Brighton Update, and Stray Mama Cat n Kittens...

Here's the Friday update on Brighton, and my thanks again to all of you who are watching his progress and sending your purrayers.

He is still taking a long time to get a silver dollar sized spot o' pee out, but I actually saw him make a 'stream' a time or two and that's an improvement. I still have him confined to the bathroom so I can monitor his litterbox leavings but he seems content and resting.


While I was cleaning up the bathroom this morning, I let him out into the bedroom and all his buddies said hello to him (oh, I gave him a bath, much needed and now that he was feeling better, I wanted to wash the 'hospital' smell off him, as there is no way to stay 'pee free' when one has a catheter in place. A little later, I found him curled up on my bed, happy to be home!


He was a very good patient getting his sub q fluids this morning and ate a whole can of Fancy Feast Medleys, so all's well with his appetite, too. His blood chemistry panel shows improvement over yesterday, too. His BUN is 36, Creatinine 0.9, Phosphorus 4.8.

I took him back into work (aka the vets) for a squeeze and a urinalysis and Dr E was able to squeeze out a stream. OMC, she was excited about that--vet's are funny sometimes! And his u/a showed improvement, too. Still no crystals, and 25% less white blood cells, too. Still sort of iced tea color but that's ok for now. The culture results will be back Sunday and we will know then if he needs to change the antibiotic he's on.

I am pleased with his progress and I dropped the emergency hospital an email with his 'status report' as I know even though they see lots of pets there...they like to hear happy endings! They were very attentive to him and and I both and I felt so good knowing he had 24 hour care, a heated cage, someone monitoring his breathing (because of his heart murmur, being on IV fluids can be risky and can push them into congestive heart failure sometimes) and some extra TLC cuz our previous pet sitter is a vet tech there.

So, now that Brighton is doing better, I can tell you all about the next 'cat-astrophe', which I hope will have a good ending, too.

I live in a townhome community, sort of like condos, with neighbors cheek and jowl together. The neighbor on my right is irresponsible in many ways and the neighbor on my left is kind of a hoarder. I had seen an orange kitty hanging around for a few weeks, and in my neighborhood, you don't see outdoor or feral cats much.

While I was away, my petsitter found that this kitty had made a 'nest' under the neighbors bay window, in the bushes and she saw 3 orange kittens making their way into a burrow underneath my concrete porch. She said they looked about 2 weeks old. I told her I would look into it when I got home and see if I could help.

The mama is feral so will need trapping, but I have handled all 3 kittens, deflea'd them, and given them all a dose of Drontal. I had to put the dewormer in a pill pocket and I think the mama ate it, mixed in with some canned food. The kittens were covered in fleas, and could be anemic from that but otherwise have no URI signs right now, thank goodness! Of course, I disinfect myself after handling the kittens as I don't want to bring anything in to my kitties inside!

A friend who is involved with cat rescue made some phone calls for me and checked with 4 rescue groups in the area and so far no luck in them taking this family. It is the 'kittening' time of year, and I hate to have to make the choice of taking them to a 'kill' shelter, though the kittens would stand a chance of adoption, not so the mama.

This same friend has a humane trap and has offered to help me trap the mama cat next weekend. And my petsitter is coming over tomorrow to help me set up a cage on my patio and I will corral the kittens there, and I have a 'dream' that I can get the mama cat to get into the cage to be with her kittens and I can drop the door shut before she escapes...I know, dream on.

I will have to keep the door shut unless I can watch the cage, or she may move the kittens and then I might not find any of them again! I made a shelter out of a storage box, but so far, none of them has voluntarily entered it...they'd rather sleep in the dirt and leaves, sigh...I thought maybe they'd all hunker down in the storage 'cave' and I could close the 'flap door' and trap them, and that ain't gonna happen it doesn't look like!

Wish me luck tomorrow and then with trying to find homes for them all...anybody close by to me looking for a new gingercat furbaby??