October 28th, 2007 Update

I think the most exciting thing that's happened to us this year is not cat related. That's why it's so exciting! We are the proud new owners of an office! With no cats! We are renting the small space right next door to our shelter. We have a computer, printer, file cabinets, etc...and can actually do important paper work. Imagine trying to do these things in the middle of 75+ cats for years and you'll see why this is so big. We are probably the most organized we've ever been. When you are in the homey, yet proffessional office, you would never suspect that just a wall away exists the wilderness of "Cat Kingdom"!

In this last year, we have possibly become the  "forever home" for several cats that might be deemed unadoptable.  Here are just a few:  Sage, at close to a year weighs only two pounds.  The left side of her face is slightly deformed and she might have kidney problems in her future, but right now she wants nothing more than to sit in our laps for hours on end and eat Whiskas packets. 

Chestine was the result of a "false" pregnancy.  Hmmm.  That's what we were told by her collector owner.  Probably as a result of a lot of inbreeding, she was diagnosed as having mega esophagus.  She also weighed only two pounds up until about seven months of age.  We were told there was no hope, but now at 14 months, she weighs six pounds and is the self proclaimed princess of the shelter. 

Sassie at some point had an untreated herpes infection.  When we got her she was almost completely blind in one eye and living in a shelter environment was causing problems with the other eye.  We now have the problem under control with medication.  Half of a Famvir pill once a day when needed does the trick and luckily for us, she has an addiction to pill pockets, so it's a win, win situation. 

Chelsea has fused vertebrae in her neck possibly as a result of having been hit by a car and not having the injury heal properly, so even though she's less than a year old, she moves like an old lady from Boca.  She has a hard time keeping herself clean but has two very handsome boyfriends who keep her spit shined.  She's so shy that it takes at least 15 or 20 minutes to gain her trust enough to pet her, but then she's a doll! 

Finally, there was Spirit. He didn't want a shelter with 75+ cats to be his forever home. He was sick of shelters. He was like the angry young man that was failed by the foster system.  Every time he started to get comfortable somewhere, he was bounced to the next place.  He lived his whole life as a perpetual orphan.  By the time he got to us, he was miserable.  From having lived in shelter environments for five years, he had chronic sinus problems.  He was black with runny eyes, a loud snort and a botched ear notching that was not very attractive.  He didn't like or fit in with our cats and vice versa.  We knew that the only time he'd ever seemed truly happy was at another shelter, (which closed down) where he chose to live with the horses instead of with the cats.  So we found him a horse farm...a fairyland of a horse farm in White Lake, MI.  We spent six weeks getting him ready to go.  He got a dental cleaning, new vaccinations a microchip, etc...  We even had a cancer scare.  His new owner, Gloria, told us that even if his biopsy came up positive, he could still go live out his last days with her and her horses.  It was benign.  He flew.  We were all holding our breath until the moment she saw Spirit for the first time.  She looked at his goopy eyes, messed up ear, and heard him snort and said that he was, "gorgeous"!  Spirit really won the lottery!  The updates from her have been so sweet.. Fairytales really can come true!