Tales of a Wild Cat
This story is a must-read, posted by an amazing local cat caregiver, Terri!
Tales of a Wild Cat
“Meet Ranger. He’s part of the feral colony we manage. We’ve been trying to trap him for over a year. He’s been elusive. Lately, he’s been coming into our feral cat shelter and yard for food and water during our waking hours. Over time, he’s become less fearful of us, and we could get as close as 10 feet before he ran. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but it is substantial progress!
We noticed 3-4 weeks ago he had a bad upper respiratory infection. He’s a very big boy, and VERY feral. I could tell he didn’t feel well at all, and my heart was heavy over not being able to help him. We kept a diligent watch on him. When we noticed that he was much worse and he also had what appeared to be an abscess on his head, we decided to try a new tactic to trap him.
We laid a plan to desensitize him to a drop trap over a few days, and picked one up from FieldHaven. Experience told us it would take patience. We hoped he’d be OK until we succeeded.
When we got back with the trap, I started setting up the area. As I was working, I noticed his tail hanging out of one of the container beds. I had been making some noise, and it was highly unusual for him to still be sleeping if someone was in the area. I wasn’t sure he was alive, and if he was, he wasn’t well. Then I got really scared because I could see his whole back end moving with his breathing. He clearly was very sick.
I quietly left to get our transfer cage. I thought maybe I might get lucky. It worked! He wasn’t happy, but he was too sick to make a fuss. I ran to get help to load him so we could get him to FieldHaven for some medical help. I knew he would have to wait for a few days, but it was better to have him in a warm, safe place.
He was neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, ear-tipped, and treated. He even had a bath! He received fluids and antibiotics to help with both the abscess and the respiratory infection.
Today, Ranger will come back to the colony. It has been 10 days since I was lucky enough to catch him and get him to the people who could help him. He’s ready to get back to his life. We have many stories like this, and our colony is only about 43 cats. Imagine the stories FieldHaven has. They are amazing people working there.” – Terri
We’re proud to be able to help cats like Ranger, but we couldn’t have done this without California for All Animals. Their grant saved so many lives over the last year, and we are so grateful.
Print Friendly