Blog – Mandarin's Retreat

Vincent van Ouch

We weren’t supposed to go get Vincent at all in the first place. We expected to pick up an FIV+ void girl, but we were told that she got lucky and went to her new home for Christmas with a loving, understanding family. Then, this happened:

Vincent was nameless then, FIV+, badly banged up and holding on for dear life. “Now, please!”, so we went and were soon on our way back with a carrier full of a very sick cat, a bag of meds and a whole lot of uncertainty.

(I’d like to leave a side note here about our Animal Services. The staff are magnificent and they work tirelessly every day to find love, care and homes for an absolutely overwhelming number of cats, dogs and occasionally other furry creatures. Unfortunately, there’s only x-amount of space and hands available and sometimes an animal makes it to there whose health had deteriorated to a point where keeping them alive without extensive resources available would be just straight up cruel. The staff still try to find placements for them; we’d know, Vincent is not the first kitty we got from there under emergency circumstances. In the end, it’s the staff that saved Vincent’s life by looking for and finding aid for him with utmost diligence, pretty much against all odds.)

Kitties with FIV have a lot more trouble with healing than healthy cats and their status can severely impact prognosis. You have to plan their care carefully under the best of circumstances and the sheer amount of injuries on Vincent made for a bit of a nightmare in that regard. His guesstimated but rather obvious old age made it even worse.

Next day’s visit to our vet brought some peace. Vin had a mad upper respiratory infection, his left ear was decimated, infected and bleeding, his coat was utterly filthy and his general attitude was “whatever.” Meaning: it was all treatable, even for a kitty with FIV. He was, however, not in any shape for anesthesia at the time, so any sort of cleanup would have to wait. He did clock in at 7 pounds, which is a decent weight for an old dude that’s been out on the streets for a while.

Dr Marquez set up a plan – treat the URI and infected ear, control the immense pain Vincent was in, let the kitty catch a breath and re-evaluate on Monday.

The weekend was hell. It always is. You can have the best doctors and meds in the world, but that small, furry thing is sitting in your house, fighting a battle against odds, infection, pain and a chronic disease ever so quaintly referred to as “cat AIDS” and all you can do is make sure they’re comfortable, medicate them, feed them and hope it is enough to keep them going.

Thankfully, the big guy took in all in stride and kept going all the way through to Monday, when we went to see Dr M again. Vin was better but still not all there for any major work, so we set him up for surgery and cleanup on Friday after Christmas and added another antibiotic to his ever growing list of medications. We also told Dr M that we were pretty sure that Vincent had lost most of his ability to hear – at home, he quite visibly relied on vibrations to locate the source of anything happening around him.

The new prescription combo definitely pushed his healing along; the mangled ear stopped seeping ugly stuff and began scabbing off and his breathing became easier. And so, here we are, on Christmas Day. Vincent is eating wet food (he’s really taken to Rachel Ray’s Nutrish Tuna Purrfecion) with a huge appetite, attempting to munch on moistened dry kibble, saying good morning and requesting pets and last, but certainly not the least, watching TV. We’re on season two of The Tudors now.

The change in him since the first day is nothing short of amazing. His old bones and joints definitely appreciated his new prescriptions, as he began to slowly relax his body and sleep with his chin up and front paws curled. He also became a lot more alert, saying good morning and actively asking for food with tiny, still a little scratchy meows. We also found out that in addition to chin scratches and back pets, he loves belly rubs!

We are, however, now facing the biggest hurdle in his treatment. His ear is in shambles and needs to be cleaned up and stitched, the filth from his paws needs to be cleaned off, his teeth are an absolute mess and we’ve also noticed that he has a wound on his nose that’s looking concerning. We will drop him off at the vet Thursday afternoon so that he can get some prep done and IV fluids and he will have his surgery this Friday.

He is not a great candidate for anesthesia. He’s old, still sick and a little frail, but we have little choice in how we’re going to proceed. We cannot just medicate him till kingdom come with an open wound on his head and the surgery is a necessity.

We’re hopeful and we know Dr Marquez is a beast at what he does, but we’re scared too. Vincent has curled up in our hearts and we want him to celebrate the New Year and live out the rest of his cat lives loved, cared for and spoiled like a fantasy princess.

Y’all have caused nothing short of a miracle to occur – you managed to let Santa know that Vincent has a new address! We read each and every comment you left to Vincent and we told him about and showed him all the gifts he got for his first Christmas in his new digs. We’re pretty sure that the cost of all of his most urgent medical care is fully covered thanks to your likes, retweets, tags and unbridled generosity. To say that we are overwhelmed would be an understatement. And so, we will honor each and every one of you in a blog post over the next weekend, because the world needs to know that there is still so many good people in it.

Please send Vincent the best of vibes on Friday morning, so that he gets through his surgery and comes out on a clear path to healing.

Here’s the big boy today, sleeping soundly after having gotten his meds and a hefty helping of holiday ham. Let’s be hopeful and say that his glowup pictures will be amazing!

(The white gent in the back is Casper the Friendly Cat, a young male with cerebellar hypoplasia aka a “wobbly cat”. He’s a survivor himself, having successfully battled concurrent panleukopenia and calcivirus infections as a tiny baby. )

Merry Crispmouse to y’all!

Update Continued

I’ve been negligent in getting back to the blogosphere as there has been much going on. However; to update everyone, Mandarin’s Retreat picked up our $2,000 check from the El Paso Community Foundation. The money was provided by the James, Janie and Mark Keating Fund. We are grateful to the Keatings for establishing this wonderful source of support for little outfits like ours.

The first transaction was to pay for the two cat trees that have been ordered from the WLO Company. We ordered those over Black Friday to catch the tail end of a rather nice discount. Pictures will follow once they arrive and are unpacked. For a taste of what might happen please that a look at Cat Tree Saga.

We also have a few sick cat updates. First is Stella. When I wrote about her last, we were fighting multiple lesions around her neck and chest. Stella is apparently allergic to the methimazole gel we were putting in her ears and so, quite literally, broke out in hives. Our vet says it was making her itch like crazy. We stopped giving her the gel and provided her with meds to ease the itching. She’s been improving daily and becoming less a grumpy ole grandma cat. We’re waiting on her liquid thyroid medicine so we can continue treating that problem.

Next cat up is Cooper. The vet team had been expecting Cooper to die at any moment and everyday he putters around is a minor victory. He is a very, very old cat. Dr M, Cooper’s primary vet said, “I guess Cooper decided to change his mind about leaving.” The poor cat has dementia, can’t see well, but has taken to sleeping with us on our bed most nights. He was occasionally missing the litter box and using our bed pillows instead, so now we sleep with each other, cats and a litter box on the bed. Sometimes, drastic measures are required to keep an ancient cat comfortable. Cats like Cooper are the principal reason Mandarin’s Retreat exists.

The penultimate kitty is Hamlet. Another old soul who came to use with his bonded compadre Othello from an amazing military family in town. Hamlet’s mouth has turned into a massive mess. We think an abscess broke in the back of his mouth, causing him to drool like crazy with some bloody “stuff” all over his chin. He’ll go into dental surgery next week and is now loaded on medication to help carry him through and heal his ouchies. 2024 seems to be the year for mouth problems in our cats.

The last cat in we’ll be covering is Carmello. We thought we’d conquered his mouth problems with his teeth cleaning and meds. However, his tonsillitis returned with vengeance and began to hinder his ability to eat and made him absolutely miserable. Our vet says the tonsils need to be removed. Removal of a cat’s tonsils is a fairly rarely done, difficult surgery and so we’re searching for a surgeon skilled in it. We’ll probably have to take a trip to somewhere to get it done, we don’t know yet. We do know it will be expensive, so expect an appeal for help from us in the near future. More to come later.

Stella on the bookcase

Cooper

Hamlet

Cooper resting in vet kennel

A Retreat Update

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted, so it’s time to catch everyone up. We just sent our a Holiday email to all our donors thanking them for their support. We also got a new donor this week which always makes us smile. The big news is: we received notice from the El Paso Community Foundation that they are partially funding our grant submission, “Mandarin’s Toolbox”. We submitted the application last July and had requested assistance for about four major project areas. This was one of our first ever grant requests and, I think we were overly ambitious. We had asked for help in the following areas:

Name	Estimated Cost
Infrastructure	$2,740
Emergency Care	$3,000
Grant Software	$2,000
Ad Campaign	$1,000
Total	$8,740

The infrastructure request was for new cat trees, littler boxes and a couple of cabinets to store all the towels and blankets we use to care for the cats. Emergency care was for help in vet bills for newly arrived kitties with serious problems like Toby, Stella, Cooper and Glen. The grant software request was to acquire a subscription to one of the software firms like Instrumentl or Foundation Directory. This request is now not necessary as we recently were given free access to Foundation Directory Essentials. The software allows us to search for possible grants to help the kitties. The last item on our request was some seed money to run a small ad campaign which would have included business cards, flyers to be posted at vets and other locations plus a small number of giveaway items.

We don’t yet know how we can use the $2,000. The grant paperwork will be released to us on the 29th and then we can make some plans. If the grant is unrestricted, the we’ll procure at least one new storage cabinet and one new WLO cat tree or similar quality goodie. The rest of the funds would then be allocated where the need is greater — and as always vet bills need to be paid. If the funds are for one specific line item of our request, then the funds will go entirely for that item.

So stay tuned and next week will provide us a clear picture on how we’ll be able to use the grant funds. No matter how the money is allocated, we want to heartily thank the El Paso Community Foundation for their confidence in us and their support for the well being of all Mandarin’s Retreat furballs.

**Toffee, searching for his brain cell.**

Holiday & Birthday Weekend

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.

Mishka, Cooper & Vet Bills

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.

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.