Conference misery::feline_v1

    Pat, you are not compulsive, you are humane!
    
    Do you think the MSPCA would respond to a call from you?  I know
    they are quick to respond in situations involving a dog (a friend
    of mine had one-day turnaround time and the woman she snitched on
    got quite a lecture as well as ultimatums from the rep. who visited
    her house).  A lot of people are so ignorant in regards to having
    a cat.  Just as you stated, they feel cats were born to live in
    barns, control the rodent population, and never require veterinary
    care, immunizations, etc.  There is not much you can do short of
    having a talk with uncle or contact the MSPCA.
    
    I wish I could offer more suggestions.  I've been in your shoes
    and know how helpless and frustrated you must feel.
    
               

    If I felt stongly enough about the cat, Pat, I would do exactly
    what I did with Jesse.  Take him in, take him to the vet and find
    him a good home.
    
    I thought about Jesse for a while before I took him in and decided
    that if he did have "owners" they had given up their claim on him
    by not taking care of him.  Jesse had an injured and infected foot
    for a while and I mixed antibiotics into his food for three weeks.
    When we finally did bring him into the vet's I found out he had
    severe ear infections.  I don't feel the least bit guilty about
    having him.  After seeing his reactions to catbox, furniture and
    other cats I am convinced that at one time, Jesse lived indoors
    and has since been abandoned.
    
    You have to answer to your own conscience but the courts tend to
    side with the one who's paid the vet's bills.
      Nancy DC
    

    What I did yesterday was bring him into the bathroom and try to 
    doctor his eye - but the best I could do was put bacitracin on his
    nose. What's good for the eyes (until I get him to the vet)
    beyond warm water? He was well behaved and when I was finished I 
    set him on the floor and he laid-down on the bathmat- as if he was 
    also an indoor cat once upon a time.
    
    But I had cats on the other side of the bathroom door who weren't
    as well behaved (just curious- not rowdy). At that time I didn't
    have extra litter or any flea powder so I put him back outside. 
    He took off.  He was back this morning of course looking for his 
    breakfast. I brought him in -  it looked like he had been in a 
    fight (but maybe was the winner??). Anyway, I put more bacitracin 
    on his cuts, but his eye needs some attention. I will try to get him 
    to the vets after Thurs (payday)- hopefully Friday night.
    
    At least one of my cats has leukemia so I prefer that he not get
    too near them, for both his and their protection.
    
    A friend at work is trying to convince her husband that they need
    Cat #4. She was really helpful by taking a kitten off my hands about
    1-1/2 years ago. Funny thing is the kitten came from the same area,
    looks alot like this cat colorwise, and has the same look on its
    face when it cries. Maybe a relative?  
                                      
    

    If you have any boric acid powder, you can mix up a solution to
    flush his eye out with.  Do not use Visine, but you can use products
    like Natural Tears, if you don't have any boric acid powder.
    
    Jo

    TAKE HIM!!!  My girlfriend and I have rescued and adopted numerous 
    abandoned and/or neglected cats & dogs, including one who was "living" 
    (and I use that term *very* loosely!) next door to her.  After only a couple
    of days we had to take her (the cat) in for major surgery due to a
    blocked intestine.  When the #$%@'s from next door found out that she
    was at my girlfriend's, and their kid started yelling that he wanted
    his cat back (for some more torture) we told them fine...pay the $250
    surgery bill and she's all yours.  Being such major derelicts, they
    naturally declined (as we figured they would) so Bunny (the cat) now 
    resides with my girlfriend's gang of cats.
    
    It's far better to rescue the cat and farm him/her out to a friend not
    on the same street, at least temporarily, but if that isn't feasible, 
    by all means rescue the cat.  By enlisting the Humane Society or ASCPA
    on your side, you shouldn't have any legal problems.  Make sure,
    though, that the cat remains an inside cat for a while so he doesn't
    get kidnapped back or worse, as the soon-to-be-former owners sound like
    real wastes of air.
    
    Good luck, and if you have any hesitations, just remember that this
    cat's welfare could be in your hands.  On the way back from lunch
    yesterday, we found a poor deserted cat near the middle of the street
    that was so far gone from feline leukemia there was no chance of saving
    it when we took it to the vets;  following that episode, I've been
    angrier than ever at owners who neglect and abuse their cats (or dogs,
    for that matter, but that's another story); they don't get a second
    chance to inflict harm on poor animals.
    
    Alan                                  

    addendum...just noticed the part in .3 about worrying about
    leukemia...We get all of the strays tested for FLV and FIV immediately
    to ensure that they are not infected (that's how we knew that the poor
    cat yesterday was so far gone with FLV); this should ease your mind. 
    Possibly you could find a humane vet who would give you a break on the
    test prices.
    

    I would just add one note of caution, which I am sure does not
    apply to this case.  There was a heartbreaking letter in our local n
    newspaper a week or two ago.  A lady's very elderly (and hence thin and
    somewhat moth-eaten looking)
    cat was "rescued" by someone who just took it off to a local shelter
    and didn't ask at any of the nearby houses, post notices, advertise
    in the newspaper, etc.  The owners did that but they didn't know
    enough to contact the shelter.  By the time someone told them to do
    that, the cat had been euthanized.  And it wasn't sick, just elderly.
    
    My next door neighbors also let their outdoor cat, who had leukemia,
    live a bit longer than they should have.  Not out of neglect but out
    of love.  I hate to think that someone would have carted it off
    and had it euthanized.
    

    I think that anyone who has a cat that tests positive for leukemia and
    still lets it out to roam the neighborhood should be shot!!!  It is
    just too unfair to all the other cats that may come in contact with the
    leukemia positive one and then end up suffering the same fate.  
    
    cin
    

    Although some weeks have gone by, I would like to
    add something to this discussion.  For several years my husband
    and I have lived next door to a family with a barn and cows, and,
    yes, LOTS of feral cats.  We saw them at our place occasionally
    but had been asked not to feed them because it encouraged them
    to wander.  Most of them answered to the description from the
    base note:  good hunters, but thin and probably wormy; unkempt
    to say the least.  The summer of '88 one of the females was
    hit by a car, and soon afterward we discovered six kittens in
    the crawlspace under our house.  We took only one to the vet 
    because he became very ill, and later died, but within a few
    days we captured them all and brought them over to the neighbors'.
    They were, after all, THEIR cats.  We felt after they lost the
    mother they would want her kittens.  And as it turned out, one
    of their other females had lost all but one of a litter (gee,
    I wonder if it could have been neglect) and was happy to adopt
    the kittens.  We felt as if we had done a service to everyone.
    Well, all the other kittens survived and grew up, but we
    began to regret our decision as we watched them grow up thin and wary,
    just like all the other cats there.  Why hadn't we kept some of 
    them?  Well, there's also the VERY BUSY road that we live on!
    
    When we realized that one of the more docile females from the
    litter was pregnant at 9 months old, we began to cultivate her
    and try to feed her.  We took too long to bring her inside!
    She, too, was killed on our road.  And then we found her four
    kittens in our woodpile.  NO WAY were we going to give those
    kittens back to the neighbors!  We did tell them the mother was killed.
    And we allowed them to think that she had lost the litter.
    They told us that in the course of a year, every single one of
    her littermates had also died, one way or another.  The prettier
    ones' skins had been discovered in the neighborhood.  (I cannot even
    describe my emotions at this.)  And we live in a "nice" neighborhood.
    So these four "lost" kittens are now all enjoying safe, cushy homes,
    one still with us and soon to be relocated with other family members
    where he can have humans at home during the day and also remain safe.
    I asked our neighbor about neutering and spaying, especially in view
    of what had happened, and she said, "Well, we mean to do it, but
    before you know it, it's too late.  We just never get around to it."
    These are people who spent $8,000 to keep a dying collie alive for
    a year longer.  Go figure.  That dog spent its whole life tied to a
    chain.  
    
    You don't get far with the MSPCA in a farm community, I don't believe.
    I confess we never tried; we just took the law into our own hands.
    
    Susan (foster mother of Ditto, Spike, Chocolate, and Peeper)
    
    
    

    Susan -  If spay certificates would make any difference contact
    me and I"ll send you the applications.
      Nancy DC

    You mean offering the spay certificates to the neighbors?
    I could try it.  I don't know if expense is the problem
    for them, but it's true that our vet charges $35 for a male,
    $66 for a female.  Kind of tough for a barnful of cats.
    Please tell me about what spay certificates are,
    or direct me to the correct Note.  
    
    As for our "own" kittens, we advised everyone who adopted
    them to fix them.  They're quite healthy, but come from VERY
    inbred stock.  And there are just SO MANY kittens out there!
    Poor things.
    
    S

    Send me your mailstop or home address and I'll end you some applic-
    ations for spay certificates.  They enable you to get your cat
    spayed or neutered at participating vets for a reduced rate.
    
    Its $33 for a female cat and about $20 for a male.  The trick is
    finding a convenient participating vet.  I have a list (dated
    April 1989) of participating vets.
      Nancy DC