Blog – Page 3 – Mandarin’s Retreat

Much Going On

Before getting into the meat of my blog, I would like to give a big shout out to Steve for his donation to our “Keeping Promises” campaign to cover the vet bills of our cats. Steve found us via Reddit, which is a first for us. We had a nice exchange of emails and I hope he will follow us in the future.

I haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks, the first reason is I couldn’t come to terms with the loss of Penelope and Buddy. Penelope was a 4.5 month old baby of Ms Tabz and she was as sweet a kitten you would ever want. Penelope’s sudden death by what our vet suspects to have been a viral illness happened only two days after another loss. Our old warrior Buddy’s body was shutting down due to old age and several chronic illnesses and we helped him over the Rainbow Bridge to join his friends already there. When you lose two cats almost at once, its just tough to sit down and write about anything, never even mind about what hurts so much and how.

Since these two deaths, we’ve been continuing our efforts to get donations and to apply for grants to help us with our vet bills. I was reminded by our vet that a large number of our cats have auto-immune disorders. Auto-immune disorder don’t necessary bring death quickly to a cat but they require constant medication and scheduled trips to the vet and sometimes a detour to the vet emergency room. Auto-immune diseases raise our costs significantly, but we’re a cat hospice so what do we do? We take care of cats.

There was some good news during this dreary period. We were notified on Friday 23 Aug, that we had been granted a Google Ad Grant. There are some hoops to jump through and we have to get a certain percentage of “clicks” on the ads in order to keep the grant. One rescue told me on Maddie’s Pet Forum that the amount of work it takes to keep up with the Google Ad Grant requirements almost makes it not worth the trouble. They mentioned that they have received almost no donations through the ads but lots of requests to drop off pets. We’ll have to see what happens.

Now, for cat news. There is a power struggle of sorts in the office where I watch TV in the evenings. Elderly cat Linus does not take kindly to little Ms Stella hogging my lap. Linus is normally the first one there when I sit down. However, the moment Linus goes to the water or food bowl, Stella takes his place. Linus generally comes over and glares at the both of us. Though, on occasion, he has given Stella a gentle paw to the head. A strategic retreat by her creates space for Linus, but as soon as he vacates the spot, Stella returns. Sigh.

Good News about Stella

Last week I mentioned that Stella was a very sick kitty who everyone thought had one or two types of cancer. She didn’t have a very good prognosis. Her little nose was swollen, inflamed and was missing fur across the bridge. She had a tumor in her left ear which indicated a very complicated and expensive surgery to remove.

Stella came home post-op filled to her little eyeballs with meds, treats and other tricks. As the week wore on, we noticed that she started perking up and became very chatty. As you can see in the photo above, the stitch in her nose gives her the look of a boxer who lost her fight. We kept Stella in semi-isolation in her kennel in my office/TV room with only a couple of older cats – Cookie and Linus to keep company. After a couple of days, we opened the kennel and allowed her a “walk-about” in the room. There was very little hissing and lots of sniffing. I think her earlier “bad behavior” with other cats was more caused by the pain in her ear than her normal cattitude.

We got the results of her histopathology late Friday and learned that her cancer was limited to the polyp in her ear and not complicated by a cancerous nose. As far as her ear cancer is concerned, out vets suggested a wait and see approach as all of the cancerous mass had been excised and with the type of the cancer, there is little reason to believe that it metastasized. Everyone at the Retreat, to include Stella, breathed a sigh of relief. Day-by-day, her inflamed nose improves and she gets a bit more sass in her demeanor. Stella is still very thin and her shaved back makes her look emaciated, but she’s eating well and doing all the healthy cats things of eating, drinking, pooping, and sleeping. We’ll watch her closely but we’ve every reason to believe she’s turned the corner and is heading out of the woods.

For those who would like to help us pay Stella’s 4-figure vet bill, we set up a special donation account for her on Givebutter. Should you prefer to provide general items for the Retreat, our Amazon Wish List can be found here.

Stella and the Cost of Vet Care

**Post Op Stella with stitches on her nose and in her left ear.**

Stella came to us early last week. The lady who found her dumped on the side of the road tried to care for her, but was having no luck. She reached out on the El Paso subreddit to see if someone was willing to help. Mandarin’s Retreat responded and we suggested that she take Stella to the principal vet of the Retreat. One of the great docs there examined Stella and found a tumor in her left ear as well as significant tissue damage on her nose.

Two days later Stella was in surgery for the tumor and for a biopsy or two. While the vet thought the removal of the polyp might have been complicated, it turned out that it was just sitting there unconnected to anything. Stella’s little nose was then biopsied and off all the tissue went for histopathology.

The biggest concern right now is that Stella’s nose tissue is cancerous. We’ll know the results in about a week or so. So, everyone keep your fingers and tails crossed for her. A Paw Circle would not be remiss.

Now for the vet bill. Stella’s initial examination was $145 which included her exam, feline leukemia/FIV test and medicines. Not too expensive and inline with what the Retreat averages for a initial exam. The surgery surprised me a bit. It was less expensive than I thought due to ease of the polyp removal. What surprised me was the cost of the examination of the biopsies. The histopathology for the two samples was $360. Stella’s bill for the day was $844.95 or just under $1,000 for the two visits. We went through our monthly vet budget like a hot knife through butter.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Our vet and their staff are great and they give us breaks on almost everything. It’s just the cost of meds and other items have gone through the roof post-COVID. This is where Mandarin’s Retreat, or any other pet rescue, can use your donations or grants. We can only guesstimate the cost of vet visits. It’s really a throw of the dice plus the needs of the cats we receive.

Please help us if you can.

Now for some good news. The Retreat got it’s first recurring donation this week. Francisco provided us with a $20 monthly donation. Thank you so much from us and our furry tribe at the Retreat. We have named Francisco a Mandarin Kahu. I learned the term “kahu” a couple of months ago from a tweet. Kahu is an Hawaiian term which indicates a spiritual relationship between a human and an animal. The human is not the pet’s owner, but protector or guardian. For me I like to think of a kahu as a shepherd – guiding, guarding, seeing to the feeding, etc. Though the picture of a shepherd trying to herd a bunch of cats makes me giggle – here’s an old EDS commercial will give you the gist. All joking aside, thanks Francisco and may you be the first of many.

As soon as we know Stella’s results, we’ll post on X and other sites. I’ll also post the results in the blog when we get them.