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Most often the cats in our care are in Rescue one or two months, but there are those few that are with us for many years before they find their forever home. These are the cats that we love the most, and who cost us the most. When we succeed in healing them we rejoice in our success. When we cannot save them, they break our hearts. |
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These cats cost us hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars each year. While we are happy to care for them, they create a huge financial burden upon our very limited budget.
Here are 12 special cats for whom we are trying to raise $12,000, which is the estimated cost of caring for them over the next 12 months. Will you please join us and make a donation on behalf of these wonderful cats? |
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PATTI
1st Cat of Christmas |
SHADOW
2nd Cat of Christmas |
MEMPHIS
3rd Cat of Christmas |
 Sweet PATTI is a cream shell Persian. She's been in Rescue since August 2006. She is a delightful
cat who spent the greater part of her life in a cage. She has a
chronic skin condition which will require numerous visits to a
dermatologist at a cost of approximately $150 per office visit. Once
diagnosis is reached, she will require internal medication that runs
approximately $100 per month, with blood panels of $125 every 1-2
months to assure us that her internal organs are not being damaged by
the medication.
 Additionally, we fear PATTI may be having some problems with her
kidneys. This makes her more difficult to treat with any internal
medications. PATTI has several toenails that grow into her toe pads,
and some of them actually fall out of her toes. This may be tied to
her chronic skin problems. She has bad ears which come and go with
ear infections, stenotic nares that will require a nose job to help
her breathe.
 PATTI is such a sweet girl; it breaks our heart to see her unable
live her life in a home of her own. She would love to be with other
cats, and she'd even make a great "foster mom" for someone who was
caring for kittens. She's a very good girl who always uses her litter box.
You do the math...how much money do you think this cat will cost
Rescue this year? That does not include the cost of feeding and
housing her, or the numerous hours that her dedicated foster mom
spends trying to help her overcome her health issues.
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SHADOW is a 2-3 yo Shaded Silver Persian. He came to us, along with 12 other cats, when a breeder had a
stroke and could no longer care for her cats. The person who was
supposed to be their caretaker was either simply neglectful or hadn't
a clue about caring for Persians. All of the cats came to us severely
matted, flea ridden, and with multiple internal parasites.
 new photo SHADOW has
changed from a shy, unsocialized cat to a sweet lover boy who wants
nothing more than to spend some time on your lap or sleep at the
foot of your bed. Sadly, he's got some severe bowel problems that are
keeping him from being able to go up for adoption. We've already
spent about $400 on him getting him tested for possible parasites,
but so far, we've been unable to determine the cause of his diarrhea.
He may have IBD, or he may have some rare parasite that could be
treated once it was properly diagnosed.
 Additionally, he's needing to
see a Veterinary Opthalmologist for his chronic eye infections. He
has had chronic ear infections and may have internal ear polyps.
SHADOW has a crooked smile which is charming, but could also mean a
malformed jaw. Poor guy, he must have won the recessive gene lottery!
 SHADOW is one of those cats that could be helped with additional
diagnostics of $500. He could simply get the right treatment for chronic ongoing problems and find a home. OR ... he may cost us as
much as $3,000 plus if we have to take him to UC Davis Veterinary
Medical Teaching Hospital for diagnosis and treatment.
Regardless of his ongoing problems, we are very proud of how far
SHADOW has come in the past year. His coat is now beautiful, he
tolerates grooming, he's free of fleas and mites, and he's a fun,
loving cat to have around.
 APRIL UPDATE: Great news for Shadow. His skin is cleared up, his ears are cleared up. Our amazing vet found one obscure parasite in his fecal exam that is hard to find but easily treatable. In a matter of weeks, Shadow should be ready for his new home! He has turned into a great cat; fun loving, affectionate, and quite the lap cat.
Please let us know if you think Shadow might be the perfect cat for you now that we've made him the perfect cat.
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 MEMPHIS is a 3 yo Bronze Egyptian Mau who came to us with terrible diarrhea. She had been found as a
stray and then turned in to the local SPCA. They called us because
they couldn't put her up for adoption with diarrhea, and she was
going to be euthanized. This is a great cat! So affectionate, just a
loving cat. We put her in a cage and began to treat her. She did get
better, not once, but twice. Each time she returned to diarrhea.
 We've already spent quite a bit of money and done various fecal samples,
and she's still having problems. We think she may have irritable
bowel disease, but that will require further expensive testing to
determine which type and how to treat it.
Just to make things more complicated, MEMPHIS has so much aversion to
the litter box that she's currently not using it. MEMPHIS is lucky to
have a very dedicated foster mother who keeps her safely confined in
an easy to clean area, which means she's not always in a cage. This
same foster mother successfully treated another cat after 6 months of
hard work, and he is now safely in his new forever home.
 We have already spent about $300 on MEMPHIS and hope that her further
expenses will run just under $1,000 this year. It will be worth it to
finally have this cat in a home of her own...where she uses the
litter box, of course!
FEBRUARY UPDATE: Memphis needs a mucosal biopsy done to test for IBD. Estimate is $800.
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MADISON
4th Cat of Christmas |
CREME de la CREME
5th Cat of Christmas |
BENDER
6th Cat of Christmas |
 MADISON is a 2-3 yo Blue Smoke & White Persian who came to us from an abuse neglect situation. We have already spent
almost $600 on MADISON's vet care just trying to figure out why she
cannot put on weight. She's such a fragile girl and weighs just
around 4 - 4 1/2 lbs. She has occasional diarrhea, but her fecal exam
came back negative. She had a nasty urinary tract infection which
required long term treatment. She still has litter box aversion which
tried the patience of her foster mother. Thankfully, we have very
dedicated foster moms. We've done three blood panels on MADISON, and
they show that something is off, but diagnosis is incomplete.
 Recently, Dr. Metzler found a grade 3/6 heart murmur, and we suspect
she may have cardiomyopathy. She may also have polycystic kidney
disease, a genetic issue found in Persian cats. We need to have two
sonigrams done on MADISON, one for her kidneys and one for her
heart. We have a heart specialist lined up who will give us a
reasonable fee, and we can get the kidney's done for about $150. If
we get a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, MADISON might be treatable with
medication and have several years of life. With a diagnosis of PKD,
we might even get to see her live to be 8-10 years old with good
care. Regardless, we really need to find out what is going on with
this sweet angel kitty.
MARCH UPDATE: Madison has been adopted by Kimber.
FEBRUARY UPDATE: Our darling Madison saw the vet for sonigrams of the heart & kidneys. The bill for this was $500. We were devastated to learn that she has advanced polycystic kidney disease and has been given a month to a year to survive. Having had so many different blood panels, none of which pointed this direction, even our vets were shocked. Madison will live with Kimber as her personal pet unless a kind soul steps forward to care for her in her last days. Madison will not be forgotten or just drop off the website. In her honor we will be creating a Memorials Page so we never forget the beautiful souls who touched our lives, and stole our hearts for a short period of time.
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CREME de la CREME is a 2 yo +/- Blue Eyed Cream Curly Selkirk Rex. If you'd like to know what CREME "should" look like, just check the cover of Cat Fancy Magazine. There is a lovely Cream point Curly Selkirk that looks almost exactly like her. Well, exactly how she'll look by the time we get done with her! Right now, we might as well nickname her "Creme de la Crud"!
 When CREME de la CREME came to us, we knew she'd been used for breeding. We also knew that she'd been caged her entire life, and that she'd had skin problems that no one had been able to clear up.
We were told that they'd only seen her in full coat once in her entire life. Why did we take a cat like this, you ask? Because we're stupid? Or because sometimes we know that a cat won't stand a chance at life unless we take on something REALLY hard? Only time will tell if we're stupid or really, really good at what we do.
CREME was barely handleable when we got her, but she figured out that the food was good, her socialization cage was big and got cleaned EVERY day! Water was aplenty and the wet food treats at night were very exciting. She would hide and hiss when we came to clean, but we sat watching TV in the cattery in the evenings and we saw that she would play, and play, and play. It was almost heart breaking to see this little almost bald kitty who had probably spent most of her life alone in a cage, entertaining herself by turning flips in a cage.
 Her body condition was pretty bad. As you can see by the picture, her eyes were black and crusty, and we hate to discuss her hind end.
Suffice it to say she had bad diarrhea and didn't groom really well.
CREME was almost bald and had black stuff all over her, but it wasn't fleas or flea dirt. Her ears were full of gunk. We didn't think it was mites because we know the Rex breeds have lots of ear wax, but with CREME de la CREME she had plugs of what looked like white hardened pus all down into the ear canals.
Our first task was to get her to a vet and get her altered. Often a cat will have chronic skin problems just due to being pregnant or in heat over and over again. We made sure to leave a note for the vet explaining how long we'd had this cat (not very long), and that she'd been in that condition since she'd gotten to us. We didn't want him to think we'd neglected her! Well, our vet was LIVID, but thankfully not with us. He said it took him a full hour to do the spay. She was a mess inside and had been bred over and over and had numerous C sections. Her insides were so full of adhesions he could barely make sense of the mess enough to get the spay done. He left us a note that said "This cat should have been culled from the breeding program, and so should the breeder". OUCH! He said that while her chronological age was supposed to be "2-4" her body condition was so bad she was too old to age. In our years of taking cats to this vet for spay/neuter ... literally hundreds of them ... he's never had something like this to say about a cat.
CREME is now a couple of months past her spay. Her coat is beginning to come in, but we're still trying to deal with the skin issues. She is a very time intensive kitty. She has two different volunteers working with her. One does the daily care, the other does the bathing, ear cleaning and nail trims, and gets her to the vet. They have come a LONG way, and gotten her diarrhea all cleared up, and are doing weekly bathing to help the skin to the extent it can be done without a dermatologist involved.
We'll need at least 2 blood panels, a dermatological exam, internal medications to treat at least 2 different types of skin problems, and multiple medicated bathings which are performed weekly by our volunteers. You're welcome to join us; it's a really fun evening! We even offer spaghetti dinner if you come and clean the cattery while we bathe and groom cats.
We will also need to find out what is wrong with CREME's ears, and she may need surgery if it's determined she's got ear polyps or a problem with the ear canal. We have no idea how much it might cost to get CREME whipped into shape. We'll agree to do the hard work; will you agree to step up and pick up some of her vet bills? We'd even give you a spaghetti dinner in Vacaville and you wouldn't have to scoop the litter boxes if you want to be this cat's sponsor!
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 BENDER is a 6 yo +/- four Paw Declaw Golden Eyed Persian. BENDER is truly fortunate to be in Rescue. He was WAY up in a shelter in Central Oregon. We'd gotten a contact from the shelter about him, and just happened to be driving through the state. On our way back, we made it in about 15 minutes before the shelter closed. We raced in and looked at him and told them, "Yes, we'll take him".
 That's when they started mentioning the little details they had neglected to mention before.
Like that he had seizures, and did some freaky thing with his tongue if you touched his back, and there was probably something wrong with his hind end because he always fell over when he walked. That and the fact that they were going to have to euthanize him if we didn't take him! Just a bit of information it would be nice to have going in.
 Don't get us wrong, we're not cherry picking but when there are SO many purebred cats needing to come to Rescue, you tend to try to at least go for the ones that stand a chance of being adopted. But, what could we do? Like the shelter workers that had fallen in love with him, we'd already seen that darling face, and noticed his charming personality so we decided to take him and at least give him a chance to get some diagnostics done.
When Ellen went back to spend some time with BENDER, and started petting him, she saw that his entire body was covered with a thick crust. We figured that would mean one of two things: Full body ringworm. (Oh Joy!), or flea dirt. You can read more about flea dirt on our Educational pages, but we've never seen flea dirt this thick, so we figured it must be ringworm. The cat was stuck in a carrier and brought up to the front, where we opened it up to show another volunteer the cute crusty boy. Ellen started petting his back, and he went into a full seizure and peed all over himself and the carrier.
 Not an auspicious beginning.
The good thing about the seizure was it enabled us to take a closer look BENDER's skin in the full light up at the front desk of the shelter. We noticed fleas crawling on the little fella even though he'd had a spray of Frontline already. We were able to determine that the crust on his skin was flea dirt. Flea dirt two millimeters thick!
It was AWFUL! The cat was being sucked dry by tiny little vampire fleas. We realized that the reason BENDER had a seizure was probably from how extremely itchy he was. Just scratching his back almost drove him insane. Who knew that flea dirt would be something to rejoice over, but we were just thrilled that he didn't have full body systemic ringworm!
Here's the even sadder thing about BENDER: He had been adopted by a family that breeds VERY expensive large dogs. One puppy will sell for over $1,000. The reason they had turned him back to the shelter (after declawing him) was that they didn't want to spend the money to find out what was wrong with the cat. How many fleas do you think are crawling on those very expensive puppies?
 We got home at midnight from an 8 hour drive and took him straight into the grooming parlor for a bath. Literally the water ran blood red from all of the flea dirt remaining on him, even though Ellen had spent the better part of an hour combing him on the trip home. By that time we were feeling pretty confident that BENDER had NO seizure disorder; just fleas, itching, and anemia. We were wrong.
As we watched BENDER happily roaming the downstairs the next day, we saw that he has some sort of old injury or hip dysplasia that causes him to walk sideways, and sometimes slip and fall. We suspect that one of those giant breed puppies sat on him, or bit him at some point. Another possibility is that a 4 paw declaw can often cause an early hip dysplasia in cats due to their lack of ability to get traction. Whatever the problem is, we'll need to get him Xrayed and he may require a very expensive surgery to fix his injury or disabling dysplasia. The wonderful news is that other than the funky walk he's a completely normal cat. No other bodily functions seem to have been compromised. He likes to run, but has a hard time stopping, so he'll come to a screeching stop and then fall down. He just gets right up and happily motors off again. He can even climb stairs.
 BENDER is SUCH a happy boy, almost as if he knows how lucky he is to be alive. He is loving, sweet to other cats, and not afraid of dogs.
We're so glad we took the time to stop by, and took a risk on a cat with some really freaky problems. BENDER is really lucky that he's got a wonderful foster mom. She's only got two other cats to worry about, and she dotes on him and keeps his flat face VERY clean and his coat silky.
APRIL UPDATE: The beautiful Bender has been adopted.
MARCH UPDATE: Here's an update from Bender's foster mom. He is doing great and we
expect him to be available for adoption soon.
Bender is looking great, although he is definitely one of those white
kitties that needs his face washed daily. We've found that a mild
solution of boric acid (sounds worse than it is!) helps keep the
white faces clean. With a white Persian you usually see some staining
on the face, but they are so beautiful, who cares? Bender's skin is
now clean and healthy and his coat is becoming glorious. He is very
sweet and playful and loves to be groomed. He does not seem to be in
any pain at all, he just walks funny. He can jump up on the
couch or bed if he wants to but rarely does.
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TOONKA
7th Cat of Christmas |
MISTY
8th Cat of Christmas |
CHANGA
9th Cat of Christmas |
 TOONKA is a 5 yo Blue Point purebred show quality extreme Siamese. He came to rescue in August because he had developed a minor ear infection and his owners decided to dump him at the local shelter instead of taking him to a vet for treatment. He was so stressed that the shelter called Rescue to come and pick him up. During the first week at his new foster home he became very sick.
 From his brief stay at the shelter he not only contacted the URI calici virus but also ocular erpes. He developed mouth ulcers from the calici virus and he stopped eating. The vet hospital inserted an esophageal tube into his neck so he could be fed. His symptoms became so severe that it was touch-and-go if he would survive. He needed round the clock feeding and care from his foster mom. Because of the ocular herpes, his eyes developed deep corneal ulcers. He was under the care of a Veterinary Ophthalmologist and receiving over eight medications a day. Unfortunately, his right eye ruptured and had to be surgically removed.
 Rescue has spent over $1,200 on this gorgeous guy. Fortunately for TOONKA he is alive because of rescue. He has now regained enough vision in his left eye to happy and healthy life.
JANUARY UPDATE: Toonka has been adopted!
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 MISTY is a 4 yo +/- Blue/cream Calico Persian who has been with us for over a year. She had a chronic skin
condition which is now completely cleared up, thanks to lots of work
from her foster mother. She also burned through a couple of foster
homes because she absolutely refused to share a litter box with other
cats. Happily, she's got her own private suite now with two litter
boxes and is a perfect Princess with her potty habits.
 Unfortunately, she seems to have developed some tooth issues. She has
a hard time grooming herself, and her jaw trembles as if she's in
pain.
 We think MISTY will be an easy fix compared to some of the
other kitties on the 12 Cats list. She needs a blood panel, a dental,
and possibly an Xray of her jaw to rule out cysts or cancer.
We would love to get MISTY all fixed up and in a new forever home by
Valentines Day at the very latest.
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 CHANGA is a Silver Spotted Egyptian Mau kitten. Polydactyl.
He is the cutest little guy ever. His mother was a breeder quality
Egyptian Mau that got out of her home and had a fun night on the
town. She ended up having babies in a wood pile. Finally at about 4
weeks old, the pasture where they were staying flooded and mamma Mau
brought her babies onto the back porch. Mamma Mau is now safely
spayed and in her new home, but we're trying to find homes for her 5
adorable mixed breed babies.
CHANGA is a silver spotted Mau that could be purebred except that his
hair is a bit long. He is polydactyl too.
 CHANGA has an inguinal hernia that needs to be repaired. We are hoping
he can have this fixed when he goes in for his neuter. This could be
a simple $50 fix, or up to $2,000 for the surgery depending upon the
severity of the hernia, and what vet needs to perform the surgery.
Let's hope for an easy, inexpensive fix so those extra dollars can go
towards other needy cats.
FEBRUARY UPDATE: Changa has been adopted!
JANUARY UPDATE: We are happy to report that a local veterinarian donated all but $22
of the cost of Changa's hernia surgery and he made a full and
immediate recovery. Thank you, Rolf!
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NEWTON
10th Cat of Christmas |
MARGOT
11th Cat of Christmas |
SANTOS
12th Cat of Christmas |
 NEWTON is a 3 yo Cream Shell Persian. Poor NEWTON has had a really rough life. He lived his first two
years in an outdoor cage with his brother and best buddy Isaac. When
we first went to meet all of the cats for Rescue, we didn't even see
him. He was hiding under some boards in his cage and his name was
"Streaker" because that's all the breeder ever saw of him...a streak
of red as he would race under the boards.
 When he finally got to us
he was completely matted, and really mad. He would hiss and spit at
us when we would so much as look at him. You wouldn't even know this
was the same boy now. His personality has just blossomed. His
brother Isaac has since turned around, gotten healthy, and found a
fabulous home. But poor sad NEWTON still remains in Rescue.
 We've already put several hundred dollars into NEWTON. He's had
surgery for an ear hematoma, and been neutered, tested and
vaccinated. Newton has a chronic skin condition which can be fixed
with medication, but he needs blood panels to ensure his internal
organs are not damaged by the medications and to find out if there is
a subclinical issue that is causing his skin condition to worsen
instead of improve. He also gets strange cysts or hematomas on his
body that may need some surgical attention. We believe NEWTON can be
healed just as his brother Isaac was and he can go to a new home
someday, but without the extra dollars, he's going to be in Rescue
for a very long time.
FEBRUARY UPDATE: Newton has come a long way in the past two months. His skin is improving at a fast rate and we are hoping to get him to the dermatologist soon. A $400 donation has been received in Newton's name for his dermatological exam and skin cultures. Thank you, Harriet.
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 MARGOT is a Blue Spotted Egyptian Mau mix.
Dear sweet MARGOT has been such a love to have in Rescue. She came to
us very pregnant and did a great job of raising her own babies and
then helped out with a couple of more babies that needed her. She has
been a very sweet cat who gets along with dogs, other cats, and
people alike. She never has a bad word to say about anyone.
 Sadly, MARGOT has taken a recent turn for the worse. She got a cold, and
she's not getting over it. Her gums are really red, and her coat
doesn't look good. She will need an exam and blood panel and probably
a dental. Hopefully that will be all she will need. We are quite
worried about this sweet girl and hope for a quick fix. In the
meantime, she has to stay in a cage away from other cats and that
really hurts her feelings. She's always been a part of the family and
cannot understand why she's now been "rejected".
FEBRUARY UPDATE: We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Margot. She was diagnosed with an end stage terminal cancer and was humanely euthanized by one of our compassionate vets. We miss her sleeping on our bed at night.
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MEMPHIS is a 3 yo Bronze Egyptian Mau who came to us with terrible diarrhea. She had been found as a
stray and then turned in to the local SPCA. They called us because
they couldn't put her up for adoption with diarrhea, and she was
going to be euthanized. This is a great cat! So affectionate, just a
loving cat. We put her in a cage and began to treat her. She did get
better, not once, but twice. Each time she returned to diarrhea.
MARGOT is a Blue Spotted Egyptian Mau mix.
Dear sweet MARGOT has been such a love to have in Rescue. She came to
us very pregnant and did a great job of raising her own babies and
then helped out with a couple of more babies that needed her. She has
been a very sweet cat who gets along with dogs, other cats, and
people alike. She never has a bad word to say about anyone.
SANTOS is a 3-5 yo Sealpoint Himalayan and is new to Rescue. He's come to us with skin problems, diarrhea,
and possibly a degenerative eye problem. He's a very sweet boy who
loves his wet food dinner treats. We don't know much more about his
personality but we'll give updates as we spend more time with this
cute little fella.
