But Sunday morning, everything changed, after a comment on my Happy Cat Club facebook page.
The comment came from Amy, who long ago, took two of ten bottle babes I had, all with coccidia and only 24 hours old. They were born to a teen mom as I trapped her. At that time, I was driving with cats all the way to Coos Bay. I took the bottle babes along, nursing them by bottle throughout the day, already exhausted from the trapping and the drive down to the clinic. I was too tired to continue. I sought out fosters for the babes, as the mom rejected them. She was too young and in bad shape herself.
Amy was one of the people who volunteered. And the two she took on are the only two who survived. I have held respect for her ever since.
The comment concerned someone she knew, who had never fixed his barn cats and had decided he'd shoot the excess. I asked her to call me immediately. She did. I said "go for it". She did. By now, Tuesday night, she and her husband have trapped 17 cats and kittens there.
Sunday afternoon, I called the clinic again, even though I knew they were not there, and left a message. The gist of the message was "never mind", "didn't mean it", "cancel the cancel of the reservations for Monday."
Well fortunately, I arrived Monday morning at the clinic with three adult females and two male kittens and they said they had figured I might come with cats anyhow. Guess they know my nature.
I had already asked my friend who places barn cats if she could take some and she agreed to take all five, even though two were just older kittens. During the day, the clinic called to say one of the boy kittens had bitten an assistant and could I quarantine for ten days. Well my friend has actually done that several times and she was willing to do that also (same one who places cats in barns). All good.
Here are the five:
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| Duster, a little boy kitten, fixed Monday at whs, then he went to my friend |
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| Gopher, the little guy who bit an assistant. He'd gotten out of the trap and they had to chase him down in the surgery room. He was neutered and is on bite hold with my friend. |
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| Fallon is a gorgeous tabby on white female, but, like the other two females, grossly underweight. All three were fixed Monday. All three were post partum but not lactating or pregnant. |
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| Gypsy, a tiny skinny black tux female fixed Monday. |
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| Rio, also post partum, also under six lbs, was so pathetic and skinny, it can just break a person's heart, but she is on the road to recovery and a better life I hope. |
The clinic is closed next week because of the eclipse. I have no official spay neuter reservations until the following Monday. I did get one offered me for Thursday and will use that for the most "endowed" of the two boys of the three adults in my garage. My friend who places barn cats is taking him Thursday. But that's not all. I told her the couple is overwhelmed with the 9 kittens they have now and she got on the phone and found fosters for 8 of them. So Thursday she'll take the kittens, then transfer them to the fosters and she will take on the adult to later place with others in barns. I only have the one open spay/neuter reservation, however, and three adults who need fixed in the garage.
We're getting this one under control quickly, nonetheless.
Also fixed Monday, three Brownsville kittens. Two big males, Sable and Xander, plus their mom, were already fixed. Well yesterday mom's three kittens were fixed at Heartland Humane, so fixing that family of cats is now completed.
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| This was the only boy. |
In other news, the old Catmobile experienced a suspension part failure yesterday. I don't know which part, but its clanking good with the smallest bump. I'm retiring it or selling if I can find a buyer who wants to fix it up. The suspension clank may be as simple as a ball joint or bushing.
But I'm tired of fixing it when I have a perfectly decent running car. I took the newer old car to Schwab today, for help tightening the emergency brake cable. I'll swap the tires and the battery to the new old car then maybe put it on craigslist "as is".
Plenty achieved this week. Why does the kitten have to be quarantined after biting the assistant?
ReplyDeleteIt's the law, just because he bit someone and was not yet vaccinated against rabies. They know it wasn't a rabies caused bite, it was a provoked bite, but its the law. We will follow it.
DeleteIt's how I got my first cat, Electra, by the way. I was transferring cats at a mobile FCCO clinic being held in a building under construction and she got away from me, and charged up a wall into open wiring. I hit the main, on the circuit breaker, so she would not electrocute herself or start a fire, and in the dark, from a chair, reached into the wiring for her. She bit me in several places. Quarantine required, so I took her home and she was with me for many many years.
DeleteGlad I asked. Interesting. I am still of the thought that it should be vet's assistant that should be quarantined until all clear of rabies.
DeleteEven more to the story Andrew. Yesterday I get a call from Marian County Environmental Services, wanting to confirm I was holding a kitten who bit someone. I had been a little surprised that whs, the clinic, had not taken down more information on where the cat on hold would be (not with me), or the protocol they wanted for when the ten days ended. I had to say, "So do you want W to call, when the ten days is up, to confirm no signs of rabies". Well, the bite was reported to Marian County somehow, but with the wrong information, that the kitten was with me. In the meantime, before they got called me, they had alerted Linn County. My goodness, I told her, this is a lot of ta do over a provoked bite from a scared kitten whom we all know does not have rabies. "Yes," she said, "I know.". I called W, my friend who has the kitten, alerted her that Marian County would be calling and gave Marian County her contact info. It's the law, sure, but sometimes common sense should kick in, especially in the case of a kitten who is running scared and got out, inside a surgery and gone after without any safety equipment, like a simple fish net. Provoked bite not a rabid cat bite.
DeleteAnd Andrew, I love that idea! Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be under forced quarantine. But not like Typhoid Mary! She kind of brought it on herself however.
DeleteI am glad to have 'bite hold' explained. I don't think we have rabies here, so there is no such law.
ReplyDeleteI am really impressed at all that you and your friends have accomplished.
We have a lot of rabies here, even in this county, in the bat population. Then cats and dogs find a sick bat on the ground and play with it or try to kill it and get bitten. It's a good law and people need to understand that rabies vaccinations are very needed and protect not only their own cat or dog, but stop a vector of possible disease transmission. It is a matter of public duty to vaccinate against rabies. That said, there are vets who say even one vaccination can protect against the disease years later. One vet set out to prove it, by testing cats vaccinated once years before, for rabies antibodies in their blood and found them.
DeleteWhy does the kitten have to be quarantined after biting the assistant?
ReplyDeleteแคมฟรอก
Due to the law about bite wounds from unvaccinated cats or dogs. Rabies is still present in America, so if a person is bitten, even if a provoked bite, by an unvaccinated dog or cat, that dog or cat must be quarantined for ten days to see if they show signs of rabies. If it had happened here, and I knew it was a provoked bite, like in a frightened feral kitten loose and cornered, although I would just use a net to contain the kitten, I would not report it. But since it was in a clinic, the law kicks in, even though it was what would be termed a provoked bite.
DeleteThat's a lot of cats in a short amount of time. It's amazing what can happen when people cooperate.
ReplyDeleteIt sure is amazing, how quickly something can be resolved when people work together. Someone gave up a spay neuter reservation today, in fact, so one of the three from same colony in my garage could be fixed, and move on. And the FCCO worked me into their busy schedule so the other two could be fixed next week and move on.
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