Sunday, 10 November is the 249th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Mr H is a retired Marine officer who spent 27 years serving around the world. His travels took him to Vietnam, Okinawa, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Suriname, Chile, Cuba, Peru and England. He spent too much time in Washington, DC and not enough time in Camp Lejeune. He got his boots muddy with the 1st Bn 4th Marines, 1st Bn 9th Marines, 3rd Bn 9th Marines and was the XO of 3rd Bn 4th Marines and the CO of the Infantry Training Bn.
Monday is the 109th Veterans’ Day in the United States. It started out as Armistice Day in 1919 to commemorate the end of World War I and became a federal holiday in 1938. The name was changed in 1954 to Veterans’ Day to recognize the service and sacrifice of all military veterans both in war and peace. If you see a veteran, please thank him or her for their service. Join with the residents and staff of Mandarin’s Retreat in wishing Happy Birthday to America’s Devil Dogs and congratulations and thanks to our wonderful veterans.
This week ended with a whimper and a sob as we paid the $1,800 vet bill Thursday afternoon. It was a multiple cat invoice and it was painful paying it. It covered Hamlet, Mishka, Carmello, Toby and a stray (now Cooper). Hamlet and Toby were in for shots which were not too expensive. However….
Mishka
Cooper
Mishka was never truly a healthy kitty. She and her sister Sabrina came to us starved, covered with bugs and barely alive. Tony, the magnificent cat paramedic and practice manager at our vet saved them both from certain death over a week long ordeal of attempts at a rescue. Through hand feeding, vet care and loving attention, they both survived and sister Sabrina seemed to thrive. Mishka, however, while she got healthier and bouncier, never really got to 100% well. Over the four years she was with us, we spent a couple of thousand dollars testing and searching for diagnosis but to no avail.
Last Friday, Sabrina came to Mrs H and insisted as only a cat can, for Mrs H to follow her. Sabrina led her to her sister who had collapsed in a box. We cleaned Mishka up and put her in medical isolation and watched her closely. We thought she had had a seizure and we knew from experience cats could recover quite well if they were kept in a quiet, warm environment. She got better little by little but we still took her in to the vet and she was placed on fluids and kept overnight. One of the vet techs and our long time friend watched over her so that she was never alone. We were called Wednesday morning and told Mishka had suffered a severe setback over the night. We left for the vet also carrying Carmello, as he was feeling poorly.
Once at the vet, we saw that Mishka had had enough. She now looked pretty out of it and didn’t have the strength to hold her head upright. She was ready to cross over the Rainbow Bridge and join Muffin, Penelope and Cody. We granted her request and let her join the others.
Mishka Ready to travel over the Rainbow Bridge
While we were spending time with Mishka, one of the vet techs came into the room and asked for a moment. A man had just come in with an old cat who he had fed for a couple of days. The man had explained he could not keep the cat due to his own heavy kitty load and had called everyone – Animal Services and several rescues – to take the cat and no one would or could. The tech, who had known us for years, asked if we could talk to the man.
The stray ginger was a mangled, dirty, skin and bones cat. The man said he ate for 30 minutes the first time he put a food bowl out. The cat was friendly and had a clipped ear indicating he’d gone through. What this old cat’s story was we didn’t know but the kitty needed help. After a few looks between Mrs H and me, we told everyone we would take the cat.
Cooper after being cleaned at the Vet
Talking with the vet we decided to leave the kitty overnight along with Carmello, who needed some testing. The plan was to run the full gamut of tests on the stray and see what our options were. We returned to Mishka, said our last goodbyes and returned to the Retreat to rearrange our kennel space and make a comfy spot for our new arrival. The next afternoon we picked up Carmello with his meds and the yet unnamed stray. Our new kitty, who we later in the day named Cooper, was in a surprisingly good health according to the tests (minor kidney issues and anemia, not surprising for a starved outside cat) but he was very old. The vet though he was upwards of 14 years old. I told my wife, “Well…that’s why we have the Retreat”. We’ve since discovered that Cooper is almost deaf and can’t see well at all. It’s so much better for him to spend his last days with us, being loved on and pampered.
Now for the reckoning with the vet. The combined bill for two other cats for shots and the tests for Mishka, Cooper and Carmello was $1,803.04. This bill put us deep in the red and the Retreat’s credit card squeaked in pain. Our October vet bills were now almost $2,800 and our donations have come nowhere close to covering the cost. Please if you are able in this year of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters – lend us a hand. Any donation at all will be greatly appreciated and help us keep our promises to these sick and elderly cats. Mandarin would give you a big thanks and a even bigger purr if he could.
It’s been a busy and frustrating week, with some successes and failures. Biggest frustration was being bounced off the DAFDay website and having no idea as to why. It’s all fixed now, but man. Sometimes it feels as if we’re just floundering around in this fund raising effort. I sat in on a marketing webinar Wednesday, and I think I’m going to focus our efforts for a while in just brand recognition. You know, just getting people to know who we are and then maybe, what we do. Times are tough and money around the Retreat is tight. But even without much money, cats have to go the the vet.
Our vet is absolutely fabulous with their four doctors doing wonderful work with our cats. They give us all the breaks and discounts they can, but the meds keep getting more and more expensive. While our cats have all sorts of cute and interesting traits, such as each “generation” teaching the next about trimming their hind claws, the most recent trend seems to be gum and thyroid problems. We’ve been jokingly asked to move into our vets office, just to save on gasoline.
Stella in her new carrier at Vet
Stella playing with a pickle at the Vet
We did get a bit of good news when we took Stella to the vet for a checkup on Friday. She’s doing well and was generally a very good girl. I understand she was a bit vocal when she had her blood taken, but often, I’m a bit vocal too when I get stabbed in the arm. Stella’s gained a pound of weight and we found that a minor skin infection has been gooping up her ears. We cleaned and medicated her ears yesterday – she was really not amused with that, but accepted a Churu as a peace offering. It’s interesting to note that Stella is turning into “my” cat, stepping in to replace my Winston. That girl definitely likes laying in my lap and has begun making biscuits before she settles down for pets.
Stella loves to sulk when she comes back from the vet, just to keep us on our toes and let us know about all of her displeasure. The solution? Take a guess.
Stella Pouting
Coaxing Stella with a Churu
It’s also of note that from turning up her nose at Churus when she first came to the Retreat, she has now become a real fan. I think it’s the result of her thyroid medicine kicking in and the protein in the treat doing her some good. Sulky cat or not, she hopped into my lap in the evening and we watched tv while see got her pets. Not a bad way to end a Saturday.
Stella seems always hungry and has a heavy paw to protect her food bowl.
It’s been awhile since we’ve discussed Stella. As you may remember, Stella came to us with an inflamed, swollen nose, thought to be cancerous and a large polyp in her left ear. She was bedraggled, skeletal and listless. We sent her off to the vet, then arranged for an operation and a couple of biopsies. Her blood work was horrible. Her nose was merely badly inflamed; her left ear, on the other hand, was filled with a cancerous tumor. The removal of the polyp seems to have cured that problem (we’ll see over time), but the thinness refused to get better, no matter how much she ate. We ran blood work for her thyroid and it came back as critically overactive, requiring methimazole.
The methimazole works on humans as well as cats so gloves are need
Stella has been receiving two doses a day (morning & evening, alternating ears) for almost a month now and as her pictures show, she is a much improved kitty. When dealing with thyroid issues, change takes quite a while, with weight being about the last thing that catches up. She needs to put on maybe three or four more pounds to be “healthy”, but we’re delighted to already see such improvement.
Eyes are Clear and Fur is Silky
Unswollen Nose
She has become the Master of her Food Bowl.
Stella is more or less confined to my office, where she spends time with Linus, Cookie, Toby and Mama Harlequin. I normally watch TV and fend the cats off my dinner in my office every evening and that makes for some great socialization time. Linus and Stella are rivals for my lap when I’m at the TV or reading. One will get in my lap and be petted for an hour or so and then they’ll switch. It’s interesting to watch when Linus gets up to nibble at the dry cat food, Stella slides into my lap without a second glance at her large, orange friend.
Most of the last 10 days or so, I’ve been working on creating a fillable form for our monthly Asilomar reporting to Shelter Animals Count and to Shelter Pet Data Alliance. We had to bite the bullet and buy a software subscription and then learn how to use the damn thing. I made a fool of my self by submitting a support ticket for something that was in the user manual, but you know; who reads the manual!
Any way, the Cats Gallery is set up and running and our gallery of all our cats is 99.9% done as we’re missing one photo. We don’t have a decent photo of Mishka, who is a chocolate black long hair who as a passion for hiding except at night. It’s hard to take a good picture of a black cat at night.
The most recent photo to go into the gallery was that of Luna. Luna was born in our backyard some years ago and is a daughter of Miss Tabz. Luna became an inside cat one very dark night at around 0300. Mrs H couldn’t sleep and was using her iPad to look at the backyard with one of the CCTV cameras. She saw Momma Tabz carrying a kitten and another kitten following (Luna). Unbeknown to Mrs H, both kittens had ocular herpes and their eyes were welded shut with gunk. Little Luna, a bit behind and late to the party, ran after her mom and fell into our swimming pool. Mrs H yelled at me to get up as she headed outdoors to rescue the kitten. Getting the cat out of the pool didn’t take much effort and Mrs H was soon back with one soaked little kitty. Two towels later, the kitty was dry and warm and being fed by Mrs H with a syringe. The moon was out and the kitten was gray so she earned her name of Luna. The next day brought a trip to the vet and the purchase of some meds for the kittens vicious ocular herpes.
The following days changed our relationship with feral momma Tabz. She brought all her remaining kittens (each with ocular herpes) to our back door and left them in our care. Subsequently, with each new litter, she would bring all her kittens to us once they were ready to be weaned. After several years of trying to trap Ms Tabz, we nabbed her and her latest batch of kittens in April.
This week has as also been about expanding our donor reach to include Donor Advised Funds or DAFs. Through a on-line workshop and with help from Givebutter’s support staff, we have a DAF donor form. You should see the button on our new Donations page on the website soon.
Oh, almost forgot! This week started the Community Service Campaign by Ignitify using radio stations ESPN KLAQ & KISS FM, and text messages to ask their customers and the community for donations to the Retreat. Our relationship with Ignitify began earlier this year when our HVAC mini-split bought the farm and we needed it replaced. Ignitify was quick, professional, and they liked what they saw of the Retreat. When they said they wanted to help, we were quick to say “YES!”. Talk about a business chipping in with community service! We’ll be posting more about both these companies on our “Friends” page which is currently under construction.
Please return next week to see what else is going on at Mandarin’s Retreat! 🎉
