Caring For Abandoned and Feral Cats

I just trapped Coontail, the feral mother. She will be going to animal control in the morning.

 

Just got back from taking Coon Tail to animal control.

This wasn't easy.

To make things more difficult, there was a lady there from the Trap Neuter Release program. She was asking me if I wanted to have the cat spayed. I told her that it was financially impossible for me to do that at this time.

Then she tells me "You can save a life".

I told her that it wasn't that I didn't want to or that I didn't care. I told her that I'd had about 20 feral cats fixed and "re-homed". I left out the part about them all living at my house.

Yeah, she made me cry when I got out to the car.

It was painful enough not to be able to afford to have the cat TNR'd. Did you have to rub it in?

 

Some people just don't understand financial limitations. When they say something like "I'm broke right now" there is actually $10,000.00 or more in accounts somewhere that they just don't want to spend.... They figure everybody must have the same thing going on. They don't get the fact that someone may have just counted out all their change for gas in the car and may still not get back home, that's out of their frame of reference.


Other people are just damned cruel...

 

They are, Ty. I know you understand.

I just got confirmation that I did the right thing and I got it from another cat.

Baby Sister is a sweet heart that I had spayed to stay outside.

A few months ago, Coon Tail started fighting Baby Sister in the carport at the food bowl.

Baby SIster had run away to live behind the neighbors house in the woods and she very rarely got to come eat. Every time she did, Coon Tail would run her off.

Baby Sister just came running down the driveway to try to sneak some time at the food bowl. I told her to come on that it was okay, that I had taken Coon Tail off and she wouldn't bother her anymore.

Do you know, that little cat turned and ran to me at the steps? She wanted up in my arms before she wanted food. I carried her to the food bowl quickly though because she was very hungry.

Now, I get my Baby Sister back and she's already spayed.

 

Baby Sister is hysterically funny.

Now, she will not stop demanding that hubby or I hold her and love on her.

It's been non-stop.

It's like she's in heat but she isn't.

Bless her little heart.

 

'Lil Myster is doing well but since he got sick with that Bot Fly larva he doesn't mew anymore.

Hubby was wondering if it had gotten to his larynx but he is starting to purr big time.

Do they purr and meow from the same place?

 

I told hubby that Myster doesn't mew anymore because he's too content to have to, lol

I found this:

What makes the purr distinctive from other cat vocalizations is that it is produced during the entire respiratory cycle (inhaling and exhaling). Other vocalizations such as the “meow” are limited to the expiration of the breath.
It was once thought that the purr was produced from blood surging through the inferior vena cava, but as research continues it seems that the intrinsic (internal) laryngeal muscles are the likely source for the purr. Moreover, there is an absence of purring in a cat with laryngeal paralysis. The laryngeal muscles are responsible for the opening and closing of the glottis (space between the vocal chords), which results in a separation of the vocal chords, and thus the purr sound. Studies have shown, that the movement of the laryngeal muscles is signaled from a unique “neural oscillator” (Frazer-Sisson, Rice, and Peters, 1991 & Remmers and Gautier, 1972) in the cat’s brain.https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/catspurr.html

 

Something about that technical stuff makes me think the purr can be compared to a person's singing.

 

Or humming, at least!

Okay, now hubby tells me that Myster can make noise when he has to. It seems one of the cats played a little rough with him and he squealed.

Good.

 

Could have been "mewing" because he needed help... Now that the problem is solved he's content.

 

That's what I thought too, Ty.

 

I think "Myster" may be female.

In that case her name will be "Sassy".

That was the name of my familiar who went missing about 6 years ago.

The kitten acts exactly like she did.

 

I have some concern for the kitten.

She falls over when she walks. It seems like her front legs buckle; just one or the other. At first I thought it was just the side where the Bot Fly was but she does it with the other side too.

I hope this straightens itself out.

 

I did some research and watched some videos.

It seems like Sassy may have a mild case of Cerebellar Hypoplasia. The cerebellum did not develop fully and the cat doesn't have full control of its fine motor skills.

We shall see.

 

The kitten definitely does have this condition, Cerebellar Hypoplasia; there's no doubt in my mind. I'm not sure where a vet would place her on the scale. I'm guessing mild/moderate.

She's a precious little tumbly kitten.

 

Yes! They become friendlier and live longer. They don't get into fights and get all beat up.

 

Sassy chewed through the nipple on her bottle.

Feeding her formula from a saucer was a disaster.

The cheap adult cat food is too big and too hard to even get wet with formula.

I let her play with all of this until she was a sticky, gooey mess; then, I gave her some formula with the medicine dropper and gave her a bath.

The other cats decided to mostly sit back and watch her play around on the floor today. She was really cute chirping for them to come play.

I'll have to buy some kitten chow today.