Cats Gone Wild!

This has been a challenging two days for me.  Two days?  well, I could extend the time frame to the last couple of years, but I won't go that far.  My life has become sort of unmanageable recently.  It culminated when I opened up the door to my garage this morning and saw what was happening in there.  It was like out of a horror movie.  Not only did I HEAR rats, but I stood at my window looking out the back to the garage, but I saw a very large one scurry along side it.  Why would I have rats?  Because for the past five years or so, I've been bestowed many wonderful things to help the cats, but when I can't use the items right away, they sit there.  Its also been the storage facility for extra dog food I get when I get donations from my local Walmart.  I get more dog food than cat food, and I originally stored it in the garage, which is how, I believe, attracted the rats.  I now have holes bored through the cement floor and the driveway, and through the ground outside it.  I went to look at a bag of beautiful cat blankets, the soft plush kind, and they were filthy, and from them dropped rat droppings.  I have Styrofoam boxes in there that need fixing up - i.e., spray paint, a hole cut, etc.  I have so much STUFF, I just don't know what to do with it.  I told Kings, EVERYTHING must come out.  I need to go through and trash most of it.  All ruined.  I have an 8 hour job, and can't do it all.  But now I DO need to do it all.  And I wish I had more help.

Another challenge was pulling up to Parsells #3 this morning, and finding the lot completely turned over.  My shelters, all gone.  And I had my flier there with the wording stating my rescue, my number, and that this was a TNR colony.  The CITY of ROCHESTER came through and cleared everything.  My shelters boards, tarps, pallets, GONE.  This is where I have rescued so many cats, have TNR'd so many cats...  this is where baby Huey and Harvey were rescued from.  I am sick over it.  I will have to rebuild, BEFORE TOMORROW, when it rains.  This was THEIR HOME.  

So the three newborn kittens, from my mother's yard, are/were being bottle fed by Amanda.  Amanda has gone on vacation and left the kittens in the hands of two wonderful girls that have been taking over bottle feeding round the clock.  I received a text from one of them stating that one of the kittens had bloody diarrhea and was crying loudly when being wiped.  I am going to have them picked up today and brought to me, so that I can get to a vet for a first checkup.  And then must get them weaned.  They need to be on solid food now.  They are in their fourth week of life.

I get home after work yesterday, and there is frantic knocking on my door.  Now, by this time, I am in my scrubs, I’ve freshly washed my face of makeup – and now look hideous because of my black eyes and do not want ANYONE to see me.  It’s the neighborhood kids.  I struggle to open the winter locked window to open and ask what they want.  They say there is a cat in a garbage can a few houses down and they don’t know what to do.  I hesitate, thinking about my appearance, and my hot egg white omelette waiting for me.  I hesitantly went out the front door and down the street, barefoot – still needing a pedicure – and black eyed.  There I see a young kitty’s head sticking up from a garbage tote by the side of my neighbor’s yard, a few houses down.  I go up to it and the older kitten is spitting and sputtering ‘stay away from me.’ ‘I’ll bite you if you get near me.’  There was also a small bowl of water in the tote, which was filled with yard debris from a sunny Sunday clean up.  I found a small stick and started to pet it with that, and kitten moved around.  I could see it wasn’t obviously injured.  Why would it still be sitting here in this garbage can when it could easily jump out?  I went home, got some food, left it next to the water.  I told the kids to leave it alone, that it would move on its own, and I went back home.  After microwaving my omelette, I sit back down to eat, and the door knocks loudly.  It’s the neighbor who has just gotten home to find the kitten in his trash.  Why me?????????????  After I told him, through the door – I am now SO embarrassed at my appearance – that he should just leave kitten there or he would be bit, and the cat would move on its own.  Later, I asked Kings to go over with a trap and shelter for the baby.  My neighbor’s sister works at Lollipop apparently, so she would know what to do once he trapped the little thing.  I told him, I CAN’T do it all.  He was knocking on my door loudly while just under his feet I had three cats in traps.  It was completely overwhelming for me last night, it just never ended.

Meanwhile, I had to let the three cats out – all males – to the streets this morning.  The tuxedo was very sweet, and actually did not run when the trap was opened on Central Park.  He cried the entire trip.  I hate it.  But it must be done.  Yesterday cost me $270 for all three cats.  I can’t do this forever.  I need help.

SAM - From This...

TO THIS!

Sam’s story.  So this kind gentleman called me and told me that he lives in the area of Short Street, where I’ve been feeding Sam for many years now.  Sam’s siblings were adopted by a girl I know from work, but Sam was left behind.  I always hoped someone would adopt him, no matter how many times I posted his picture and told the story of how he follows me back to the car each morning as if to say ‘take me home.’  This man told me that he was walking to a store in the plaza down Goodman, and saw Sam, who had somehow, run up to him.  He wound up picking up Sam and carrying him all the way back to his house!  He and his girlfriend had seen my shelters and went to investigate them, and that is how he found my name and number, from the flier I keep at each location.  What a wonderful couple they are.  They welcomed Sam into their home, and he told me that in my honor, they were keeping his name Sam.  What a great story!  If we could only have more of those, there are SO many deserving kitties out there every day!  ‘Doug’ would like to keep in touch and give me updates on ‘our’ Sam.  Thank you Doug and Yolanda!

Have a great day.

"It's not the load

that breaks you

down, it's the 

way you carry it."