I was finally, finally able to get Kitty to the vet yesterday. I kept calling them to see if they had a feral cat trap available for me, and they never did, and finally they suggested renting one from the animal shelter. I hadn't known about that option - if I had, I would have done it sooner. So, 3 weeks ago, I picked up a trap from them and put it in the dining room so everybody could get used to it.
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| if I were a cat, I wouldn't come within 10 feet of this thing. |
I started feeding her close to it so she could get used to being near it, and then I started feeding her halfway into it. I used bag clips to keep it propped open so it wouldn't close on anybody if they happened to decide to go in there and hang out. After 3 weeks, I decided yesterday to give it a shot.
In the morning, I fed Fluffy, Mowgli, and Stripey in the basement and closed the door. Then I lured Junior into the office with the laser pointer and some treats, and closed that door. I put some food in the back of the trap and waited. Kitty didn't seem desperate enough for her regular food to go into that scary looking contraption, so I opened a can of kippers and dropped bits of them into the trap.
That did it. It trapped her. It was the worst thing ever you guys. Ugh. I heard the trap slam shut with this horrible metallic crashing sound, and I heard her thrashing around and hissing. I went into the dining room to cover the trap with a towel to keep her calm, and I could smell that she had peed. Luckily I figured she might, so I put a puppy pad down under it before I trapped her.
I felt like the worst person in the world. My poor sweet girl was so scared. I was kind of shaking, I guess because trapping a cat that you care about, and knowing she's sick, and hoping more than anything that this is going to work, and not knowing what to do if it doesn't work, takes a lot of energy and adrenaline. Anyway, I called the vet to tell them I was coming, got dressed, and took her in. She was pretty quiet, although she cried a couple of times, and she never lashed out at me at all.
The vet said she would try to examine her without sedating her, but that definitely didn't work. She tried, but Kitty started to panic so they had to sedate her pretty much right away. It turned out, she had a badly abscessed canine tooth and it needed to be removed right away. So they did that, and they gave her her vaccines, they examined her and took some blood, and they said she's pretty healthy aside from her mouth. The spots on her eyes are just pigmentation changes. Her blood work turned out to be "fantastic" except that her glucose is a bit high (she is a big girl). The vet thinks, based on her teeth (she is already missing most of the teeth on the left side) and her eyes (lacier irises, as opposed to saturated, bright color), that she is probably between 10 and 12 years old. Which is much older than I had thought.
Anyway, since this is actually October, and not the day after I brought Kitty home from the vet, I can tell you how it all worked out.
I brought Kitty home and no one recognized her. There was a lot of staring and hissing and creeping around in slow motion. I put Kitty in the office so everyone could see each other (it has glass paneled french doors) and set her up with a litter box and food and water. She did ok in there but she really wanted out. And the other cats were really upset by her presence. So at night, I covered the doors with cardboard boxes so that nobody could see each other and everybody could have a break.
I had it like that for about 2 days, and then decided I really needed to let Kitty out. Junior and Mowgli are her friends, and I wanted to give them all a chance to get reacquainted without Fluffy and Stripey being the a-holes that they are. So I devised a plan.
I had some baby gates that I used when I was painting some of the bedrooms and had to take the doors down and didn't want the cats mucking everything up. So I got those out, and put them up in my room.
I put Fluffy and Stripey in there with their food and water and a litter box and some toys, and planned to keep them there for as long as it took. Mowgli had to spend the first couple of nights in there with them while Junior figured out who Kitty was. But during the day, I wanted them to be able to see and hear and smell as much as they could. At night, I slept in the guest room because I have a hard enough time sleeping without a bunch of cats walking all over me.
So, I let Kitty and Junior have the run of the house, and sometimes Mowgli. I fed them chicken all together, and slowly slowly they started to realize that it was Kitty. It felt like it took forever, and it was just so baffling to me. Cats really sometimes make no sense. But one day, I saw Junior hurry over to Kitty and head-butt her, and I knew everything would be ok. It made my heart so, so happy to see that.
Mowgli came around next, and Kitty started to go back to her regular habits. After a full week, I finally let Fluffy and Stripey out of my room, and they seemed to know right away that Kitty was Kitty, just based on the fact that there was a large, sandy-colored cat hanging out in the dining room, just like always.
So it worked out, and Kitty is feeling better, and everything is ok, but man. It was a trial.
