Dex in Serious Trouble

Dex got a cold about three days ago. Two days ago she went into hiding, which clued me that she was in big trouble. Dex never hides. She is always wanting on my lap or beside me in bed. Night before last I put her in the sick cage and began massive sub cu fluids, vaporing stints, antibiotics, which are hard to get down her, because she's gagging.

Gagging is a symptom of kidney failure also.

She functions ok when not stressed by something like a cold. But if she gets anything, due to age and her kidney function being so low, she can be gone quickly, which is what is going on now.

She's been on a heating pad, snuggled into hot water bottles and with help of the infant vaporizer, the muscous is loosening at least, so she can snorfle and try to sneeze it out. I thought yesterday about getting her a convenia injection today. Convenia is a long lasting antibiotic injection and very helpful for hard to medicate cats, for whatever reason they are hard to medicate. In Dex's case, it's her gag reflex.

I've weighed the cost back and forth in my mind, with her liklihood of survival, which is not high.

Today she'll get the injection and a better chance, with it, at pulling through this latest crisis. I wish I was rich. Or even not constantly struggling financially. That would sure help.

If I don't get her the shot, I'll question myself. She probably will not live either way.

Fat Zach has fans visiting tomorrow who may adopt him. What do you think of that? I am both hopeful and in horror over the idea he might be leaving here. I love Fat Zach. But....I have lots of cats here to love and he'd likely get more of the love he craves in a home of his own.

I have some exceptional cats here: Zach, Valentino, Sage, Starry, Slurpy......it's hard to part with any of these exceptionals. But if the home is right, I will. Valentino has thrown off the balance here, because he is so possessive of me and always on my lap. The other cats get no chance now. It's hard on them.

He likes Miss Daisy and Fat Zach. He does not like Slurpy, Starry or my own cat, Electra, because, when he first came here, they were not very nice to him. He'd like to make up with them, but there's distrust on both sides.

Electra, too, is quite old. 13 years old now. Vision, my Corvallis river cat, is ancient. 17 now. I keep thinking this will be her last year, but she plays like a kitten and especially adores two other black tux long hairs, the brother and sister pair, Panda and Solomon, originally from Lebanon. They're six years old now. Time flies.

A bus driver, who adopted some Corvallis river cats, when I was trying to save them, including Scratch, the sister of Captain Courageous, says Scratch and Half-n-half are both still alive. Scratch is 16. The River Cats have formidable genes and wonderful natures. Scratch lived among the rocks down from Mater Engineering while Half n Half was part of the alley cats who lived between Mater Engineering and Allan Brothers warehouse. The Alley Tribe also included Paint, Muddy, Stripe and Mouse.

They're all dead. Stripe and Muddy died in the river project. They were brothers. Paint and Mouse went to this woman and her husband who live out near Alsea, but worked in Corvallis. They wanted mousers then did not contain the cats even one night, with a huge windstorm coming in, even though they had promised to. It was sickening and still is, to think about the way she treated them and gave them no chance at all.

Half n Half ended up alone in the alley. I spent a freezing Christmas Eve out trying to re-trap her, to save her from the river project. The bus driver, who had adopted Scratch out of my low income high rise apartment, before I left it due to severe roof leaks, then took in Half n Half, too.

I spent massive time re-trapping Vision also, to save her from the River Project. She'd play nights on the bulldozers and other equipment down along the river for the project. I knew it would not end well for her so I made the exhausting effort to get her out. I finally used a mouse from Petco, to catch her. I put the mouse in a small cage behind the trap. The mouse survived just fine and went to a woman in Monmouth later who had a couple other pet mice and took Baitman in.

Captain Courageous, who had been fed since she was a kitten, by old man Ray, had moved farther south to live along the Mary's when the project began. He pledged to take her in, almost daily since I met him, and he never did and she finally became ill he said, at which point I raced over, tried to find and save her too, since he was and is so lazy and lame. I could not find her.

I still curse old Ray and his never ending bullshit promises. Old Ray had fed the River Cats and allowed them to reproduce way before I ever met him. An old woman fed cats farther south and along the Mary's and she even offered to pay for Rays' river cats to be fixed, if he'd catch them. Ray was retired from the university and lazy as sin. He never fixed one of those cats or donated a dime to help get them done, when I got it done.

I have little respect for lazy old men full of bullshit but I'll listen to their stories.