Oh boy....here we go!
Amy Pietras called me from Jandy's Home late Sunday night. She received a call from Cheryl McCloud from Lake Haven Sanctuary in Newaygo regarding a very sick Feline Leukemia positive tom cat that needed to be trapped and taken out of a trailer park in Cedar Springs.
I didn't like what I was hearing, although it did seem like the merciful thing to do. Because he was a big "fighting" tom and he was very likely FELV positive, he posed a great threat to the other cats in the trailer park. He also was very beat up, had frostbite to his ears (among other terrible ear issues) and had a bad upper resperatory infection. I was asked to get him and take him to be euthanized. This surely wasn't what I signed up for when I decided to do TNR. I want to get feral cats fixed so they don't overpopulate. I never intended on having to take a cat to it's death....even if it were the humane thing to do.
Learning I was the only person who was available to do the job however, I agreed. I was sick all day Tuesday. I just dreaded the drive to the park. When I arrived I didn't see the big orange tom, but many other stray and abandoned cats. I baited and placed two traps and while I was baiting my third, I trapped two cats within 3 minutes of eachother. Neither cat was the big sick orange tom. I didn't know what to do. Surely these cats need to be fixed...so I figured I would take them to C-SNIP and get them taken care of. But C-SNIP doesn't run the clinic on wednesdays so that would mean I would have to keep them an extra day in a trap until I could get them there on Thursday.
I wasn't digging the prospect of keeping a cat in a trap for more than 12 hours, but I knew it was the right thing to do, so I loaded them into the van.
Then I realized I was on the wrong side of the park. The big orange tom stayed on the other side of the road. So I moved my operation and placed the baited traps out and waited. I talked to neighbors who had seen him so I had hope. Hope that I could catch him and if nothing else, give him a warm place to sleep for the night and a good meal before he would be put out of his misery.
After about an hour I saw him. He walked right by my mackerel baited trap. I got out of the car and called to him but he was WAY across the street by that time. I opened a can of tuna and called to him again. He was interested. So i grabbed the two traps and threw the tuna in them and got back in my car and waited.
He began nibbling at the front of the trap then got in further to reach the "mother load of tuna" in the back. The trap sprung and I had him. As I covered the trap with a towel I saw up close what I was told about. He was in really bad shape. His ears were a mess and he was all snotty and congested. He had a very pathetic, strained meow. I was heartbroken and crying as I loaded him into the van.
I brought them to a safe warm place and gave them all what I supposed could very well be their last meals. Several cats taken from this park recently tested positive for FeLeuk and were euthanized the week prior. I was just sick about the whole thing. I reasoned that they are better off being put down quickly and painlessly than suffering the life they were living with no love, no clean water, food or warmth. Not to mention the sheer danger they were in every day living in that environment and the fact that FeLeuk leads to an inevitable horrible, long and painful death when cats aren't able to be watched and given the proper treatment.
Due to urging from Erica from "Focus on Ferals" I had sent an email about this big orange tom to Jen at Crash's Landing. When I got home from trapping I hadn't heard from her. So as I went to sleep last night, I knew I would be taking them in the next day to be euthanized. If they were healthy, they would be cleaned up and found nice homes. But if positive for FeLeuk or FIV (feline AIDS), I would be taking them to their death.
Before I left to take them, I checked my email. Jen wrote me back and said to bring the orange tom into her vet practice. I did just that. When we got there, Jen pulled "Orange Man" out of the trap and said, "oh he isn't so bad...we can fix him up and give him a second chance". Then I told her that I also trapped two others by accident and I was on the way to take them to be tested and euthanized if necessary. She went right out to my van and checked them. She brought both cats inside and said she would take them on as well.
I'm now calling Jen "The Mother Theresa of Cats". She has a huge heart for all animals but especially for the "sick" ones. I can't tell you how elated I was in learning that I wasn't going to be taking these guys to their possible end. It was such a weight off my chest, I can't tell you.
Before I found out that Jen would take on these cats, I swore I would keep "Orange Man" in my heart and do the best I could to decrease the overpopulation of stray/feral cats. He would be my driving force to do this work. If we don't have free roaming toms that go looking for love and find fights all the way along the path, we wouldn't see near as much spreading of diseases like FeLeuk and FIV. "Orange Man" would be my driving force. I don't really need a photo of him now that he will be at Crash's Landing, where I can visit him, but I took pictures of the whole bunch anyway.
This is Orange Man. He was being "cared for" by a woman who was evicted from the trailer park last week. Cheryl McCloud of Lake Haven Sanctuary in Newaygo was called out and picked up all the other cats, but was unable to get him. It was her call to Amy that sent me on this mission. He was likely living under the trailer in a pile of debris that no cat should have to call home. He was sad and missing his companion cats. Worst of all, nobody was feeding him and he was cold and hungry.
This is Tom White. He is also a very nice kitty. No doubt just a "throw away" cat that survived a pretty frigid winter with no love, food or care. He was very docile when Jen pulled him from the trap. He was completely ravenous when I put food down for him last night. He ate a whole can of cat food in a matter of minutes.
This is Tiger Boy and he only looks ferocious in this picture. He is as sweet as pie! He was in better shape than Orange Man and Tom White. His coat was nice still, but he was thin and obviously just tossed out. What is wrong with people???
These cats will be cared for by Jen at Crash's Landing. If you would like to sponsor any of these kitties, please visit her website at: www.crashslanding.org. Please note: Jen's sons name the cats that come into the sanctuary, so these cats will likely have WAY more creative names than I have given them. Just refer to them as Cedar Springs Trailer Park cats and she will know who you want to sponsor. Thank you.
THIS JUST IN!!!! Received word from Mother Theresa. Orange Man is NOT feleuk or FIV positive. Unfortunately the others are. But either way, they will all have unbelievably better lives at Crash's Landing. And Orange Man will now be known as Angus!!!Thanks for reading and keeping up with us!
Carol
