WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS Well, only the comb picture is particularly disgusting. What everybody needs to understand, first and foremost, is that we have a full house. And zero money. And not nearly enough help. So when we get those Take my cat because Im moving today calls we have no choice but to say no. Even the There are kittens under my porch calls have to be turned away. There are limits to what we can do. But... here I am with my famous big buts again. There is always a but. Yesterdays but was Mikey. A gentleman called us about a little kitten that was sick on the street with something wrong with his butt. Must have been the b word, but something told me to have him bring the kitten over. I just knew we had to help this little kitten. Someday Mikey is going to be a gorgeous cat. That potential is there, even though he is, at the moment, utterly wretched. That something wrong with his butt turned out to be maggots. Thousands of them. Millions of them. Billions of them. Perhaps I exaggerate. If so, it is because maggots are the one thing that truly skeeves me. I mean, ewwwww Nothing can turn me into a girl quicker. So Mikey got a capstar first thing, then I started combing. Every time I turned the kitten around I found a new patch of the beasts - on his head, his shoulder, his neck, his back... and dont get me started on that butt. For over an hour we took maggots off of Mikey, until the ones on the surface were gone. Fresh ones kept emerging to take their place, but we called a break after a temporary clearing and gave him a blankie and some dinner. After a couple of hours I checked him again and took more off, but these were dead or dying. (LOVE capstar!) Then we gave Mikey a bath, put some ointment on the places where holes had been eaten through his skin, and put him to bed with a heating pad, a cushy bed, and a teddy to cuddle with. When I get to the shelter today Ill check him over and tempt him with tasty food. Then well head over to the vets office because this little guy is definitely going to need some antibiotics. Ive never seen an infestation this bad where the kitten survived, but we will do our best. The man who found him tried to get several other shelters to take him, shelters with veterinarians actually on staff, and was told that he would just be put down. In between all of this I was helping at an event yesterday and chatted with people from two of these shelters, and I asked why they wouldnt try to help this little guy. The reason I got was that they are putting down so many healthy adoptable cats for lack of space that they wouldnt waste resources on one like this. I guess that if I were approaching this from a business-like point of view I could wrap my head around that concept. But (to get back to my buts) I have proven many times that Im not the greatest businesswoman on the planet. I look at Mikey and all I see is a baby animal that is suffering through no fault of his own and deserves a chance to have his life. Imagine enduring something as horrific as being (literally, not virtually) eaten alive by burrowing, biting parasites and finally receiving a kind hand and going to a helping place, only to have them kill you because youre not worth their time or money. Mikey might not make it. The odds are absolutely stacked against him. But because West Side Cats exists, he will have a chance.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 15:15:48 +0000
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