Saying Goodbye to Missy (1993-2014)

Calico cats are cat-lover cats.  They possess the traits all cats are cherished for – grace, beauty, peacefulness and curiosity – but they also possess a certain je ne sais quoi that make them very special to know.  Missy was an archetype Calico.    

Even though she was a small cat – only 8 pounds at her best weight – Missy had the presence of a lioness – looking at humans and other cats (regardless of size) with a look of equality or dominance.  She feared no one.    When she entered a room she did so with the stride of a victorious general back from war. Yet she was also a loner – wanting attention and social interaction solely on her own terms.

Despite how special Missy was, we rescued her from death row at the Ann Arbor humane society in 2000 when her original guardian passed away.   As often happens, she had no relatives to take over Missy’s care and – at 7 years old -- the shelter considered her "too old" for adoption.   We had just started our Older Cats for Older People program and were able to take over her care and place her as a live-in service cat first for one elderly woman – and then when she passed away three years later -- to a second elderly couple.   She lived with them for a few years but their own health issues eventually became too great and she was returned to us to live out her life in retirement.

Maybe it was her flaming orange and black coat or the very alert look in her eyes but Missy

continued to look vibrant, healthy and youthful up until the last few months.   She had an unidentified tumor the size of a fist that started on her liver and continued to spread causing her to lose weight and become lethargic.  

Finally on Friday it got the better of her and the quality of her 21-year life vanished.    We said our goodbyes and had her euthanized – not wanting her to suffer unnecessarily when there was no sign she could improve.  We were in awe of her stamina and will to live and will miss her greatly.

Feline Cardiomyopathy -- Death without warning

We've lost two of our geriatric cats over the last 18 months to sudden death – Larry and Joyce.    Both were indoor-only feral cats about 16 years old and neither death came with forewarning.   Joyce’s death was so sudden that we had no chance to get her to a vet for examination – we just woke up one morning and she was gone – we assume it was a heart problem but have no clinical proof of that.

Larry on the other hand started showing signs of distress a few days before he died – he stopped eating and stayed under a bed coming out only to use a litter box.  We knew he was in trouble and took him to the vet for treatment.  And -- since Larry had had a complete physical exam last December -- we went into the appointment knowing that 5 months ago he was in good health for a geriatric cat – no indication of kidney disease, hyperthyroidism or cancer – at least none that were picked up by the exam or lab work.

But by the time Larry reached the clinic he had gone from being an ostensibly healthy cat two days earlier to a terminally ill cat with all his vital signs shutting down – the change was dramatic and alarming.  An x-ray pointed to the culprit – congestive heart failure brought on by cardiomyopathy.  As sad as it sounds, Larry’s unannounced and quick death is not uncommon with this disease – and it is often genetically-based so the average age of death from cardiomyopathy is a young 7 years old – and most of the victims are males.  In its advanced stage, the prognosis is very bad – even with treatment which is more of a “Hail Mary” than a sure thing.    Blood clots often result in the hind legs causing extreme pain and paralysis.

The advance symptoms are minimal if any.  If your cat goes in for annual physical exams and your vet detects a heart murmur that could point to cardiomyopathy which can be confirmed only through further testing by a cardiologist.  But – not all cats with cardiomyopathy have heart murmurs so even with an annual exam it can go undetected until the end stage when the naturally stoic cat can no longer hide the signs of distress.

Simply put, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a disease of the heart muscle that eventually prevents the heart from pumping properly causing fluid buildup ending in congestive heart failure.    Although the condition develops over time, there are few early signs and since cats are masters at hiding illness it’s hard to pick up on until it’s too late.  To learn more about feline cardiomyopathy visit our web site.

Black Cats Rule!

Over the last four years, May has become known as “Adopt a Black Pet Month” at shelters participating in Best Friends’ No More Homeless Pets initiative.    They’re spotlighting them – and even adopting them at reduced fees – because historically they are one of the hardest categories to place.  For black dogs this is somewhat understandable as many that end up at shelters are big and unwieldy –requiring special homes to work with them – and typically are not good choices for apartment living.  For cats the challenge is overcoming the many dark myths attached to them –tying them to bad luck, satanic rituals and witchcraft.  The strength of these myths is so strong that there are shelters who will not adopt out black cats around Halloween to protect them from cult activities and mischief tied into the holiday.

We've gotten to know several black cats through our Foundation’s early focus on Older Cat rescue and our creation of a show-and-tell colony of feral barn cats (2001-2005) at the sanctuary where the older cats lived.   To a T – they were among the gentlest and warmest cats we took in.  Some of them were lucky enough to find permanent homes with loving caregivers – Gus and Molly, Whiskers and Sparkle, and Blackjack.  Others lived out their lives with us after we shifted the Foundation’s focus exclusively to cat spay/neuter.     Of these, Robin passed away last year and – sadly – Larry died last week. 

Larry’s death was particularly sad because it was sudden – for a 17 year-old feral cat he lived a pretty cushy life and showed none of the chronic illnesses cats his age usually develop – kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, cancer and diabetes.  He began life as a feral cat living outside an apartment complex in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Then was live-trapped and brought indoors to socialize when he was about 6 months old – four months too late as the cat’s personality is formed at two months.  This closed the traditional adoption door on him and he was moved to a large feral cat sanctuary near East Lansing where he wasn’t doing well.  We picked him up from there when he was two years old and he became one of our Foundation’s barn cats illustrating to our volunteers and visitors how being an outdoor cat wasn’t a “death sentence”.  Then when he was about 7 years old he transitioned to being an indoor-only house cat.    Although he stayed feral up to the end – on his own terms he enjoyed human companionship and the perks of an indoor cat – 3 squares a day, soft beds and protection from rain and snow.    And his untimely death saved him from the chronic illnesses that -- although easily treatable in companion cats -- would have been difficult to handle with a feral cat who couldn't be handled or given medications.

 

If you're looking for a pet cat this year be color blind -- don't turn a cat away because you heard a scary story at camp about black cats -- as Larry shows -- black cats are every bit as worthy of our care and love as any other cat -- and if you adopt one they will not disappoint.  Black is beautiful!

Onyx Passes Away at 19 Years

With a heavy heart we said goodbye to Onyx on Tuesday – almost exactly 11 years after we accepted him into our Older Cats for Older People Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Onyx was a transfer from the local animal control shelter who knew little about him other than he appeared to be at least 8 years old making him “too old” for their adoption program. 

    

His past was a blank because he was turned in as a homeless stray cat, yet he could equally have been someone’s indoor-outdoor pet.  Unlike most cats, Onyx had zero fear of people and so while playing outdoors, would have approached any stranger passing by -- and that friendliness may have cost him his original home.  All too often people who see cats outdoors assume the worst – that the cat has been abandoned by its guardian and/or gotten lost and will “die on the streets” -- where in reality they have a home and a caregiver nearby.  They needlessly uproot the cats and take them to a shelter where they are as likely killed as re-homed.

    

Moving to our cage-free older cat sanctuary turned out to be a boon for Onyx – as he thoroughly enjoyed the companionship of both people and other cats.  Of the 70+ cats we took in, he was one of only 3 that immediately settled in to group living.  He loved other cats and would spend hours snuggling and grooming them – yet every now and then he’d attack a cat without notice or provocation.  And – if it had not been for a pesky problem he had with nipping people, he could have been adopted out several times over in spite of his advanced age.    Visitors were fascinated by his extroversion and his willingness to jump up on their laps even though he didn't know them.  Caring for Onyx over the last 11 years wasn't always easy -- but it was always fascinating.  His incredible openness and curiosity made him a cat bar none.

Losing a cat is often like losing a family member.  It gives you a sudden feeling of helplessness that you couldn't do something to intervene.    Yet – as we've learned so often in caring for the cats in our Older Cat Program death is unstoppable and – in a strange way – often kind.  Onyx had been dying for a long time – you could almost see him fading away as his weight steadily dropped from 17 pounds 18 months ago to just under 5 pounds on Tuesday.  Over that time he was examined by 5 different veterinarians with no definitive diagnosis as to the cause of the weight loss.   Sure he was old and was hyperthyroid and had chronic kidney disease – but there was no "smoking gun" as to what was going on with him.    Yet as much as we saw him physically erode, mentally he stayed alert up until Monday afternoon when he became very tired and we knew it was time to say goodbye – to let him sleep in peace forever – and hopefully to get to the Rainbow Bridge to reconnect with all his old TLC friends that passed before him.  

At age 20, Simon succumbs to kidney failure

Simon’s quality of life started to slide late last summer.  Always idiosyncratic, he suddenly became more so – instead of sleeping on the seat of a chair he’d sleep on the back, instead of standing next to his food he’d get on top of its tray to eat, and he didn’t recognize when he had to use a litter box so would simply go wherever he happened to be when nature called.  The vet suspected he had had a mini stroke – or at the age of 19 – had simply become very senile.

     

At any rate he was clearly a special needs cat and to accommodate his bizarre behaviors we set up a large floor cage lined with washable piddle pads for him to live in.  Since he spent almost all of his time sleeping, this worked very well.  We confined him overnight and left the cage door open during the daytime so when he wasn't sleeping and wanted exercise he could come out.

But, as sad as his new behaviors were, they were not life-threatening.  And – as with many geriatric cats – it would be kidney failure that would ultimately cause his death.    By last Wednesday he stopped eating and on Friday with much sadness we decided it was time to let him go.

Little is known of the first half of Simon’s life – TLC picked him up from the local animal control shelter in 2003.   A cat Samaritan had turned him in after finding him wandering the streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The shelter estimated his age at 10 and so he was too old for them to adopt out.  They also feared he was blind because his eyes were totally milky with no visible pupils.    Turned out the cause of their milkiness was a flare up of the herpes virus – probably a condition he was born with.  It literally took a few years to stop the periodic outbreaks and he required a series of daily eye drops for the rest of his life.

Simon clearly preferred people to other cats – loving to sit on laps and talking constantly.  He pretty much ignored other cats as they ignored him.    We often thought he was more human than feline – and had the appetite to prove it.  Where most of our cats ignore human food Simon sought it out.  By last January he had morphed from cat food to baby food which wasn't great for his kidneys but it was all he would eat.

Simon was a remarkable little guy – and one we will not soon forget.  RIP.

Our Feral Cat Joyce Dies on New Year's Day

I learned about feral cats before I ever saw one.   In 2000 I attended a “No Kill Conference” in California and listened to a presentation by one of the founders of Alley Cat Allies on how to humanely care for them.    When she got to the part about how often people find them living in their yards I almost walked out of the room.  I was at the conference to help formulate cat programs for our foundation and I had never heard anyone in Michigan (where I was then living) mention that they had “wild” cats living in their yard.   Surely this phenomenon was limited to the east coast and wouldn’t play a part in our mission.

  

But– within a few months of starting our TLC (for The Love of Cats) programs -- Michigan feral cat colonies were popping up everywhere.  We responded in two ways:  (1) we formulated a free spay/neuter program for feral cats which we continued until we left Michigan in 2009 and (2) when we purchased a farm to sanctuary orphaned geriatric cats, we installed a show-and-tell feral  cat colony in its barn.   We wanted visitors to see feral cats up close and personal – and to understand how well they could live as outdoor-only cats.    Part of the ACA TNR perspective was that these cats were best sterilized and then left in their outdoor homes with a dedicated caregiver providing food, water and dry shelter.  For – if cats weren't socialized to people before they turned 8 weeks old – they would always be afraid of them – acting more like squirrels or rabbits than house cats.

Joyce was one of the feral cats in our colony.  And of the ones we ultimately moved indoors when we closed the farm, Joyce was one of the most feral.  Clearly she preferred cats to people and ACA was right about her – even after living as an indoor-only cat for 7 years – she never changed.   Rarely could we pet her and taking her to a vet for a routine exam would have required live-trapping so we never did.   Then last summer she started showing signs of chronic inflammatory bowel or perhaps lymphoma and we considered taking her in for evaluation.  At 12 years old, though, anesthesia without blood work was risky and there was no way a vet could examine her without it.  And – if we did find out what was wrong with her, medicating her would be impossible. 

Her quality of life seemed pretty good and there were no signs of physical discomfort.  Then – last week we noticed she was easier to pet and that her coat was starting to look a little straggly.   Little did we know that she was about to leave us –she was still acting normal in most other ways.  New Year’s Eve she was in her regular sleep spot when we went to bed but sometime during the night she died without moving from it.  We don’t know what triggered her death, but we think it was heart failure.  Hopefully it was a peaceful ending.

The house is a bit quieter now and we miss her.  But mainly our heart goes out to Larry – another feral cat we moved indoors with her that spent most of his time snuggling with her or walking to and from the food dish with her.    We used to think that Joyce relied on him for security – she was about a third of his size.  But over the years we learned it was the other way around – she was his security blanket.    He has other friends for sure – but he’ll never have another Joyce.  RIP.

Do Cats Grieve?

Whenever we lose one of our TLC Older Cats – as we did Mama Cat a few weeks ago – we inevitably are asked if the surviving cats go into mourning.   Since none of them speak English, there’s no way to ask them so we look to their body language for clues.    And so far – with about 13 deaths over the last 6 years – we haven’t seen any hard signs of mourning from any remaining cat after any death -- at least not in the human sense of mourning.

Life seems to just go on for the remaining cats except for one thing that was particularly obvious when Mama died.      We know that cats are territorial – so territorial that even when living communally with free access to all areas, each cat has his or her own area(s) and/or bed(s) and with 99% certainty that's where you’ll inevitably find them.  (The area and bed may change with time of day but they are still “reserved” for a particular cat’s use.)   Mama’s areas and beds were strategically located in a hallway leading to the bedrooms – one was under a bench and the other was in a walk-in closet.    About a day after her death we started seeing different cats sleeping in her beds like they were trying them on for size.  And -- within a week – their “ownership” was transferred – the closet bed to Robin and the under-bench bed to Joyce.   Apparently they were next in line for an upgrade and claimed the vacated beds for themselves.

Why don’t we see more signs of mourning in our cats?   They certainly have close bonds with each other and enjoy each other’s company.  Perhaps because cats – unlike people – live solely in the present and mourning relates to dwelling on the past.  It’s not that they don’t care for each other – during Mama’s last few weeks there may have been a group sense of her graveness as she was groomed several times a day by various cats – like they were doing their best to comfort her.  But – when she made that last trip to the emergency clinic – she was literally out of their life entirely.

 

Perhaps in a home with a smaller number of cats there may be differences because the lives of each cat are more intertwined than in a colony setting.  For years we were told that cats were solitary animals but that simply isn’t the case.  Once they settle in, cats thoroughly enjoy the company of another cat.  So when a two-cat home loses a cat the loss may appear more severe for the surviving cat – but what appears to be grieving may actually be loneliness brought on by losing their best friend.    In these situations, the best medicine may simply be a new cat to share their home.

Mama Cat Dies on the Fourth of July

We said goodbye to yet another TLC Older Cat this week – this time it was 18-year old Mama on the 4^th of July.  Her passing took us by surprise – not because we hadn’t anticipated her dying -- but because of how she died.

 

Mama had been an out-of-control diabetic for the last year, so we’ve been holding our breath as to when she would become ketonic and die.   We tried two different insulins with a myriad of different doses to regulate her blood sugar, but regardless of whether   we gave her more or less insulin her readings stayed erratic – ranging from 30 to over 600 – with the normal range being 50-130.   We even tried giving her Glipizide last December as an alternative to insulin but that quickly sent her to the hospital with elevated liver values and ketones in her urine.   Once she stabilized, we brought her home, and began a steady low dose of PZI insulin twice daily.  Recognizing the futility of trying to regulate her glucose levels, we simply monitored her weight and appetite to make sure she was feeling okay.

Then a week ago she started having seizure-like events.  The first two were very mild involving slight tremors, but the last two were more severe -- where she would get dilated pupils and have trouble standing afterward.  Because she was diabetic we thought they related to hypoglycemia but when we’d check her glucose level it ranged from 350-450.  Her veterinarian ran some tests and advised us the problem was serious but not diabetes-related.

She must have had a long-standing undiagnosed heart condition that slowly enlarged her heart and weakened its right side so she couldn't effectively pump blood to her brain.  Her seizures were actually fainting spells.  We stabilized Mama with oxygen and diuretics and she came home for hospice.  She did okay for a few days and then had another fainting spell.  We took her immediately to the emergency clinic but she didn’t survive the 15-minute car ride and was pronounced dead on arrival.

Mama  started life as a family pet but at age 7 was relinquished to an animal control shelter – as often happens families with young kids find themselves over their head and try to simplify their life by eliminating family pets.  The shelter transferred her to our Older Cats for Older People program and from 2000-2005 she lived as a service cat at an assisted living residence in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She lived on the Alzheimer’s floor and was loved by everyone -- staff, residents and their families.  Then in 2005 she was returned to us when her employee-caregiver resigned from the residence along with several other staff members.  She was concerned that no one would take over Mama’s care with the turmoil caused by a major employee exodus.  We’ve had Mama ever since.  She was a pleasure to be around –certainly one of the most easygoing cats I’ve ever known – and I know she'll be waiting for us on the Rainbow Bridge in a Buddha-like position with a loud, friendly purr.  RIP.

Coswell Dies After A Long Bout With Feline Lymphoma

We lost Coswell last Sunday to advanced lymphoma. It started in his intestine last winter and was being well-managed on medication until about a month ago. Then the lymphoma started moving into other parts of his body – most notably into his eyes. By the time we euthanized him he had gone completely blind and was showing signs of neurological problems.

Coswell was a beautiful 15 year old cat that came into our TLC Older Cat Program in 2003 when the Ann Arbor animal control agency trapped him living at a shopping mall dumpster. He had a sweet disposition and had probably not been on the streets long when he was taken. Whether he was a lost pet or abandoned cat we’ll never know.

He had the most beautiful white whiskers of any cat I’ve seen and one of the best purr machines I’ve heard. He got along well with all the cats and was a favorite friend of Onyx. We will all miss him dearly!

Have You Had Your Cat Fix Today?

In the United States we take pet guardianship for granted. Cats – in particular – are often free for the taking and permitted to live in most housing. If not, they often hang around outdoors at apartments and mobile home parks (attracted by the rodents feeding at community dumpsters) so even those without indoor pets can enjoy seeing and feeding them. This is not the case in Japan where they are commonly banned from apartments depriving many Japanese of the joys cat companionship. But Japanese entrepreneurs have stepped up to the plate and now provide a new twist on cat-human relationships vis a vis the establishment of Cat Cafes.

Just as the name implies, cat cafes are essentially coffee shops that house ten to twenty well-cared-for cats so people can enjoy them while sipping coffee or tea. There’s almost a hundred cafes right now with some specializing in a particular breeds or colors of cats but most providing a variety of cats – tigers, calicos, etc . Customers pay a nominal hourly fee and follow a few simple rules – like washing their hands before petting the cats and agreeing not to pull their tails. Mostly women under 35 frequent the cafes but men and older women go too. It’s not the same as having your own lap cat but close enough when that option is not available.

Our Cat Retirement Farm was a sort of “cat café” – we had no end of volunteers that would come out weekly and provide daily care and entertainment for our group of 15-20 orphaned senior cats. Although most of the volunteers had cats of their own at home some did not – they (or other family members) were allergic or lived in places where cats were not allowed. And -- sitting in a group of cats is different from living with one or two – there’s something almost spiritual about a group of contented, well-taken care of felines. They effuse tranquility. By providing visitation events for assisted living facilities, the farm allowed us to help the elderly – if only for a few minutes – remember their earlier companionship of cats – sadly we often take that right away when we move the elderly to assisted living facilities – at a time where they could most benefit from the cat’s attention and presence.

To get more insight on how cats affect a person’s well-being – particularly one in crisis – pick up a copy of Dewey’s Nine Lives – the just-released follow-on book to Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World by Vicki Myron. She is the librarian who found a cat in her library’s return-book chute one winter morning and made him their resident library cat. She saw Dewey’s impact on the residents of her small Iowa town and then documented it in her first book. This second one tells two more Dewey stories and seven others – of people who had their own Dewey-like experiences. It’s a very heart-rending book out just in time for Christmas – what a wonderful gift for cat lovers everywhere.

Happy Black Cat Day (I Mean Happy Halloween)

It’s hard to think of Halloween without thinking about black cats – they’re almost as big a part of it as pumpkins and trick-or-treating – but not in as cheerful a way. This time of year we’re barraged with news releases warning us to keep our black cats indoors to prevent them from being stolen and sacrificed in annual satanic Halloween rituals. And many animal shelters refuse to adopt out black cats in October for the same reason. I’ve yet to find any statistics to support these claims but there’s no denying that cats – especially black cats -- are rich with historical and folkloric references. In our work with cats, the “black cat” issue has only surfaced once.

Early in our Older Cat Program we placed Blackjack -- a pure black male cat – very sweet and cuddly as the resident cat at a local assisted living residence on their Alzheimer’s floor. He seemed the perfect cat to engage and assure the residents and families in their difficult time. After living there for only a few weeks it was clear that he would do a great job but – the staff asked for a second cat for those people who were superstitious about black cats. Luckily we had the perfect match – a pure white female cat named Mama. The staff embraced her and quickly changed” Blackjack’s” name to Papa. Now they had a special cat for everyone and by linking the white and black cats together by connecting their names (Mama and Papa) the “black cat issue” soon ran its course.

Two of our remaining TLC cats are black – Robin and Larry – both are sweet as can be and neither reflects the image or likeness of evil. And both are feral – Larry more so than Robin – so it’s a little ironic that they find people scary – not the other way around. Trapping them to participate in black magic would be difficult even if they were allowed outdoors -- which they’re not. We prefer to keep them indoors with us to enjoy their good looks and meek personalities.

So when you think of Halloween go ahead and think of black cats like Robin and Larry who are as innocent as new-fallen snow.  Let the negative image churned up each October of black cats as instruments of evil fade into the soon to be forgotten past. Celebrate instead the fact that even with cats – “black is beautiful”. Happy Halloween! Meow!

Saying Goodbye To Gloria -- A Great Friend and Companion Cat

I had the pleasure of living with Gloria for less than 5 of her 19 years. We don’t know much about her early years other than her guardian died leaving her alone in the home. When she was discovered – scared and crouching under the bed – she was live-trapped and taken to animal control where she was mistaken for a feral cat (because of the live trap) and almost euthanized on arrival. While preparing her for euthanasia the staff noticed she was declawed so called us to see if we wanted to take her which we did. She was one of the 70 teenaged cats we admitted to our TLC Older Cat Program and one of the luckier ones who fostered out quickly to an elderly Ann Arbor woman in 2002 – only four months after we rescued her.

Gloria was reluctantly returned to us in 2005 because – as sweet as she was 99.9% of the time -- she had a gnarly habit of biting without warning. Twice her foster mom made a midnight trip to the emergency room to be treated for the bites – and one of those times was hospitalized overnight. Much to her foster mom’s dismay, we made the unpopular decision of retrieving Gloria before her biting had any more serious consequences. (Next to human bites, cat bites can be the most serious as the mouth of the cat is a breeding ground for some pretty potent bacteria.) Yet in spite of her intermittent biting, Gloria proved a great lap cat and – although she kept mostly to herself –adjusted well to group living with the other TLC cats in our care.

Yesterday afternoon Gloria sat on my lap for the last time. Not at home but at our vet clinic. We had made another painful decision for Gloria -- to euthanize her. She had had an abrupt downturn to her life quality brought on by an antibiotic-resistant ecoli infection in her kidneys that greatly exacerbated their already degenerative state. Once the infection was identified we started her on Imipenem – an antibiotic that is not commonly used on cats but had a broad enough spectrum to treat her resistant infection. At first it seemed to work – she perked up after the first two days of treatment. But over the weekend she slid downhill fast. By Monday she was limp and weak – even having trouble walking any distance. We hospitalized her where she received IV fluids and medications and a blood transfusion. But – after 48 hours of treatment – she was weaker than when it began. We brought her home hoping she’d perk up but it was soon obvious she wasn’t going to recover. So back she went to the clinic and passed peacefully with their help.

We don’t know if Gloria’s death was brought on by an allergic reaction to the antibiotic or just to a 19-year old cat’s kidneys being stressed beyond their limits. We do know the infection was cured and that her kidneys were pretty bad even before the infection was found. She had been on daily SQ fluids for most of this year. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter. We did all we could to keep her going but nothing could prevent the inevitable. She’s on her way now to the Rainbow Bridge – where many of other her TLC cat friends will be to greet her. RIP.

The TLC Cats Bask In A Virtual Outdoors

It was 9 months in the planning – but took only one day to erect -- our outdoor enclosure for the TLC Cats. From the outside it doesn’t look like much but it provides the cats with safe outdoor viewing of a myriad of wildlife -- birds, rabbits, pack rats and even a resident Quail family– that regularly hang out around our house.

We average about 6 or 7 cats out there at a time – and the outdoor feeling must be very real because the first few days we let them out, they would run back in the house when we approached the room – giving the impression they thought they had been caught sneaking outdoors. Now they’re getting the idea that it’s okay for them to be out and stay put. They have total access to the room when we’re home and awake.

To create the enclosure, we simply attached three electric shade screens to an exterior house wall and took advantage of the portal roof and paver floor to complete the structure.   An exterior living room door leads into the enclosure.

The cats now have a safe way to breathe in the fresh Santa Fe air, sunbathe, peep at the critters and nap without the inherent risks of being outdoors – predators, parasites or the possibility of getting lost.   All we need to add to complete the experience are a few pots of cat grass to munch on.

Would they prefer being in the real outdoors?  Probably.  But the open screened view is crystal clear from the inside so they can see the critters up close and personal but it's opaque on the outside so the critters don't see them. Ranging in age from 12 to 19 years old, these cats are much more a fan of spectator sports than live action -- and this safe enclosure optimizes their participation -- and it's just in time for the 4th of July!.

Caution: Displacement Stress May Kill An Otherwise Healthy Cat

We knew moving our cats would be stressful – for them and us. But, we also knew the trip would only last 2 days and then they would adapt quickly to their new home. These are special cats -- troopers who have already gone through more life changes than most cats – and each time they’ve landed on their feet.

Most started out in traditional one-cat family homes and then were relinquished, lost or abandoned when they were middle aged – 8-12 years old. This change by itself could have killed them – as they ended up at their local animal control shelter where cats over 5 years old automatically fail the adoption litmus test. But, through an odd stroke of fate, they escaped death row to live at our Cat Retirement Farm during the brief time (2000-2003) that we were admitting cats and then subsequently moved home with us for continuing life care when we closed the farm in 2005.

The stress from losing their original family took an immediate toll on most of the cats, and so their first weeks -- or in some cases months -- with us were spent nursing them back to good health -- syringe feeding them Science Diet AD, hydrating them with SQ fluids, and administering medications to treat aggressive upper respiratory infections. These inherently healthy middle-aged cats were overcome by the stress of losing their family, but all they needed to bounce back was a heavy dose of attention and supportive care to keep them going while they adjusted to their new life style. They needed to know they had a home and that life was good. Once they understood this, they rebounded as quickly as they got sick.

We provided the supportive care because we were committed to the belief that the life of each cat has value and once we rescued one, we would care for him or her in the same manner we would a pet cat. Sadly, this is not the case at most shelters whose focus is to adopt out quickly and spend as little time and money on each cat as possible. In these shelters – at the first signs of anorexia or sneezing – the cats are put down – even though these are not life-threatening conditions unless left untreated. The budget and motivation to preserve the lives of the orphaned cats just isn’t there – a sick cat makes the shelter look bad, is hard to place, and can be remedied by an injection of euthanasia juice. There are always more cats waiting to take their place. I’ve always found it strangely ironic that small rescues – often operated by individuals that have no donor base – spend their own time and money to provide their cats with quality veterinary care and yet larger shelters with inertia-laden endowments sitting in their investment accounts -- and often in-house veterinary clinics -- put the same cats down at the first signs of illness.

Even the design of traditional shelters exacerbates the stress an orphaned cat feels often triggering the very illnesses that are their demise. The more days the cat spends at a caged shelter, the more likely they are to stop eating or catch a cold. Fostering them in the homes of volunteers is a much more viable way of housing cats while they await a new home. There, they can receive around-the-clock care, live in a familiar setting, and have the stimulus (windows, toys, people) they need to reduce their stress over being displaced. And, the foster parent, can become a powerful advocate in seeing to the cat getting a permanent home – they learn the cats personality, behaviors and temperaments and can advocate from that knowledge.

In this last life change for the TLC cats, only one cat’s stress caused any sign of illness. Simon had an outbreak of his chronic herpes virus. It had been in remission since the last time we moved him – from the TLC farm to our home. Fortunately this outbreak was nothing compared to his earlier ones (see photo) and was treatable with his regular treatments – cleaning his eyes daily with a moist cotton pad, applying Genteal Gel severe eye drops twice daily, giving him 250mg of L-lysine once daily and applying a few drops of prednisolone acetate twice weekly. We simply increased the pred for a few days and caught the virus while it only affected the skin on the tip of his nose. His eyes fortunately stayed pretty clear.

Why we didn’t see any more signs of stress-triggered illness in the TLC cats probably has to do with the bonds they’ve formed with us and with each other. Once they got to their destination they craved more attention for a few days – in fact even the four feral cats were hovering around our bed the first couple of nights – but soon fell back into their old routines of seeking out their friends to sun and nap with. Life is good when you have wide window sills and heated floors to nap on with your best buddies.

The Ice Cat Melteth -- Missy Joins our Group

If you’re a regular Mews & Views reader, you’ve already figured out that we question a lot of conventional cat wisdom. For example: Cats living outdoors meet the definition of feral … People don’t fix their cats because they’re “irresponsible” … Only “adoptable” cats should be saved by shelters – the rest are better off dead. Trap-Neuter-Return is bad for the birds. And …cats are solitary animals – they don’t want to live with other cats. All of these maxims crumble under close scrutiny, yet our accepting them at face value shapes how we treat cats – often to their demise.

The solitary animal theory has its roots in the way cats hunt. Unlike pack animals that work as a team, cats rely on stealth attacks selecting small rodents for their victims. They neither need nor benefit from having other cats around when they stalk and pounce on an unwitting mouse or mole. Yet often after they catch the prey, they bring it back to their colony – as any caregiver who’s had their cat drop a dead mouse in front of them can confirm. Just because cats hunt alone doesn’t mean that they want to live alone. Think of it -- if they preferred living alone, why would they form colonies?

Because so many people – including vets, animal shelter staff, cat guardians alike – believe the solitary cat myth , you’ll often hear comments like – “LuLu is a great cat but she needs to be in a one-cat home– she doesn’t get along with other cats.” Or, “I would keep this stray cat myself – he’s so nice – but my cat Tinker has always lived alone and it wouldn’t be fair to her to bring in a new cat.”

Even those that are brave enough to adopt a second cat often give up after only a few weeks or months -- citing the new cat terrorizes their original cat – or she won’t come out to visit –just hides under the bed all day. These behaviors reinforce the solitary cat myth. But, what they really tie back to is the cat’s territorial nature.

Territory – to a cat – is paramount. When you introduce a new cat into your home with existing cats, it creates two major problems: The new cat loses her old territory entirely and your resident cats have an interloper in theirs. If they were outdoors, this situation would resolve quickly – the new cat --finding existing cats already on the land -- would either move on voluntarily or be run off by them. Or – sometimes – the new cat would be accepted by the colony and join it. Indoors, the new cat can’t run away and – except in those situations where the cats immediately like each other – this results in chaos. You can prevent chaos by setting up a cage for the new cat – with food, water, litter and a nice bed -- and setting it in the area where your other cats hang out. Let the cats get to know each other without being able to chase or attack – this is critical as once they start fighting the introduction problems escalate.

The cage gives the new cat a territory all her own – she can relax and be comfortable in. And, her being in a cage keeps the original territory for the resident cats. Once the new cat has time to calm down, let her out when you’re there to supervise and see what happens. If the cats chase each other, hiss or growl, or hide underneath something, simply put the new cat back in her cage and try again the next day. Once the new cat can come out without any hissing, growling or hiding, the cat has been accepted in the group.

Depending on the cats, this transition to a shared territory can take hours, weeks, months – or in the case of our Missy – years! In fairness to Missy, we received her back from a foster home when we had 20 cats living in three basic groups. She’s a shy kitty and would get stressed out preferring her condo to the open room areas. After a few months of living in a cage, she slowly moved herself to my upstairs office which only a few other cats would frequent. We made sure she had food, water and litter and let her stay there – the door open and other cats visiting – but out of the areas that had the highest levels of cat activity.

We noticed this August that she would sit on the stairs looking into the living room and finally – a few weeks ago – decided it was time to join the group. She still spends most of her time in the office, but a few hours each day she’s out and about – and looking about as happy as a calico cat can. We knew she’d like the other cats if we let her move in on her own timetable.

Fortunately for cat lovers, Missy is an extreme case of slow acceptance. We’ve used caged introductions for over 70 adult cats that previously lived as single pets – introducing them into a group of 10-15 other similar cats. With few exceptions they settled in within 3-4 months of when they arrived. And, over the years, some very close friendships have formed. If you asked these cats if they'd like to go back to being an only cat, i think they'd tell you no -- they'd miss their friends too much!

Saying Goodbye To Two Dear Old Cats (continued)

While Amber struggled with chronic illness for 5 years, Tasha did so all her life. She had a congenital disease that causes cysts to gradually grow and multiply on the kidneys until they’re so impaired they stop functioning.

When she joined our TLC Retirement Cat Program in 2001 she was 10 years old and the disease was advanced enough that the cysts were already palpable -- and her blood work indicated she was in renal failure. We decided not to put Tasha up for adoption, but to treat the kidney disease --fearing even with aggressive treatment -- we would only have her for a few months.

The treatment meant giving Tasha SQ fluids frequently – and eventually daily -- to help her kidneys work and providing her with Winstrol to treat kidney-related anemia. Tasha was an excellent patient, easy to medicate, and soon reaped the benefits of her tolerance – her kidney values crept back into the normal range and stayed there for almost 8 years. The cysts were still there and growing, but she was managing the good portion of her kidneys better than anyone anticipated.

But Tasha’s kidneys were only part of her health problem. As they were brought under control, we also began treating her with Norvasc for hypertension – a common corollary to kidney disease – and Tapazole for her hyperthyroidism – a common illness in older cats. Her “old cat” teeth and gums needed work but we understood she was not well enough to tolerate anesthesia so began dosing her 5 days of every month with Clindamycin to prevent infection.

Despite all of these health issues, Tasha stayed an active and vibrant cat. And the only outward sign of her illness was that she was very thin – but this only enhanced her flame calico markings and extra long tail –making her look as if she stepped out of an ancient Japanese painting. For a brief period one summer we even let her have occasional outdoor privileges -- but quickly reversed this. A neighbor kept seeing her outdoors and thought she was a lost cat and almost took her to the animal control shelter. Fortunately she couldn’t catch her. The reason she thought Tasha was lost was her skinny body – she assumed Tasha was starving from lack of food!

So Tasha, the cat we began hospice care of in 2001, chugged along until a few months ago. We started noting she was going underneath a living room chair to sleep and knew that was a bad sign. We put a cat condo in our living room and set it up for Tasha with food, water, litter box and a cozy bed. She chose the condo over the underside of a chair and – although we knew she was not her old self – thought she was doing okay. Then in August she suddenly became blind – a relatively common outgrowth of hypertension in cats. Fortunately we caught it quickly enough that by increasing her Norvasc she did get some vision back. This was the first outward sign of her demise. About the same time her blood work started showing kidney values creeping toward renal failure. And -- even more worrisome -- we found large irregular growths on her spine and in her abdomen pointing to a feline cancer.

Like Amber, Tasha started removing herself from daily routines and stopped seeking our attention – preferring sleep in her condo to anything else. Her appetite started to decline and by Wednesday she wouldn’t even eat the chicken baby food that she previously devoured. We knew that her appetite was affected by the nausea often present in renal failure and decided to let Tasha go in peace. With food no longer an enjoyment little quality of life was left for this sweet cat. We said our goodbyes and let her go – knowing we had never met another cat quite like Tasha before – and are pretty sure we never will again. She was our miracle cat.

Saying Goodbye To Two Dear Old Cats

Losing one elderly cat to illness is difficult. Losing two in one day is even more so. Twice previously in the history of our TLC Retirement Program we’ve said goodbye to two cats within hours of each other and yesterday we sadly did so again. Amber and Tasha -- our last two current hospice cats -- died yesterday of very different illnesses but with a similar pattern of multi-system involvement.

19-year old Amber was chronically ill since February 2004. At that time she started bleeding rectally and was diagnosed through a biopsy sent to Colorado State University as having chronic inflammatory bowel disease with a bacterial overgrowth. This is a common older cat ailment and is treated with steroids to control the bleeding. By 2006 she was hyperthyroid – another common older cat disease -- and was treated with radioactive iodine – the treatment worked so well she went from being hyper- to hypo-thyroid and needed twice daily medication to raise her thyroid levels to the normal range. About that time she started to become slightly anemic and was treated on and off for that.

In 2007 Amber was having blood-laced soft stool issues that the steroids weren’t able to completely prevent and her coat began to look oily and flaky. Another blood test was done through Texas A&M’s veterinary lab. This pointed to an adrenal gland problem – perhaps Cushings -- possibly caused by the long-term steroid use. We tried cyclosporine but the problem didn’t go away so through more blood testing we determined that Amber had a GI tract malabsorption problem and was deficient in both cobalamine (B12) and folic acid. We started giving her weekly injections of the vitamins to make up for her inability to absorb them through her diet. Another test performed at the same time indicated she had chronic pancreatitis and leukerin (a cancer drug) was added to her medication list. Try as we did, we were never able to get her back to a totally healthy active life.

Last fall she contracted ringworm – a fungus that can live dormant on a cat for many years and then infect them when their immune system lets down – as hers certainly had. We began weekly lime sulfur dips to control the ringworm and prevent open lesions from forming. She tolerated the dips, but they always worried me because -- for the dip to work -- you can’t dry the cat off. I always tried to do the dips when the sun was shining brightly so she would air dry quicker. By January, Amber was having trouble walking – her hind legs wouldn’t cooperate. Blood work indicated she was now diabetic and needed to go on twice daily insulin. The walking problem could have been caused by high glucose levels. The insulin did more to perk her up than anything else and her walking did improve for awhile.

Finally by September she could no longer climb the stairs we provided her to get to the ottoman she loved to sit on. We set up a floor-level cat condo with a nice bed, food and water and she stayed in there most of the time – still taking a few daily walks to the kitchen for water. We started to question the overall quality of her life – she was becoming isolated from us in her condo because she was no longer comfortable sitting on her ottoman even if we put her on it and lifted her off. The final straw was yesterday. I went out briefly and when I returned I found her lying on the floor next to her condo in a puddle of urine – she had had a breakthrough seizure. As hard as it was to say goodbye to her, we knew the end was imminent with or without our intervention. We had done all we could do for her and now it was time to put her best interests in front of our hesitation to end a life – marginal as hers had become. She is gone now, and we miss her.

To My Working Cats - Happy Labor Day

The earliest reference I’ve found to working cats dates back to about 8000 BC when humans started moving away from nomadic life styles toward settlement farming in the Middle East. Wild cats started settling down with the farmers providing their hunting skills to keep down the rat and mouse population threatening their primitive grain stores and garbage dumps. Over the next 5,000 years cats expanded their work-range to include the lofty status of being worshipped as gods --most notably in Egypt but also to some extent in Greece, Rome, China and Japan. Today cats engage in a variety of assignments – from rodent control to TV acting to library and retail store hosts to therapeutic aids and everything in between.

The first cat I put to work was my beloved pet Amino. She was upset about living with my other two pet cats and so I moved her to our company as our Office mascot. Since I spent most of my waking hours there she saw more of me than she would have at home – and was royally spoiled by our staff who would bring her leftovers from their dinners or share snacks off the food truck with her. She had a keen sense of who needed her attention most and when someone was having a frustrating day at work you’d find her sitting on their lap. One of our engineers had a baby who was allergic to cats and they would bring him in for brief controlled visits with Amino – I can still remember the giggles he’d let out when she notice he was there for her attention.

Several of our TLC retirement cats spent time in service – most notably Mama who lived for several years at a local Assisted Living home on the Alzheimer’s floor. Everyone benefitted from her care – residents who would recall stories of their former pets, staff who got well-meaning respite from her affection, and relatives and visitors who could release the inherent tension of visiting a diminished friend or relative by simply petting Mama’s coat.

Earlier in the TLC program, Picasso performed a very special hospice stay with an Ann Arbor man who was on breathing equipment. Because Picasso was old and blind and hard of hearing he could provide extended lap time– where younger healthier cats were scared away by the noise of his supportive life equipment.


A few months ago I enjoyed reading the best-selling book by Vicki Myron -- Dewey The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World. The author provides great detail on the variety of services he provided to the town residents. He enjoyed international fame with people coming from as far away as Japan to see him in his workplace.

As you enjoy this holiday remember to include the cats you see – outdoors mousing – greeting customers in specialty retail stores – and doing lap-sitting time with the elderly – in the workers you remember. They are an important – albeit unnoticed – group of willing workers that enhance our lives with their beauty, affection – and yes – work duties as well. All they need to do their jobs is a kindly human to feed them and pat them on the back.

Happy Labor Day to you and your cats.

Tasha -- A Cat Who Defies The Odds -- Goes Blind Then Regains Her Sight

Tasha’s health continues to diminish. Last Friday morning after I gave her SQ fluids for her kidneys, she jumped off my lap as she normally would, but turned too soon to leave the room, and ended up in a closet instead. When she reached the end of it, she bumped her head against the wall – looking confused as to why she couldn’t go further. When I picked her up I noticed her pupils were fully-dilated – like giant black saucers -- and realized that she had lost her vision. The change was acute -- only the day before she had had no trouble finding her way. But then I remembered that she stayed in her condo the entire previous afternoon and evening – even though her condo door was open. This may have been because she couldn’t see to get out -- and she may have been scared. When a cat first becomes blind, it’s unsettling for them – they don’t have a clue as to what happened.

What caused her sudden blindness? Like many cats with chronic kidney disease, Tasha also has hypertension. We’ve had her on a daily dose of blood pressure medication for several years now – hoping that would control it, and prevent her from becoming blind – one of the negative side effects of hypertension.

Sudden blindness in cats is a medical emergency -- regardless of cause -- so I packed Tasha up and took her in for a blood pressure check and eye exam. On the test, her blood pressure was 170 – high, but not extremely high. Her retinas were detached. We assumed the blindness was blood-pressure related -- although there are other causes -- and that possibly her blood pressure spikes during the day to a level that could cause retinal detachments. To counteract this possibility, we slightly increased her medication and divided it into a morning and afternoon dosage. When we rechecked her blood pressure on Monday morning, it had dropped to 150. Possibly the slight increase in medication was helping. Yea!

Rarely a cat with blindness caused by retinal detachment regains their sight – if it’s caught quickly and if the blood pressure stabilizes. A pet cat of mine did this several years ago, but I didn’t think Tasha would be so lucky – with all the other factors weighing on her health. Yet Tuesday morning when she jumped down after getting fluids, she found her way back to her condo without bumping into anything. And I noticed that her pupils aren’t dilated all the time any more.

At this point, it looks like Tasha’s sight is back – something we’re very relieved about. She’s still a little reclusive – only leaving her condo for a few minutes each day – so possibly she regained only partial vision. But, regardless of how much or how little she sees, Tasha is able to move around without bumping into walls or chairs and that’s what counts. Whether this change is permanent or temporary, only time will tell.

Littermates or Soulmates? Coswell and Onyx Share a Special Bond.

To see how natural they look sharing a couch, you’d think they lived together all their lives. Yet this photo was taken in 2003 literally moments after they met. We rescued them both on the same day from our local animal control shelter’s euthanasia queue. Onyx (left) had just ended his stray-hold period and Coswell (right) had just exhausted his allotted time in their adoption area.

As soon as we got them to our new-cat isolation room, they quickly jumped out of their carriers and onto the couch-- both sighing a long sigh – relieved to be out of the shelter – and perhaps , happy to be together again? Although they ended up at the shelter almost two months apart, they’re about the same age and coloring, and their immediate acceptance of each other has always nagged at me. Could they be littermates -- or at least former housemates -- that were lost or abandoned together? If so, they could have separated and been found individually -- with Croswell reaching the shelter a few months before Onyx. Unlike dogs who run loose when they’re lost, cats first hunker down in a safe hiding place – often close to where they were lost -- leaving only when darkness makes them invisible to people – and then only to hunt for food – or until they’re brave enough to search for their old home. Their hiding creates a lag time – often months -- before someone figures out they’re homeless and takes them to a shelter.

If you’ve ever tried to introduce one cat to another you know how unusual it is for unrelated cats to immediately mingle like Coswell and Onyx did. Even the most tolerant and sociable cats feel obligated to throw at least a few hissy fits before they’ll accept a new cat. Doing something as familial as sitting on a couch together often takes months or years to accomplish. That’s part of the reason why people used to think cats were solitary animals. We know from our retirement cats that most cats do relish feline companionship – so long as they all have their own turf and there’s plenty of food and litter box access for all. Rarely do we have one cat living separately from others -- and most of them enjoy sleeping and eating with or near others – in groups of 4 or 5. And these cats for the most part lived alone as house pets until they were well into middle age.

Whether or not Coswell and Onyx knew each other before we got them will always remain a mystery. Neither one is talking. But if they weren’t housemates in a previous life, they’re definitely soulmates now -- giving each other continual love and companionship – as well as a few friendly head butts – whenever they pass by.