Who Was the Calico with the Brain Tumor? Warning: Graphic Images

The photos at the bottom of this post are graphic, of the top of the gravely ill calico's head, engulfed in a lethal tumor. I see such horrors all the time. It took a couple of women with very soft hearts, Marta the Mormon, and a neighbor near where Marta works, a lot of courage, to try to help such a horribly ill cat. They had to overcome their soft hearts, in a way, to deal with helping her. I salute them. Marta finally e-mailed me the photos she took of the cats' tumor, yesterday. I am still trying to figure out where the cat originated from.

If you remember the story.....


I am still trying to figure out where that gravely ill calico, with the brain tumor, who crawled under the house on 4th street, came from. She is the one my friend, Marta the Mormon, called me about that Friday, November 7, when I'd just delivered six cats to the Neuterscooter clinic in Veneta to be fixed, and had returned home hoping to sleep through the day, before picking up those cats, including Munchy, that night.

Marta works nearby. She had seen this calico, whom she thought had been shot, and of course wanted to help her. I went down. A neighbor, whom I actually knew from taking in cats for her, and for people she knew, was also trying to catch the injured cat. The cat retreated beneath a house I also knew. I'd taken in 10 cats to be fixed for that couple.

I was unable to get under the house because the foundation hole was too small. I could only work in my head and one shoulder and arm. This was enough. I had duct taped by trusty homemade net to a piece of PVC, to extend it, blocked the other exits from under the house, except for one, over which I put the transfer hole of the drop trap. Marta waited by the blanket covered drop trap, ready to put the transfer board back in place if the cat exited into the drop trap.

I steered the cat with the extended net to the hole and kind of pushed her out. Marta replaced the board on the drop trap and the cat was contained. Only then did we realize the horror of her plight. The neighbor was so upset she couldn't stand it, and called the police, who have access to a fund set up by SafeHaven, to help such horribly injured unclaimed strays, with vet care. I shepherded the poor cat into a live trap and the neighbor took her to a vet, where she was euthanized.

She looked like half her brain had been taken off, but it was in fact a tumor, more common to cats positive for FIV. The tumor is very smelly and the vet theorized someone dumped her because of the tumor and its smell, rather than care for her responsibly. FIV is so easy to prevent. If you get your cats fixed, the likelihood of your cat getting FIV is reduced to almost nothing, especially if you make sure all cats in your area are also fixed. Keep your fixed cat inside, and you reduce the risk to nothing. This disease is primarily passed by fighting males.

I've been going through pictures of cats I've gotten fixed in that area, and there have been scores, trying to identify where that cat came from. I got a ton of cats fixed two blocks from there, fed by a 7-11 clerk, who finally moved out of drug central. That district is also known as Felony Flats. One was a calico fed at a different location, but I don't think this is her.

I got at least one calico fixed for the woman who lives in the house under which that cat took refuge. I did not take a photo of that cat. I got a calico, feral, fixed for a woman who lived just north of that house then, but this cat did not have a right eartip. I got a calico fixed for some folks who briefly moved in with the neighbor trying to help the cat. But it was not that cat either.

I got a calico fixed at Hope's colony, only a few blocks from this location, but I looked at the photo of that calico, and it is not her either.

I got a calico fixed, along with 8 other cats, for a household two blocks east, but it isn't that calico.

Then I remembered a call from a rehab house of some sort two or three blocks the other direction. They had a sick Siamese male. This was the first of September. I never was able to contact someone who knew what I was talking about. I don't know if the woman who called me was a temp resident or what, but I had recommended a couple of options. The problem was I could not get a reliable contact person there. The Siamese was an outside unfixed cat and the symptoms this woman described were consistent with FIV. I was so taken, in her description, privately in my head. that this cat had FIV, that I described FIV, it's causes and symptoms to this woman and urged her to utilize other options to get the cat to a vet immediately.

I asked if they had other cats there. The woman said there was a calico. My guess is this was that calico. I will guess that Siamese is deceased also, if he had advanced FIV symptoms, as they described.

This photo of the calico was taken by Marta, after the cat was in the trap, with her cell phone camera, from above, so you are looking down at the top of the gravely ill cats' head. It is a graphic photo of a horrible tumor, so be warned.

The appearance information I garner from these photos, to identify the cat, using other photos of cats I've taken to be fixed, from that area, are: orange blotch running down left flank. Orange on left ear, black below left ear then a patch of orange on left side of face. Orange ring in the middle of dark colored tail.