Every year our lovely Weirdo, Ashley Marie, makes winter shelters for strays and ferals. With Ohio winters being as they are, these shelters save lives. This year was no exception and members donated supplies to help. The team has so far donated 25 containers for conversion to shelters. This is a truly wonderful example of Weirdos making a difference for stray and feral cats.
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In September 2019, our TNR Director was asked to help trap a family of cats and get them spayed/neutered. Mama cat, Moo, had 4 grown kittens and had recently given birth to 6 more kittens. Mama Moo was a feral cat, but she trusted her caregiver and kittens were all friendly. The 4 older kittens were all taken in and were fixed and given vaccinations. One of them was even adopted out. As soon as the younger kittens were weaned, they were surrendered to a shelter and adopted out. Moo was trapped and spayed and is living with her 3 older kittens. They have heated houses, a safe location on their caregivers porch and are all happy and loved. Moo had 10 kittens within a year! Thanks to our TNR Team, Moo won’t have any more babies and her kittens are all fixed and cared for. That is the goal of our TNR Division, to stop the cycle of feral and stray cats having kittens and adding to the overpopulation of cats.
Smooshy’s story begins in December 2018 with a urinary tract infection. Smooshy was a 12 year old, long-haired, black and white kitty with a permanently grumpy face and a sweet personality. His mom reached out to us when she saw him straining in the litter box and refusing to eat or drink. Things were good for Smooshy for a while, after the Weirdos helped him get a check up and medication for the UTI. But then, Smooshy stopped being able to poop. What followed was weeks of enemas, xrays and diagnostic tests. The entire Weirdo family waited on Poop Watch 2019. When all the diagnostic results came in, it was finally discovered that he suffered from a condition called Megacolon. Smooshy’s mom was smart and dedicated. She found a medication online that had positive results for this condition. The Weirdos helped buy the medication, which started to help! During this time, Smooshy had begun to lose weight and grind his teeth, so we decided to send him back to the vet. While there, the doctor suggested a surgery called deobstipation, which manually removes the backed up fecal matter from the cat. Since Smooshy was a senior kitty, his family was concerned about him having surgery. Luckily, a fellow Weirdo had just been to the same vet for a similar procedure with her senior feline! She offered to chat with Smooshy’s mom and share her positive experience. This encouraged her to move forward with the surgery. Lots of poo was removed from Smooshy during the procedure and the vet also cleaned and scaled his teeth while he was under anesthesia. The whole veterinary staff was charmed by this darling furball! As he recovered, the Weirdos sent Smooshy food and supplements to help him gain back the weight he had lost! Smooshy started feeling better and acting more like himself!
The story of Smooshy is an amazing example of the partnership between a loving cat parent and the whole Weirdo nation. Donations of food and money were vital in helping Smooshy fight this two month long battle! Other members also provided tons of encouragement and love to Smooshy, which kept his family going when things were feeling impossible. We are sad to report that Smooshy crossed the Rainbow Bridge in October 2019. He is dearly missed by family, friends and all of the Weirdo Cat Lovers of Cleveland. Chi Chi’s mama contacted the Weirdos after she had been struck by a car. We immediately sprung into action, knowing this situation was serious and we needed to help this sweet girl. Chi Chi was xrayed and found that while she had no internal bleeding, her pelvis was broken. The veterinarian kept her for 2 days for observation and meds, and now Chi Chi is home with her family healing. She will be kenneled for at least 2 weeks to minimize her movement and chance of reinjury. We couldn’t have saved this sweet girl without the Weirdos!
Since coming to our household in late September Lenny has asserted himself fully and has been adopted into the rest of our senior cat family. We now have a total of four cats: Emma Peel (12), Hex (13), Lenny (14), and Fran (17). With two boys and two girls I believe we finally have a balance with all of the cat antics that occur around the house. Ever the dominant presence, Emma Peel was not exactly happy to have someone new come into the household. Lenny tried his best to be the kind and cuddly kitty we knew he could be, but it’s taken some time. We’re now into the middle of November and everyone is pretty copacetic. There is little hissing or batting. As some of my earlier photos/videos have shown, Lenny has made himself a permanent home in our library. When we first got him, we set things up in our television room/library because that was a room we spent time in regularly. We wanted him acclimated to us as well as providing him enough space to get his bearings. Soon after bringing him in he started knocking things off of a series of shelves that faced the exterior windows. We would find him there every time we went into the room! After a week of this behavior we moved his bed into one of the cubbies so he would have something comfortable to lay on while spending the day looking out the window.
While visiting her mother, admin Christy Higbee noticed that one of her mother’s beloved kitties had an angry looking lump on the side of her face. It had popped up in just a few days, and needed to be assessed by a vet immediately. With the help of the weirdos, we got Angel into the veterinarian the same day. The vet determined that it was a horrible ear infection and prescribed antibiotics and a course of treatment. While Angel will always have chronic ear problems, we saved her from an infection that could have gone into her little brain and killed her. She is recovered and happily at home with her loving family.
After a very busy day, Nimbus was discovered by his Mummy with a very swollen front paw, upon which he could not bear weight. We got Nimbus to the vet where an infected wound was discovered. After surgical cleaning and a course of medication, Nimbus recovered well.
10 year old Buttons was rescued from a bad situation. She was not eating, drinking or grooming herself. The vet determined she had enlarged red blood cells. She was prescribed a new diet and a course of medication. 3 months later, her blood was normal upon retest and an adopter was found. She remains well and happy.
Oreo was coughing and for some days his Mummy thought he was trying to get rid of a hairball. No hairball appeared but Oreo stopped eating and drinking and started losing weight very quickly. North Royalton Animal Hospital did x-rays and tests and determined he had a stomach infection. After a course of medication, he is now happy at home again.
Oreo was acting very oddly and her Mummy was worried. After some tests, it was determined that she had been poisoned by a Hartz collar her Mummy had put on her unknowingly. After treatment at Able Animal Hospital, Oreo recovered and went home to her grateful Mummy.
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