Facebook and Me

I have never been on a Facebook page and have no desire to communicate in this way. However, more and more I am becoming aware that this is one of the main ways that people communicate nowadays and to capitalize on the apparently almost endless opportunities to "go viral" in a positive sense via Facebook is important to any group wanting to get the word out, raise funds, raise awareness, you name it. CCAR has a Facebook page which was started by Michelle T, a long time volunteer and foster home of many kittens over the years. I have never seen the page but know that it has been an important tool to help CCAR become better known. Michelle has maintained this Facebook page (is it just one page? Not a clue!) for almost three years and I am very, very grateful to her for doing so.

On Sunday, a group of ladies who are interested in raising funds for CCAR got together to see if we could brainstorm some ways of bringing in $. I find fund raising to be a right royal pain, but a necessary pain and I know a lot of folks don't like this side of volunteering but these ladies are passionate and good with ideas for making money, not me or Joan, we just sat there and really didn't contribute anything.
During the meeting, our existing Facebook format came up and I was told that there are new formats that would get information out to many more people, I have no understanding of it whatsoever, but bow to the superior knowledge of Erika R, Melissa W and Annie P all of whom are avid Facebook people. Although this wasn't the original purpose of the meeting (ie to discuss our Facebook situation) the topic arose because we were trying to think of ways to fund raise by selling items, having competitions, etc, all of which are aptly suited to Facebook. In my usual bull headed fashion, I told the three ladies that they should update the format of our existing Facebook page and that I would contact Michelle T and let her know. I wrote an e-mail to Michelle which I thought was reasonable but darn, in hindsight, I handled this whole damn thing so badly. Michelle, I never meant to imply that you had not done a great job with our Facebook page over the last few years and I should have convened a gathering of the three ladies and included you, to discuss this and not just barged in there and give my orders. This is another example I'm afraid of the fact that I have few people skills and little patience and I apologize greatly to Michelle T and to the people at the meeting on Sunday. I am not autonomous (sp?) but I am behaving like I am. Rein me in folks, I may not like it, but I need help in dealing people. Sorry Michelle.

Another Emergency

Several weeks ago, we had a lovely cat come into our care. I was told that this cat was a female and that she was spayed and she certainly looked like a female although she was a large cat.

Those of you who follow the site (and I am amazed at the recall of some of you, remembering cats I had "forgotten" were on the site. I am actually calling Layla M an "idiot savant" (with great fondness) because of her amazing recall of cats that have been at my house.) I digress, may remember that she was briefly on the site as Lunette, glasses in French because of her amazing large eyes.

Last weekend, there were several visitors to my house and Lunette did as she usually does, just sit quietly in the background and watch. On Monday morning I realized that she was drooling extensively and did not look good. I gave her fluids under the skin and attempted to hand feed her which did not work.

Dr. Wilson could not see her that day, but Joan took her down on Tuesday for a 9am appointment. Dr. Liz was quite alarmed at the condition of Lunette, and also informed me that "Lunette" was a boy, not a girl, oooops! Corinne informed me she could not change his file name and so he is still Lunette.

Dr. Wilson put him under and searched for what she felt could be a foreign body obstruction, but could not find one in the usual places she looked. She flushed out his nasal passage and his breathing improved and he came home. However, he deteriorated again that evening and I took him in the next morning for a feeding tube as he wasn't eating. Dr. Wilson again did some more "looking around" while he was under and place an oesphagial (sp?) feeding tube in. I took him home and he still continued to drool extensively and tube feeding him was difficult as he was gagging a lot. He was dying.

Yesterday morning, I felt he was going downhill rapidly and contacted Dr. Wilson at home. We decided that she had done all the diagnostics she could do and we had to do something else otherwise this cat was not going to last the weekend. We arranged for him to be flown over via Harbour Air and picked up by a pet ambulance where he was taken to Canada West who were waiting for him.

I am so glad we did this because having him driven over would not have got him there as quickly, and with it being Friday afternoon, they were able to do much more for him as there were more people there than on the weekend. After extensive diagnostic work, the Internal Medicine Doctor was unable to give us a definitive diagnosis, although she initially felt, as Dr. Wilson did, that there was some kind of foreign body somewhere, but it could not be found.

They did find that his lower oesophagus was very thick and inflamed which could account for his obvious pain and drooling. He has a lump near his left lymph node and saliva gland which she aspirated to see what it was. Cancer is unlikely in a young, otherwise healthy cat such as Lunette.

She removed the existing feeding tube and put one directly into his stomach to bypass the oesophagus (apologozie for spelling folks, I am not a medical person) and give it a rest. They are now monitoring him and I am hoping to go over in the next day or two and pick him up. I will receive instructions on how to feed him through the stomach tube.

So, we have done all we can to help this lovely boy and I just hope he will get better. This all happened so quickly, from Sunday seeming fine, to Monday drooling extensively and getting much worse, despite our best efforts over the week.

Also yesterday, we sent a young cat, Link, into be spayed and she had a tumour or something on one of her ovaries and I was actually shown the tumour on the ovary and the good ovary, my goodess, the poor cat to have that thing growing inside her. She is still at Sidney Animal Hospital and I hope to pick her up this morning.

Never a dull moment folks. I often fondly think about being bored, and how nice it would be (at least for a day).

We have it good here compared to a lot of places

Here are some excerpts from some e-mails between me and Diana, a rescue colleague in Central California. More and more I realize that although it is difficult to do rescue here, we have it made in the shade compared to so many other places, and I don't even want to think about third world countries because it is just too upsetting. There are many places in Canada where it sucks to be a stray, like Edmonton, and the Yukon, to name just a few. Our neighbours down south, California is one I am particularly aware of, are in a shocking state when it comes to animal welfare.
I do not know how the ladies doing animal rescue down there do it. They go into the pounds and pick a few that they can save and walk out knowing the rest will die. I cried when I read these e-mails below (I was asking about Kings County as I had received an e-mail listing dozens of cats to be euthanized this week):

"Kings county is located about 1-1/2 from us and located in the same hell hole as we are the Central Valley. This shelter is no different than Kern, a hell hole. I have this argument with the Kern shelter all the time regardiing the feral neutered/spayed cats, ppl will trap them bring them in to the shelter to be killed, yet there is a feral cat trap and release program in place but the morons bring them to the shelter and the shelter kills them instead of releasing them to colonies.

I'm too far away from Kings to be able to help them and I have 4 shelters here that are beyond capacity. We are located in a primarily agricultural valley, where the mentality is so different it boggles the mind, animals are worse than trash, to most. Just a bunch of inter bred hillybillys! I wish I could be more positive but all these shelters are horrible!

I'm not in a good frame of mine. Tonite I go before the Animal Control Commission voice my complaints against Kern Shelter and some of the workers. Just last week they asked me to help, I took 12 kitties that were to be euthanized then 3 more that had uri. The next day they asked me to take a very pregnant black kitty, I said I would, I got there to pick her up and they had killed her because she had a little uri! I went balistic, not the first time this has happened. I had a foster for her, all the work and the emotion that goes into this, she and her unborn babies had a safe, warm home to go to!"..........

"Yes my heart still breaks for the little mom, I spent 2 days crying nonstop but I will not drop it so that hopefully this never happens again at least not with the ones that have rescue coming for them!"

Don't know what the answer is to this awful problem created solely by people. There are many times when I wish I could just go and live away from everyone and not know about all this stuff. Keeps me awake at night and I don't even have to go and pick out what animals to save.

Does Vera have a Fairy Godmother?

Vera is my 15 year old Min Pin, a feisty little girl who loves to sleep in pillow cases. She wears a shocking pink harness type thing as a collar irritates her neck. I took her harness off a couple of weeks ago to wash it, so she was without a harness for a few days. When we went to Vancouver, I saw the harness in my house somewhere, can't remember where, and remember thinking, "wow, did a great job washing that, it looks brand new." On the way over with Barb D, I pointed out the harness and asked if she thought it was new as I was quite puzzled. Barb emphatically stated it was new so here am I, thinking I am losing it yet again. Oh well, I console myself that with dementia comes forgetting of nasty things too.

When I came home, I became quite sick and out of it, but then I noticed this rather ratty, faded pink harness hanging up in my hallway, ie the "original."

I don't know who you are, Fairy Godperson, but thank you so much for this brain teaser and for your kindness in buying Vera a lovely new harness. I suspect you "borrowed the original" sometime when you were here? Who are you? I really have no clue!!

Slowly back in the saddle

I am sorry I have not posted recently, but have truly been quite sick with a bout of flu, apparently. I always thought you had to have a cold if you had the flu, but not so. I have never had so many achey joints, darn, even my teeth ached. So, if you were one of the unlucky folks who happened to drop by over the last week and you saw me trudging around looking like death warmed over and scowling at everyone, I apologize. Thank you everyone who offered to help, but I really needed to be alone as much as possible.

The good news is that Luna, the cat with huge growth is back with me. Gillian B. so kindly went out of her way on a trip back to the States and they would not give her Luna as I still owed some money (note that they had my credit card on file and I had already paid them around $6,000.) This happened Sunday night and they got me at a really BAD time as I was feeling crummy. I tore a strip off the poor girl who answered the phone and again the next girl when I called back. Here is the e-mail I sent to them that night:

"Further to my conversation this evening regarding your failure to release my cat to a volunteer after I telephoned yesterday to advise that a volunteer would be attending between 7pm and 7:30pm tonight, be advised that I have spoken to my vet and she advises me that you are not allowed to hold an animal hostage in lieu of payment of a bill. I intend to proceed with a formal complaint on this matter to your accreditation board or whatever authority governs your profession and any expenses I incur to get my cat back to me will form part of a claim against your organization.
I require that you send me the final invoice for Luna, and I do not expect to be charged any fee for keeping her at the Clinic from tonight until she is returned to me. As I stated to your receptionist, I would hope that you would make arrangements to have my cat returned to me at your expense; however, if this does not occur, please be assured I will take whatever action is necessary to recover any monies I expend on this.
Do not phone me tonight as I am too sick to deal with this further, but I expect to hear from you tomorrow morning.
Beverly Archer
Chair and Founder
Cat’s Cradle Animal Rescue"

Luna was delivered by one of their staff members yesterday morning and is doing very well!

Out of commission

I am out of commission for a few days. Must have picked up a flu bug in Vancouver so am not up to much of anything right now. Luna has her surgery today so I will try and post how that goes, but not too much of anything else.

Canada West Update

We made the 5pm ferry just now and were the last car on. I was doing 120 kmh down the causeway in a 60kmh zone. Desperate to get on the ferry.

We have Onyx with us and he did well but has a really badly infected pubic area that is going to preclude any knd of surgery to control his incontinence for the time being. So, in the meantime, the Internist wants to try him on some drugs that may help his sphincter muscle control, and if necessary, another drug that may help relax his bladder. If this doesn't fix his problem, he will be having an hydraulic occluder put around his urethra which will work to help him control his urine output. In the meantime, I have to apply a warm compress to his nether region several times a day, give him antibiotics and keep his bottom as exposed to air as possible. I plan on trying to find some diaper like flat pads to put on the heated floor of one of my bathrooms and keep him in there as much as possible. So tomorrow, I am on the hunt for flat large diaper like pads. Good news for Onyx and I hugged the good looking surgeon, any excuse to hug a good looking guy.

Ethel could not have the debulking of her tumour, it is too extensive, but they took a needle aspirate to determine the type of tumour. Lymphoma would be the cancer of choice as there are some very successful, non-nasty side effects drugs which could giv her several good months. We want her to have a summer if at all possible.

We left poor Luna with the mass at the clinic and she will be operated on on Thursday. Not sure when she will be going home but perhaps Saturday. If anyone is coming back to Victoria when she is due to be discharged, I would be willing to pay your return ferry trip. Can you let me know? Failing that, if anyone would be interested in going over to pick her up, I will pay both ferry trips as I am not keen on going over again so soon but will if I have to.

We will be home soon with all but Luna and I am very grateful for this. It was a tough couple of days.

Canada West Veterinary Specialists

I am in Vancouver right now having arrived on Sunday night with Barbara, foster mom of a long term foster cat, Ethel who has a bladder tumour. I have Luna with me, a cat that was thought to be pregant but it turns out she has a massive mass in her abdomen. She was a stray and came to use three weeks ago. I also have Onyx with me as he had a consult with an internist to see if there is a surgical option for his incontinence. Those of you who have been to my house will remember Onyx as the big black three legged friendly cat. Also, we had to bring a kitten who was not eating and five dogs, my four and Tycho who I am looking after for Larissa. Yesterday was brutal. Onyx was examined and they found that he has an ulcer in his lower end which may be the tip of the iceberg so to speak so they are operating on him today to see how far the infection goes. If it goes too far, he will have to be euthanized. I am terrified about this, he is a lovely boy. He slept on my bed all night last night on pee pads as I didn't want to let him out of my sight as this might be his last day. I hope not because there is a surgical option to help his incontinence if these ulcers can be healed. He goes in at 8am and will have surgery around 9am. I may never see him again because they won't wake him up if they determine he is too far gone.

Ethel has an inoperable tumour but is going to have a cystoscopy to debulk the tumour and buy her some time as she is so not ready to leave this earth yet. She loves her life and has a loving foster mom. We want to give her at least another summer. We hope she has that today too.

Luna is being operated on on Thursday so I will be leaving her here as we have to come back today sometime. They are the most optimistic about her surgery and think it is a very large vascular cyst originating from the liver. It is major surgery though and I will be on pins and needles on Thursday.

Need to get dressed and take my Onyx over to the Clinic shortly. We are staying in a smallish room and have 9 animals in here with us!

Please think about these lovely creatures and send your positive thoughts.

Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine

We have a cat, a orange female,3 years, sweet girl, who was rescued from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Office of the Campus Veternarian, Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine etc. Now, if you read that, you might think that this is a laboratory that is working to help animals; maybe they do, but Frankie, as she was known, was used in an asthma experiment (for people) and somehow pity was taken on her as she had completed her part in that not too bad experiment, and was on her way to a much more horrible experience.

I have a really, really hard time with understanding why animals with such a dissimilar metabolism to people are used to test drugs for people? My personal experience with this is when my husband was alive, he had a strong sleeping pill, his last one and our Spaniel, Hoser, ate it. This dog was wired for two days, the opposite effect to a human. We took him to the vet and were told to hope that he did not have a heart attack and that it would take about two days to work through and the vet was right.

I wonder how many graduates of UCLA proudly announce that they majored in Laboratory Animal Medicine, ugh!

So much has been going on...

It has been a crazy couple of weeks and apologies for not updating the site. A lot has been happening with our cats and I will try and update things one item at a time when I have a moment.

One thing that is ongoing and I am keeping my fingers crossed is about a ginger and white female cat who came to me about three weeks ago as a stray and who appeared to be pregnant. A lovely, sweet girl who almost seemed to smile at you as she sat comfortably on an armchair. She went off to a foster home who is a vet as the daughter wanted to foster a pregnant cat. After two weeks, and the cat gaining weight, we had her examined and in fact she is not pregnant but has a massive mass (don't want to say tumour, it could be a cyst, we don't know) about the size of a large grapefruit in her abdomen. This thing is pressing against her liver, kidneys and spleen but overall her bloodwork was relatively normal, she is eating, and generally seems ok. We had an ultrasound done and are waiting for a radiologist to read it. Fluid was aspirated from this thing and sent to Ontario to be read by a pathologist who may or may not be able to tell us if it is malignant. If surgery is required, I am going to take her to Canada West in Burnaby which is the best chance this girl has as it is a tricky surgery. Of course, these things always happen over the weekend so that may delay getting her into Canada West.

I am heading to Canada West on Monday with Onyx, my three legged incontinent cat for a surgical consultation. It is possible that we may have to bump Onyx in favour of the ginger girl (who needs a name, I am thinking Clementine)and possibly Ethel who is another story.

Ethel is in permanent foster care with Barbara. She is an older cat who was found in a dumpster in appalling shape about two years ago. She did really well, had some procedures and although a cranky old gal, is much loved by Barbara and her husband Paul. Ethel now has a bladder tumour and Dr. Wilson is looking into having Canada West possibly perform a Cystoscopy on Ethel to give her more quality time, not sure if it will happen but we are exploring our options.

Much more to tell, but have to go clean crates......will try and update more regularly.

HELP WITH WINSTON'S SURGERY!

$3600 is Needed to Pay For This Procedure

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let you know that while Winston is not the only kitty who is in need for surgery, he is one of many, and as there are so many, it would be wonderful if we could raise some needed funds for Winston's surgery to help out!
His surgery is January 26th, and the cost for his leg amputation is $3600.00. Whatever you can donate for his surgery would be most appreciated!
If you would like, please donate by using the button to the right (the Canada Helps button), and please donate. Every dollar helps out so much...you have NO idea!
Winston is the sweetest, happiest little guy you could ever imagine, and the fact that he will be able to finally get this surgery done will mean the world to him, as he has been literally carrying this leg that does not work, and gets blisters and sores because of the dragging for far too long. He would have received this surgery beforehand, but Bev needed to get his thyroid fixed before he could get this surgery...so let's help out CCAR with one of their wonderful kitties that when you meet him, he teaches you some of the best life lessons. Please donate!

Been a bit out of touch lately

I realized today that I haven't posted on the site since Little Charlie died and I apologize for that. Actually, his death knocked me for six and with everything else going on, just no time as usual. It turns out that Little Charlie had Bronchial Pneumonia but there is no understanding why he got it so bad and so quickly but Dr. Wilson feels that there was something else going on. Another kitten who was with Little Charlie, Little Phil (I have BIG versions of both these cats, hence the unimaginative names)got bronchitis but nothing as bad as Little Charlie. Dr. W was wondering if he was a potential FIP kitten, who knows, I just know that this was an especially tough one for me.

Jasper, our lovely older white diabetic cat, had dental surgery on Monday. We had tried to do dental work on him a couple of months ago and he crashed a number of times and barely made it through the surgery which had to be cut short. Anyway, we had no choice and Dr. Wilson decided to go ahead. He came through the surgery very well thanks to Dr. Wilson and her wonderful staff. He already appears much improved, I am keeping him pretty stoned mind you as his mouth was awful, swollen, abscessed, pus pockets, you name it. I don't know how he managed to eat from what I was told.

Now, we are on the countdown for the leg amputation for Winston, another older cat with an old appalling leg injury. The 26th of January is his date and that will be another pins and needles day for me and Barbara, his foster mom.

Record Broken

Half a ton of used cat litter

Last week, I broke another record for a Hartland Landfill Controlled Waste dump. Cost $73 for this last load and at $150 a ton, almost half a ton of used cat litter. Guess who scooped all that from the boxes, no wonder I have scoopinitis.

It was quite an experience taking this load last week. I have to make an appointment and am escorted to a pit that is dug specially for controlled waste. They often have horse and deer carcasses in these pits and I find it very distressing to dump cat litter on these poor creatures. Don, a volunteer, has been doing most dump runs for me over the last two years as he knows how much it upsets me to see these animals. This time, I decided to do it myself as there was so much and I felt bad asking him to do it. I was taken by Jake to the Active Face; seemed like something out of a Sci Fi movie with bulldozers, bobcats and guys in masks and helmets moving amongst the garbage. The mud was thigh deep and they had to bulldoze a path for me and I drove my van in low gear without stopping, heart in mouth that I wouldn't get stuck. If I got stuck, they were going to have to send a truck and we would have to unload my van with half a ton of litter, and load it into the truck which would then drive to the pit where I would dump it. Jake, a cute young thing, gives me driving instructions and I boasted "I used to drive police cars in the middle of winter in downtown Toronto, I can drive anywhere!" I wanted to impress this cute guy, hey, I may be old but I am not blind! Then my heart was in my mouth as I am driving over the mud, what if I got stuck after my bragging? Thankfully I didn't and the mission was accomplished. I enjoyed the "scenery" and my garbage bins were empty for a couple of hours!

New Additions...

There are LOTS of new cats and kittens going up on the site right now, following the rescue the other day. Keep you eyes on the cat/kitten page to see all of these new additions...

The cats with '90's names...

We have new cats in... Meet Jennie, Brittany, and Tiffany! Are any of these little girls for you? They are all young female cats.

Also look on the kitten page to seen a few new tiny guys on there. They won't be ready until mid-January!

Yet Another

Cat Bite

I am somewhat out of commission yet again due to another rather bad cat bite in virtually the same place as the one I had two or so weeks ago (this was a claw in my skin). I ended up yet again in Emergency at the Saanich Peninsula Hospital with the same lovely ladies who dealt with my first bite two weeks ago. Funnily enough, I was even in the same bed and the nurses did a double take when they saw me. This time they were on days, last time they were on nights. I told them I planned to follow them on their shift rotation.

So IV drugs and oral drugs and a really sore hand means I am slower at doing everything so not too many postings for a few days.

Beware cat bites folks. Apparently, human bites are worse and I can attest to that as I was once bitten on the inner thigh by a prostitute, that was really painful and took a long time to heal. I am going to leave you all guessing what I was doing with my inner thigh near a prostitute's mouth!