Rescue Cats & Other Adventures
Moxie has a little belly again! As she gets healthier and her fur fills in, her body language is changing. She walks and sits normally instead of being hunched over.
And we realized she had these cute white racing stripes on her sides. Just one on each side, about three inches long. But we just couldn’t see them before.
She also started galloping around the house with her tail fluffed out, as if she wants someone to play! A huge deal for this girl!
I don’t get paid to do what I do for animals. I do it because I care. And I think somehow it makes a small difference.
But not all days have rewards. Some days are tougher than others. Today was a tough day.
Moxie has been sick for almost a week. Throwing up. We got her roundworm medication, which also made her throw up. I took her in to the vet to get weighed this morning because of how skinny she’s gotten. She weighs 4.75 pounds right now. Which is down half a pound from her peak at 5.25. Which doesn’t sound bad. But she was 4.5 on her first weigh-in. So she’s gone almost all the way back to the beginning.
I was also contacted by the folks that work with Animal Services on feral and stray cats. Of the three cats confiscated from my hoarding neighbor, one had already been returned to the neighborhood, and the two girls had been put up for adoption. But apparently there was so little interest in them, that Animal Services wanted them out. At least it wasn’t euthanasia. But the girls were going to be returned to the neighborhood.
The only problem was that my hoarding neighbor and her family were at the house working on the yard all morning. So I asked for a delay on releasing the cats.
This afternoon she brought the girls to release. Zelda took off in a blur of fur and panic. Zoey tried to curl up in a corner of my porch, meowling. I don’t know if she’s ever been outside.
She’s tiny. She’s scared. Her belly is still shaved from getting spayed. And she has no idea what’s going on. I couldn’t just leave her out there. She was happy to sit in my arms. So I brought her inside. A friend gave us a medium/small dog crate she wasn’t using and it came in handy for the moment. Zoey is in a quiet, dark, calm space for now. I have no idea what is best for her, but it’s obvious she’s on her own now.
I hate that there’s no room for these little ones. I hate that animals pay the price for people being stupid. I hate that I now have 20 cats in my house. Five are mine. I spoke up for them. But the other 15 are cats that no one seems to want.
The alternative is life on the street. Is that really an option for a little cat that probably hasn’t been outside before? I can’t accept that as an option.
These are the days I wonder why I do this.
On the other hand, I controlled myself from crossing the street this morning and starting trouble with the hoarding neighbor and her family. So I guess *gold star* for me there.
I took Moxie in to get weighed, and we’re super excited that she’s getting healthier! She gained about .75 pounds in a little over three weeks. In a few more weeks she might be healthy enough to have surgery to be spayed, and get her shots.
She has an amazing personality, and is getting to know how to live in a house with people and cats and dogs. We also discovered she loves the red dot, and is learning to love other toys.
Moxie loves wet cat food and dry cat food. She loves the water bowl. She loves being picked up, and being pet. She loves chin scritches. I can’t tell if she’s actually getting fatter or if it’s just my imagination.
Her confidence level is skyrocketing. She is able to move around the house without getting too freaked out by the other cats. She can usually sneak past Sammy, the dog, without too much drama. She is exploring ALL of the possible sitting spots in the house. Sometimes she crawls into the back of a shelf in the liquor cabinet, and others she sits in the window of the cat room for hours watching the neighborhood.
Moxie was such a good girl on her first visit to the vet. She got the works, and complete blood work done. After a long and thorough conversation with our vet, he agreed that she was in great health despite being emaciated, and that her lack of body mass was likely due to starvation rather than any illness or defect.
She weighed in at less than 4.5 pounds, and she should have been around 7 to 8 pounds. But otherwise was a healthy girl. It was hard to estimate her age due to her lack of weight. But time would tell. Our vet was otherwise happy with her condition.
I was sent home with some things to try to get a urine and fecal sample just to rule out anything obscure. But waiting for a cat to do its business in a weird litter box set up was less than successful.
It’s hard to estimate how quickly she will be back up to ideal weight. Six to eight weeks is the general guess. In the mean time, we’ll be getting her fat, working on her socialization, and inviting potential adopters to come meet her.
Moxie is the victorious survivor of a hoarding situation, and she has come a long way towards a normal life. Although she (understandably) has anxiety issues around other cats, she adores her humans and is amazingly affectionate. She will do best in a home without other cats, or with just one relaxed animal. And she prefers women over men, but is wonderfully affectionate in either case. When you get to know Moxie, you can see her dealing with her issues every day, and she is an amazing example of someone who decided to overcome her tragic past.
Gender: Female
Color: Black & white
Fur: Short
Born: Unknown (estimated 2011)
Moxie came to us from a sad hoarding/neglect situation and was completely emaciated. When I took her in to the next Operation Catnip clinic, they wanted to euthanize her immediately, but I managed to talk her into another chance. The mission was to fatten her up enough to have spay surgery and her shots.
It has been a long, uphill struggle to get her better, but she is a truly amazing cat with a phenomenal personality. She loves to cuddle and talk, and is very people-oriented. We found out she had already been spayed at some point, so we’re working under the assumption that she had been someone’s pet already.
In our journey towards getting Moxie fatter and healthier, we have also been working with her anxiety and social skills. She has come a long way but will likely need a home with few animals and probably no kids. She prefers women, and will even ask for attention form women visitors she has just met. But she will tolerate a guy roommate as a second best option 🙂
We also discovered she loves the red laser dot game.
When Moxie arrived at our door, she was too skinny to even tell where her organs were, what to speak of attempt to spay her. Over the course of time, we brought her back to a healthy weight, and have a firm grasp on her anxiety issue (all of which came from being in a hoarding house). When she is stressed, she loses weight and anxiety-grooms, but in a relaxed environment she really starts to blossom.
5/17/15 – Operation Catnip. Unsuccessful. Initially too emaciated to do spay surgery on, we have been working to get her fat enough to have surgery and vaccines.
5/19/15 – General check up with vet. Moxie weighed 4.5 pounds (normal weight is 7 to 8 pounds)
6/11/15 – Vet weigh-in at 5.25 pounds!
6/30/15 – Roundworm treatment (and whole house of cats).
7/3/15 – Vet weigh-in at 4.75 pounds after roundworm illness and treatment.
8/18/15 – Moxie weighed in at 6.5 pounds is cleared for surgery.
8/20/15 – At NMHP: Operation petsnip we discovered she was already spayed. She did get her rabies vaccine.
Litter box: A+
Other cats: C [due to her previous hoarding life, she has anxiety issues with other cats]
Cuddling: A+
Food: A+
Moxie arrived on a hot afternoon. She swaggered into our colony’s community area with a look about her. She told everyone to back up. She was going to eat and the were going to leave her alone. She had moxie from day one.
I thought she was a boy at first and started calling her Max. She was emaciated but alert. Determined. A painfully skinny tuxedo with big, round, surprised eyes and a black face except for a small, white goatee. (She reminded us both of Phrike, an amazingly sweet colony member that had disappeared a year before.) Her hip bones stood out and her back end was weak. But she was fiercely determined to survive.
She ate and left, came back, left, hid, and flirted with the colony for two days before she stayed when I came to feed the cats. And two days more before she was brave enough to sniff my finger. A first step. It went quickly from there because it turns out that she LOVES to be held. It also turned out she was a girl and Max became Moxie.
On Saturday night I set out a bunch of humane cat traps (in hopes of trapping cat hoarding neighbor’s cats), and immediately caught Moxie. Only Moxie. I woke up really early and brought her in to the Operation Catnip clinic, and I made sure to tell the intake crew that she was incredibly skinny but I had an emotional investment in her well being. Which was a good thing. Barely an hour after I got home, they called to say the head vet was recommending Moxie be euthanized. She was too emaciated to perform surgery on. If I hadn’t had a history with O.C., it would have been the end for her that day. But I was able to negotiate her freedom.
Since I volunteer for O.C. afternoons, I was able to talk to the head vet about Moxie’s condition and my guess about how she was starved. She agreed it was a huge probability. Poor Moxie was just plain starved.
On arrival home, Moxie was set up in her own apartment–a large crate in the living room, with liter, food, water, cozy box, and a sheet for privacy. She immediately took to her now space. She loved the wet food. Lazed around in the box in every possible position. And she was a complete perfectionist in the litter box right away. She did growl when our dog or other cats came nearby to examine the newcomer.
Despite her dramatic few days in traps and in the vet school, being sedated and having her belly shaved, being sent home and stuffed into a big cage… despite all of that, she remained quite calm. I was able to handle her all the time. She clearly enjoyed being held. She liked chin scritches. She purred a lot. She was a wonderful cat that needed to be returned to health so she could find a good home.
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