Last week was busy and I didn’t spend much time on social media. Having eight kittens chasing their tails and falling off of counter tops at Kitten Day Care (KDC) in the office kept us on our toes. In addition, we’ve been dealing with two fairly sick cats: Cody and Carmello. Cody is not quite one and Carmellito is anywhere from 16 to 20 years old.
We got the big ginger dude in a pretty sorry shape. His constant diarrhea, matted fur and lethargic attitude had indicated a need for a vet visit a while ago, but his vet trip did not happen until he arrived at the Retreat. Two days at our friendly clinic with a bunch of meds and pain killers plus a gentle washing brought him back from the vet in somewhat better shape. The initial diagnosis was possible cancer and definite kidney problems; but now we’re not so sure. The meds, good food and a large kennel have worked wonders. His kidney food arrived, which he begrudgingly eats and his meds has reduced the size of his kidney. We’re not sure what’s going on but he’ll have a follow-up next week to see what’s what. The original plan was for Mr C to stabilize and survive the weekend. He’s done a lot more than just that, so we’re optimistic.
Cody, on the other hand, is a different story. He has only one working eye and has survived panleukopenia. As many of those who raise panleuk kitties know, survival is merely the beginning. The awful virus can leave deep claw marks inside of a kitten’s body and Cody did not escape his illness unscathed. As it turns out, Cody ended up with a pancreatic enzyme insufficiency. It took us a while to get the diagnosis, because his other gut symptoms somewhat covered everything up. We have his enzyme supplements coming in tomorrow and we’re hopeful he’ll continue to kick ass and take names.
Now to the incidentals. Most folks when they think of cats and cat rescues probably think of costs as food, litter, and vet bills. They would be right as these three items are the majority of our monthly costs. However, the deliveries this week painted a wider canvass of expenses. We received 1,000 t-shirt type plastic bags, a new kennel (to expand Carmello’s space), two surgical collars, one new kitty tower (for KDC), one kennel scratching post, blue nitrate gloves, 2,000 syringes and a micro-chip reader.
“Why do we need so many plastic bags”, you ask? We use about five plastic bags a day to handle the 60 pounds of cat poop that goes to the trash. While we buy groceries and reuse the bags when we can, we do not generally have 150 used grocery bags lying around and we have to buy them. Nitrate gloves and syringes are an easy guess for taking care of sick kitties but each expense goes into the budget.
Fortunately our @Walmart and our @Amazon business accounts let us purchase tax free. That helps. @Chewy offers us discounts from time to time. Ours friends in social media offer us ideas and suggestions for savings and time savers. It’s hard work running a cat rescue and while it’s a labor of love, expenses are a constant concern. If you would like to help, please hit our donate button on the landing page.