Blog – Mandarin's Retreat

Big Change

Once you are in a project with your goals and your strategies, you often need to step back and look at where you are going and what you’re trying to accomplish. After about 2 1/2 years of steady work with Mandarin’s Retreat, Mrs H and I have come to the conclusion that our initial goal is not quite tenable. We simply do not have the room to handle any more kitties. We don’t have the money to buy the vacant house next door, tear it down and build a bespoke facility for kitties.

What we can do, with your help, is try to take care of kitties that we don’t actually house. This year, our partner in cats — Sun City Cats — have found that about 40 of the cats they trap every month need some kind of medical care. Some need only minor care such as a shot, but the rest need major vet help with a healing period after the vet visit. Sun City Cats has a major list of foster parents who can take these kitties in, but who can’t handle the initial vet bill. Even the most dedicated foster parent has only so much cash available these days.

Here is what we want to do. We want to use the Vincent First Aid Kit fund to pay for these initial vet visits. Cats who are “vetted” by Sun City Cats, Animal Services, or our vet will have their vet bill paid by Mandarin’s Retreat if the cat is treated by our vet and the cat will then be fostered by a Sun City Cat vetted foster. Forty cats a month times an average MR vet bill of $300 is $12,000 a month or $144,000 a year. Yikes!! Our current budget for the entire Retreat is barely $54,000. Realizing that the combined budgets would be just under $200,000, we just can’t do it all in the foreseeable future.

We can begin to aid a few of these sick and injured kitties. We are seeking grant funds to fund about 50 injured cats a year with the remaining funds helping pay for specialist or other expensive vet care. We are asking you to help if you can.

Currently we have four different funds at Givebutter and I want to explain what each does:

Keeping Promises — This is the general bucket for all the organizational and maintenance (O&M) costs of Mandarin’s Retreat. With these funds we purchase food, toys, medicine, food bowls and all the other items which keep the Retreat running and taking care of cats.
Vincent’s First Aid Kit — This fund pays for all vet costs over $300 for the Retreat’s cats and is the fund we will use to take care of the cats which will be fostered and not reside at the Retreat. This is the newest fund which was jump started with $2,100 left over from paying all of poor Vincent’s medical bills.
Continuing Support through Continuous Donations — Fund was established to make it easy to donation on a regular basis — monthly, quarterly, etc. We did this to keep our donations forms simple and easy to use. If a donation is not earmarked for the First Aid Kit through a notation on the form, all monies are are used for operational and maintenance.
DAF — This fund is to handle Donor Advised Funds. Giving from the tax-free funds requires a special form which handles the movement of the donation in an IRS approved manner. We haven’t had much luck with receiving these type of donations, but we’re beating the bush and placing our Mandarin’s Retreat logo and information with as many DAF fund managers as possible. Again, if no notation is made one the donation form to specifically support Vincent’s First Aid Kit, then the donation goes for O&M. We do have the option, of course, of directing these funds into the First Aid Kit, if those funds are low.

So this is the path we want to take with Mandarin’s Retreat and I hope I’ve been clear in what we want to do. But since my wife often say that I am often unclear when I speak or write, if you have any questions or concerns about our future programs, please email me at meow@mrhwc.org.

Caturday Updates

It’s been a while and some of the information here has been posted on X, but I wanted to be sure everyone gets the word.

The first cat update is for Princess Stella Grumpy Pants. As you may know, Stella had a cancerous polyp removed from her left ear about a year ago and has a severely misbehaving thyroid. We took the ole lady to the vet for an Old Cat Panel blood test and everything is just pixie purrrfect for Mandarin’s Retreat leading prima donna.

Just as important as good blood work is this: Stella has gotten adventurous. She had been “confined” by her own choice in my office, meaning our old second bedroom. We put cats there when they have integration problems and need to be either totally on their own or only visited by members of the welcoming committee, Cookie and Toby. Occasionally I’d leave the door open and she might have walked out into the hallway, but would immediately scurry back inside. Lately, however, Stella has gotten wanderlust (or maybe just got bored) and has turned the entire Retreat into her dominion. She rarely returns to the office which leaves lap space for the ancient Linus or one of the kittens. So, good for her, as she has now become a full-fledged member of the Retreat.

Our next update is for little LJ, the tiny kitten with a deformed left rear leg. He is still SO SMALL!

He just recently broke 2.5 pounds and appears to be ever so surely gaining more and more weight. Mrs H feeds him separately with Royal Canin Mother & Baby wet food. He also has access to food and water bowls spread through out the Retreat. LJ chows down like a champ and no one pushes him away from food, but it’s such a slow process for him to gain weight. We can’t begin to place him in for corrective surgery until the little guy gets bigger.

Our third and final update is Lulu. She is our latest wonky cat and was referred to us from a family on Ft Bliss through Sun City Cats. SCC, as you may recall, is our TNR partner in El Paso and the majority of wonky cats come to us via them. Lulu has an unfortunate incident with another family cat and became incredibly stressed out when being around them. The family was concerned that Lulu was over cleaning herself and scratching her ears to shreds. They had tried two or three different vets and several meds, but nothing worked. The family knew made one of the most difficult decisions there is as a cat owner – their babycat needed to permanently get away from the other feline. They signed Lulu over to us, in spite of the absolutely heart-rending grief it caused their entire crew.

We placed Lulu in her own quiet kennel, with an array of toys and different foods. She quickly made herself at home and became very, very chatty. Whenever Mrs H or I enter the room, she immediately starts a conversation and demands to be petted. She also became an avid user of the in-kennel scratching post. Lulu is slowly becoming more and more chilled out and playful. She has another appointment with Dr M today to evaluate her and plan further treatment. Please keep your paws crossed for Ms Lulu as she adjusts to life at Mandarin’s Retreat.

Please expect more frequent blog posts as we are mulling over in our collective brains a change at the Retreat. Stay tuned for more info!

After the Drought

It’s been a while since I’ve tried to write a new blog entry, so I need to catch everyone up.

The most important item, I think, is the receipt of the 2025 Platinum Transparency seal from Candid. We got this after updating the Candid database with our latest tax returns and adding a bit more information about our organization. The Platinum seal is the highest you can receive from Candid and it brings along a couple of perks. First and foremost is our ability to use the basic Foundation grant database without charge. This assists us immensely in looking for new funding sources. The second perk is for anyone searching 501c(3)s. They can see and research the information about Mandarin’s Retreat and learn we’re not a fly-by-night, shady operation. Candid shows them that we’re on the up and up.

Vincent’s medical bills are being reduced bit by bit with almost every single cash donation going towards the remaining balance. As of this post, the debt is down to $4,800 from a high of $23,000. While the volume of donations has diminished, they continue to trickle in from our marvelous monthly donors and everyone who donates as they can. We can’t say enough how much stability y’all give to our little hospice. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 😻😻😻

The population of the Retreat is at its highest level ever at 71 cats in residence. The big increase is due to a totally unexpected appearance of a very ill, elderly Stay Kitty (now Elizabeth) and a young mama who gifted us with 6 fuzzy jelly beans just last week. Them’s the breaks.

We have spent all the El Paso Community Foundation grant funds, with the final couple of hundred going to help pay for vet bills for Elizabeth and Anne Bonny. At the same time we were finishing off the EPCF grant, we applied for $1,500 in food money from a new grant in El Paso specifically for animal rescues and shelters. Everyone, have the paws and tails crossed as this grant could pay for four months of dry cat food.

Candid gave us some extra goodies by upgrading our Foundation Grant Database software to the full version for the remainder of our initial award period or about six months. It is grant award season right now and Mandarin’s Retreat, like all other cat and dog rescues, could always use more funding. Now, the Mandarin’s Retreat Grant team (me) can really start searching for new grants and apply away.

As I close, let me give a brief update on our grand ole lady Stella. Her gotcha day was 29 July 2024 via a request on social media to Mrs H. Brittany, a Reddit user, told us that her children found and saved Stella off the side of a road, that she was in a bad shape and that they needed help caring for her. During her initial checkup, Stella was found to have a cancerous growth in her left ear with assorted bruises, scraps, and missing most of the hair on her nose. The cancerous ear polyp was successfully removed, the assorted bruises treated; and she quickly settled into Mr H office. Today, the grumpy grandma cat rules the office with an iron paw, gets two meds twice a day, and sits on Mr H’s lap for hours as he watches TV in the evening. Stella’s fur is long and silky soft and much different from her matted and dirty fur upon intake.

Thank you, Brittany and family, for saving this old Princess Grumpypants! This world needs more people like you!

Caturday Video

With all the sorrow of the last few weeks, plus too many trips to the human doctor and filling out tax forms, I thought we could have some fun and experiment with video for the first time. As many of you may know, Stella was found by the children of a Reddit poster, who then turned to the community for help when she wasn’t thriving after they’d provided her with vet care and gave her some time to recover. We stepped in.

Thank you Brittany and family for saving this graceful old lady and doing the absolute best to give her a chance at a comfortable and loving retirement!

She was a mess with fur missing on her nose, a polyp in her ear and not nearly enough fat and muscle on her bones. We took her to our vet who said we should expect that cancer was causing the hair loss and inflammation on her nose and that she’s likely need surgery. To make a long story short, Dr Marquez biopsied her nose, removed the polyp from her ear and sent everything off to a lab to see what’s what. As it turned out, her nose was just inflamed but the “polyp” in her ear was cancerous. Unlike Vincent, Stella’s cancer never returned.

What Stella did have was a massive thyroid problem. Her hyperthyroidism was so bad that the lab machine basically stopped counting after a certain point and said “Your guess is as good as mine! Good luck!” The treatment for that is methimazole – a medicine that is basically anti-thyroid and helps us keep her thyroid levels in check. At first we used a medi-pen with which we spread the ointment inside her ear. This worked for about three weeks and then Stella began to break out in lesions around her neck and throat. Yep, she was allergic to something in the pen and we hoped it was just the carrier gel and not the active ingredient itself. We switched to a liquid medicine we found at Chewy, made by Norbrook Laboratories.

We have given liquid medicine to our cats plenty of times over the years. Sometimes its easy, sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it takes a purrito. However, with this medicine from Norbrook Labs…well, see for yourselves:

While we don’t know her exact age, Stella appears to be a very old cat. As her pictures in the gallery show, she can pose with the best of runway models. But, being a very old kitty with arthritis, she can be very weary of the world and its problems. That’s why we call her Pwincess Stella Grumpypants.

Happy Caturday!

(Side note: Norbrook Laboratories is not a sponsor of this post and they have not paid us one, fat treat to post this. It’s simply the very first time we’ve encountered a medicine that a cat actually WANTS to take.)

Friends & Supporters

It’s been a tough week with the loss of Vincent. On the 27th we sent a email to our financial supporters through GiveButter describing our last moments with Vincent. For all our friends and supporters who we do not have an email address, We want to share the same email with you this morning:

Dear Friends of Vincent and donors to Mandarin’s Retreat,

For those of you who do not know, our wonderful fighter and go getter cat Vincent died at 2155 at the El Paso Animal Emergency Center on Tuesday, 25 February. That afternoon, Vincent had undergone an MRI as a final diagnosis procedure to identify what was causing his sinus congestion, as a well as assess the potential spread of his cancer.

We decided on the MRI because Vincent had crashed on us the night before with symptoms that hinted at a stroke or, perhaps, a blood clot.

The procedure was done by a board certified cat neurologist, Dr. Antonio Bowens. Vincent stormed through the MRI without any issues, but we did learn that his cancer had returned with vengeance and was likely causing him the symptoms we’d observed.

When the procedure was completed, Vincent did not want to wake up. His heart rate was all over the place and he wasn’t very interested in recovering. The staff at the ER center watched, waited and provided all the support our kitty needed to recover. Dr. Bowens stayed with Vincent and when it appeared that Vincent would not pull through, he called Mrs H and we came to the ER.

When we arrived at the ER, Vincent was surrounded by a team of nurses, attendants and doctors. One surgical nurse was constantly stroking Vincent and taking to him. We spoke to Big V, petted him and said our goodbyes. Vincent had fought so hard and had tried so hard, but he indicated to Mrs H and myself that he had run his race as long as he could. We agreed with the surgical team and Dr. Bowens that it was time to ease him over the Rainbow Bridge. This we did with everyone of his team in attendance, each saying their own farewells.

The staff moved us to a private room and we spent some time alone with Vincent, telling little vignettes and how Vincent had won the hearts of every care giver who had spent time with him. Of note, the ER staff was jaw dropped when we mentioned that Vincent’s fans and supporters had raised over $13,000 for his care.

My wife and I would like to thank everyone of you for your inspiring generosity, engagement, care and love you have sent to Vincent and to Mandarin’s Retreat. The fact that Vincent and Mandarin – our founding cat – were so alike in their loving nature only strengthens our resolve to carry on the fight to care for the abandoned and unloved cats. We will carry on despite the heartbreak, with the firm knowledge that in the two months and six days Vincent was with us, his was loved, cared for and cuddled not only by us, but by you.

Thank you.