Changing Dynamics

Within the past nearly 3 weeks, there have been some major changes in my cat population. One of them was the death of Garfield. When he was around, if he saw Tiger anywhere near, he would either chase him off, or just give him a Look and Tiger would be on his way out. I think this was due to the fact that Tiger had become a potential rival, and though Garfield was sick he wasn’t about to let another male take his place. Tiger began to spend less and less time around our apartment, and several times I found him in the next cul-de-sac. If I called him, he would follow me back to eat, but if Garfield showed up, he would leave again. Shortly after Garfield’s death, Tiger began to spend more time near my apartment, and now there is rarely a morning or evening when he doesn’t come by to have some of the food I set out.

The other changes have come about due to the spays. Not only have I spayed Mama Cat, now Splotchy Junior has been spayed too. When I released Splotchy Junior yesterday after bringing her back from the vet, Mama Cat was clearly disturbed. She slunk away and didn’t spend as much time near my door as she had been spending the last few days. Then this morning when I brought out a can of food, Splotchy Junior appeared looking and feeling much better than yesterday and with a big appetite. Mama Cat came by but when she stopped to smell her daughter, she hissed at her and moved away. I don’t know if that was due to Mama Cat’s hormone levels dropping after her surgery last week (I don’t know how long it takes), or if it was due to Splotchy Junior’s smells from the animal hospital. This evening Mama Cat also hissed at Baby Boy, who has not yet been neutered, so I’m leaning toward the theory that it has something to do with dropping hormone levels. But the hospital smells may be part of it too. Tiger, who previously got along rather well with Mama Cat, has chased her a couple of times, and today he looked like he wanted to chase Splotchy Junior as well. Perhaps he is no longer recognizing them as potential mates and therefore sees them as threats to his position. I don’t know.

I do know that the dynamics of this small population will continue to change as I keep spaying and neutering. I hope it won’t cause too many problems between the cats. I’d hate to be the cause of those problems, but on the other hand I think I’d rather that they didn’t get along so well, than have them reproduce constantly. I keep telling myself that I’m doing the right thing by getting them all fixed, but being the worrier that I am, I will always be concerned about the effects of my actions.

As I mentioned, Splotchy Junior got spayed yesterday. On Tuesday, I brought her inside to put her in the carrier without realizing how afraid she would be of being indoors. Once inside, she jumped out of my arms and then ran toward one of the large living room windows. She then jumped up and against the window several times, trying to get outside. I was afraid she would knock herself out in the process. Finally I managed to hold her down and picked her up by the scruff of her neck so she couldn’t get away. Tim and I managed to put her in the carrier and took her to the vet. She howled a few times and when we got to the vet, she was panting. She was clearly very stressed out. When they transferred her from our carrier into their kennel, she scratched them. I felt terrible putting her in such a stressful situation.

Yesterday, the doctor called me toward the end of my lunch break to let me know that Splotchy Junior would be ready for me to pick up this afternoon. She had done well through surgery, and was also negative for leukemia. Unlike Mama Cat, who had been a lot more docile, she would not be spending the night there. They didn’t want to keep her overnight because once she woke up from the anesthetic they probably wouldn’t be able to handle her. He also told me that she’d gotten out of the kennel overnight and that morning they had found her wandering around the hospital. How she got out, I have no idea. To catch her, they had to trap her in a net. I’m glad they found her and caught her—if she had escaped the building who knows what might have happened to her.

After work I drove over there and picked her up. She was in their carrier, which they let me borrow to bring her home. During the ride home she dozed off and so when I set the carrier outside my apartment, she didn’t come out at first. I petted her a little and when she awoke and found the carrier open, she bolted. Still being under the effects of the anesthetic, her legs didn’t work properly and she fell over. That seemed to freak her out even more and so she kept trying to run. She figured out how to move and staggered about a bit, then bolted to the other side of the parking lot.

Given her lack of coordination, I was worried that she would get hit by a car. I stayed out in the parking lot for nearly an hour, keeping an eye on her until she made her way back to my door. By then she had calmed down a bit and seemed to have better control over her limbs. It was getting dark and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to watch over her much if she hid under cars, but the fact that she came back to my door and was somewhat interested in the food seemed like a good sign. I came back out a few hours later and she came to the door and started to eat. She also let me pet her and looked more alert.

This morning she was the first cat to show up for breakfast and, as I mentioned earlier, was very interested in the wet food I had. She had a good appetite. She also came by for dinner this evening and seemed almost back to normal. I looked at her stitches and they looked pretty good, though I wasn’t able to get such a close look at them. I’m glad they used dissolvable stitches on her because it would have been very hard not only to put her in a carrier to got to the vet again, but also to hold her down long enough for them to remove the stitches in a manner that would be safe for her and the staff.

It’s an adventure and I never know what each new day will bring. Tomorrow I need to make an appointment to get another cat fixed next week. I wonder how the relationships between the cats will continue to change, but I do know one thing: my strays will not be producing any more homeless kittens. At least that is comforting.

Lucky Dog

Another one of the week’s events, aside from getting Mama Cat spayed, was the rescue of a neglected dog. I was walking across the parking lot on Monday when I came across a strange looking dog. I couldn’t tell what exactly he was, but knew it had been a long time since anyone had really taken care of him. I knew where he had been living, but because I’d never seen him from up close till now I had never realized what kind of shape he was in. He was completely matted—to the point that some of his mats were several inches thick. He had small burrs covering parts of his body, and his fur had faded to various colors. His eyes were hardly visible through all the matted fur. I went back home immediately, called the vet and asked if I could bring him in since I didn’t know what else to do with him. I then called him over to my car, and he jumped in eagerly. Considering that I was a complete stranger to him, I was surprised by his willingness to come with me. Perhaps he sensed that help was on the way?

Once we got to the vet, I had to carry him in since I didn’t have a leash. I was surprised by how light he was, and once again, surprised at how easily he let me pick him up. Even the vet and his assistants had no idea what type of dog he was. The mats were so bad the vet couldn’t look in the little dog’s ears. He wanted to do a ringworm test but didn’t want to put a needle through that much dirty, matted fur—the last thing he wanted was to cause an internal infection. They concurred that he was underweight and in desperate need of some help. His teeth were dirty, too, probably from lack of a proper diet. They agreed to keep him overnight and get him cleaned up the following morning.

The next day they had to sedate him in order to be able to groom him. Because the mats were so extensive, they had to shave him down completely. They found that he was covered in fleas, and so they gave him flea medication. The good thing was that since his hair was now so short, the remaining fleas wouldn’t last long. Shaving him down also solved the problem he had urinating—it seems one of the mats was making it difficult for him to pee.

I stopped by at lunchtime and they took me in the back room and I was astonished at the dog I found. I had had no idea what he was going to look like under all those mats, and found a dog that looked like he could be a Schnauzer. He looked so much better, even with most of his hair shaved off. While they were shaving him, they found that he had a small abrasion on one of his ears, but luckily it was minor. We think it may have been from when he escaped from the tiny backyard he used to live in. It could have gotten infected from all the filth trapped in the matted fur, but luckily there was no time for that to happen since he was rescued. All it required was an antibiotic ointment. Once he was all shaved, they also performed the ringworm test and it came out negative. At this point, the dog’s major concerns were gaining some weight and finding a new home. At the vet, we had nicknamed him Fluffy since he was far from it, but we figured it was his hope for the future.

That day I spent a lot of time on the phone, trying to reach as many of the animal rescue organizations as I could. Not surprisingly I found that most of the no-kill shelters were full beyond capacity, but one of them told me that while they couldn’t take him, they could give me phone numbers of breed-specific rescue groups. Since we thought he was a Schnauzer, they gave me the numbers for various Schnauzer rescue groups. They also said that if anyone called them looking for a dog like I had, they would put them in touch with me. I started calling around and left a number of messages. I also sent an email to another rescue organization with as much information about this dog as I knew. Incredibly, my cell phone started ringing soon afterward. The first person who called me had gotten my number from the animal sanctuary that had provided me with all the Schnauzer rescue groups. He had had a dog for many years and had recently had to have her put to sleep since she was very old and ill. He was getting empty nest syndrome, and was looking for a small dog to adopt. I told him what little I knew about this dog, and we agreed that that afternoon after I picked him up at the vet, I would bring him by. If they got along, the dog would stay with him. Afterwards I got two more calls from people who were interested in adopting him, and I also received an email saying that if I couldn’t place him, there was a spot in a foster home where he could go and live until someone could adopt him. I couldn’t believe this little dog’s luck! Within 24 hours he was going from a neglected, unrecognizable dog, to one with a future.

After work I went to pick up the dog, who was very excited. Because he had never been fixed, when they brought him out he started peeing everywhere, marking his territory. They gave me a temporary leash so I could get him to the car, and I bought a bag of food to get his new owner started. When we got in the car I couldn’t get him to sit still. I had originally put him in the back seat, but within seconds he had made his way into the front seat. He couldn’t decide whether to sit on the passenger seat or in my lap. I am not used to driving with a dog on my lap so I had to keep him on the passenger seat for safety’s sake. Luckily the drive home was short and there we picked up Tim. I wanted his company so that he could drive and I could keep the dog under control, and also because we were going to a part of town I wasn’t familiar with. I figured with the dog in my lap I could still navigate, but definitely not drive.

The dog was very excited during the drive, too. He kept moving around, and finally settled down between my feet on the floor. I petted him and he enjoyed it when I stroked his snout. I called Terry, the man who I hoped would be adopting this dog, along the way to let him know we were close. By the time we got to our destination, he was waiting outside for us. He came to the car door and began petting the dog. Eventually he picked him up and the dog growled a little, but I think he mostly growled because he wasn’t sure what was going on. Soon he was sitting comfortably on Terry’s lap, enjoying all the attention. I could tell that Terry was a dog lover by the way he handled the dog, whom he named Max. He asked me to get his collar and leash out and Tim adjusted the collar for Max’s size. Soon Max was running around on the long leash, smelling all the plants, marking his territory where he pleased, and generally looking like a happy dog. The large lawn was a huge improvement over Max’s old home. Terry’s neighbor, an elderly woman, came by and asked if this was the dog he had told her about. Indeed it was, and the woman said that while she couldn’t keep a dog herself, she would help Terry spoil Max. Wonderful! Within these few minutes, Max was already getting more love and attention than his previous owners had probably given him in a long time.

Finally it was time for Tim and me to go home and leave Terry and Max to enjoy their new life together. It was hard to leave because I’d become attached to the little dog in the last 24 hours, but I knew I’d done the right thing. I know who the former owners were, and they just don’t deserve to have an animal. Given Max’s condition, they clearly didn’t care enough about him, and if he had stayed with them for much longer, his health could have seriously deteriorated. Luckily we saved him before he could get worse. While he was in bad shape, after getting shaved and bathed the vet found him to be in fairly good shape, all things considered. I know that under Terry’s care, Max will gain weight and his hair will grow back healthy and shiny. Terry also plans to have him neutered, and luckily has an animal hospital just a couple of blocks away from his apartment. I’m happy that Max escaped from his former owners and that I found him. I’m even happier that Max now has a loving owner, and that Terry has found a companion to fill the void left by the dog he lost.

I love a happy ending.