When I played in the sandbox the cat kept covering me up. -- Rodney Dangerfield    

Above -This mother and her baby were waiting for their evening meal.  Sable, a feral mama cat was finally caught in the summer of 2008.  It took us 2 years to catch her!  She is now spayed, vaccinated, gaining weight and is retired from the baby making business.  She has tamed down a little and now has her caretakers trained to serve her food on demand!  Fortunately, we were able to catch and tame all of her kittens this season.  In the past, most of her kittens were untamable and had to be released after their spay or neuter.

 We have trapped, neutered and returned over 70 cats in Middleton and we are still working on it.  Cats that are truly feral are re-released after being vaccinated, spayed/neutered and having one of their ears tipped (ear tipping allows us to know who has or hasn't been s/n.  The feral cats have dedicated caretakers who provide the cats with food and water.  Cats and kittens that are tame or can be worked with are placed in foster homes until they can be adopted into loving homes.

Mouse is an adorable, tiny kitten that looked like a little mouse when we first took her into foster.  A very caring vet tech rescued her and called us because she knows we have a soft spot for, and will work with special needs cats.  The vet clinic she works for had several people stop by over a two week period saying there was a mama cat running around with a blind kitten.  When she heard about this, she immediately went and searched for the mama and kitten.  The mama cat unfortunately ran off, but she was able to grab little Mouse kitty. 

A few days after we got her, she really crashed and we almost lost her.  She had a very serious, unknown infection.  Thank God with supportive care and medicines, she pulled through.  She was so tiny, weak and malnourished when we took her in.  She was born without upper eyelids and one eye is undeveloped, sunken, and covered with tissue.  The other eye has some sight left, but her pupil does not dilate or contract.  This makes her eye light sensitive and she doesn't like it when we take pictures of her!  Her eye tends to dry out and we are treating it for an ulcer.  When she is strong enough and big enough she will need medical procedures for her eyes.   We are unsure if the better eye will remain healthy enough to keep.  We are hoping so.

We are still very concerned for her because her back legs are weak and wobbly.  We aren't sure why that is.  We were hoping it was from malnutrition but it doesn't seem to be getting any better.  We now believe it is from another birth defect.  She doesn't let it stop her from running and playing and she doesn't seem to be in any pain.  She is the sweetest little tiny mouse kitty and so playful.  Please keep her in your prayers.

If you wish to help out with her medical bills see our donation page for ways you can help.

He suffered a lot of head trauma and was bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth.  But he was alert and had a little bit of spunk in him.  His eyes were dilated and showing some possible signs of neurological damage.  The doctor and Teresa decided to see how he would do overnight.  If he didn't have any brain trauma and didn't go into seizures, he had a good chance of survival.  Thankfully, he did great overnight and his eyes were better.  He had a huge, deep, open wound from the tip of his chin down his neck. We were worried his jaw was dislocated or broken. He also had swollen puncture wounds on top of his head and inside his tiny little mouth and nose. He had problems breathing and could not close his mouth completely because of the damage to his nose and mouth. 

In spite of all the pain he was in, he still had the attitude that he wanted to keep living. You could tell he felt there is still a lot of playing to do and a lot of mischief to get into.  This is why Teresa knew that she had to give him a chance.  He is doing better now and is full of attitude.  The wound on his chin and neck was very serious but is healing well.  He is still having problems breathing because of the trauma and swelling in his little mouth and nose.  We are praying his breathing goes back to normal.  He was renamed Snert, at least for now, because of the sniffly, snargly, snerty, slurping sounds he makes when eats.  His mouth wounds are healing but he still doesn't close his mouth all of the way.  We're not sure if this is because something is wrong with his jaw or because it still hurts him too much.  He is able to eat on his own now and he is running around all over the place.  All he wants is to be in our laps or in our arms all of the time.  As soon as he is fully recovered he will be ready for his forever home.  He is such a character we know he will be someone's best friend forever and really liven up their home!

Snert at almost 6 months.

He's ready to be neutered and he ended up being cryptorchid.  We are hoping to only have him go under anesthesia once because he is a very high risk because he can't breath thru his mouth and we are unsure if they can intabate him (may have to perform and emergency tracheostomy.   He needs a CT scan, bronchoscopy/rhinoscopy, VDIC CT and possibly biopsy. 

The Animal Rescue Site is hosting a special challenge for eligible Petfinder.com member shelter and rescue groups. The grand prize is a $25,000 grant, and they will be awarding many other grants to rescue groups with the most votes — a total of $100,000 in grants for animal welfare organizations.

Think how many animals we could help for $25,000!

Help us win! All you have to do is click to help rescued animals, and then vote in The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge. Both of these actions are absolutely free! You can vote once a day, every day, from September 29 through December 14, 2008. Every time you vote, or tell a friend to vote, you are making a huge difference for us.

Vote today!