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Christmas 2017, Special Tails
Additional Info
- Trust Again
About Summer and Buttercup
The Eighth Save of Christmas 2017: Summer and Buttercup
Trust Again
Foster moms are constantly learning about kitty medical issues from the cats they take in. There is always something new for them to handle. Sometimes however, the troubles their new foster kitties are dealing with are not medical, but rather are human in origin. Fosters open their hearts to cats suffering from neglect, ignorance, starvation, lack of grooming, lack of medical care, lack of love, and deliberate cruelty. This is especially hard.
Buttercup and Summer are two examples of this human caused trauma. The “story” I was told was that a woman’s great aunt had died leaving Buttercup and Summer and two other Exotic Shorthair Persians behind. A Purebreds transporter met this woman at a Petsmart to pick up the cats. The two other Exotics “Zots” were young and after two months of gaining weight and being fussed with and socialized they were adopted into new homes.
It was a different story for the older two. Summer, an 8 yr old white Exotic Persian, arrived weighing 3.75 pounds . She was not only very thin she was weak, worn out, filthy, and she had no energy. Something was very wrong with one of her eyes and she went to the eye vet right away. I was told that in the past that eye had ruptured- the fluid inside it pouring out. The vet said she had clearly received no medical care for this and only survived because a clot formed and sealed the center of her eye. The grey white look to her now blind eye was scar tissue. This is an excruciatingly painful process for a kitty to go through.
The other kitty was a grey and white Persian who weighed 4.1 pounds. She was terrified of any touch from any human and her family had named her Stealth for obvious reasons. We named her Buttercup to start her new life. She was a bigger cat than Summer and exceedingly thin. We fed these two everything that might tempt them. They ate but they did not gain weight – I think their bodies were super depleted and their digestive system was only marginally functional. We gave them probiotics, vitamins and digestive enzymes. It took about 8 months for them to finally gain a whole pound. We got both cats spayed and at the same time they had much needed dentals done. Our outraged vet volunteered to do some triage grooming for them while they were under anesthesia. You, our supporters helped us with donated funds for their care.
We knew these two kitties needed to stay together and Buttercup needed time to get over her abject fear of humans before she could go to a new home. Buttercup finally got so that we could simply walk by her without her racing away in fear. That was a big achievement. We could pet her a little but we knew she tolerated it but did not enjoy it. She began to explore her foster home and enjoy herself. Buttercup is a tender, vulnerable little kitty who just absolutely grabbed our hearts.
I really loved Summer who was the essence of a survivor and I honored her for that. She was a social cat who loved attention. She also was a self appointed cat caretaker. If for example, we were trimming the nails of a kitty and that cat called out in distress or anger Summer would run right there to offer that cat support and company. Mother to the world. What a great girl she is. A survivor of harsh conditions and endless litters ( her nipples showed us that).
All in all we had these two kitties for almost twelve months before we felt we could post them for adoption. Of course we had to force ourselves to let them go since we were so protective of them (and loved them so very much ).
The happy ending here is that the most wonderful adopter came forward for these two hard luck girls. The adopter and her family were experienced with Persians, smart, medically sophisticated and full of love. They have taken very wonderful care of these kitties who have continued to recover and blossom in their new home.
Adopters really are our partners, partners in loving and caring for our fosters. We pass kitties on to our adopters and like a tag team they take over for the next stage – a happy life in their new loving forever home. Everyone wins.