Formerly Feral Nursing Home

This has been a wild week at Wildcat Woods...I feel like I am running a cat nursing home here. The older kitties have chronic issues and things just escalate all at once.



Minnie ( all black) has IBS and was having a bad week with colitis and looking poorly. I think she may have been constipated. She goes back and forth between constipation and diarrhea. I added colostrum (see my Cats and Dogs Naturally article) to her diet and it seems to be helping. My vet will send a glandular for intestinal issues to add to that.



Yoko (tan tabby) has thyroid issues and she seems to be developing some kidney problems. Thyroid irregularities can affect the heart, liver and kidneys. I have boosted her diet with Chica's (who has chronic renal failure) supplements and it seems to be helping. She is more active and less mopey.

Every morning the first one up walks through an obstacle course in the house of hairball vomit, puddles of frothy mucus, etc....yecch... and I don't' know who did what. This week it was more than usual so I was trying to keep and eye on everyone.

It seems like all is on track again today and everyone is doing OK for the time being! I am glad I can treat some of this myself with phone calls to my vet --- very expensive to run to the vet all the time.

Introducing Darby....

I thought I would tell a bit about each of my cats and how we found each other.

Darby was living under our rental house as a kitten. Our neighbors at the time move to Florida for the winter so we have no idea where she came from. Only a few people live here year round. I noticed her going across the street to eat outside another house who has cats. I asked them if she was a new addition and they told me she came from under our house!

Darby was very wild and would not let me get near her. It was cold and snowy so I made a covered cage for her on the porch to protect her from the cold. She would go inside during the day but spent her nights under the house. It seems she had a roommate...a possum would come out at night and feed from the bird feeder in the yard and then go back to the crawlspace and Darby would come out during the day! I was worried the possum would hurt her but they seemed to get along, coming and going on their own hours.

Other cats would come by to steal her food but Darby would chase them off even as a tiny kitten. I thought she was a male for all her bravado.

I waited until Darby was using her cage which was a dog kennel cage and then I began to plot her capture. I moved the cage closer to the front door little by little until it was in front of the door. I had started to put her food inside the cage so she would be busy eating. I tied a string to the cage door and ran it through the door to the house making sure I could pull it and shut the cage door quickly and quietly. I have used this method many many times.

This was the day. My other three cats Chica, Yoko and Sweetpea were lined up inside the glass door of the house watching this all unfold. Darby went inside the cage and I pulled the string. Got her! She fought and wailed and put up a fuss. I picked up the cage and brought it inside. Now to tame her...a long time consuming challenge. To be continued.