In my pictures you will notice our cat Stevie. For those who really know me know I am an animal lover, but not one of those PETA fanatics. I was raised on a farm, eat meat, and will have an animal put down if they are suffering and in pain. I feel I have thought my children good ethics and morals as well as compassion. I did not realize how much they have picked up on and learned until this past winter. We are by no means monetarily well off.
December 16, 2006 We have a tortie shell cat named Granola. Shortly after noon my kids come in the house upset and holding something. This item is limp in their hands and they are crying. I saw something black and thought it was our cat Granola. My first though was she had been ran over. As I got closer I noticed this thing was too small to be Granola. The kids tell me they found this kitten in the road and need my help. I followed them into the kitchen and proceeded to pull cactus out of her face. She was so sick looking and just crumpled in your hands. I wiped her face with a wet paper towel. She had goop around her eyes and I was cleaning it off when I realized she had no eye balls. She had been starved, stomped, her eye balls removed and thrown from a car in a rural area. She was not crying, or acting as though she was in pain. We went to the local feed store and bought wet food, a syringe and needle. She was too old for cat milk and they were out of IV bags, so we used bottled water. My children helped force feed her, no more then 2 teaspoons a day. The only time the cat acted hurt or scared is when I had to give her sub q fluids. My kids begged me to help them save her. As the vet was closed for the weekend I agreed that if she lived we would keep her forever. I also let them know that if she got sicker or the vet thought it was best we would have her put down. My kids tended to her al night, giving her pea sized amounts of food and drops of water. She even purred for a few seconds. Sunday I dropped my kids at their religious classes and I went to the Arizona Humane Society. I explained to them about the cat, and asked if they could help provide some urgent care, or help me locate any local vets that could or would donate some services. I explained I knew she would need antibiotics and IV fluids at the minimum and we would provide her a safe forever home, and knew what her care would entail. I was not asking for free vaccinations or a spay. The AHS REFUSED to assist me or provide me any contact information for any vets or rescue organizations. The only way they would is if we surrendered her to them, they treated her and adopted her out. Heck it was Xmas time, and what better then this poor abused cat, that they saved and found a new forever home to the highest bidder. I declined as I had made a promise to my kids. We returned home and Stevie was in her box, and ready to accept more food. Monday I called area vets, all wanted payment in full prior to providing services for her. I did not have an additional $250.00 which was the least any had quoted me. I called Sheriff Joe since he has a dog rescue program. Since it was a cat I could get no help. I called the ASPCA who still has not returned any of my calls left that first week. All the while Stevie was getting stronger. On Tuesday I finally got ahold of the local animal control officer who thought she might know of a few organizations that would help and she would call me back. On Wednesday Stevie was not doing well at all. She sounded awful and for the first time acted as though she was in pain. The animal control officer called me and gave me the name of a vet and Verde Valley Humane Society. The VVHS said they could pay for her visit, and gave me a vet to call that might help with reduced fees or payments. The kids were home for winter break so I told them we were going to the Vet and that Stevie might not come home as she was very sick, and was not doing very well. I called the Vet, they were WONDERFUL, they put me in contact twith the Sedona Humane Society, they have the Sampson Sons fund for emergency services. SHS said they would pay $75.00 towards her services. I packed up the kids, and Stevie and we drove an hour north of our home. We got to the vet, and they were so caring, We were put into an exam room and had wonderful staff come in to provide services. Stevie was about 6 months old and weighed 1 pound. They also called SHS and talked them into providing $100.00 instead of $75.00. So the office visit was paid for and some of the services. The vet came and took Stevie for an Xray as it seemed she had multiple broken bones and ribs. The Xray showed no broken bones, but the starvation had left her with no calcuim in her bones and the bones were bendable. At the point we were at there was nothing to do but Antibiotics and IV fluids. If she was kept in the hospital there were were looking at over $100.00 per day for minimal care. The vet felt we were doing a good job with the spoon feedings and sub q fluids. We were upto 2 tablespoons of food a day, and 10 cc of fluid total throughout the day. She cautioned the kids, who insisted on being part of the entire process this far, seeing the xrays and hearing the Vets prognosis, which was very low survival chance but agreed the cat was not giving off any signs of pain. Due to her health they did not want to try to surgically close her eyes then or anytime soon. The vet discounted her fees and we left with a $2.00 credit on Stevies account. That night Stevie at on her own for the first time. The next day she ate 1/3 of a can of food on her own. We steadily increase the fluids. On Friday Stevie went to the bathroom for the first time since being rescued, she was litter box trained! We gave her medical treatment in the same place everytime, which was on my computer desk. She would purr all the while except when I had to use the needle to inject fluid. She was eating almost 1 can of wet food a day. We had to put koolaid in her water dish, that we kept in the same spot. She could not see the water and had a hard time smelling the plain water so the koolaid gave it a scent she could find. She stayed in a box in our bathroom, she would not venture out of the box alone other then to get a drink or use the litter box. After about 10 days from finding her, I came home and went to get her and give her meds. She was GONE. I was heartbroken, looking all over for her. I walked past my computer and she was sitting next to my keyboard! I treated her and she jumped down then went back to her box. She would only sleep in the box after that. We also noticed she was drinking from unfloavored/scented water. She was getting stronger too and purred all the time. By early January she was wandering the whole house. She must think we have the longest house in the world. Each step we took she would do a figure 8 around our feet. She now wanders all over on her own, she likes to sleep in the sink, on the hamsters cage or on the top bunk bed. We laugh at this, since she did not get hurt: One day she was in the kitchen and our dog Stick came tramping through the doggie door. She freaked, and took off running, right into the cabinet, then to the other cabinet, then to my husbands legs and into her bathroom. The dog just stood there like WTF was that all about?! (I will be posting his picture, the dog smiles all the time, not the silly front tooth smiles either, this is a sides of his mouth turned up smile!) In March she ate hard food for the first time since we found her. I still do not feed it to her often since I do not want to take the chance of her jaw or teeth not having enough calcium and them breaking. 2 weeks ago the most amazing thing happened. She was walking past Granolas hanging toy and she started playing with it, batting at it, grabbing it and rolling over with it. Had I not known I would have never thought she could not see it. She gets along great with Granola and our dogs. It is like they know to protect her. Granola is now about 4 pounds and is now healthy enough to be spayed and have her eyes surgerically closed. We are so thankful to those organizations that did assist us, and have no problem referring people to them to adopt an animal, or make donations.
Anyways to conclude this long story, we no longer support the AHS as the staff we encountered did not care about the welfare of this cat, they cared about the TV time the story would bring and the donations that poor in each time an abuse story airs.
Our family now has an amazingly sweet cat, that fits in just fine with us.
