Not much of update but cat stories.

1. Purrito

Purrito is a yellow tabby who was abandoned at my house with grey tabby brother. When Purrito was 6 months old he started escaping our yard to visit the neighbors who had never had an issue with our cats or stray cats, some neighbors had even asked us to let our cats visit as we try to keep then inside our fence. There is one exception however, this old grumpy old man, he has been getting more aggressive towards cats.

One day Purrito came limping, and it was when we looked at his xrays we realized he had been shot. We also realized that if the bullet had not hit his bone he would have been dead.

We confronted said neighbor who admitted he shoots the cats to “scare them away” and he does not care if it kills them, however, despite laws against animal cruelty we could not take him to justice due to “concrete evidence” and lack of support from local authorities.

We had to take Purrito to a veterinarian orthepedian to get surgery and he was on an external fixation for about 3 months until his bone healed. The bill was a bit over $500usd, along with medications and materials for a better fence. We’ve always had a fence around our house but cats somehow find the way to escape and the strays to come inside.

Purrito purred nonstop the first 3 days after his injury and that’s how he earned his name. He now continues to purr a lot and very loudly and he is healed and very happy now.

This had not been our biggest bill tho. We had a cat named Yori who needed multiple surgeries from cancer, that way we were able to give him a better life for about 3 years more after we detected the cancer. He was 7 years when he was put to rest after the medicines and surgeries were not enough to keep him from the pain.

And Fuchi is a cat with FIV, who contracted a very strong infection; she needed multiple days at the veterinary and had a couple of come backs. She became very skinny and lost most of her hair, we were already thinking on putting her to sleep but the feline specialist assured us he could treat her. The bill came for about $800usd but Fuchi recovered and it’s been 3 years since then. She’s been very healthy too.

2. Three legs cat

This was a stray cat that came by to eat every now and then; he was very scared of humans and never let us come close. One day he appeared with a broken front leg but despite our efforts we could not catch him until the third day when he came with his bone exposed. The pain was what we believe allowed us to catch him without the struggles from the previous days.

His entire leg had to be amputated; after being captive and neutered we gained some of his trust, and he then lived in our yard (never inside the house) for about 4 years before dying of some aggressive form of cancer.

3. Baby cats

We used to offer temporal or permanent home for abandoned kittens other people found, however as not all are adopted we’ve had accumulated too many cats to keep offering for more. Even now people see our yard full of cats and think it’s a good idea to abandon kittens here, so anyway we keep getting baby cats to care for.

We are now very well informed in all their care, but newborn cats need to be fed every 4 hours and kept warm, which is now hard for us while keeping a job and going to classes.

These babies were left in a bag outside our front yard, we were lucky to find them before stray dogs or a car did, however we had to call for help to other independent rescuers with more time to feed them. They even had their umbilical cords still!

We kept in contact with the girl who took them in in case she needed help; she kept updating us in the cats. One of the babies was too weak and died a few days later, however she keep one and the last one found a forever home.

A lot of people have commented that it would be better to put the cats to sleep instead of paying their huge bills, but we think no money is worth their lives.

All of our cats have stories, some happier than others. I will never understand how there is such cruel people capable of hurting such beautiful creatures, but I am still happy there is people willing to help and fight for them.