 24 hrs and no response. i've e-mailed her mom and a friend of her moms who both live in Japan to see if they have a way to get a hold of her.
i knowher parents are pretty well of but i don't know her financial situation. this can get expensive. if it wasone of my own 9 whatever it costs. but i cannot make a decision on whether to euthanize some one elses cat.
Tatra has a history of URI'S and was on anti-biotics when owner left. on the 4th july week-end, on sat. night sitter comes over at 8pm and said he saw blood in Tatra's pee. i was leaving to feed my strays and said we'll take her in, i'll be back in 45min. i go over to the house w/cat carrier (they don't have one) and he tells me he needed another 30 min before he could go because he had to put some stuff up(?). i go back home, tell Dh, go back after 15min annd told him we needed to go now, i didn't want to sitting at the vets til midnight. he said to me 'if you stop asking stupid silly questions and stop bothering him he could be done sooner and that i didn't want to know what he really thought of me. then he said 5 min more and shuts the door in my face. i lost it and said 'you are an a**hole. he opens door and said wwhat did you call me? i repeated it and said you're on your own. by the time i got home i was crying. told dh and he talked to him . dh comes back and said we're taking them to clinic. the sitter brings the cat over, cat sees carrier and runs back home. we catch her and she was given anti-biotics and send home. what upset me was the owner e-maiking me on tuesday saying that we should've talked to her 1st and we didn't need to take her to emergency but waited and take her to reg vet on tues. that Tatra had a history of URI'S and it could've waited.
the sitter spnds most of his time at ucr, less than a mile from here and loses track of time. now i'm worried about the other cat, Nadia, alone in the house. he nor she believe in leaving at least some nightlights on. and the windows are closed and no AC. owner doesn't use it much either. owner has a habit of not checking messages/e-mails reg.
i'm hoping and praying i'll hear from her soon. i don't know what else to do. sitter doesn't have a clue. when the vet asked him questions he'd start talking and then in the middle of the sentence say 'what was the question again?
sorry this is long & rambling. but i had to get it off my chest. here goes another pretty much sleepless night since i'm a worrywart.
he comes over saturday at 11:30pm and tells me one of the cats, Tatra, is acting kind of lethargic and seemed out of it and if he could bring her over for me to take a look. i went to 'his' place instead. she was sitting on the kitchen floor looking dazed. there was a puddle of pee next to her, which he insisted was water. i asked if she went in the backyard that day. he said he thought so and why? i was thinking poising of some kind and went out back to look around. he said thats impossible, like i was crazy. he shut up when i said half a tsp of antifreeze could kill a cat.
anyway, i went back in and coaxed her to the waterdish and got her to drink a little water. the inside of the house was very hot. i asked him if the windows were shut all day and he said yes. he doesn't ever run the air because it didn't feel that hot to him. it's been about 95 this week-end. i told him to keep a close watch on her.
when i got back i e-mailed the cat-owner. that was 24 hrs ago. the sitter comes over this morning and asked could we take hm and the cat to the emergency hospital, 6 mi from here. so there we went and after x-rays etc the vet told us that 1 of her kidneys is shrivelled up, the other enlarged, she is full of very hard stool (neighbor only feeds dry-food) her white blood cell count is way up and her temp below normal and very severely dehydrated. she could get better with fluids for days or weeks or it could get bad very quick, like deciding whether to euthanize. by then i'm in tears. so now she's there on fluids and iv's. the clinic closes at 8am and the sitter arranged for transportation from there to her reg vet. sitter only rides a bycycle and my husband has the car to go to work.
what i'm upset about is i've been calling and e-mailing the owner for 24 hrs and no response. i've e-mailed her mom and a friend of her moms who both live in Japan to see if they have a way to get a hold of her.
i knowher parents are pretty well of but i don't know her financial situation. this can get expensive. if it wasone of my own 9 whatever it costs. but i cannot make a decision on whether to euthanize some one elses cat.
Tatra has a history of URI'S and was on anti-biotics when owner left. on the 4th july week-end, on sat. night sitter comes over at 8pm and said he saw blood in Tatra's pee. i was leaving to feed my strays and said we'll take her in, i'll be back in 45min. i go over to the house w/cat carrier (they don't have one) and he tells me he needed another 30 min before he could go because he had to put some stuff up(?). i go back home, tell Dh, go back after 15min annd told him we needed to go now, i didn't want to sitting at the vets til midnight. he said to me 'if you stop asking stupid silly questions and stop bothering him he could be done sooner and that i didn't want to know what he really thought of me. then he said 5 min more and shuts the door in my face. i lost it and said 'you are an a**hole. he opens door and said wwhat did you call me? i repeated it and said you're on your own. by the time i got home i was crying. told dh and he talked to him . dh comes back and said we're taking them to clinic. the sitter brings the cat over, cat sees carrier and runs back home. we catch her and she was given anti-biotics and send home. what upset me was the owner e-maiking me on tuesday saying that we should've talked to her 1st and we didn't need to take her to emergency but waited and take her to reg vet on tues. that Tatra had a history of URI'S and it could've waited.
the sitter spnds most of his time at ucr, less than a mile from here and loses track of time. now i'm worried about the other cat, Nadia, alone in the house. he nor she believe in leaving at least some nightlights on. and the windows are closed and no AC. owner doesn't use it much either. owner has a habit of not checking messages/e-mails reg.
i'm hoping and praying i'll hear from her soon. i don't know what else to do. sitter doesn't have a clue. when the vet asked him questions he'd start talking and then in the middle of the sentence say 'what was the question again?
sorry this is long & rambling. but i had to get it off my chest. here goes another pretty much sleepless night since i'm a worrywart.
