Those trailer park people called early this morning, wanting me to come get yet another cat. I have told them I can't take in cats, that the help offered was just for fixing, but they ignore this.
Their call came at 7:00 a.m., just as I'm trying to get ready to leave, to go pick up 12 other cats. I tell her this, but she won't relent and quit talking, so I hang up on her.
I took up 8 cats from one Tangent low income woman. She's so nice and sure doesn't whine and complain up and down and demand like the Stayton people, who have far more money.
Then I picked up four females off Knox Butte. They were two teen girls, the kittens of one of a pair of mothers. They found one mother with her kittens along the road, after seeing her in teh road dragging one kitten. Then they found the box the little family had been dumped in.
I already had one Stayton Siamese up at the clinic and then had the second in the car, 13 altogether in the car and one up at the clinic already. The road conditions were terrible. Driving rain, standing water on the road, blinding mists being thrown up by truckers' tires.
I debated whether to drive back to Stayton after dropping off the cats at the clinic. I had thrown a bag of fluids in my car, because the parkee had said the "kitten" was severely dehydrated.
I arrived, went inside their trailer, and all the older woman would say, hovering around me, following behind me was, "We can't keep him. We're throwing him back out if you don't take him." I fucking hated her today and told her daughter to keep that bitch away from me.
The cat isn't a kitten at all. It's an adult male. Very adult. Neutered. Front declawed, starved nearly to death, severely dehydrated and he had a swollen right upper jaw under his eye.
I gave him 180 cc of sub cu push fluids, managing to stick my thumb twice with an 18 guage needle in the process. Then I told the trailer park woman "I'm taking him. And I don't want to even see a glimpse of your mother as I leave. Is that understood?" The daughter nodded.
I took him straight up to the clinic. But I pulled over along the highway to call someone I know, to ask if she would help with a vet bill and described the situation. She didn't answer.
I went on to the clinic with him. Unbelievably, at 12:30 p.m., they already had all 14 cats fixed.
Dr. Chris took to the big male immediately and discussed cost effective measures. He felt his dehydration was partly due to problems drinking due to a bad upper tooth, which is also the cause of the facial swelling. Both his dehydration and extreme emaciation the vet felt were from being long on his own, either abandoned, lost or dumped, and, despite a faint heart murmur, he was confident the cat could recover.
He suggested combo testing then, if negative, antibiotics, sub cu fluids and in two weeks, removal of the bad tooth. Currently, he is too dehydrated and malnourished to undergo anesthesia so the bad tooth could be removed. He tested negative and got a long term antibiotic injection. Keni has him currently in a cage in her garage, all warm and snuggly in a nice fuzzy bed, comfortable and warm and safe.
My friend called back just in time, then called the clinic to take care of the bill and I could not stop sobbing. In relief, that the bill would be paid, since I have no money. In relief this horribly desperate cat finally found some kindness, some decent people who would help him, in his otherwise last moments on earth, so he could get basic needs met like food and water.
Who in the hell abandons a neutered declawed cat like that, let's a cat starve to death?
Today was Mac's luckiest day so far, I'd have to say. Maybe it was mine too, despite my grumblings. What a blessing to be able to help such a kitty, at his most desperate of times.
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