About Brooknelle. It's lovely! I never thought I'd have a Rehab Facility I'd be proud of. When I took over Brooknelle it was a nice upgrade from my garage. And it served its purpose looking the way it did till that damned distemper rolled through once again. Distemper seems to peak a couple times a year and when I get it in the rescue I don't know till it's too late and cats have contracted it and died.
Did a complete timeline of who came in, how long they were there and when they started to show symptoms and when they passed or had to be euthanized. I lost 5 lovely friendly cats and kittens. What the hell happened? Not totally sure. Still have to go over the time line with Dr. Langois. But apparently it came in and the cats that were affected were 4 unvaccinated kittens and one adult. The adult may have brought it in with her. Hard telling for sure. But suffice it to say.....this bout of distemper sparked yet another new system being put in place. Which this time it actually made it a prettier place as well as cleaner.
Let me preface all this distemper talk by saying......just cuz you don't hear about it doesn't mean it's not out there. When one cat at the shelter gets it, they clean house and put every cat down. It's spread fecally and all you need is a pin head's worth of poop to spread it from cat to cat. It comes into rescues like mine because so many unvaccinated, outdoor cats come in and out. Since we don't know anything about these free-roaming kitties, we roll the dice every time one spends any time with us.
OK. So enough about absolving myself from COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY. I still take some. I do accept the fact that while I've changed a lot of practices in the 3 1/2 years I've been doing TNR, I still have some more to learn. And every time distemper rears it's ugly head....I made very big and sometimes very expensive changes.
The first time it came into my rescue it was when I was in Florida. Gina discovered it and told me about it in a voicemail that I recieved when my plane touched ground in Ft. Meyers. I could have puked! Thank God for Vic Cabot, she took the reigns and emptied the place of every cage and scrubbed each tine of wire till her hands were just about bloody with bleach. When I returned she and I spent the next week scrubbing down the place from top to bottom. And I purchased $300 worth of vinyl sheeting to incase each cage in a scrubbable surface so fecal matter could be easily seen. JUST TRY to see poop on a black wire cage. White plastic sheeting....much better!
Then I got it again. And decided it was the fault of litter boxes not being properly cleaned. So I ditched all plastic litter boxes and went to cardboard ones that I could get from grocery stores after shelves were stocked. They are wonderful and being disposable....they don't spread disease. And best of all.....no more washing litter boxes! That was good. New protocol was set in place for the single use of scoops and whisk brooms. And better bleaching protocol was set forth as well.
So with a king's ransome in plastic liners, new litter box protocol, new bleach protocol, single use of litter scoops and brooms, the placement of nothing from cage onto any surfaces outside of the cages......I STILL GET DISTEMPER! God help us!
After taking the sweetest kitten in to be euthanized on a Saturday night three weeks ago, I cried on Bruce's shoulder. I was saying/thinking/tearfully expressing that "I didn't get into this line of work to kill cats...I want to help cats". And he talked me off the ledge before I quit doing TNR/RESCUE all-together. He told me to seal my floors so they can be scrubbed and get some better disinfectant in place of bleach.
So I closed down Brooknelle for two weeks, enlisted the help of several of my volunteers and scrubbed the place from top to bottom. Purchased floor epoxy and had it applied to floor of main cat housing room. Looked beautiful. Lisa McDaniel my buddy who has bascially held my hand through all of this latest "disease control mission" suggested that we paint the walls. I was like "hell no....i'm not going to paint these walls". But then she said that she would go buy all the stuff and help me, all I had to do was pay for it. WELL if any of you know me.....saving me time is the greatest gift anyone could give me.....so I took her up on the deal.
The next day we painted the main room. I'd never painted a single wall before in my life. But she showed me how to do it and though I dribbled a lot of paint, together we made the place look really pretty! I was thankful that she talked me into it.
The next day, my other fabulous volunteer, Bev Dykstra helped me move everything from the sink room into the main room so we could apply epoxy to that floor the next day. BUT GUESS WHAT HAPPENED! The epoxy came up. The floor had been sealed sometime a hundred years ago and the epoxy wouldn't stick! I was heartsick. I called Vic Cabot and asked her to come hold my hand so I didn't have a nervous breakdown. She came to help me. I smoked a bunch of cigarettes, she consulted Gabby via phone (he's in LA, CA) and we all came to the conclusion that nothing is gonna stick to this floor. Vinyl is the only choice.
Now, I have to tell you. I have personally finagled floors for both Jandy's Home and Focus on Ferals...but my rescue was still sitting on the ugliest concrete floor this side of hell. So I started to make calls. I was afraid to ask Tim at World Of Floors since he had already donated the other two floors and I didn't want to ask for yet another floor......let alone two garage stall floors! I called every flooring place in the area. Nobody was willing to help me. I tried to get some at Habitat ReStore....which I would have been able to get cheap...but still lay out a lot of money for. So I approached my main man Tim and he came through for me! This time...with some really beautiful vinyl. He even gave me the cove moulding for around the base. I have the most beautiful floors now.
Rather than go halfway and lay the floor myself with an offer of help from Marilyn Hamill (bless her for the offer...but we would not have ever been able to do the job properly), I got wind of a guy named Jerry Peterson who was willing to lay the floors for gas money. And lay the floors he did. He's a professional flooring guy with 40 years experience. He as laying floors while I was still in diapers! He is my HERO! Him and Tim!!!
So now I have a beautiful rescue. Dave Berends from Excel-Chemical installed a system to dispense the exact right dilution of Nurta-Kleen straight from my tap so now there is no mistake that can be made with the chemicals used to clean cages, carriers, traps and floors.
I have a pretty much perfectly sanitizable rescue. New procedures have been set in place that make it near impossible to spread ANYTHING. And with a ton of hand washing between cages and no petting the friendlies unless you're IN THEIR CAGE, we should be good. Lord willing (as my mama used to say).
I think it was the friendlies that got sick because they were always at the front of the cages begging for lovin. And maybe we all didn't wash our hands properly. Maybe we scooped an infected cat's litter box and patted little Dusty on the head. WHO KNOWS? No blame is being placed on anyone. Distemper is a very sneaky awful disease and if we weren't all trying to help these cats, I'd start pointing fingers. But we ARE ALL TRYING to help cats. So all I can say is "there will be loss of life when doing the greater good". And that's all we are trying to do....the GREATER GOOD! And unfortunately.....there is collateral damage.
Did those 5 cats die in vain? NO! We have learned from it and things will be done differently. Cats that are not pregnant will rehab in carriers vs cages and only for 24 hours after I pick them up from the clinic. They will be at Brooknelle for less time and if they dirty their space, it will be more easily cleaned. I've always rehabbed in cages. But Alley Cat Allies protocol says to rehab in traps. I've worried more for the comfort of the cat than the control of disease. So sorry kitty...no litter box for 24 hours. Slightly more cramped quarters for 24 hours. But it's not too much when you consider you will have the rest of your life to run free and frolic in the wild without reproducing! You can thank me when you shoot out of that carrier like a bullet while your caregiver sings "Born Free".
Thank you to all who worked tirelessly in helping me restructure, remodel and reorganize Brooknelle. Lisa McDaniel, James, Bev Dykstra, jane Monroe, Roxanne Ketchapaw, Vic Cabot and Jerry Peterson.
Here are photos of the new REHAB FACILITY!
Information center when you enter the
intake room.
Info about pound seizure,
Cats & Dogs Magazines,
business cards, etc.
Long shot into the intake room.
Clean traps and carriers.
Cages donated by HSKC aren't good for holding cats
but awesome for storing stuff.
In these tall chrome cages live all our
towels, cage covers, trap covers, pee pads etc.
The "dirty" area is behind the desk and sink.
The shelving unit is were dirty towels, pads,
dishes etc stay until they are cleaned.
This is the main room. Cats stay in here.
This is a place that nobody will enter unless
they are a volunteer.
There will be no viewing of cats for the general public.
No need to see cats when cats can get sick.
Total LOCK DOWN!
Nobody enters without first talking to me.
I HAVE to protect these cats.
But look at the pretty pictures!
This is were disposable litter boxes,
clean scoops, and whisk brooms are kept.
Bank of 36" deep cages. This time they are further apart
from each other and there is a liner from top cage to cage below.
This will remedy the spilling down of "stuff" from top to bottom.
4 of 10 cages along main wall in rehab room.
Long shot into cat rehab room.
Back wall houses all supplies, food etc.
Typical cage set up for rehabbing a feral that
needs to stay longer than 24 hours.
Carrier inside of cage serves as bed.
Mini-bungee cord on carrier door holds it open
until cat needs to be close in for cleaning.
Disposable cardboard litter box alongside
carrier filled with "horse bedding" from TSC.
Food and water up front.
Cat in carrier is NELL from Wishbone Rescue.
She's a feral that needs a barn home.
Long shot from back of main cat rehab room.
Large cages on left house long staying cats
awaiting relocation to barn homes.
Any cats staying any length of time will receive
vaccines for Distemper!
