Wimbledon (September 2009)

Meet Wimbledon, one amazing kitten.

Dumped in a neighborhood, Wimbledon and Wilson were very sick and most likely didn’t have a chance at life without intervention. These two brothers had severe herpes virus and upper respiratory infections.

Wimbledon’s herpes virus was so bad when we first saw him, he couldn’t open his left eye on his own and it was a horrific site once it was opened after several days of medication. Poor Wimbledon’s eye was perforated, he had a bacterial infection, and his eye needed to be removed.

Wimbledon was rescued on Sunday 9/13/09, seen by an animal eye specialist that Tuesday, and had surgery on Friday (9/18). His stitches were removed on 10/1 and he is doing great.

Throughout it all, Wimbledon’s love didn’t miss a beat – he is the most loving and trusting boy. He’s playful like most kittens but he wants love more than anything. He wants to sit on your lap, curl up on your shoulder, and just be with you and be loved and give you kitty love and kisses in return.

Wimbledon’s eye was an urgent situation and we had to act fast to help him. Dr. Jon Dick at Magnolia Animal Hospital performed the surgery and gave us a good rate; however, the cost of the animal eye care specialist, the surgery, and his follow-up care was around $500.

Wimbledon was adopted on 10/31, but we are still paying for his medical bills.

Please consider making a donation to help pay off the Wimbledon’s vet bills.

The American Shorthairs (September 2009)

We were contacted by local no-kill shelter/cat rescue who was assisting a hospital person in North Raleigh with the rescue of their 69 American Shorthair cats. The shelter had already taken in 30 cats and was reaching out to other rescue groups to see if they could also take cats. We scrambled to find space in a foster home and were able to take four of the American Shorthairs. All four cats were covered in fleas and had terrible earmites. We’re also fighting some nasty intestinal parasites that aren’t responding as quickly as we would like to medication.

Yaya (otherwise known as Lil’ Girl) is very skinny -- she’s passive when it comes to food so probably just got pushed out of the way by all the other cats. After a visit to the vet the week we took the cats in, we found out Yaya is severely anemic and was given an iron supplement. Yaya also has an ulcer on her left eye, and stage 3 periodontal disease. Right now she is not strong enough to have her teeth cleaned (and her teeth need to be cleaned before they can be evaluated to see if any need to be removed). She is currently on several medications for her eye and her eye will be re-evaluated the week of November 16th to determine the next course of action. We hope we can save her eye with aggressive treatment, but it may need to be removed. Yaya is a real sweetheart despite all this.

Fang has a face only a mother could love. He has such a funny face and funny teeth but oh he is such a love bug. Fang had stage 4 periodontal disease and had his teeth cleaned on 11/12. Originally thought his back teeth would have to be pulled, but it looks like they can be saved.

Yates and Yancy are reasonably healthy and we’re thankful for that!

We do all that is necessary for our cats’ well-being, but the medical bills for the American Shorthairs are running quite high with more to come. Please consider making a donation to help with their medical care.

Bliz (July 2009)

Blizz is a little white kitten who was rescued by Alley Cats and Angels after receiving a call about a kitten hit by a car in a shopping center parking lot.

Blizz has purple with bruising when rescued and required expensive emergency.

After ongoing care, Blizz fully recovered and was adopted.

Hickory Kittens (June/July 2009)

When the Hickory kittens came to Alley Cats and Angels, the kittens were in very poor health. The kittens were born into a feral colony with no regular caregiver. The former caregiver has MS and was no longer able to care for the colony. All seven kittens were covered in fleas and suffered flea anemia. Most of the kittens were dehydrated and severely malnourished. Over half of the kittens had eye problems. Fuzzle and Fairfax had such bad ear mites that the inside of their ears were so caked with blood, all you saw was red. Little Tabby was in the worst shape, he was so painfully thin that it was hard to pick him up without feeling like he would break as soon as you touched him – he was literally skin covering bones.

The kittens all went to the vet the next day for exams. With medical treatment and proper food and fluids, the cats were getting better and gaining weight. Little Tabby was given supplemental feedings and was doing well. Unfortunately, he went downhill one morning and passed away almost a week after we took him in. It is so sad that Little Tabby did not make it, but what makes us feel a tiny bit better is the realization that for the last week of his life, Little Tabby didn’t go hungry -- he had nutritious food. For the last week of his life, Little Tabby knew human kindness, warm hugs, kisses, and smiles. For the last week of his life, Little Tabby knew LOVE.

The other kittens (now named and known as the “F’s”) are all doing better. There have been several more vet visits and we’re still working to resolve a few medical issues, so there will be more vet visits. But these kittens will thrive…they will receive all the medical care needed, lots of love and attention, and will find loving forever homes.

We know that Fallon, Fairfax, Fidget, Figaro, and Fuzzle will all have a happy ending. If you would like to make a donation toward their continuing medical care, all donations are tax deductible.

Layla (deceased 12/2008)

Layla was a big girl. She was white with blue eyes (but not deaf) and had 8 toes on each front foot and toes on each back foot and several of the toes had double claws (26 toes but 30 claws total). She liked to be held like a baby (all 21 pounds of her) and her tummy rubbed and she could snuggle like nobody's business.

When Layla first arrived, she so had so many fleas on her, you could see them dancing and jumping about – but that was an easy fix. Layla was about 8 years old when she came to us. She was treated several times for what was originally diagnosed to be chronic herpes virus and respiratory issues. When her symptoms didn’t get better and she started sneezing blood, she was seen by a specialist. Layla had a mass in her nasal cavity so a biopsy was performed and we tried not to hold our breath and cross our fingers while we waited for the results.

The best case scenario was lymphoma which could be treated with chemotherapy. Unfortunately, Layla was diagnosed with a rare nasal cancer (nasal oncocytoma) and chemo was not an option. It was so bad when it was diagnosed that the tumor had grown up to behind her eye also and was pushing her eye out. Several treatment options were exhausted before the mutual decision between the rescue and the specialist was made to keep Layla comfortable with pain and anti-inflammatory medication until she seemed to be in pain. We would not let her suffer.

I was Layla’s foster mom and she pretty much told me when it was time to let her go – when we needed to make that trip to the vet. She gave us permission to help her cross the rainbow bridge. I held and kissed her head while the vet administered the cocktail. I held her afterwards and cried. I took a vacation day from work because it was such a hard thing to do – even though it was the right thing to do. It was in Layla’s best interest.

We all miss Layla very much – she was such a special girl.

Orange Fluff (deceased 8/2008)

Orange Fluff was a feral trapped in a colony being poisoned by some horrible person. Vets confirmed at least one cat died from poisoning. Alley Cats and Angels was asked to help with the situation by assisting in the trapping efforts and then finding barn homes for the cats. Unfortunately, it was the heat of summer and there were 24 cats to trap and relocate so it took a while to find barn homes for all of them and some were in cages for several months. All were feral.

Orange Fluff was a beautiful long haired orange and white cat. While cleaning her cage one day, I noticed something wrong with her eye and she started becoming lethargic. She went to the vet and was treated with antibiotics and eye ointment. Especially after Harry Winston’s ordeal, the fact that a feral cat (and she was definitely feral) let me give her oral medication and put ointment in her eye twice daily without a fight. After a few days, we thought she was doing better. But from night to morning, her eye went from looking like she simply had herpes virus to one day it was a red bulging mass – it was absolutely horrific. She went immediately to the vet and was diagnosed with glaucoma secondary to some unknown disease.

We do not decide to euthanize because they are feral – feral cats get medical care just as the same as a friendly cat in our adoption program. However, Orange Fluff was suffering and since the glaucoma was secondary to an unknown disease, she had no quality of life. Letting a rescued animal suffer is not rescue. To ease her pain and suffering, Orange Fluff was put to sleep our vet’s office while we helped hold her. It didn’t matter to us that she was feral, the loss still hurt the same.

Harry Winston (deceased 6/2008)

Harry Winston was a big orange feral tom who was savvy enough to always avoid traps when it was trapping time for spay/neuter at that colony. He was spotted hurt at a shopping center so we tried to catch him. But hurt or not, he could still move like lightning and it took a while (over a week actually) to actually catch him. Actually, we can very much thank Stephanie with Cary Animal Control for catching him. Not only did Stephanie help us the first time we tried to catch him, but she is the one that finally caught Harry and called us. Harry went from the Animal Control truck to our vet as fast as we could drive. Turns out, Harry had not been hit by a car, he had been attacked by something and all four legs were very badly infected.

Harry went to his foster home that night with all four legs bandaged all the way up to the torso with lots of meds. Harry was set up in a nice large cage but had problems moving about so his foster mom would put his food and water right by his head several times daily and syringe feed him as necessary. We also dispensed with a litter box since he had a hard time standing up with his legs all bandaged – we just put a bunch of piddle pads in his cage and changed them frequently. Harry was doing better and went back to the vet to for surgery on his legs. When he went home the next day, he didn’t have any bandages but he did have some stitches and his wounds needed to be cleaned and dressed three times daily.

After hand feeding him, being able to clean and tend his wounds, and being able to pet him, it was decided that Harry was not going back outdoors, he was going to live with his foster mom (not in a cage, but free roam of the house) permanently – she had fallen in love with the orange boy.

After a follow-up visit to the vet several days later, everyone thought Harry would make a full recovery – he was doing that well. By then he even seemed like he had even bonded with his foster mom. However, just a few days later, his foster mom came home from work to find him very lethargic, which was surprising because that morning he was doing so well. She loaded him up in a carrier and drove to the emergency vet. However, Harry was dead was they arrived at the vet. CPR was administered but Harry was gone. The most probable diagnosis was sepsis from the infection in his legs.

He started out Harry. He died Harry Winston, because he was truly a diamond in the rough.