Cougie

 Cougie is one of my old feral girls here.   

Cougie in April 2014 after all remaining teeth were pulled

Cougie clear back in 2011

This was Cougie before I even caught her, at that business.  Her backbone protruded then, they were all so starved.

She was a young adult when I caught her back about ten years ago, at local mobile home manufacturing business, so I don't know exactly how old they are.  Originally I was just going to trap and return the cats there.   But then they wouldn't take them back.  All nine of the business cats remained with me.  

I guess this was a good thing for them, since all of them had severe mouth issues.  Cougie had to have all her teeth removed, over the course of three dentals.  Three of the business nine have died.  Tilly died of a saddle clot, suddenly.  Sassy died a couple months after her last dental, of kidney failure.   Then, most recently, a few weeks ago, Stiletto died.  They are old cats now.

Still alive, of the business nine, are muted calicos and likely sisters Haley and Raindrop; Misty, the long hair light gray girl, who flits around, like Stiletto did;  Alexi, Cougie and the only boy, Rogue.  

7 of the 9 business cats, many years ago.  On the bottom, Cougie is on the far left.  Then Raindrop, Tilly and Rogue.  Alexi, Stiletto and Sassy are on the top.

Sassy passed a couple years back from kidney failure.

Stiletto passed recently.

Tilly was the first of the 9 to pass.  She died after experiencing a saddle clot.

They're easy to care for, being feral, outside of the excitement of flea treatment and worming days, when I have to corral them, usually with a net, to get that done.  Lately, in their old age, its been possible to sneak up on them as the sleep for this task.

Last week I thought I noticed a swelling on the side of Cougie's face.  She's very fast though and I don't get that close to her.  I tried and tried to get a look and finally resorted to taking photos on zoom and still can't tell very well.  She is eating and drinking normally and shows no outward sign of illness or pain, however.

I tried to catch her three days ago, to get her to the emergency vet.   It's a tough call with ferals, especially old ferals, because they have to be anesthesized to examine, unless really ill.  Anesthesia is rough on old cats.  Sassy died, not that long after being anesthesized for a dental.  So did Oci.  Even Miss Daisy's death may have been related to light anesthesia she had a few months prior that she never seemed to recuperate from completely.  Cougie eluded my efforts to catch her last week.

It could be she has an external abscess, however, that is easy to treat, relatively speaking.  She should not have a tooth giving her problems, since all have been removed, but you never know if a root was left that is infected.    What worries me most is her age and the possibility of jaw or mouth cancer.   All nine business cats had stomatitis, that, down the road, I've witnessed over and over, can predispose them to mouth, throat or jaw cancer.

Or maybe I'm seeing nothing at all.  But I'm taking her to the coast clinic this week.  They do walk in appointments and when I talked to them they told me to bring her in early, then if she needs a procedure, they'll have time to do it.  I'm not sure she'll be coming back with me, which ties my stomach in knots to think about.  But maybe its nothing I'm seeing, just loose skin, or maybe she scratched at her ear and hooked her cheek and she has fluid or infection from that.  That would be best case, if something is wrong.  

I took photos on high zoom with my camera.  The left side of her mouth line looks normal.  It's that skin hanging below her ear, down beneath her chin that seems abnormally large.  She was drinking when I took this, hence the water drip on her mouth.

In this photo, you can see no swelling but inside her left ear, are those polyps, I think to myself, or just bad camera reflections on the skin of her ear. I think its just flash reflection changing the color slightly.  Anyhow, I'll just take her and see what is what.  If there's nothing wrong---good, and she can be updated on her shots.

I'm on a low residue diet now, in preparation for a medical test Wednesday.  As of today, no fruit unless its skinned and has no seeds.  No vegees unless highly cooked and skinned.  Only white bread.  No nuts.  No salad.  You can eat mashed potatoes or yams.  Nothing I normally eat is on the diet.  But you can have bananas.  You can have ice cream!  And cream cheese. You can drink coffee and sports drinks, just  no fruit juice with pulp.  I was at first going to make a menu, off things on the diet, but then gave that up and decided to just eat white bread with cream cheese and bananas.  It's only three days.  Big deal, right?   So I got a loaf of white bread and a container of cream cheese and five bananas.

Cougie is hard to catch, but today I'll try and if I don't get her caught today, I'll hope I can tomorrow.  I'll get her to the vet and hope for the best.  That's all I can do.

The weather people are saying there is a cold front moving in later this next week with the possibility of valley snow, starting Thursday.  Some forecasters say the chance is minimal, however, and only on Friday, with mixed in rain.  Nonetheless I'm excited to think we may get snow, even if its not much.  We never get much here in the valley, if any.  Wouldn't it be nice to have some snow even for a day?  

Cougie has taken over my futon since I set it up  What can I say.