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Pet Adoption

A new location, and a plea for help

I created a “Chip In” box to accompany this entry, with a stated goal of $2500.  This reflects my guess of $250 each for the two difficult spays, and $1000 each for Jackson and Ethan’s problems.  Any surplus will be left in the veterinary emergency fund, which will always be in demand.)

It’s September 11, 2010, and we are happy to announce that we’re settled in a new location!  As of last month we’re living in Pahrump, NV, which is about 65 miles outside of Las Vegas, and halfway between Las Vegas and Death Valley.  There are quite a few rescues and sanctuaries here because there’s so much land… even we’re on a little more than an acre, and although it’s still quite overgrown with weeds and needs a lot of work to clean up, the dogs are loving every square inch of space.  We love the peace and quiet and the starry skies, as well as the house, which has easy-to-clean tile and wood flooring.  We’re still not unpacked and don’t have the place organized, so the cats have been given the master bedroom as a main residence.  They’ve got half a dozen cat trees, soft beds all over the floor, and evening breezes through the screened patio door.  The house is a bit of a “fixer-upper”, so as we’re fixing things like electrical outlets we’ll also be adding cat walks that will allow the cats to roam the rest of the house without ever setting foot on the floor (or going nose-to-nose with the dogs).  Although this house is quite a bit smaller than the one we moved from in Las Vegas, it has all the makings of a perfect cat sanctuary and the animals seem to be doing very well after going through such a large change.  Many of them even seem happier since the move, and seem to enjoy their temporary communal living.  Being on an acre, we might eventually be able to add on a small “casita”-type building to fulfill our dream of providing a home for a few FeLV cats, too.

We’d been so busy preparing to move and enduring the actual move that we set all non-essential veterinary care aside until we got settled.  Right on time, about a week after we moved in, we noticed that two of the cats were having new health problems, so we did some research to find a local vet (not many to choose from, unfortunately).  There’s one located not too far from our house, and he’s the only vet who keeps emergency hours, so he’ll be the first one we see.  Now we’re turning to you, to ask for your help in covering the costs of what may end up to be a couple of expensive visits.  Meet the cats who aren’t feeling well:

Jackson Monroe, and his older sister, Chelsea, were our very first rescues back in 2004!  Their elderly owner had died, and surviving family members had allergies and decided it would be best for the cats to be euthanized.  We’d just lost our cat, Sweet Pea, to liver cancer, and the vet who was to do the euthanization called us and asked if we’d give this pair a second chance.  Chelsea was 13 at the time, and after a close call with hepatic lipidosis, she’s still with us, happy, healthy, and active.  Jackson Monroe was 7 when we adopted him, and he’s now the patient—we’re quite sure he’s become hyperthyroid.  Although hyperthyroidism isn’t technically an emergency, we’re reached a point where we can’t manage his weight loss, and he’s become increasingly vocal and unhappy.  Over the last 24 hours he’s started to drink a lot of water, and we can’t let this go any longer:  he needs to be treated.  We have an appointment with the veterinarian on Monday, and would appreciate donations to help us pay for the blood work and medication he’ll need.  Hopefully his kidneys aren’t affected, and that we can get him stabilized on medication until we decide on a permanent course of action.  Hyperthyroidism is extremely common in cats and highly treatable, and even though Jackson is now about 13 years old, he should have many happy years ahead of him with proper care.  If you can help Jackson, please send a donation via PayPal to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Do any of you remember the great California kitty rescue last year, and the saving of the FIV+ cats, Sugar Ray and Ethan?  With the help of the great people at the Cat Blogosphere, and Sugar Ray and Ethan’s “Auntie Susan”, these two cats were pulled from death row at a city shelter with a high kill rate.  Ethan was chosen because of his age; he was the oldest cat in the shelter at the time, and he looked very sad and lost.  Despite his FIV+ status his health has been quite good in the year he’s lived with us, but he’s now having severe dental problems, to the point that it’s painful for him to eat.  We thought at first he’d developed sores in his mouth after the stress of moving, but instead it seems like a lifetime without any dental care has caught up to him, leaving him with bleeding gums, and making dinner time agony.  We’ve treated him with pain medication to keep him comfortable, but he needs dental care ASAP before this turns into a more severe issue, and damages his heart or causes a large-scale infection.  If you can help Ethan, please send a donation via PayPal to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

We have a two other cats who need specialized veterinary care, although at this point they aren’t an emergency.  Betty Lou and Abby Cadabby were problematic kittens we rescued in 2009, and now both need to be spayed.  The problem is that Betty Lou has a skin condition that causes wounds to heal with difficulty, so she needs to be spayed under the watchful eye of a good vet and vet techs to minimize the chances of a long-term problem.  Betty Lou has been actively going into heat for the last couple of months and we know it’s uncomfortable for her, so having her spayed will make her feel better, and will relieve a lot of stress for the other cats.  As for Abby Cadabby, she’s about 14 months old and is an extremely runty cat—she’s still only about 5 pounds, and we had her for months before we felt confident she was going to survive her kittenhood.  She’s never shown any outward signs of being in heat, and we don’t even know if she’s capable of reproducing, but if she is producing adult hormones we know a spay will reduce her chances of developing things like mammary cancer as she gets older.  There are many excellent spay and neuter clinics that provide low-cost services, but because of Abby Cadabby and Betty Lou’s special health issues, we’d prefer to have them seen by someone who will give them individualized care, and who will know how to handle any problems that may arise.  Although Jackson Monroe and Ethan will be the first to go to the veterinarian, we’d like to get BL and AC in their as soon as possible.  Any overflow of donations to pay for the care of Jackson and Ethan will go towards treating Betty Lou and Abby Cadabby.

Thank you for your help and support.  With such a surplus of unwanted cats in shelters, cats like Ethan, Jackson, Abby Cadabby, and Betty Lou would have been euthanized long ago if we hadn’t agreed to take them.  Each of them (except for Betty Lou) was scheduled to be euthanized at one point, and Betty Lou was close to death from starvation and dehydration when she was first found.  With your help, we’ve given these cats a second chance, and we’re asking for your help again to give them quality of life.  Donations sent to PayPal seem to be the most convenient for many people, but if you’d prefer to send a donation through the mail, or to donate directly to the veterinary clinic, please send me an email and I’ll give you the address information.  My email address is director (at) weepaws (dot) org.  Your donations are tax-deductible!

Because of our own physical disabilities, we had a moving company assist us with packing for our move.  Unfortunately, they did things like pack our camera in one box, and the camera battery/charger in another, and the camera memory card in yet another.  As soon as I can put together a complete camera I’ll update this entry with new photos of all the cats!