Randy has gone to the Rainbow Bridge

Randy

Randy was one of our "broken" fosters that stayed on. He was generally a really sweet cat but really never was a normal cat after we had to put Gypsy down a few years ago. For the past several years he has suffered from megacolon, which is a painful and unpleasant intestinal condition.

As a kitten, he was visually impaired and may have had some neural issues since he had a very stiff walk and acted almost like he was mentally compromised at times.

Randy with Gypsy

But when Gypsy adopted him, they became best buddies and were together most of the time. They would groom each other (mostly Gypsy doing the work) and sleep together every night.

Randy was never really the same after we had to put Gypsy to sleep and he stopped grroming himself and just became listless and unenthusiastic about anything.  The megacolon problem started becoming apparent about a year later. It was regularly painful for him and extremely costly to treat with drugs and therapy.


He had really been declining lately and seemed to have essentially given up the fight so we made the final, kind decision to euthanize him a couple of days ago. I took him in to save Judy the heartbreaking experience. She has been through this a few times for the others who went before him and it was just too much. When I took him to the vet's office, he was very calm and quiet and seemed almost thankful - like he knew exactly what was happening.

It hurts every time we have to do this and we will miss Randy, but we are relieved that he is finally out of pain and can rest.

Everybody got homes! Kind of.



Ce-Ce and Olive with Milo

Well, it took a good while and several iterations of the Craig's List ad, but everybody got adopted. Sort of.


Actually they all did, but imagine my surprise to have two of them returned after 2 weeks at their new home.


Can you imagine someone growing to adulthood and not knowing that they are allergic to cats? Well, neither can I but that is the story from the guy who adopted Ce-Ce and Olive.


He called one day while I was at work and told Judy that his wife had been "sick" since the kittens got there and they finally "discovered" that she was allergic. I call bullshit but what are you gonna do?


Anyway, the girls were back at our house when I got home and it was like they had never left. Completely comfortable and getting along (mostly) with all the regulars - they acted very much "at home" and that is where they have remained with no indications of adoption efforts whatsoever. They are sweetie-pies and really cause no trouble so I have accepted it. So yes, that's right - Casa Del Gatos now has thirteen feline residents!

My concept of "maximum feline density" is apparently flexible.



Jezebel

Olive needed a new name since hers sounded so much like Ollie, so she became Jasmine. Jasmine and Ce-Ce have not slowed down a bit and in fact have a number of the older cats acting kittenish again - especially Reggie, who pretty much considers them his kittens and spends just about every waking hour with them (particularly Ce-Ce).

The much older cats generally tolerate them well with a warning hiss or swat of a paw to keep them in line. But they are such good girls they rarely cause much of an uproar.

They are still sleeping separately from the rest of the group in the "Foster Room," but I expect that to end any day now. Feedings of wet food are usually broken up into shifts anyway with the senior cats going outside for a quick break before breakfast. So, the logistics are ok so far.



The Rescues need forever homes!

Well, the 8 dirty and pitiful kittens we rescued at the end of May are now wonderfully healthy and happy kittens and their number is down to 6 since two have been adopted already but the rest are ready for adoption now. Nearly four months old now, they have all been neutered/spayed, gotten their first shots and they have developed very distinct personalities.

 

Samantha, a calico with tabby markings, and Charlie, a charismatic grey tabby who was the original "Alpha" of the group, have already been adopted by some very nice people and we are seeking more people to take more of the "brood."








Judy performs a pretty in-depth interview of the prospective new "parents" before letting any of her babies go and several potential adopters were not quite up to snuff and were not allowed to adopt.








These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago and they are all growing fast. I even placed a humorous ad on Craig's List to see if we can accelerate the process of getting them all into forever homes. The ad can be seen here for a while: Craig's List Ad

 

 All healthy and normal (for kittens) they are now allowed free run of the whole house several times a day to get them more acclimated to a (more) normal household life. Some of the adult cats were a little put out at first, but a good number of them are outside most of the time anyway so it really is not a big problem.



 No issues with releasing them, except that Shiloh was very hesitant at first to come out of the bedroom that she knew as her safe world. However, she is now quite well-adjusted and bounces off the walls with the rest of them.

Nothing is safe and EVERYTHING is a toy so you can imagine how "interesting" things can get at times!








 Milo is by far the most extroverted and curious of the bunch. He quickly took over the mantle of "Alpha Kitten" after Charlie was adopted. That also means he is the main troublemaker and instigates most of the "issues" that we encounter.







All in all, they are turning out to be happy, playful and (mostly) well-behaved little monsters. If I thought our household could survive, I would love to keep them all - but I know our current colony is already pretty stable and they really do need to go.
 
However, I do not, by any means, have the final say on the matter so nothing is written in stone.

Anyone reading in South Alabama can adopt one (or more) of these cuties by emailing us or calling (251) 943-MEOW.

Updates in several areas

Much too long since the last entry and a good bit has happened at Casa Del Gatos.


Our screen porch/Lanai was completed, thanks to our amazing handyman Tom Carpenter, and now the inside kitties get to experience a more direct contact with the outside world with nice safe aluminum screen walls keeping them in. Two exterior doors - one on each wall and a very nice pet door in the door leading into the house

The construction was intended to be more sturdy and permanent from the beginning since the plan is to eventually replace the screen with actual windows. It will then become the family room and will be air conditioned and heated along with the rest of the house. I guess by that time I will have built the enclosed cat run I have been threatening for years.

We had to replace our 7-year-old yard tractor since the mechanic said a new engine was needed ($1500!) and I decided that the money would be best put towards a new and better one. So the Craftsman DYT4000 was replaced with a brand-spanking-new Toro Timecutter SS5000. It is a 50-inch, triple blade zero-turn mower and it is a very different ride than the previous one.

This makes my job easier since what used to take about 4 hours to cut now takes less than half that. Quite a different experience driving it, but boy does it cut well - even at full speed. No bagger or mulching attachments are needed either because this thing cuts the grass so cleanly and disperses it so well.


We also acquired another vehicle - one I have been promising to Judy since we bought this place. A golf cart (Club Car with a Kawasaki gas engine) was found for a killer deal and is perfect  for getting from one end of the property to the other ... or just out to the street for the mail. Top speed is about 13.5 MPH, but I plan to remedy that shortly!

It is not street legal, but I have seen our neighbors who have them drive all over town so I have too. It even has a cargo bed so it is handy for carrying gardening tools and supplies out to the farthest reaches of the property - or carrying purchases home from the Dollar General store.

But of course, since it is Spring and that IS kitten season, the Casa Del Gatos Kitten Academy got a delivery of new cadets about 3 weeks ago. Filthy, hungry and covered with fleas, they were found abandoned at a nearby fishing hole by a local family's little boy and brought to us. The phone rang on the morning of May 5 and a woman said "Is this the place that rescues cats?" I hesitated about a half a second before handing the phone to Judy.

The woman and her husband and the little boy who found the kittens  brought them to us in a laundry basket and we put them in a temporary kennel cage on the porch for a few minutes while Judy thanked the family and blessed them and sent them on their way. Eight dirty crying kittens and no mother and Judy definitely had her work cut out for her.

Judy got her bathing supplies together in the kitchen and got ready to clean 'em up and get 'em fed while I ran to the Robertsdale Feed Store for some Kitten Milk Replacer. It has been close to a year since the last batch so we had none around. Of course, there really is no such thing as "leftover" KMR.

We've seen worse, but these little critters were looking pretty rough and a couple seemed like they might not make it at all. We had no idea how long the kittens had been alone, but it couldn't have been long or they would have been even worse off than they were when we got them.

So Judy began the feeding. Every 4 hours or so, she would mix up a batch of kitten milk and feed them. Even the ones who refused to suckle were fed with a syringe. A couple of them took a good bit of work to feed them, but Judy made it happen. She fed them before bed and got up in the middle of the night and came home from the office on the days she worked so the kittens got their regular feeding.

As soon as they had grown enough that the feedings could be spread out more, Judy started mixing solid food in with the formula and most of them really started to thrive. They are now eating from bowls and even have dry kitten chow to nibble on between feedings.

Current pictures coming soon.

Rocky and Roscoe (and Dusty)

Rocky and Roscoe (and Dusty)

Rocky was a medium to long-haired Siamese mix with lynx-tufted ears and a fluffy tail who was with us for less than a year. He was a juvenile of maybe 6 months when Judy brought him home from the shelter.

Rocky on the road again

He had been freshly adopted when we bought the Casa Del Gatos Escape Pod (our Class A Motorhome) and we took him along on several trips up to Mom and Dad's mountain house in Grant. He really took to traveling and had no issues with life "on the road."



He was very friendly and seemed partial to Simon, our previously-adopted Siamese-mix, very well. They hung out quite a bit until Roscoe came along.

Roscoe and Daisy

  Roscoe was one of a batch of fosters in the Summer of 2006 that included two (erstwhile) Himalayan kittens - one boy and one girl. The little female was lighter in color and a little more outgoing . I cannot for the life of me imagine why The Dukes of Hazard was involved in the naming process, but the female ended up Daisy (Duke) and he became Roscoe (P. Coltrane.) Daisy eventually became Dixie and was adopted, but I never doubted for a second that Roscoe would be staying with us.

For one thing he was one of the most strikingly handsome cats I have ever seen and always had a unique expression on his face. I am also partial to Siamese mixes in general. He had a fairly dark coat and very dark points that just got darker as he grew up. 

Roscoe, Rocky and Simon

Unfortunately, he also had a runny nose. A lot. And it didn't get better. Eventually, we got educated enough to know that he was suffering from FVR (feline viral rhinotracheitis) and there was pretty much no cure for it. Thankfully, it did not bother him much, aside from some pretty regular sneezing and sniffling. None of the other cats were infected/affected and we just kind of went with the flow.

Especially since Rocky never showed any symptoms and they bathed each other regularly.

Sadly, Roscoe didn't get all that much time with Rocky. Rocky was allowed outside early on because, quite frankly, he wouldn't shut up or stop attempting to escape until we let him. Of course, the main risk of letting cats outside is that they are 100% more likely to run away or come to harm from some predator or mishap. Sure enough, one day in late September of 2006, Rocky didn't come home.

After Rocky disappeared, Roscoe became best buddies with Dusty (short for Dust Bunny,) a fluffy gray Chartreaux-looking youngster (also a rescue) who became a permanent resident about that time.

They were rarely apart and were close enough in age to be like litter mates.

Dusty and Roscoe meet the "real world"

They were also introduced to the outside world together in the Spring of 2007.

Roscoe liked outside and all the great things that are out there ... particularly lizards.

Don't talk to ME about insurance!

He also (like most cats) liked to get IN things.






 Some time before Thanksgiving in 2008, Roscoe failed to come in for dinner. Of course we went through the usual motions, calling around and thinking he would show up before long and that he was just lost. Obviously, that was not the case and we mourned him as well. Rocky wasn't with us long enough to really get embedded in the growing feline nation but Roscoe was with us for more than 2 years. I still miss my fuzzy little buddy most of all.

When Roscoe disappeared, he changed our minds about the whole "outside cat" thing. The only new cat in the past four years who got to go out was 'Lilah. More about her later.

Smooch, Sadie and Kimba

Smooch, Sadie and Kimba

Smooch was a kitten Judy had rescued before we met and had lost the vision in one eye from an altercation with a feral tom in the cotton fields near Judy's home in Loxley. He took to me from the beginning and I found him to be every bit as lovable as his name implied. Judy had named him Smooch because he would literally kiss your face and rub against it energetically when so inclined.

Here he is with (clockwise from him) Simon, Bobby, Roscoe, Remy, Sassy and Rocky

  

Through four houses and more than 15 years Smooch remained friendly and unafraid of anything or anyone - strangers or friends. He was the only cat we have had who got along well with every other cat he met. He was also the only cat we have had (so far) to die of old age. He started fading and had a couple of seizures one day and passed on that night in Judy's arms.I buried him the next day in our cat cemetary, next to Sadie.

Sadie was our first rescue together. We were still living in Loxley and Judy came home from work telling me about this very shy tortoise-shell Persian she had seen at the Daphne Animal Shelter. She said all she could see was the top of her head and amber eyes peeking over the top of the litter box in her kennel. I surprised Judy (and myself) by impulsively adopting Sadie and bringing her home the next day. This is one of only a couple of surviving pictures of her.

She took up residence under our bed and never really came out except at night to eat and use the litter box. When we moved to the farmhouse outside Robertsdale, she started to come out of her shell, but always remained aloof as far as the other cats were concerned. When we bought the Lake Forest house (3000+ SF) Sadie had a lot more room and became more sociable, even deigning to eat with the others at times.

But not long after moving to Silverhill, she started having seizures and behaving erratically and we took her to the vet. He told us she had a tumor on the back of one eye that was pressing against her brain. The offending eye was surgically removed but she never really recovered. The vet said he thought the tumor was too intrusive and had compromised her brain tissue. After a few more seizures and no sign of relief, we euthanized Sadie and she became the first resident of what was to become our cat cemetary.

Kimba

Smooch was actually the one who adopted Kimba. He brought her home while we were in Loxley one day and it was love at first sight for me. She was a tiny Snowshoe kitten who strongly resembled a cat I had had when I lived in Pensacola named Crystal. She had the most striking blue Siamese eyes and the sweetest personality of any cat I had ever seen. I named her Kimba after the white lion in my favorite childhood cartoon.

Kimba was a bit delicate though and we had a number of scares with her; once when she tasted some liquid potpourri and another time after the exterminator came. She was always so mild-mannered and unoffensive and she got along well with every cat we had although she and Smooch shared a special bond. She moved with us from Loxley to Robertsdale to Lake Forest and finally to Silverhill.

She had been allowed outside (as all of our cats before moving to Silverhill) and always stayed near the house - coming when called every time. Until one night in November when the cold weather was moving in during our first winter in Silverhill. Kimba did not come home that night ... or ever again. After a couple of days I guessed that something had happened to her and actually remembered that she had been coughing and sneezing a lot in the days before.

At first, I suspected a predator had gotten her (a neighbor's Chow mix was rumored to attack cats and small dogs) but later I came to believe that she was really more sick than we thought. I honestly think she left us to go die on her own the way animals are known to do. Dying is a solitary thing in the animal world - as far as I know, only humans come together at the time of passing.

Fergie

Fergie

I realized I'd really better cover (most of) the ones who have come before and are undoubtedly waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge.

Fergie came to us as part of a litter of fosters and immediately stood out with her striking appearance and incredible spark. A bobtail that really did seem to be part Manx, since she had the longer back legs, she stole our hearts from the beginning.

I don't specifically remember who named her, but I remember thinking the name was appropriate because she kind of reminded me of the singer with the Blackeyed Peas.

I don't think there was every any doubt that ours would be her forever home. Sadly, "forever" has different meanings for everybody. In fact, forever for Fergie was all too short a time. She had a great relationship with all the others and could cuddle with any of them. She was active and animated and her antics made me laugh often.

Here she is with Roscoe, another late furchild of ours. His entry is coming shortly.

She even managed to snuggle with "the old man" Smooch, who is the only one so far to die of old age (more on him shortly as well).

We are not sure exactly what happened, but as she grew she started having pain and hunching her back. Before long she cried out any time you touched it and was reluctant to move at all unless food or litterbox compelled her. She rapidly got worse and soon refused to move at all.

When X-rays revealed a lumbar spinal deformity that basically allowed part of the spine to grow and another part not to, and needless to say we were very upset. The vet said it would only get worse and there was no way to relieve it surgically or with medicine. The prognosis was constant and escalating pain and suffering and no one wants that for any living thing.

So ... we had to make the incredibly difficult yet kinder decision to put her down humanely. As with Gypsy before her, Judy held Fergie while the vet helped her go to sleep for the last time and brought her home to be interred in the growing pet cemetary in the middle of our back flower garden.

Here you can see a bit of the cemetary fence to the left behind a couple of our outside residents.

At this point you have to understand and accept that some of your loved ones will be with you a long time and others for a much shorter period. You just have to love them as you can, while you can.

Poor Randy (and Gypsy)

Poor Randy (and Gypsy)

Randy is another of our rescues, fostered as a kitten and becoming a permanent resident when his problems became apparent. As a kitten, he had an eye that was permanently dilated and made him extremely sensitive to light. He spent much of his first 6 months under the couch and in dark corners because sunlight seemed to hurt him. Eventually, he got better and acted more normally, but he always seemed "a little off," possibly retarded or something.

He really bonded with another rescue foster, Gypsy, a Siamese mix who had been hit by a car and left with our Vet. Judy had to nurse and perform daily physical therapy on her until she could walk again. She was just the sweetest thing ever and she kind of adopted Randy.

They slept curled up with each other, cleaned each other and tended to do everything together.

Unfortunately, Gypsy had carried something with her from kittenhood that is pretty common in cats, but does not usually develop into anything more serious. Feline Enteric Coronavirus (FECV) is relatively common in kittens, but most develop a resistance or never become carriers. Gypsy was not so lucky.

However,  occasionally FECV mutates into Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP,) which is a fatal and extremely unpleasant disease with no definitive diagnostic test, no cure and no really effective treatment. She eventually had to be euthanized as the build up of fluids in her chest made it near impossible for her to breathe.

Randy missed her terribly, but eventually settled down into a (relatively) normal life. Strangely though, he never really got the hang of cleaning himself and tends to appear greasy and unkempt.

Then last year he started having strange problems. He would spontaneously make the strangest honking, coughing, almost hiccup sort of a sound and seemed to be in real distress when it happened. A general exam and round of blood tests didn't reveal anything and it only happened rarely so we didn't concern ourselves too much at first.

It soon got worse though and we would find him curled up on his side on the floor in front of the litterbox, convulsing slightly. Another trip to the vet for X-rays this time revealed a colon packed so full of hard fecal matter he couldn't pass it. An enema and fluids got him back to normal (for him) and we learned about Megacolon, which is basically the failure of the peristaltic action in the colon. Waste no longer moves through the digestive system normally and requires regular medication or surgery (which offers no guarantee of relief.) After some very expensive tests from a Vet who specializes in gastrointestinal issues, we determined that he has it.

The good news is, there is a drug, Cisapride, which stimulates peristalsis and allows for elimination of waste. Unfortunately it is quite expensive and only available from compounding pharmacies. Also, the oral administration became nearly impossible. The problem is, it apparently tastes really vile and even though flavoring is added, it is not enough to mask the pure nastiness. So Randy became adept at recognizing the distant sound of the shaking of the bottle and would bolt to whatever hidey hole he could find. He would also vioently oppose any effort to squirt the stuff in his mouth, which could get messy and stressed him quite a bit. It got to the point where we could not be certain of giving him both doses and so the relief was short-lived.

Thankfully, I managed to discover an online compounding pharmacy that specialized in multiple dosing forms of many medications, including a transdermal one. Wedgewood Compunding Pharmacy carries Cisapride in a number of forms and we decided to try the transdermal gel. It comes in a "Twist-A-Dose" applicator which measures the exact dose and is applied to the inside of an ear. It causes him no anxiety, doesn't have a foul odor or taste and, most of all, is very effective. Aside from the rare need for an enema (once in three months) he has settled down to a somewhat normal life. (that's Ollie the poly with him on one of the catwalks - more on him later.)

It is sad that there is no such easy treatment for FIP. We all really miss Gypsy.