Happy Endings
When we rescue animals, they are often in unimaginable shape due to neglect, starvation, injury and illness. Kittens are often flea infested and have diahrrea and raging upper respiratory infections. Some are injured and leave us (and the vet) guessing as to what happened to them. Sometimes they just come to us too late to save them. This makes us all the more grateful for success stories and keeps us going when the next hard luck case comes our way.
Shanequa - Shanequa is an affectionate cat that we rescued from a county shelter where she had languished. She was beautiful, healthy and friendly, but she was 6 years old and black. Black cats often are harder to place, and an older cat often gets overlooked for younger ones. We saw a shining star in Shanequa and put her up for adoption. And waited. After six weeks, she was adopted into a wonderful home. Her new family called us to report that she is the best cat they ever had and they are absolutely in love with her! We're glad we went the extra mile for Miss Shanequa.
"Shanequa"
Pogo - 3 legged kitten - Pogo was a 10 week old kitten found during Fourth of July celebrations in the suburban streets of Windsor, limping on his front leg, starving, weak and flea infested. A door-to-door search yielded no clues as to his owner, so he was handed over to one of our volunteers. A trip to the emergency vet revealed not only had a broken and very swollen shoulder, but he was dehydrated and loaded with fleas and flea eggs. His front leg remained oddly limp, despite medication for infection and inflammation. Within a week his leg began to deteriorate and he required an urgent amputation. Pogo came back to foster care and against, doctor's orders, raced around on 3 legs, apparently unfazed by the loss of one leg. We made special steps so he could get up and down from the bed so he wouldn't rip his stitches out. After 2 weeks, his stitches came out and he was quickly adopted by a family with a little boy.
Pogo after surgery:
Chloe - a mom with no litter: Chloe was rescued from the brink of euthanasia at a crowded shelter, along with her litter of 4. She arrived very thin and frightened. Her kittens were unfortunately all quite sick. Despite emergency veterinary care and home nursing from her foster mom, they died one by one, until there was just one left, who had managed to survive. By this time Chloe had become very protective and hissed and clawed at the foster mom every time she treated one of the kittens. Days later, we received a call about a litter of 4 orphaned kittens who needed bottle feeding. Since Chloe's kitten was now healthy, we brought the infant kittens to Chloe. She called them over to her and eagerly licked them - within a few minutes all five kittens were nursing as if they'd been there all along, and Chloe was contentedly purring.
Chloe with some of her new litter:
Babies Found on the Creek
A litter of 3 week old kittens was found by dogwalkers at sunset next to Santa Rosa Creek, the whereabouts of the kittens' feral mother unknown. Since it was getting dark, these kittens were certain to fall prey to coyotes, owls and other numerous predators. The kittens were rescued and, after pulling the fleas, ticks, burrs and stickers off them, the round the clock bottle feeding began. All survived and found great homes. Pictured here is one being fed the first night, followed by a picture a few weeks later showing the quickly learned skill of mulitiple bottle feeding.
