But first, let us enjoy this handsome blepping boy!
While I’ve managed to touch him briefly in the past, for the most part he won’t let us near him.
Sadness!
No such sadness when it comes to Tissue!
She had a quiet night in baby jail, which was actually closed up, just to be on the safe side. I had it open for a while in the evening. Tissue really, really wants out of the room. She even managed to escape briefly, when my daughter came in, not knowing she was out. Interestingly, any cat that is in the room with her, or is allowed in, she will growl at – but when she ran out of the room and was surrounded by cats, she didn’t growl at any of them.
She definitely has a hoarse “voice” right now.
She has been eating, but not very much. I imagine her tongue and jaw must be quite uncomfortable. Which means she’s not using the litter much, either. But she has her favourite spot in baby jail that she hangs out in, though just as I started writing this paragraph, she started trying to open the door. I will let her out later, when I’m able to supervise her more closely.
She got her medication this morning, which should help with the pain and, hopefully, she’ll eat more. She’s on the pain meds for a total of 5 days. I don’t know how long she’ll need to be on soft food. It all depends on how well she heals. Overall, she is calm (except towards the other cats in the room) and allows us to pet her and hold her.
Well, that’s interesting. I decided to open the door to baby jail in between writing the above. She went out, popped into a cat cave, then went right back onto her favorite bed in baby jail! 😄 She just didn’t like having the door closed.
Fair enough!
In other news…
I got a call from the financing lady about the replacement vehicle. She had good news and bad news. The good news was that we were approved for financing. The bad news was, they wanted a deposit of $3,500, first.
That’s about 40% of the cost of the vehicle!
Obviously, we don’t have that.
As we were stalking, though, she mentioned a Nissan.
Nissan?
We were looking to buy a Ford Escape.
…
Well, it turns out she was sent information about 2 vehicles, and the wrong one was applied to our application! So she input the correct information, with a much lower price, but a higher mileage, and resubmitted them to the lenders. One, she could tell me as she was doing it that it would be rejected, simply because of the mileage, and it was. It was automatic. The other one she sent it to, they had no such restrictions.
That one was tentatively accepted, pending confirmation of banking information.
Considering it was past office hours by then, that was as far as things got.
So I am expecting a call with an answer, some time this morning. She’s been trying really hard to get this vehicle for us, and it’s really appreciated! Ours has been a very unusual application.
Until then, we continue to wait. At some point, I need to go pick up some parcels at the post office. I’ll leave that for the afternoon, when the post office reopens.
I hope to get the call before then! This hanging in limbo thing really sucks!
Yesterday, the right side of her mouth and cheek were all red. They’d cleaned her up, so that was from being so swollen. Her front paws, as well.
While she has a hairline fracture in her jaw, the cut on her tongue is actually the worst injury. We’ll have to monitor it, in case it starts getting infected. If it does, we’ll probably smell it before we see it. We’ve got medication for her for the next five days, to be given with food, and she’s on soft food only for a while. We currently have her in baby jail, with the door closed, and Butterscotch has taken it over from Marlee. This way, we can also monitor her food.
She was completely calm during the ride home. We had to use my mother’s car again (still no word on the financing for the replacement vehicle, so the van is still prepped for trade in), and my daughter road in the back with her. She was able to open the door and hold her paws, while Tissue used her hand as a pillow.
*melt*
Currently, she’s behind me, growling at any cat she sees. Even Cheddar! It’ll take her some time to calm down.
Her bloodwork came back perfect. We will also keep an ear out for her lungs, because she was so frozen.
Speaking of which…
… this is where she got up into the engine compartment. The car was put together (car! ha! It’s a Nissan Armada. A perfect vehicle for our winters!!) enough that the Cat Lady was able to drive it, but she still didn’t have any heat. That will be fixed later. Somehow, Tissue squeezed her way up, basically into the fan belt, and got stuck. They could only see her tail. If they had tried to start the vehicle, the fan belt would have killed her. If they had tried to put it in neutral and push it into the garage, she would have been crushed. The only way to get her out was to dismantle the engine. By the time they got to her, she was unconscious from the cold. At the vet, they had to put stuff on her eyes to protect them, because they wouldn’t close or move.
The mechanics were amazed by the damage. When they first called the dealership garage, they thought the Cat Lady was talking about a squirrel stuck in there, because the space is so small. So was the space she first got into, by the muffler. That spot, where she would have been when they drove around, could not be seen. She would have been quite cozy in there, though it would have been a tight fit, and kept warm by the muffler while they were driving, but once the vehicle was off, that metal would have sucked the heat right out her. They asked about having the space blocked off, so no other animal could get in, but it’s there for a reason, and can’t be sealed off.
She was able to get out of that, at least. The space into the engine compartment was smaller, then once she got stuck, she just panicked and started destroying anything she could reach. As for the damage to the hoses, the mechanic said that was the sort of damage a racoon might make. That it was done by a cat was astonishing.
She did $3000 in damage to their vehicle.
When the cat lady paid the bill, I hear the receptionist saying it was something over $1,300.
I feel so bad. All this over what was supposed to be a cheap spay!
Meanwhile, as far as she knows, the Cat Lady is still scheduled for major surgery tomorrow. Whether is gets cancelled at the last minute, it’s still hard to say.
While at the veterinary hospital and talking to the staff about Tissue as they called up the billing information, they started talking about how much they were going to miss her. It seems she was very affectionate, and all over the staff. My daughter described her habit of spinning around while being pet, and they just started nodding; she was doing the same thing for them!
She’s acting like she’s got no injuries at all. The Cat Lady made sure to stay out of her sight as best she could, in case Tissue associates her with trauma now. She was calm in our carrier, the whole time. Not that she’d be able to break out of this one. It has clips to lift the top off, but since it has a door at the top, we never use them, so we added the screws to hold it together. Even if the clips get opened, that thing won’t come apart without a screwdriver.
Everyone is just amazed by her recovery. Especially the staff at the vet’s.
Now that Tissue is home, she’s here to stay! Adopting her out is now out of the question, as is taking her to be spayed.
No, she’s not out of the woods yet, but it’s mostly just observing her, and giving her tongue and jaw time to heal.
Under the circumstances, we couldn’t have gotten a better prognosis.
I just spoke to the Cat Lady on the phone. She just finished talking to the vet.
Tissue is coming home today.
Not only did she survive the night, but she looks like she has only minor injuries. She might have a hairline fracture in her jaw, which only needs time (and soft food only) to heal.
The broken tooth is basically just a chip the vet says won’t bother her.
She has a cut on her tongue but again, that just needs time.
No broken bones.
No spinal injury.
Her back legs weren’t moving much mostly because she was so cold.
She did start to have crystals in her blood, but there is no damage visible.
The doctor is going to write up a report for other vets, about how they thawed her out.
She clearly isn’t happy there, and the vet wants her to come home to us, rather then go to the rescue for her recovery. He says we shouldn’t even try to have her spayed for at least 6 months. To which I say, forget it. We’re not getting her spayed at all.
We will get full instructions and any medications when we pick her up, late this afternoon, and bring her home. She will be on soft food, and in isolation in my office during her recovery. We’ll need to monitor her, of course, but she should make a full recovery.
This, just 12 hours from being at death’s door.
The best possible prognosis we could have expected. The vet is absolutely stunned.
We had another foggy night last night. While it’s clear and sunny now, areas to the south of us were getting fog warnings of sudden zero visibility!
The trees never lost their frost from when the first fog hit, so we now have frost on top of frost on top of frost!
I didn’t even try for a head count this morning, but I did manage to zoom in to get a picture of this elusive tortie! The girls call this one Phantom, because she has a sort of Phantom of the Opera mask. She is from Broccoli’s first litter, along with two calicos, which makes her big sister to the two tiny bitties we were finally able to catch and pass on to the Cat Lady.
I got messages from her while I was doing my rounds.
Tissue made it through the night. She is awake and alert.
That’s all we have right now.
Which means they will be fully assessing the extent of her injuries right now. It’s still possible her injuries are so severe, it would be just too much and trying to treat them would do her more harm then good.
Or, the injuries might not be as severe as we fear, and she’ll make a full recovery, minus a tooth.
There’s just no way to know right now. We just have to wait until we get work from the vet.
Tissue is such a strong cat and a real fighter. The Cat Lady and her husband have the wounds, and a torn apart car, to prove it!
My daughter and I got back from the city not long ago, and we have been filled in with details that were really jumbled before. I’ll try and sort it out and make sense of it as best I can.
The Cat Lady and her family simply could not find Tissue in their garage. They even tore the new drywall out, just in case she’d gotten into the walls. With the trap empty in the morning, her husband considered putting flour on the floor, so they could see paw prints.
Well, it turned out there was a reason they couldn’t find her in the garage.
She wasn’t there.
I had thought they’d left their car in the garage, and only took it out to look for the cat, today. I was wrong. That was yesterday. They’d driven to the spay clinic and back, but never put the car back, because they didn’t want to risk Tissue getting out.
What they didn’t know is that she was already hiding in the car. In that “hidden compartment” by the muffler they knew nothing about.
Which means she spent the night outside.
They didn’t find out until her husband looked out the window and saw her sitting on the hood!
She ran under the car when they came out. They could see she’d tried to get into the office window, which is where they’d put her until it was time to take her to the spay clinic. They took the screen out and left the window open, but she never went for it again.
Nor did she run out to the open, or even to the nearby cat house they have.
Long story short: they knew they couldn’t leave her out there. They couldn’t move the car into the garage without injuring her, and she’d already spent a night tucked into cold metal. They ended up calling Nissan (they bought this car just a few months ago!), who sent someone over. They actually dismantled the car to try and reach her. She kept getting more and more aggressive, attacking anyone who tried to reach her, biting hoses and metal around her. By the time they got her out, her paws were bleeding, she had at least one broken tooth, her mouth and nose were bleeding, and she was so stiff and cold, her legs weren’t moving anymore. She was also blue from the cold. Her pink toe pads were blue!!
Before they got her, I’d wondered to the Cat Lady if it would help for us to come out, and in the end, she took us up on that. We had to take my mother’s car, as the van is prepped for trading in (we still don’t have an answer to the financing under my name instead of my husband’s). Shortly after we left, we got a call (my daughter came along and was able to answer the phone for me) asking to meet at the veterinary hospital in the city, and updating us on Tissue’s condition, so far as they knew at the time.
Once at the vet, we got the tentative prognosis. The vet said she was about 10 minutes from death when they got her, but she was stabilized, on IV, cleaned up and treated as best they could, so far. She may have a broken jaw, possibly other broken bones, and they’re not sure about her back legs right now. It could just be pinched nerves and inflammation, or there could be spine damage. The jaw may need to be wired together, or it could just have been dislocated.
After talking about it, it was decided to keep Tissue overnight in the hospital. If she survives the night, she will be further assessed, and the Cat Lady has permission to make decisions based on the prognosis. If the damage is too severe, it might be better to let Tissue go. We shall see.
While we were there, my daughter spent most of the time with Tissue, petting her. She actually seemed to respond and relax, even though she was still partially sedated when we got there.
Someone came to weigh her while we were there, and Tissue actually moved around and meowed complaints about being take out of her warm nest. After she was put back, my daughter asked if she could wrap her in a shawl she brought. She’d been wearing is under her coat. This is a shawl she’d crochets for herself out of a fuzzy yarn. She’d wear it while at her computer, and Tissue would crawl into her lap under it, and go for a nap. When it was on her chair, Tissue would spend hours napping in it.
When my daughter wrapped the shawl around Tissue, she actually moved around to let her, then immediately tucked her nose into the shawl and curled her paws around her face, just like she does at home. The technician even commented that Tissue was looking/acting noticeably better. I’m glad my daughter was able to come along. She and her sister were both really sick today.
So now we wait and see until tomorrow morning. I’m just glad we were able to get out to see Tissue, as it seemed to help her.
Writing this post has taken a lot longer than usual. I’ve been messaging with the Cat Lady at the same time. Not only is she dealing with all this, but she is slated for major surgery, the day after tomorrow – unless it gets cancelled. Not only is the hospital full, along with a shortage of doctors and nurses, but a new specialist on the surgical teams wants to do more tests, because he thinks surgery is too soon, and may do more harm than good.
Nothing like getting conflicting information, just 2 days before major surgery!!!
The Cat Lady was absolutely devastated by what happened with Tissue. In absolute tears! She feels so guilty and keeps second guessing herself, with all the things she feels she should have done differently. There was nothing they could have done. They simply didn’t know enough, and Tissue’s behaviour was not only out of character for her, but unlike anything any other cat has done, including the wildest ferals.
Oh, wow. I just found out that their vet is allergic to cats. They had used a hair dryer to help warm up Tissue, and he kept sneezing and his face started swelling! He must really love his job!
Okay, I need to get to bed. It’s been such a long day, and it’s taken me hours just to work on this post!
Hopefully, I will have good news of some kind, tomorrow!
The Re-Farmer
ps: please excuse any typos. I’m too tired to try editing right now! 😄
… one step back, shuffle to the left, take another step forward and do-see-do!
Ugh.
What a day yesterday was!
But first, let us appreciate this handsome boy.
Gooby followed me out to the gate while I was doing my morning rounds. This little boy LOVES attention and wants to be held.
Nothing like having a cat claw its way up your leg, while you’re trying to switch the memory card out of a trail cam!
Once in my arms, he happily burrowed into my neck and violently started licking my nose.
He has a thing about noses!
As I was heading back inside after my rounds, I was greeted by this.
Walnut’s siblings and cousins, minus one. The three smaller ones (two in front, one in the back) are siblings. The three larger are from a slightly older litter, as is the one that was elsewhere when I took this photo. The one with the orange head is called Pinky. His fur is an unusual combination of orange and grey that sometimes makes him look pink! The little one in the back has spots that are almost completely black, rather than the grey tabby markings the others have.
Walnut, meanwhile, did get spayed yesterday and, while it took a long time for her to wake up, is doing very well. Walnut and the bitties are all getting treated for ear mites, and getting medications to treat upper respiratory infections. Itty Bitty Bobby was found to have some fluid in his lungs, but Sprite has just “uncomplicated” URI.
Oh, and guess what?
They all already have homes waiting for them!
Walnut will be going to a household that has one cat – a rescue the Cat Lady placed awhile ago. The bitties will stay together, going to a home with an older couple, and first time cat owners! They’re going to be hooked on cats with those two. 😊
Tissue, on the other hand…
I’m still waiting for word on whether or not she’s been caught. They found no sign of her. The garage is being renovated, so there’s not a lot in there, but they even opened up the drywall, looking for her. Nothing. Not even a peep. There’s no possibility that she got outside, as there was no access to outdoors. They did finally open the garage doors, with the workers all standing there, to back the car out (after checking to make sure she wasn’t in the engine block) and look again. Nothing.
It’s a heated garage, and they set a trap up. Hopefully, they will find her today, but I’ve not heard anything yet. Once they have her, they will leave her in the trap, and we will meet in town. We will take her back, trap and all, and hang on to the trap until we connect again. The vet, meanwhile, as offered a free spay near the end of February, but if we want to get Tissue done, we will have to take her to and from the vet ourselves.
Honestly, at this point, I’m not worried about getting her fixed. Clearly, she is not adoptable, and I just don’t want to put her through that again. She will stay with us, indoors, permanently.
As for her escape, they are utterly amazed. We knew Tissue was a burly girl, but they were astonished by how strong she is. She was in a hard sided carrier that they’ve used to transport ferals. They’ve never had a cat break out of it before. The Cat Lady had set the carrier down to open her car door when it “jumped” and Tissue was gone. The door was torn off and the carrier broken apart.
The Cat Lady is just beside herself with worry over Tissue. They’ve all been looking for her, off and on, all day yesterday. All they could do in the end was set the trap and leave it. At least they can look into the garage from inside the house, through a window, and check regularly.
For now, it’s just a waiting game.
While that was going on, we heard from the financing company about our application for the replacement vehicle. Since my husband is the one with the income, we were doing this all in his name. He got an email from them, saying it was tentatively approved. They just needed some banking information to confirm our income on the application, an ID such as a driver’s license, health care card or passport, and a few other little details confirmed.
Well, my husband doesn’t drive anymore, and we never got his driver’s license transferred after the move. The one time he went in to try, they wouldn’t do it, because his name on his old license didn’t perfectly match his birth certificate. In my husband’s family, no one uses their first name. Tradition is, everyone has three given names, and uses their second name. This was a bit of an issue when he was in the military, but all they did was reverse his first and second names on some paperwork. Everywhere else, he just used his second name and surname. Well, that’s not okay here anymore, and after much painful waiting, he was finally told he needed to change his legal name to…. His legal name. We did eventually contact the ombudsman who confirmed my husband only needed to have at least two bills or bank statements with his full legal name on it, and he could get his license. By then, however, he was in no condition to go physically go back and go through the process. Not even to just get a photo ID.
Well, it turned out the bank the financing company works with wanted a driver’s license or passport – our health care cards don’t have photos on them. He has neither.
So we had to transfer the application to my name. The financial information didn’t change, since it’s household income and we’re working with a joint account, however they not only needed my driver’s license, but the banking information we sent needed to have my name on it. Which doesn’t show up on the paperwork unless I selected the print option, with letter head. We’ve been sending in phone scans of the required documents, which does make things easier.
It took a few tries to get something legible but, by then, it was late in the evening. On top of that, yesterday was a statutory holiday, which meant few staff and everything was slower. Which is understandable. We’ll find out today whether the application, under my name, is approved.
Oh, one of the things that they needed to know is what “company” I worked for. Which confused me until she mentioned that we said we had a custodial arrangement, leaving us with no rent or mortgage payments. She thought that meant we were the custodians of a building, like an apartment building or something, owned by a company. So I explained that, and now my brother’s name is on the paperwork as the company/owner we have an arrangement with. They don’t need to contact him. They just needed something on the paperwork. I also explained to her that I can’t have my own income, because anything I earn would be deducted from my husband’s disability payments. That cleared up some confusion on her part.
Meanwhile, a daughter and I went out and emptied the van of our belongings, then put the set of all-season tires in the back. We won’t need them anymore, and with dozens of tires scattered around the farm already, I didn’t want to add to the piles! If the approval goes through, I can just grab the van and go, and come back with the replacement vehicle.
If it doesn’t go through, well… we’ll just put the stuff we need back, and keep going as is.
I’m really trying not to get my hopes up about getting this vehicle. True, we’d do better with a truck or van but, my goodness, even a 2013 Escape will be the most luxurious vehicle we’ve ever owned if we get it! We’ve never had a vehicle newer than our 2007 Grand Caravan, and that was quite a few years old when we got it.
Well, we shall see how it goes.
Hopefully, we’ll get all sorts of good news today, both about the vehicle, and Tissue!
But first, let’s take a moment to admire this handsome boy.
This one will sometimes let us pet him, and it more tolerant of us coming close in general.
Which makes sense for a semi-feral cat.
You’d think it would be different with a house cat.
This morning, I started getting some rather frantic messages from the Cat Lady. It seems Tissue has been acting full-on feral! She’s been hissing at them and even attacking, and so stressed out, she’s been panting and drooling. So I was asked if I could pick up Tissue straight from the vet today, because they were afraid she would harm herself during the recovery period.
Of course, I said yes.
Then I got more wild messages, and things got really crazy!
In a nutshell, they got her in the carrier and were loading her into their vehicle to take her to the vet, along with the littles (who are apparently right as rain), when she ripped the door off the carrier and escaped into their garage.
Yeah.
Ripped the door off.
That carrier had a crack at one corner, but still! The whole thing came apart.
So, as of right now, Tissue is still somewhere in their garage – which is in the middle of renovations! The Cat Lady is so worried she might hurt herself on something. They’ve set up a trap to try and get her.
They took a different vehicle to take the littles to the vet, so they wouldn’t have to open the garage, and gave the renovators the day off. Their kids continued to try and find her while the littles were dropped off at the vet. The vet gave the Cat Lady until noon to bring Tissue in. After that, it’s just too late to do the spay.
I’m just amazed by Tissue’s behaviour. I know she didn’t like being in the carrier when I brought her to the cat lady – she was upset enough that by the time we got there, she’d thrown up in the carrier. Still, even that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Even after we snagged her and brought her inside, she never behaved like this. However, she’s also never been out of the house since then, and hasn’t really been around other people. When we have company, she is one of the cats that heads upstairs and waits until they are gone. This is a cat that loves to cuddle with my daughters, and sleeps with my younger daughter at night. During the day, she likes to sleep on my husband’s hospital bed, and will often demand attention from him, too. I don’t see her as much, since I have to keep my door closed, and she’s not one of the cats that has any interest in checking out the new additions.
It’s just crazy! I feel so bad for the Cat Lady. She’s so worried Tissue might hurt herself!
Well, whether she gets fixed or not, we’ll bring her home. It’s just a matter of how and when that will happen!
The fog has mostly dissipated – I was still seeing touches of it while going my morning rounds.
My goodness, but it does make things beautiful, this time of year!
I couldn’t resist getting a picture from the same spot as yesterday.
The temperatures are nice and mild right now. As I write this, we’re at -8C/18F, with almost no breeze at all. We’re supposed to reach a high of -6C/21F today. A good day to finish clearing in front of the garage so I can open the doors to get my mother’s car out, and clear a few more paths.
One way we can tell how much more pleasant the weather is, is by the cats.
The usuals are back to preferring to eat on the cat house roof again. In this bunch, there’s only one that’s friendly. I can sometimes pet the black and white, but not often. Still more than I can come close to Broccoli. I don’t know how she’s been with her kittens gone. She’s been avoiding me, so perhaps she’s made an association between me and missing babies. I don’t know. I so want to socialize her more! We’ll have to wait longer before we can try to trap more females. The hard part is waiting for things to warm up, so there’s no chance of a critter freezing in the trap, but not so warm that they start going into heat and get pregnant, first.
Speaking of which, I saw Shop Towel skulking around when I put the food out. While I was switching the memory card on the trail cam (and melting the frost off the lens and solar panel), I heard a cat fight, and am guessing it involved Shop Towel.
Before going in, I tried to get some more pictures of the frost and was able to zoom in to get this little cutie.
We have not been able to keep up with the feeding this winter, because of the racoons destroying the hanging feeder, but the chickadees and blue jays have been raiding the kibble trays, instead!
While getting this shot, something strange in a tree above the storage house roof caught my eye.
Well, I guess we can see who Shop Towel went after! One of his older sons, no less. A couple of the grey and whites are much larger – more like their dad in size.
In other things, I spoke to my mother last night. She’s in need of a grocery shopping trip, which is why I want to clear the doors to her car. She was fully expecting to go to the grocery store today; apparently my sister is supposed to be visiting her, though my mother didn’t seem sure, when I spoke to her. I pointed out to her that it’s New Year’s Day. The stores will be closed. She sounded so surprised when I told her that. 😕 So, if all goes well, I’ll be heading out tomorrow to help her with shopping – in her own car!
For now, I’m monitoring cats. With the littles gone, I actually got a full night’s sleep! The ladies seem relieved to have the room to themselves again – even if Marlee still hisses at Butterscotch and Nosencrantz sometimes. Leyendecker and Cheddar seem to be looking for the littles when they come in. Meanwhile, I now have grandma, who moved out here with us, in with me. My daughters just let me know she’s been behaving oddly, like there is something stuck in her mouth. We thought it might have been something stuck in her throat, but I’ve seen her eating. She seems fine, until she suddenly makes retching faces and started rubbing the sides of her face with her paw. My one attempt to gently move her head for a look had her meow in alarm and run off, so I do think something is hurting her. Hopefully, it’s something that will work itself out. So far, she’s eating and drinking normally. Right now, she’s on my bed, not far from Marlee, and settling in for a nap.
I’ll have to get one of the girls to take over monitoring her when it’s time to get outside.
The Re-Farmer 