Ironic it is, that when you need help, financial of otherwise, your crisis has you so focused, stressed, and preoccupied that you can no more ask for it than you can fly.
Every case, every emergency, is different: the medical mysteries  are the most fraught.  Along with more garden variety ailments, I've had a new cat, plucked from the streets after showing up at one of my colonies. He baffled the experts, and was sent home to die...twice, by allopathic-only doctors.
Good thing about being stubborn, you don't give up. Experience tells us that there's always more to know, to do. And yet I waited to get the ultrasound which gave us the last piece of the puzzle for Coco...that his liver was bleeding, from its entire surface!
Coco was in a good foster home, very close to me, and did well for three weeks.  Then one morning the foster called, saying that he was vomiting and breathing fast. ER at once.  
Bloodwork showed that he was extremely anemic, and he got a transfusion.  His hematocrit (% of red cells in blood) was too low to sustain life.  It bounced back to 20% after the transfusion (25-45% most say is normal) and held at19%. We crossed fingers and took him home. He did fine...!! but the cause of the anemia was still unknown.  He did carry the feline Immunodeficiency virus but the vets said that that alone should not caused him to become so anemic.  I've had plenty of FIV positive cats with no problems...
So it was wait and see...
​There's a lot more to this story...Much more! Amazing and wonderful. But enough for today!

​Where to start? Got a call from a distraught woman. Her sister had developed dementia, and had been moved out of her house.  The cats were in bad shape, she said; shut down and traumatized. She had taken them to the wonderful (!!) Mau House Cat Hotel in Richmond, but could not keep them there. I resisted, having so many others needing care, but she was so desperate....

I'm SO glad I took them! When I got them home, I found them to be filthy and withdrawn, though the back one was full of nervous energy. He had not even made eye contact at Mau House, just kept his head down. Bettina had severe mobility problems. both were incontinent.  They would not have done well in any other shelter, that's for sure. 

I got Silky neutered, and got them both baths. Due to Bettina's condition, no surgery for her was advised.
Bettina is withdrawn and passive, but Silky, though affectionate, loses it at times and bites. Bites hard. I got one in the ankle, and have been barely able to walk for the last week. Am being very cautious now. 
There's always hope! It will take time for these two. Bettina gets acupuncture, and they have both seen our chiropractor.

There's a lot more to say, but GOOD NEWS is that one of our board members has put up a MATCHING GRANT of $1000.00!! 

If we can raise that amount by December 31, she'll match it. Please help us to reach our goal for this generous matching grant!

End of life care is an area of veterinary care long neglected! I have  been dismayed by the premature termination of our animals' lives when they start to go downhill. We can and must do better. They can enjoy life even with a terminal illness, just as we humans can! 

My friend and mentor, Gail Pope,  of BrightHaven (brighthaven.org) has a saying: "Living well through the last breath". And indeed, our animals can! Gail, founder of BrightHaven, has been doing animal hospice for over thirty years, and has seen almost all of the animals in her care through dignified, pain-free natural deaths. Euthanasia has a place, but is not necessary in most cases.

I have seen many animals through a natural death, though not for nearly as long.  As with humans, the animals almost always shut down, go into a coma state, and pass easily.

Introducing Animal Hospice Group! (www.animalhospicegroup.com) TAKE A LOOK!!  Gail has teamed up with three other great  teachers to create a course in end of life care: palliative care and hospice! It is an extensive series on on-line lectures, with reading material and discussion groups. Just wonderful!! And it fills such a huge void in animal care! Tell your friends! And a great deal of the subject matter concerns ways in which to assuage vets' and human caretakers' fear of death. Grief counseling is included in the extensive curriculum. I have completed the course work, passed the exams, and am now a CAHP: a Certified Animal Hospice Practitioner. 
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Death is not painful. Some conditions can be painful, as with humans, but not death itself.  

 At the end of the course, students become certified to guide folks through end of life care of their animals. I have guided three friends when they chose a natural death for their animals, a cat and a dog, and they were grateful, and happy to be with their animals until their natural end.

Again, TAKE A LOOK: animalhospicegroup.com. You'll be glad you did!!

With love,
Cynthia

Here's a good article from the LA Times about Trap, Neuter, Return programs. Not a magic bullet solution . The problem is as always with the humans...Read and share...we have a long ways to go. 
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-12-22/opinion-u-s-cities-are-overrun-with-feral-cats-and-magical-thinking-isnt-the-solution
Below are the eight, mother and babies from two litters, who got lucky and off the streets. Most are not lucky.

​Such a great feeling! These two, their two siblings, and their mother are safe and sound!! They would not have lasted long where they were found, at the entrance to Wildcat Canyon Reg. Park.  A friend called me this morning in a panic. She'd seen them off the road, up a few steps, close to a wall of ivy.  I approached VERY slowly. With each step, I moved my carrier closer. I put a dish of food out and she smelled it.  If she ran off I might not have been able to catch her.

First miracle: she was calm and allowed me to pick her up and put her into the carrier.  However...! The babies were all connected to her and to each other by a long string. At first I'd thought it to be very tangled umbilical cords, but no.... They went into the carrier as one. Not too good, as damage may have been done when I picked the mom up.

Second miracle: no permanent damage had been done, it seems. One of the babies' ankles was wrapped in one of the cords, and the foot had swollen. I was able to cut the string and untangle them all. 

Third miracle: I'd been leaving them alone as much as possible so as not to stress them, but, since the carrier was wet, I decided to move them into the big box I'd fixed up. Glad I did.  I discovered a fifth! Cold and wet! EEK! In a newborn, that condition can kill quickly. I warmed him up and dried him with the hair dryer on low...and have been giving him supplemental feeding. He's smaller than the others, and was most certainly not getting his share of milk. But he has energy...haven't seen him actually nursing yet, but he's staying warm, and getting fed one way or t'other.

I spoke with my homeopathic vet who said to give the one with the swollen foot a high potency dose of Arnica Montana. Did that.  Because there was still wet blood, it seemed that the three undeveloped ones had been delivered recently, perhaps within a few hours, and so the foot had not probably been without circulating blood for too long. Fingers are crossed. 

The four are all healthy, about one day old, and nursing. the fifth is okay too...had just gotten away from mother's warmth. Mother is lovely and sweet.  Mother ate a big meal with lots of supplements for milk flow, etc. She is probably dehydrated, but fluids can wait. I'll call her Cibelli.

The three undeveloped ones will be buried...bless them.
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