Missy Mae

I’m writing this entry, but I don’t even know what I’m going to title it, as it’s about so many things at the same time.  It’s about love and sadness and caring and personal responsibility and, perhaps most importantly, about taking a moment occasionally to step out of your own life to look at someone else’s.  It’s also about our unusual day.

About a month ago, I started receiving emails from something called the “Best Friends Network”.  I don’t remember signing up for these, but I didn’t mind receiving them.  They were emails sent from people at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary about animals needing help in specific areas of the country.  For example, I seem to be on the Las Vegas list, so the three or four emails I’ve received so far have been about dogs and cats in Las Vegas who need placement.  A couple of weeks ago, the email I received was about a woman in Las Vegas who had cancer, and who was unable to care for the feral cat she’d been feeding for the past two years.  She wanted assistance in trapping the cat and moving it an established feral colony.  I have no experience in these issues (trapping, ferals, etc.), but I did email and offer to loan my trap to anyone who could relocate the cat.  I was told I had to phone the woman who needed help, as she didn’t have email, but I hate the phone so I just didn’t do it.  I’m not “phone shy”, I just hate the phone because I can’t multitask while I’m on it :)

Last Thursday I was tidying up my email inbox and found the original email, and I wondered if anyone had ever helped the woman and her cat.  I felt a bit guilty about not phoning, although I was only going to offer a trap and not to actually trap and relocate, but I decided to phone her for my own peace of mind.  Last week was an insanely busy week for us, with many visitors and doctors’ appointments, so I wanted to get this one last nagging thing off my mind so I could relax.

So I called, and of course, no one else had offered to help.  Sigh.  The story was basically that the cat had been abandoned in an apartment complex, but the current caretakers had been feeding it for the past two years and it lived on their walk-up balcony.  The woman caring for the cat described it as “feral”, but also said that she could pet that cat, that it would sit on her lap, and that it came into their apartment during the hot summer months.  The cat wasn’t happy staying inside, though, and the woman’s husband was allergic to it, so she could only keep it inside while her husband was at work.  The woman was diagnosed with cancer recently and was in such poor health that she needed to go to Arizona for treatment, and because of this she couldn’t keep looking after the cat.  Her husband was willing to feed it, but wasn’t able to allow it inside while he was home, and the cat was fearful of men.

I had no idea what I was going to do with the cat, but the woman was so upset when I spoke to her on the phone (she was already in Arizona), that I wanted to do something.  I arranged for Flippy and I to go to her apartment here in Vegas today, to meet with her husband, and to help him trap the cat.  Instead of a conventional “trap” we decided to just try luring the cat into a carrier/crate, as the cat was enthusiastic about eating and it seemed like it would be a less traumatic way to capture her.  I assumed I’d leave the crate with the husband for a few days and that as the cat grew used to seeing the carrier, the chances would increase that she would go inside.  There wasn’t a real hurry to catch her as she was still being fed, but the woman worried that it would soon be too hot on the balcony for the cat’s comfort and health.

We got to the apartment complex at noon, knocked on the door, and the husband came out to greet us.  I was about to show him the carrier and explain to him what I had planned (he’s Iranian and his English is limited), when he pointed to the far corner of the balcony and told me the cat was over there, under a chair.  He said I might be able to see her if I approached her slowly and spoke quietly to her, so I got down on my hands and knees and literally crawled across the balcony.  The woman who worried about the temperature here had a valid concern, because it was only about 85 degrees today yet I could feel the hot balcony burning my knees through my jeans.  I crept and crawled and saw the cat, huddled under a chair, terrified, and making little grunting/groaning sounds.  I don’t know how else to describe them.  The one thing she wasn’t doing was growling or hissing, so I slowly put my hand out to her to let her sniff my hand, and then I touched her head.  After her head I touched her neck and figured, “What the hell”, so I just scruffed her and picked her up.  She was quite terrified and rolled into a tiny ball so she was easy to get into the crate, but as soon as she figured out what was going on she turned into a wild beast and threw herself against the door, so I had a hard time closing the door and getting my hand out in one piece!  Still, it was done—it was quick and painless (thank goodness) for both of us, and probably less traumatic for everyone that it was over quickly.

The husband kept telling us over and over again that it was a “good cat”, and he gave us some cans of food, her food dishes, and $25 (which was sweet, as I can’t begin to imagine what their medical bills are like).  He helped us carry the crate to the car and put it in the back, and I could tell he was sort of upset about it.  He kept telling us over and over again how nice we were, and he was smiling and beaming at us, and he gave me a huge hug and kept saying “God bless you, God bless you” over and over again in his Iranian accent.  Honestly, he was adorable.  He works as a waiter at one of the casinos we’re at fairly often, and he told us to come and see him anytime while he’s working and he would take care of us.  Then we drove home, with the cat fairly quiet the entire way.

When we arrived home I had to quickly prepare the downstairs bathroom for her, as I wasn’t expecting to have her at the house right away and hadn’t planned ahead.  I put a smaller crate in the bathroom (the one Rory used), as well as food, water, and a litterbox.  I then had to sort of “dump” the cat out of the carrier we’d brought her home in, as it was far too large for the bathroom and I could barely move around with it in there.  She took it fairly well (i.e., she didn’t sink her teeth into me), but she was still terrified.  I lifted her up and put her on a small blanket (actually, an old jacket) that she slept on at the apartment, but when I went down to check on her about an hour later she’d moved into the carrier.  So far, that’s where she’s remained.  Here’s the first, freaked out photo of the cat her caretakers called “Missy Mae”:

image

She’s a small cat, and a bit skinny (or she has prominent shoulder blades).  She seems to have an eartip, which suggests she was trapped and spayed at some point in the past, but our Frank seems to have an eartip too and it’s really just the result of a fight.  Her other ear is either deformed or was lost in a fight or has some sort of problem, as it’s mostly missing and is just a hard lump of cartilage.  I’m told it’s been this way for the past two years, though, so I don’t think it’s anything serious.  I wasn’t able to check out anything else about her as I didn’t want to alarm her any more than I already had, so I’ve just left her alone and I hope she’ll eventually decide to eat something.  The poor thing smells like stale cigarette smoke and is stinking up the bathroom like a casino, but I don’t know if her caretakers smoked, or if working at a casino brought enough second-hand smoke smell home to make the cat smelly.  Blech.

I called the woman who’d been caring for the cat this evening—she’s now living with her mother in Arizona as she’s too weak to look after herself, and it was too hard for her husband to work full-time and care for her.  She sounds in rough shape, and I was saddened to hear that she has pancreatic cancer, which is about 100% fatal.  She can’t hold food down and continues to lose weight, and starts a new round of chemo next week in an attempt to “buy time”.  I can’t imagine what it’s like to be living day-to-day, hoping to just buy more time and knowing that’s the best you can hope for.  I asked if her husband had phoned her, but she said he hadn’t, and she thought that the absence of the cat, plus her absence, might be upsetting him so he wouldn’t want to phone and upset her too.  She’s a really nice person to speak to, easy to chat with, like I’ve known her for a long time.  I can tell she’s so grateful that Missy Mae is inside and being cared for, and I hope it truly is one less thing for her to worry about.  She says she’d like to be able to care for the cat again if she returns to Las Vegas, but acknowledges that she really doesn’t believe she’ll be coming home again.  I think she’s about 50 years old.

Anyway, that was our day, and it was sad.  These are really kind people who know nothing about animals, yet went out of their way to care for an abandoned cat and to make sure she was cared for when they could no longer do it.  He’s an immigrant and he works so hard at his job (casino buffet waiter = long, noisy hours on your feet in cigarette smoke), and they just have a tiny apartment and no car, yet even the few things they have are being taken away from them.  It made me really appreciate the “ease” of my life, even if it’s an occasional pain in the ass.  I feel very fortunate.  I was also happy to get to know these people, and hope we’ll be able to keep in touch.

To answer the question you may be asking, I have no idea what I’m going to do with Missy Mae!  I’m sure she’s not a “true feral” as she seems to like some people, even if she’s rather terrified right now.  I don’t think she’d be happy being put into a feral colony, although I don’t know for sure.  I thought I’d give her a couple of days in the bathroom to see if she can come out of her shell at all—I do worry a bit that she might stop eating, like Chelsea did, and hope she’ll settle down enough to avoid that.  I’ll have to take her to the vet for the FIV/FeLV test eventually, and I’ll also want to know if she’s been spayed and if that really is an eartip she has.  I don’t know if she knows how to use a litterbox.  There are many feral cat colonies around the casinos, so the chances she was once trapped and then released are probably pretty good.  I have permission to do whatever I think is best for her, including releasing her again or finding her a home, but I’ll want to wait a few days to get to know her better.  Then I’ll know if I need to be contacting the feral cat groups here or an adoption group.

This month of May has been full of too much adventure for me.  I’m ready for a break.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 05/30 at 03:42 AM

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  1. Oh, what nice, nice people. That made me quite sad. :( And how sweet of you guys to do that. I’m sure it made their situation less stressful.
    I’ve actually sort of lined up homes for my dogs & cat, should anything happen to me. There was an organization back in Denver - probably lots of places - that helped people with terminal illnesses arrange for safe places for their pets
    She’s a lovely - if very grumpy looking - cat. I’ll be curious what advice you’d get from a feral cat group; I don’t know how such cats adjust to a change in location. I hope she gets more at ease.
    A neighbor & I TNR’d a bunch of feral/stray cats once. They were yowling, spraying my brick house (it reeked when the sun hit it!) and producing lots of little kittens, of course. The reccomendation was to keep the females inside, or in a crate, for a day or two. The really feral ones were terribly stressed by this. I recall just waiting until they were out of anaesthetic and appeared fine, then letting them loose.
    Good luck with Missy Mae, you’re good folks.

    Posted by Carina  on  05/30  at  10:33 AM

  2. I’ll parrot Carina: You ARE such good folks. I wish you nothing but dull routine for the month of June, at least. You all deserve it. Pancreatic cancer. Such a horrible thing. I’m sure knowing ‘her’ cat is safe will help ease her mind a bit, so she can concentrate her energies on the battle at hand. Truly, what you and Flippy did probably helped more than you can imagine.

    Posted by Diana  on  05/30  at  02:18 PM

  3. Oooh, what nice people - and how hard it must be for them. With all that they have to deal with, to care for the stray (because as you said, she doesn’t seem to be feral) was so incredible.

    Hopefully Miss Mae will grow more comfortable and find a good home.

    Posted by prajantr  on  05/30  at  02:20 PM

  4. Their situation makes me sad, but I’m glad there are nice people out there willing to care for a grumpy calico kitty. You guys are very kind to take her in. Good luck finding a situation for her!

    Posted by Helena  on  05/30  at  02:42 PM

  5. you are just so damned nice.

    i think the kitty gods are pleased

    thank you for being a truly good human

    love, ethel, lila, joey and sam

    Posted by Nurse Ann  on  05/30  at  06:27 PM

  6. That is one pissed off cat.

    Posted by Nio  on  05/30  at  08:39 PM

  7. Oh Nurse Ann—you don’t have to call me “nice”, you can just call me “crazy” if that’s what you’re thinking ;-)  Nice and crazy ;-)

    In the photo, Missy Mae is actually more frightened than pissed off I think.  I’m also now sure she’s just a stray and not feral, although she may have once been trapped, spayed, and eartipped.

    Today was a good day for her, all things considered.  She hadn’t budged from her carrier at all, not to eat, drink, or use the litterbox, and that bothered me a bit.  So, I sat with her for a while this afternoon, just putting my hand in the crate to pet her head and neck.  At one point I thought she was turning her head away from me, but then I felt pressure on my hand and a very subtle vibrating—she was purring!  Eureka!  She was very happy to rest her head in my hand while I rubbed her chin and neck, so that was a big step.

    I then put out some wet food for her, but placed it in a dish right in front of her nose instead of outside the carrier.  When I returned a couple of hours later, the food was all gone, so she’d eaten.  Eureka!

    Finally, tonight before I shut out the lights downstairs I checked on her one last time, and she’d peed in the litterbox!  Yes!  She was so tidy, too—she didn’t scatter litter everywhere or make a mess, so I’m sure she’s used a litterbox before.

    So, purring + eating + litterbox = a stray cat to me.  One of those cats that someone adopted as an adorable kitten, and then abandoned later in life.  I think she’s got a great chance of coming out of her shell quite quickly and just becoming a normal house cat eventually.

    Tomorrow we go to the vet for fecal, FeLV and FIV tests, and a general once-over.  I really want the vet to check out her weird, lumpy ear—it doesn’t seem to bother her but I want to make sure it’s nothing bad.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  05/31  at  08:22 AM

  8. Hi Leigh-Ann,

    Her weird lumpy ear could be from past earmites or an ear infection. If left a long time, the ear crumples up and gets thick and hard. She may or may not need to have her ears cleaned. If she’s very frightened, they may need to put her under anesthesia to clean her ears, check teeth, and clip her belly to look for a spay scar, but a lot will depend how she acts at the vet. If she just stays in a petrified ball, you’ll be OK.

    I have one like this now, Sammy. It took him about two months to come out of his shell, but now he is quite friendly. He still runs back to his cage, however, and I don’t know if I’ll ever find him a home. He is set up in a large wire dog cage, with a big litterbox with towels as a bed, a smaller litterbox (as a litterbox), food bowls attached to the side of the cage (so he has more space) and towels on the bottom. After keeping him in there for a week or so, I now leave it open unless I don’t want him roaming (If I have new cats, etc.). He considers it home and it gives him a place to run to. He’s now friendly enough that he comes out to be petted when strangers come by, and everyone remarks on what a beautiful cat he is, and he’s not half so pretty as yours. :)  However, females in my experience tend to be a bit shyer with strangers than males, so yours may take a bit longer to come out of her shell.

    Posted by Susan  on  05/31  at  11:52 AM

  9. Thanks, Susan—I knew you’d have experience with cats who behaved like this (and worse!).  Do you think she’d do better isolated in a bedroom (with her crate for security), or should I leave her in the bathroom until she starts to wander around in there?  I don’t want to overwhelm her with space, but I also don’t want her to feel in such a foreign environment that she’s not compelled to move and explore.

    We’re off to the vet now…

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  05/31  at  09:40 PM

  10. Do you have a wire cage? Do you have a friend with a large dog who will lend you one? Let me take a photo of Sammy’s set up and put it on my blog.

    Posted by Susan  on  06/01  at  03:03 AM

  11. I’ve got a wire dog crate that our Anatolian sleeps in, but it’s about five years old and I’ve really wanted to buy him a new one.  This would be an opportunity to do that, and to let the cat have his crate.  I’ll keep checking your blog for a photo—thanks!

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  06/01  at  05:06 AM

  12. Holy cow, Leigh Ann - a busy month indeed!  That’s just a wonderful thing for the cat, for the couple.  I can’t help but think Missy Mae will be one ecstatic animal when she settles in and trusts the whole household.  I think Nurse Ann got it exactly right.

    Posted by Print  on  06/02  at  05:46 AM

  13. Bless your kind hearts.

    Posted by Simply Coll  on  06/04  at  11:40 PM
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