Happy Kittens, Focused Mouse

Kind of serious-talk time, but I promise...it really will get uplifting.  Just read through the somber-Mouse bits first.

So very much has happened to me during these past several months that it seems strange that I've managed to find the time to do any work with animals at all, even my own.  But it turns out - it's all about perspective.

Last night (...I think it was last night?) I had a very, very long phone conversation with the woman who asked me to pick up the kittens.  She is facing despair in the truest and deepest sense, and at some point in rescuing, we all do.  It isn't just rescue, of course - it's everything, it always is - but when we hear sad story after sad story, and have our hearts broken time and time again, it can require something massive to see a silver lining.  To not want to throw your hands in the air and just walk away.  To not just...strangle some people...

We wish there was a way to put the blinders back on and unsee what we have seen.

I'm not trying to be dramatic here.  It's extremely true.  It takes a very special soul to keep going, and it takes a lot of strong friendships to support each other through the roughest of times.


About half an hour ago I heard that the kittens, who I had to put with a bottle-feeding sitter tonight so I could go to work for eight hours, have found a home.  I was kind of shocked, because I had picked those kittens up.  I had fostered them.  I had nitpicked over their care, learned which one likes to eat how, stroked their tummies when they fussed.  It hadn't been very long - but the transfer was arranged for the morning - completely without me being there at all.

OF COURSE I will get to say bye to them, and the new foster will probably even let me visit.  This is a blessing, and it had to happen.

But...I'm going to miss them.  I feel like momma.  One moment your babies are there, and you're feeding them when they cry every hour or two, and the next...they're gone.  That's ludicrous - I can't ACTUALLY compare seeing fosters move on to a mom losing her babies.  That's nothing alike at all, and my heart still breaks for the momma, somewhere in Louisiana, confused and...just...it's awful.

I KNOW they have to move on.

I just love them.

So to keep from falling into a selfish bout of depression, I did something I did at the end of 2011 - I tallied up the rescues.  In December of 2011, I counted up all the rescues, transfers, rehomings, every pet I could think of that we had helped in some way and made a photo album of them online.  I think I will start making one physically, as well, with little trinkets and memories.  I'm not really the scrapbooking type...but anyways.

The album didn't have that many pets in it, but it had been a busy year and I was still pioneering my way into my own style of guerilla, hardcore rescue.  You know the type.  No...not the nutjobs who break into labs or go batshit on someone who uses a different training style than they do.  The folks who don't sleep until the pet can.  I was still figuring that mess out, but I was so delighted about my little album of success stories.

It was part pat-on-the-back, and part encouragement.  Next year, I'll beat that.  Next year we'll have even MORE happy tails to wag.  Look at my progress - I can help animals, and I can keep on going.

So I sat down tonight and I went through my photo albums on facebook and collected everyone I could think of.  I counted the feline leukemia kittens and the colony of TNRs they came from because they weren't in the 2011 album, and I wasn't quite sure when that had happened.  Probably in late 2011.  I feel like it might have been chilly at the time.  But I am counting them anyways, because they deserve to be counted, and we have gone through so very much with them this year.

So I tallied.  And guys...

I have helped 33 animals this year...

and it's only August.

Even if you took out the feleukers and TNR, that's still 15 pets.  In 8 months.

Holy shit.

I tripled the pets I reached out to this year so far, even around working multiple jobs, losing a pregnancy, and everything else that has hit us this year.  And that isn't even counting any pets adopted out through IAF.  JUST ones that my husband and I physically and personally helped, and played an active, crucial role in.

• One rehoming - Suka the pittie, who is now a service dog.
• Two found animals returned - Bentley the beagle, and a Corgi with no collar.
• TEN rescues - the four Louisiana kittens, and the six feleukers (RIP Dove and Traveler)
• Twelve TNRs - In one massive event executed almost entirely by us and aforementioned friend
• Eight transports - Seven dogs from Canton to local homes and fosters, and one pup with a broken jaw from San Anton to Austin.

If anything can lift your spirits when you have to say goodbye to four tiny lives you grew pretty attached to, well, looking at that big of a picture is one fuck of a help.  I have gone from volunteering where help was needed to actively rescuing, being a manager in a rescue and driving a fostering program, and just...holy shit, guys, I helped thirty-three animals survive, find where they belong, live healthy, and get to help.  In the past eight months.

And in the months after this, I am going to continue to do everything I can, give everything I can, and learn everything I can.

I have never felt more like I know who I am and why I am here than looking at this sheet of paper and remembering that I do have a purpose, and those blinders can never go back on.  I wear pants with kitten milk stains.  I don't shut my mouth about BSL.  I answer the phone when I am asleep, get out of bed, and go pick up and feed starving animals.  I quarantine a room, sanitizing everything down to changing clothes at the door, to care for kittens with a lethal disease as long as they can before it hits them.  I stop on the side of the road for dogs, no matter where I am going.  I drive across the state to take a dog off a euth list and put it in a yard and a home.  I am Mouse, and homecheck is a regular word in my vocabulary.


When in my life could I ever have thought I was meant for anything else?

-Mouse

Wow! It's been a WHILE!

But I'm back!

And posting from my other blogger account, because well, it's just easier that way.

I took a break from blogging for a long time, but there is just SO MUCH going on that I gotta write about it somewhere!  I don't really remember where I left off last time I dropped off the face of the earth, so some updates about me, my fosters, and the state of things around heyawh (the best I can do typing "here" in a goofy accent).

I am now a foster coordinator!
Yup.  That happened.  Since May I have been in the position of FC for a local rescue - not the one I worked with before, although I have not limited my work with other rescues in any means.  This one is foster-based, so I'm really pulling the cart here.  My duties are handling animal surrender and aid requests, selecting intakes, approving and recruiting fosters, and being a liaison between fosters and our other departments or supplies as needed.

And paperwork.

A lot of paperwork.

I just now this month feel like I've really got the job working for me, instead of it working me over.  I still have quite a bit to do, but it doesn't seem impossible or daunting anymore.  For the purposes of this blog, rescue shall be referred to as IAF.


Did I mention before that I have nine cats in my house?
Well now there are 13.

There's my cat, Base, who has rhino and gets snotty sometimes.  Then there's Ghost, a momma pulled from a hoarder situation.  Those two are both actually mine, and the only cats in the house that actually belong to me.

Then there are Batman, Chewy, and Luke - Ghost's babies that STILL have not found homes.  Partially my fault for loving them so fucking much.  But they're breaking my things.  So...they can get adopted any time now plskthxbai.

Oh, and they aren't babies anymore.  They are kitty putty.  Long, lean, spotted kitty putty that melts in your arms and goes for shoulder rides.

THEN there are Kitty System, Freddy, Cowbell, and Pickles - our resident feleukers.  Also still have not found adoptive homes, and were also emergency rescues belonging to GLC.  ...KS thinks he's a rabbit.

And then oh, today...


We just picked up four 4-day-old kittens.
And by "picked up," I mean they went for an interstate drive via the walls of a trailer home that was being moved.  Poor momma...coming back to not know where the fuck her house with her babies is...

All four are being bottle fed by yours truly and, while I'm at work tonight, a friend with bfing experience.  Which is oddly difficult to come by, truthfully.  Even the vet students I know can tell you HOW to bottle feed but have never actually DONE it.  They're doing good, though.  Two orange tabbies, one cream tabby, and one tortie.  Hopefully they'll find a more permanent bottle feeder/foster in the next day but suddenly I'm running short on hope (AND SLEEP) on that one...


Let's see, what else is new?

I know!  How about a picture, and I'll save the crazy stories for later, when they come up, instead of dumping it all down at once?

Now you just can't tell me that isn't the sweetest thing you have ever seen.  It makes my heart melt.  <3

More Sadness, but There Are Kittens.

The six kittens we took from the home with the cats we were fixing for free came home with us, and that very day, were on the verge of death.  All of them had faces sealed shut with eye goo.  I made an appointment, and in the three hours it took to get them there, they had developed fevers and were extremely lethargic.  I honestly thought they were all going to die, and so did the vet.

He gave them SQ fluids, which they HATED, and clavamox.  He says he's thinking an immune deficiency disease, like feleuk, but I've seen this plenty before and I can bet you $100 it's rhino or calici.  My own cat had rhino when she was a kitten, and it took us a year before we figured out why she had developed such horrible fevers as a kitten (so bad she couldn't walk without being in pain), and since she grew up she would periodically get majorly snotty.  I wanna say the kittens have rhino, but they are in such strong quarantine (exit only by window, change clothes on entering, separate air system, betadine scrubs before going in or out, and about five showers a day, easy) and it developed so very quickly (plus all of their siblings out of three huge litters had already died), it could very well be something else.  Still thinking rhino or calici.  At least I know I didn't expose them to it, as was my initial terror.

I've gotten pretty good at quarantine, though.  Since their vet visit the babies have really perked up.  I learned a new trick, too - if you can't get stubborn, solidified, serious eye bogies out, try rubbing neosporin or other oil-based antibiotic ointment into them.  It dissolves right out and they clean it away.  I think we managed to avoid tear duct damage in all six!

They have names now, too.  Freddy is the biggest and definitely a boy.  He was originally named Fraidy because he was practically feral, but he adjusted quickly and now ALL he wants to do is snuggle, cuddle, and purr.  He's from a separate litter from everyone else, and at least 2 weeks older, despite what coked-out-bitch insisted.  The Kitty System is a seal point siamese, the next biggest, and also from a separate litter.  He is the trouble-maker!  If there's a wrestling match, you can bet KS was involved and probably started it!  Pickles is the next biggest trouble-maker, getting into pickles every play time.  He's grey and white spotted.  Traveller is a grey, white-socked well...traveller!  He goes where no kitten has gone before, and exploring is his thing (and so is talking, oh my goodness).  Dove looks just like Traveller but runted.  Dove is the only one I'm still a little worried about, but she's doin' her darndest to keep up with the big kids.  :)  Last is Cowbell.  Cowbell is sweet enough to easily medicate, love on, snuggle with, and catch, but balances his people skills perfectly with that classic kitten playfulness.

I'll post photos as they grow up - right now it's still all very hush-hush.



Meanwhile, down the street from me, I finally managed to get some photos of a trio of horses I've been concerned about.  There's not enough info right now, and they aren't on death's doorstep, so no one will do anything about it.  Yet.  Photos are the first step, though.  Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.

Yeah...that's totally a ball of wire and debris fucking everywhere.

And right across the street from them is this poor little guy and his loose-running yippy chihuahua:

He stays chained like that all day every day, and crawls under the tractor when the weather is harsh.  That would be extremely illegal.  But, you have to go about these things carefully, or the animal winds up dead, "lost," or tossed in the high-kill shelter to be killed anyways.

NEVER.  CHAIN.  YOUR DOG.  TO A FUCKING TREE.



-Mouse

If You Can Help, Please Do!

Over the coming month I would really like to help this foster and her dog out.  The whole story is at this link, but suffice it to say, the little pit bull was dumped on the foster when her owner left the state without her, and she just lost a litter and almost her life.  The vet bills are too much for the foster - they could barely handle caring for her in the first place.

If you have a dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, anything at all to spare, please consider it.  Suka needs an adopter, but right now, she just needs to heal.

Suka's Chip-In.

Kitteh Balls

Good news!  I got all A's this semester.  Sweet!

In other news, the kittens I've been fostering are finally about to reach that magic number - 12 weeks old.  I have about a million people lined up to adopt them (such is the way with kittens), but they can't go nowhere until they've had their down-theres fixed up.

So when can you neuter a kitten?

Or spay, if you have a lady kitten.  Which I do not.

That depends on who you ask.  Given my major, I should probably have some strong opinion that I can forcefully defend, but I don't.  My opinion is - when they're big enough.  Your vet can give you an idea, but I would recommend not waiting until 6 months or later like some clinics do.  I do have one opinion I'll defend to the grave, though - never, ever, ever, EVER adopt out an animal that isn't fixed.

But they paid a deposit for fixing?  Nope.
But I know them really well?  Nope.
But they promised to do it in 30 days or I could take it back?  NOPE.

Fix them as soon as they're 3 pounds, or the fastest your vet feels comfortable putting them under anesthesia.  Then and only then can they go to their new homes.

Even if you're giving the cat to your mother, get it fixed first.  It's not a matter of trust (okay sometimes it is), it's just the plain fact that shit happens.

What if Senor Fluffypants gets out?  What if Madam Fuzzbutt gets her first heat, and new owners can't afford the more expensive spay?  Things happen, and if you're going to spend that much time rescuing, raising, and vetting the kittens, might as well take one more thing off your mind and their "still needs ____" list.  Otherwise you might wind up with a whole new litter of unloved kittens waking you up every two hours and needing even more vet visits in a few months.  Cats multiply, shit happens.



Plus, for boy kitties, the surgery is really easy.  Look what I found!  (Caution:  Includes real photographs of the surgery)  Slideshow came from this page.

And, because I have no intention of being kitteh-sexist here, a very thorough and in-depth pictoral walkthrough of a spay.  (Caution:  Yes it's still real surgery pictures)

Both pages have links to similar information for dog procedures, so if you aren't too squeamish, take a look around.  Cool stuff!

Batman hogging the food, and Chewy being particularly nonplussed about it.

-Mouse

Oh Nose.

I know I've complained about this already but...

If you are going to run a shelter you HAVE to properly quarantine and isolate your animals to keep them from getting sick!

It sucks, it's hard, I knooow.  Whoever told you rescue was easy was stupid or fucking with you.


I know this is probably one grumpy post too many, but this was an extremely difficult day.  I drove 8 hours this fine Sunday.  Four hours to McKinney, where I picked up Lanie (who does not appear to be full lab) and another dog on its way to Houston.  Then I drove four hours back.  No, actually, my fiance drove four hours back - I sat in the back of the car with two dogs.

But..that's fun, isn't it?  Not when one of those dogs is aiming sneezes at your face.  Lanie had a wicked sneeze.  It wasn't an occasional blast, either, but a frequent sniffle.  Her sneezes smelled like dog blood.  I couldn't nap because my hands and face reeked of blood.  The fluid was clear, but this makes me wonder if she has pneumonia.  Sure, she was vaccinated for bordatella (actually caused by one or more of about a zillion things) and her distemper/parvo combo, but those shots take a few weeks to protect a dog.  And the sneezing was horrible.  I'm wondering at this point if perhaps something in the car was irritating her.

An hour away from home it starts to get cold, now that the sun has gone down.  My fiance turns on the heater, only for the entire car to fill with the most sudden and pungent stink of death.  He quickly shuts it off, but we're gagging and wondering what the hell died in his car (it recently broke down and sat by the woods for a week - anything could have crawled up in there).  He rolls down the only functioning window and blasts the AC.  Eventually the stink fades (I feel for those poor dogs and their noses!), but we discover we can't roll the window back UP.  Now there is freezing cold air blowing in at 70 mph for the last 60 minutes of highway.  Just...ugh.  I'm not really in heaven.

We get home, hand off the other doggy to its new owner, and I get the genius idea to call the girl who picked her up from the shelter for me and ask her if she had been sneezing with her, too.

It turns out she had been.  It turns out, MOST of the dogs at the shelter are sick.  I don't understand how a shelter could adopt out an unhealthy animal.  Now MY dog is at risk, my dog who just had surgery 3 weeks ago and just now finished her antibiotics.  You HAVE to tell people that stuff ahead of time, and if they're on meds, SAY so and INCLUDE it!  Don't just ship it home with someone without a word of warning!  Few things could be LESS safe or responsible than handing off dogs without mentioning they are sick with an unknown sneeze that smells like blood.

She says she had put her on doxycycline for "2-3 days," and that most of the dogs put on antibiotics (doxy "or you can put her on any other general antibiotic") cleared up after a few days.  You know how when you go to the doctor with the sniffles, and they hand you antibiotics and warn you not to stop the antibiotics before you've taken them all, even if you feel better?  It's not different for dogs.  Dogs and all animals on antibiotics need to finish a full cycle of antibiotics once they've started.  Was I given antibiotics?  No, but I'll be at the vet tomorrow, spending surprise money on an office call and antibiotics, won't I!  And in the meantime, I have to sterilize every single thing that comes into contact with her every single time it comes into contact.  I don't even know what food she was on, so she's probably going to have the runs on top of it.  Yay...a dehydrated sick dog.

The good news?  She's damned adorable, and very friendly, and obedient.  I can't look for a home for her until she's no longer sick, and I can't get her spayed/vaccinated until that point, either.  She doesn't look to me like she's completely lab, but you can definitely see it in her.  Maybe it's just that she's young?  Here, have photos!

It's the narrow nose and the backwards ears that confuse me.  She certainly seems to have lab in her, but could she be a mix?

The color's awful in this, but see what I mean?  That doesn't look like a lab type conformation to me.

The Houston-bound doggy

That's what strikes me as a lab-face, but I'm no expert!

-Mouse

Whoops!

Okay, so you know that little voice in the back of your head that says "NO!  You have enough animals, you can't take care of another one, not even for a little while.  You are maxed out.  *slaps hand* STOP IT."

Then you know how there's a little voice just in front of that one that waves its arms around and screams how for two or three weeks out of your life you could keep at least one dog from being put down?


You know that dog I posted this morning, the 7 month old female lab?

She's coming home with me Sunday, if all goes well.  No, not permanently, but just until we can find her a good home.  What can I say?  The adoption is free, and she was scheduled to be euthanized yesterday. She still needs a home if anyone is interested - I'll put up more pics when we have her home safely.

It's a really, really dumb idea.  The only reason it's even feasible is that we already have a baby gate up to keep our cat (who has rhino) breathing+ distance away from the quarantined fostered momma cat and her three kittens - one of whom had severe pneumonia for the first few weeks of his life.  (Yes, we have many more precautions in place - rhino can kill kittens!  But if you must know, the hoarding situation they came from was infested with it, so no high hopes on keeping them disease-free here)

The baby gate also serves to keep our pibble out of our bedroom, because she just had leg surgery to fix an old gunshot wound.  Very expensive surgery that we could only afford because our local shelter helped us out tremendously.  After months of saving.  She's crate confined for now anyways so she can heal up, so there won't be any surprise doggy interactions to worry about at least.  Seriously, though, our apartment is carefully segmented and we're pretty much maxed out.  To be fair, before the foster kitten got so sick, everything was organized beautifully and the critters really fit.  But the kitten DID get sick.  And now things don't fit just right, and we have our hands full.  I didn't expect to have to give the entire mouse room to the kitties.  It was a surprise.

But Lanie is 7 months old AND a popular breed, and there is no reason to put down puppies or young, healthy, adoptable dogs.  If technically we *can,* it's beyond my ability to step back and say "go ahead, kill her."  I'm a sucker like that.  Really, you can blame my fiance, who told me to first.  I just ran with it.  All I can say is, we'll be in trouble if we don't find her a home in the next few weeks.  I'm not exactly whatcha'd call "rich."  :)

Ah well, it may be the first time we've done this with a shelter, but it's certainly not the first time we've helped out a dog this way.  I'll keep ya updated!


-Mouse


Update:  Yeah...I'm glad I took her, honestly.  You know what the adoption form was?

Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
Driver's License #:
(photo of DL)

That was it.  Yipes!  They got no clue where these doggies are going.  At least we'll have her Sunday, and will be able to follow up with her rabies vaccination, HW test/meds, and a spay.  Then we get to pick the home she goes to, and you can bet we'll be asking for a little more info than what they asked for!  There will be no out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire crap for Lanie, oh no.  We've had a tragedy like that before and I will never, ever, EVER do it again.  Story for another time.

Oh wow.  I just adopted another dog.  I need a beer.


...Time to dog-proof the master bedroom.