Please Take My Electric Bill.

  Meow – 7 years old                                                       I have had here abt 5 yrs

                Found outside                                                   fixed and front declawed

Likes

Ears rubbed, twirled. Likes Head and tail stroked. Doesn’t like sides touched (will bite) don’t Pick up!

Show me your fat belly – will roll over. Likes armpits rubbed, likes gentle rubbing on belly (she doesn’t want you to stop. She will smack at you to continue) or to stop Bite.

Eats

Proplan Chicken and Rice. SHe will eat indoor cat, also tried sensitive stomache. SHe will eat Iams Lamb-N-Rice. SHe eats LeSS Lamb-N-Rice + last longer, like small pieces of food better.

doesn’t Like, wet food much, will eat maybe a tbl.sp. of it.

Doesn’t Like – Seafood flavors of food + doesn’t like treats.

sHe eats about 1 cup to 1 ½ cup of food a day. SHe will meow a lot + bite if she is out of food.

SHe drinks + like cold fresh water + likes ICE. She will lick con (illegible) OFF cold drinks. Sometime eat a (illegible) . If she wants fresh wa(illegible) curtain like a Nut.

Page 2 , marked page 2, and titled MEOW

If she is somewhere you don’t want Her tell her out out out repeat Or she doesn’t like her water bottle you can usually just shake it at Her. or 1 squirt and shes gone.

Doenst like to be confined to one space. She will dig at bottom of door, rip carpet, up with teeth (put pepper at bottom of door)

She will not bother carpet anymore. She sneeks in rooms and hides (illegible). Open closets and behind furniture. If you cant find Her shake food. call meow meow

SHe is afraid of kids + strangers. SHe usually hides But if some one tries to pet Her she doesn’t know or like sHe will bite & smack it with Nubs. I tell people Rite away just Rub ears or head don’t touch Belly sHe Bites.

SHe will sleep in bed with you but don’t close door. She likes to sleep in closet too.

SHe sheds like crazy at the time likes to be brushed with fine tooth comb. When she is done she tries to bite you. Stop. (Arrow to page three)

Page 3 March 2012 Meow

I believe she has something wrong with Her back.

If you touch her certain spots on Her back wile scratchen back she will bite & lick Her front chest + legs frantically.

SHe has been scooten her but on floor to cleaa her but.

I can Hold Her by the tail while she is bitten + licken front. I can clean her But. I Have even shaved Her But, holden Her tail, to try to keep her cleanner.

She may be to Fat to clean anymore or combo problems with Back?

SHe likes to sit on deck but wants to comein and out every 10 to 15 min to check Her food, she will take a bite or two then want back out. SHe has to know that she Has even just a coupke peaces of food all the time. I think she was a stressed cat found outside starving and needs to know she always has (illegible) will drive you crazy (illegible) till she get fo(illegible).

Page 4 titled 4) Meow

SHe doesn’t like other Animals but she tolerates Her little dog Joy dachshund Cocker spanial mix they are about the same size. If shes tired of the dog tryn to play with her she will smack the Dog with Her clawless paw. The dog leaves Her alone. Ha Ha Ha Clawless Paws!

Sometimes if you aRe sitting alone she will jump up and sit on your lap to be pet. But only when she wants to. Cant force heR to sit with you.

SHe likes to be talked to sometimes. I call He MOW instead of Meow, sometime [she comes to Both]

SHe us Ready to be treated for Fleas AND Ticks again. I just us drops. The collar she will keep on every other she Has Gotten off and lost no matter what kind or size. I think she would be good with Older people No Kids + Quiet. SHe can also catch mice don’t kNow How with No Claws? SHe likes to Plaw with feathers or whatever on A stick oR string.

 

This is the letter that was found on top of Meow's carrier. Meow was left at our grooming door one evening a few weeks ago. She is a very obese, very unfriendly domestic short haired grey and white cat.

When my staff told me that they found her I called the police, animal control and reported her as abandoned. Dumping a pet is against the law and is punishable. It is also incredibly unfair and cruel.

As I began to read the letter she was left with I was dumbfounded. There is no explanation as to why she was left, or even a hint of guilt or shame. Did they think I wanted this cat? Do they not know that I get asked almost daily to take someones cat(s), to provide free services to "a cat that just showed up at their door 3 years ago, that they have been feeding for the last three years and has already had 3 litters of kittens, but they can't afford to spay?" Do they even possess reason to understand what abandonment is? What do I do with a fat unfriendly cat?

I had a lot of unanswered questions, a head full of profanities, and an unfriendly cat who liked me about as much as I liked her.

I wanted to scream “If you love this cat so much and have had her for 5 years then come and get her!” “I don’t leave my electric bills at someone else's house? AND, I don’t expect anyone else to take care of my responsibilities why am I supposed to take care of yours?"

And now I have to try to find an almost “unhomeable” cat a home? Or live with the guilt of giving up on her, after someone else who apparently loved her abandoned her?

No wonder she is unfriendly. She lived with some seeminly crazy person and then got dumped at an office full of cats, dogs, and poking needle people.
Half my staff wants me to just euthanize her because they can’t clean her cage or touch her without being hissed and swatted at, and, the other half of my staff wants to try to salvage her and spend the next 2 -to-forever years trying to find a home for her. And then there is me. Knowing that I already have 6 nice cats looking for homes, and I just don’t think that we will find someone for Meow.

What do I do?

When, where, how do I draw the line?

Is Meow my “I give up and I can’t save the world cat?”

I really don’t know.

Merry Mis-Fortunes

I am reminded of the old saying “no good deed goes unpunished” almost everyday at work. I was especially feeling as if I should just hang my head low and not be nice anymore when I came into the clinic and was told as soon as I walked in the door that someone had left 2 adult cats in a cat carrier by the dumpsters.

The dumpsters are strategically placed beside the road that the clinic is on but hidden from view by a small number of evergreen trees. It is quick, easy, and inconspicuous to pull off of the road scoot into the dumpster area and drop an unwanted package. When I was told that someone had left their cats at our dumpsters I was livid. What the hell were these jerks thinking? They probably knew that if they surrendered them at the local county shelter that they would be euthanized, (see Darla’s Second Chance), and maybe they had called us already, and I am sure if they did we told them that we were all full at the JVC house, (I have a 4 adult cat limit), (I have never gotten down to that number). Or maybe they called the other local shelters and were told what we told them. There is no place for another adult cat here in Harford County, actually I don’t know of any place in the country recruiting adult cats (if they are then I smell something fishy). So maybe I did this to myself? Maybe it was an owner desperate but caring enough to have not left them at the shelter, or maybe it was the universe reminding me again “that no good deed…”. Either way I was still furious.

I said things to myself that consisted of the following. “Damn you, whoever you are, I don’t go to your house, or your place of work and dump my laundry, or my credit card bill, or my dirty dishes.” I don’t leave others to pay my way, to resolve my problems, and because it is a well known fact that I am a big giant softy, incapable of euthanizing a healthy animal I get your cats? I mean WTF? Ok, I know, I swear a lot. I swear a lot on the inside, and sometimes on the outside. I am Italian, and I spent 10 years at sea, it’s not my fault.

After about 10 minutes of venting at the messenger I finally made my way to the cage that held the two dump-ies. They were both obese, obviously middle aged housecats. We scanned them for a microchip (see Jitterbug Decides). Could anyone be dumb enough to drop off one of our own clients cats? We microchip for free , so just about every pet we take care of here is microchipped. Scanned for chip and found, No chip. Probably a good thing because I would have called Animal Control and reported them. You see it is a misdemeanor to dump an animal, and I already mentioned that I was mad!

The small community of Veterinarians keep a close eye on each other. We understand and protect each other. One of the biggest challenges to our profession is burn-out. It happens, a lot. It happens because we come into this profession because we want to make a difference. We feel compelled enough to make a difference that we go to college for at least 8 years, at a cost of over $100,000 and then get out of school to be made to feel like we should be running a non-profit. There isn't one day that we aren't asked for a discount, or told that this “cat really isn't theirs”, they are just feeding and housing it, etc., etc., It is soo hard to act like you don’t care because a client can’t, (or doesn't want to) pay.  This kind of crap causes burn out. I knew that most would have just forwarded "these two cats dumped on us" problem to the “appropriate authorities”, (aka the shelter). But me, nope I can’t do that. (please read section on burn out again, krista).

So naturally I did what I always do next. I gave them a complimentary physical exam, microchip, checked them for FeLV/FIV, vaccinated them, gave them a flea and tick preventative and placed them in their 2 week quarantine. Oh yeah, and of course we gave them a name. Merry and Mistletoe. (It was December we weren’t too creative).

It has been about 2 years. Mistletoe was adopted and Merry remains with us, on a constant diet, and always happy and safe. And a part of our JVC family. She has her own set of medical challenges. It happens with chronic obesity. She seems very itchy most of the time, we term it pruritus. She will groom herself to the point of looking "mangey". So we keep her on monthly flea and tick prevention. (the number one itchy thing affecting pets is fleas, so every itchy pet should be maintained on monthly flea and tick preventative, (and yes ask your vet for some recommendations, that stuff from the grocery store is dangerous and doesn’t work) year around. She is also on a special hypo-allergenic diet. It keeps her itch at a simmer.

She is still with us. You can find out more about her by visiting our website.
http://jarrettsvillevet.com/
Or by coming in to meet her in person. She is a torti, so she comes with her own set of issues, but then again, don’t we all?

To learn more about allergies
http://tinyurl.com/3bjlomh
To learn more about hypoallergenic foods

http://tinyurl.com/3d6f7lk

To learn more about obesity
http://tinyurl.com/3poqd3n


To learn more about Merry
http://tinyurl.com/3f6gxmn

Update, October 2013. Merry was adopted by a former staff member and lives a happy quiet life of ample time, affection, and doting. She has been maintained at a healthy weight on a single protein allergy diet. We are elated to have her find her own happy ending.