Status / Details
Christmas 2019, Special Tails
Additional Info
- Resilient Kitty
About Bebbize
Police broke in the door to find Bebbize’s human mom dead. Bebbize is a young papered Oriental Siamese Shorthair kitty. Her wet food bowl was empty and her water bowl was bone dry. She was taken to a shelter who, with SoCal Siamese Rescue’s help, contacted us on her third day there. We went right away because Bebbize, aka Bebe, wasn’t eating. The shelter wasn’t going to keep her and wanted rescue to help. So we took her in.
We gave her fluids and lots of food choices. By the next day she had still eaten nothing. We learned that the coroner’s office had determined that her mom had been deceased for ten to fourteen days before the police forced the door. Bebe hadn’t eaten for about two weeks! Our hearts just dropped. Yikes! Could we bring her back?
We gave her daily fluids and syringe fed her very small meals multiple times a day. She was very scared and unfriendly. She held her ears back flat on her head in fear. As days passed she slowly started to relax a little but she still didn’t eat and we continued to hydrate her and syringe feed her.
We called the shelter and got in touch with her mom’s granddaughter who was able to provide additional information about the cat. Bebe was always scared and hid the two times a year when she visited. She told us she ate only one kind of wet food, Wellness Chicken Pate. The granddaughter also said her mom was a huge smoker and her home was always filled with thick smoke. We knew of another cat that had also gone thru violent nicotine withdrawals when moved out of a smoke filled apartment. Could Bebe be going thru that along with everything else?
We immediately bought her some Wellness Chicken. She began to eat a little on her own. Over the weeks she improved; it was slow but you could see the positive changes. Cat lovers sat with her and worked with her so she would accept petting and even little cuddling. She eventually learned to eat dry food. By this time we had gradually discontinued hydrating and syringe feeding her. She seemed curious about other cats. We even thought she might be playing a little at night when no one was around. She was doing so much better.
Having lost a precious Siamese companion, an adopter, Kari, came to look at another Siamese foster we had. We happened to show her Bebe and since she was a Siamese lover, her eyes lit up. She’d had experience with traumatized and shy Oriental Shorthairs. Her fingers did just the right things to Bebe, who clearly liked her. We hadn’t yet posted Bebe and had no intention of adopting her out that day. However, Bebe accepted her, so we had to let her go home with Kari, and we are glad we did.
Bebe adapted to her new home remarkably quick and settled in comfortably with her new mom and her new Oriental kitty friend. This was a very happy and perfect ending, or should we say beginning, for this brave and beautiful kitty.