This is long but important. You can see pictures of everyone in my profile. Warning though. The pictures of OREO are very hard to look at. It has been a year this week that we have lost her - it is no easier than the first day. Background: Where my husband works has trailers in the back of the company. In 2006 an employee brought one of the trailers into the garage for loading – later that weekend another employee came by the shop - he heard small meowing and found a litter of five kittens – not old enough to be away from mom on the floor. It seems mom put her babies in the trailer to keep safe and warm but was separated when the trailer was moved into the garage. My husband and I are well known for being a saver of cats and needless to say they came to my husband and ask for help. Next thing I know, we are running back and forth from work every 3 hours to feed the kittens from a baby bottle. The kittens needed to nurse more often and they latched onto the run of the litter. He was a little boy and just happened to be the one everyone wanted to nuzzle on. He ended up having a few surgeries before the vet was able to open his private part enough where he could go to the bathroom on his own. He was named Napoleon (he was a little guy who thought he was big stuff and he stayed with us after the others hand found homes. Fast forward a year – October 2007…..This is when we meet Oreo…..same place as the previous litter– mom is back and has had a litter - the woman in the company have been feeding mom to keep up her strength while nursing. One day they find a small kitten horribly mangled lying in the doorway - we don’t know how she made it there but I like to think that even though mom was scared of humans she knew we would help her kitten - She was rushed to the animal hospital and they worked on her wounds the best they could but she was so injured they couldn’t tell where to start. The vet thought an animal had attacked her and did not think she would make it and warned us that her chances were slim and it would take a lot of work to get her on the road to mending. It didn’t stop us though. Once again we find ourselves running back and forth from work. Oreo (I named her that because it fit – you know how cats just grow into their name and you know it’s the right one). Oreo had to be soaked every couple of hours in water and an antibiotic solution to help her wounds heal and of course to make her joints feel better. She also needed two different types of medicine as well as being hand fed every few hours (It was like having a newborn – I even had to set the alarm so I could feed her in the middle of the night). Even though I knew it was good for her, it tore my heart apart when she would let lose her pitiful cry when we soaked her. I had to leave and make my husband do it because my heart felt so bad. After a few days her wounds started to heal even though she still looked pretty banged up. The extent of her injuries was soon apparent - She lost about an inch of her tail (it just fell off one day) - 3 toes on her back foot (the toes were mangled and twisted) and her tone bones were exposed – if she had made it she would have lost her foot– her front leg was crooked (they think it broke and began to heal to fast) and she was covered with cuts and abrasions – each time we cleaned her up – there seemed to be a million more. We didn’t give up though – we fed her and bathed her – put her on a heating pad – kept her in a box – held her wrapped in blankets, anything to let her know she was loved. The only cat we let near her was Napoleon (we figure they had the same mom). He was obviously the BIG BROTHER - they ended up always sleeping together. Napoleon protected Oreo like a big brother would – he didn’t let the other cats near her - he licked her – let her lay on him – kneed him anything she needed he took care of. Finally she seemed better – she started with little teeny steps – limping but moving – by now it was getting difficult to keep her in the bathroom sink for her baths because she wouldn’t stop squirming and it was the best feeling when we took her back to the vet and they were shocked at how well she was doing – they didn’t believe me when I told them she could walk on her own……….Well she showed them….she trotted her little baby steps across the floor of the vets room sat down and just looked at us like it was no big deal. For about two days after that she was the most loving thing in the world - she was able to walk up the hallway – she played with yarn balls and she loved to be held. Friday I came home from work and went into my daughters room where we kept Oreo and noticed something was wrong……her back legs were slipping out from under her.…ok maybe she strained herself playing but it didn’t get better. We ended up taking her to the vet first thing Saturday morning and they didn’t know what to do. It was possible that she had an infection in her spine and we had to give her SUPER strong drugs……they also cautioned us to wear gloves around her when we gave her medicine…..Well I figured I didn’t need gloves – it would have taken away from being able to comfort her plus I had already taken care of her for a week. She did not get better that weekend – we nursed her all weekend and didn’t leave her side once but Monday morning she had to go back to the vet. We had to put her down because she just wasn’t better. What I didn’t know is that when an animal dies of unnatural causes – like a animal bite- it is procedure to send them off for testing……Of course I threw a fit – I didn’t want them to hurt her anymore - she had gone through enough. I didn’t have a choice though. Well it came back rabies……My family had to go get the rabies series (I ended up with the first five plus two extra shots in my fingers because she had broken the skin….everyone at the vets office had to get boosters and I had put all my other cats at risk and they had to go get rabies boosters. Needless to say it was a very nerve racking few weeks. I know everyone thinks we are idiots for taking in a stray but what other choice did we have…all animals deserve a chance and Oreo was only a baby. It wasn’t her fault she got hurt – she just needed attention….Even now I can’t think of what she went through and the pain she must have endured with crying…. it was a miracle she survived in the elements until she was found – they weren’t fresh wounds she had been injured for a while – God was definitely looking out for this little one. At least we were able to give her a few days of joy…she knew she was loved for a while. It makes me so angry though that something like this had to happen to her. She was only with us for a few weeks but she left a permanent hole in all our hearts. Happy ending…….Mom was gone by now and there were still five kittens out there…Even though I had sworn off strays forever - that lasted a whole 2 minutes. I bought some have a heart cages and systematically caught the kittens and brought them home (it was getting close to winter by this time). It took weeks for them to get comfortable enough where they would come upstairs and even now they are very skittish if you move to fast. We were able to find homes for 3 of them and of course I had to keep two – a testimony to Oreo. |