Heartbroken ...

It is with such a heavy heart that I write this post. Last night, we lost Mr. Earl Gray not even 15 minutes after playing with him on our bed where he appeared to be feeling just fine. When I went back into the bedroom to check on him, he was gone! Just passed away for no known reason to us. In fact, "shock" does not even begin to describe what I felt!

We immediately took him to the vet to be privately cremated and the vet told us that she thinks he had a heart attack. Imagine, a two year old cat having a heart attack?? It makes absolutely no sense to us but, unfortunately, we have no other explaination for it. I can't tell you how much both my husband and I have cried so many tears of sorrow last evening for the loss of our beloved boy who came to us only a year ago and had been our sweet little house kitty since then. 

I will miss so many things about him. I will miss how he followed me around the house and snuggled with me at bedtime, I will miss his soft, sweet personality, and I will even miss him waking me up every morning insisting I feed him his breakfast. But most of all, I will miss the fact that he loved me so much. We may have given him a warm, cozy home in which to live and loving care, but he gave us back so much more.

Coming together ...

 

 



 

Greetings all! Just a little update on Mr. Gray. He is adapting wonderfully to his new siblings. He still is a bit skittish when we try to touch his head, but he is getting better each week and he is finally beginning to show signs of feeling comfortable in his new role as a house kitty. He has even gotten into his own routines such as following me to bed every night and waking me up in the wee hours of the morning ~ meowing rather loudly to make sure that I do not forget to feed him!!! Although, I do not need to tell you that with four other felines in the house, that is definitely not a possibility!  LOL!

 



Mr. Gray Update ...

Well, this morning was Mr. Gray's front declaw surgery at the vets. At around 10:05 this morning, I received a phone call at work from Dr. Veltri informing us that Mr. Gray's surgery went well and that we could pick him up on Saturday morning to bring him home.

We set up his large dog cage from downstairs in the middle of the living room so that he can be surrounded by his loved ones while he recuperates for a couple of more days ...

Tabitha misses him very much as do we! He has been at the vets since Wednesday evening and we can't wait to get him back where he belongs!!

Another lazy Sunday ...

Last night, while snoozing on the couch after a day of cleaning, unbeknownst to me hubby snapped this pic of Mr. Earl Gray and I chilling. Gray is really beginning to show how sweet he really his!

Wishing all a relaxing and restful Sunday from me and my buddy Mr. Gray!!!

Talk about oops!

Okay, so allow me to share my little story of Mr. Gray's "oops!" Last night after placing him back inside of his temporary cage, I threw a load of wash in the dryer. When I went back downstairs to bring up my dry laundry, I noticed that Mr. Gray had apparently had some fun with the roll of paper towels which I had sitting on his canister of kitty litter. The inside of his cage was completely filled with nothing but unraveled paper towels, with the empty cardboard roll lying outside on the floor!

I hadn't taken a pic of it because it was 12:30 in the morning and I was way too tired to run back upstairs for my camera. Besides, I had a bit of a mess to clean up. The best part; however, was the look on his face when he knew he was caught. Kind of like a "deer caught in headlights" sort a of thing ~ LOL!

At any rate, he seems to be doing fine and he is actually beginning to play. Like all cats, he really enjoys playing with ribbons and strings ...

 

He is such a joy and regardless of what his test this up-coming Saturday at the vets has in store for him, he will definitely have a loving home with us. He's a keeper!

A Special Full Moon Prayer

Tonight I am saying a very special full moon prayer to the Goddess for my poor little Mr. Gray who, after being tested last Saturday morning for the deadly FeLeuk virus at our vets, tested a weak positive. Therefore, we must re-test him in another month. (If you wish to read more about this, please see my last two posts on my other blog, "The Wiccan Life.")

 And so, as I burn my cat figure candle for my beloved Mr. Gray, I shall recite the following incantation ...

"O Gracious Dark Goddess and Gentle Lord God,

  Magick mend and candle burn

  Sickness end, good health return ~

  So mote it be!"

Thanksgiving Wishes and a little Surprise!

 

Good day all! First of all, I have an update on the Mr. Gray situation. For the past couple of days or so, I haven't seen very much of Mr. Gray, and, when I did I couldn't get very close to him. Tonight as I pulled into my driveway, there he was! Just sitting there in front of the garage door waiting.

I immediately got out of the car, walked into the house and grabbed his food to take back outside to feed him his nightly dinner. He was particularly affectionate and the opportunity presented itself to once again pick him up and take him into the catio. Only this time, after a few minutes I was able to get him into the small temporary cage. He was extremely scared at first, but did not hiss, growl nor attempt to bite me at all. In fact, he even allowed me to pick him up again and put him the cage! I couldn't believe it!

And so, we will give him a couple hours to settle down and then we will take him downstairs for the night. Tomorrow night we will then proceed to place him in the huge cage for a couple days until we can get an appointment for him at our vets for a FeLeuk test and check-up. This way, just as we had done with Tabitha, he will naturally be separated from our other cats, keeping them at a safe distance while allowing him to get somewhat adjusted (We hope!)

And finally, from our home to yours, I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving holiday!!

The Plan ...

Since my last post about having to let Mr. Gray back outside after only 2 whole minutes inside the house, I received a very angry comment which I had not published. "Anonymous," who so obviously had not done their homework and read my previous posts regarding this matter, accused me of exposing my other cats to the FeLeuk virus ~ something I would never do to my other cats ~ EVER! So, to this person I say, "Get educated, my friend and while you are at it get a life!"

Although FeLeuk is highly contagious to other cats, (and mind you, their are vaccinations which your vet can give your cat for preventative reasons) the only way to contract it is through saliva. Such as eating and/or drinking out of the same dish as an infected cat, biting, etc. For the record, Gray had not touched anything or any other feline (nor did he have the time to) at any time while in the house and was in and out so fast that the other cats had not even been around him. In fact, they were too busy hiding from "the stranger."

The fact is, our plan to get Mr. Gray integrated into the rest of the family dynamtic is exactly the same as we did with Tabitha with only one small difference ~ we will be attempting to place him in a smaller carrier first, as provided by my dear friend and fellow cat enthusiast/cat sitter Judy, which is currently set up and waiting in the catio. It fits through the doorways so that we can immediately take him downstairs (where none of the other cats are ever permitted to go) and we will then proceed to put him in the larger cage which fits a litter box, water bowl, food dish, toys and a warm blanket. From there, we will make an appointment with our vet to get him Feleuk tested, as we have always done with a new cat! If the results are negative, then and only then we will even consider exposing him to the rest of our fur babies.

We have decided to try to get him a good home after that. But, I know how very difficult this is to do and since we refuse to "throw him to the wolves" by taking a full grown adult feral cat (who has in spite of the fact that he has already been neutered leading us to believe that he had to have been around people before at some point) to an animal shelter, we will most likely have to keep him. We know all too well the unfortunate odds of him getting adpoted out! To hand him over to that highly possible fate is, to us, unthinkable. After all, we did not go through all of this effort to rescue him only to lower his odds of survival and/or having a safe, loving home. Here's hoping for the best all!

Catch and Release

 

With the weather turning so very bitter cold lately and only going to get worse, I have been extremely concerned about Mr. Gray (the outside kitty we have been trying to take care of). Tonight, he actually allowed me to pick him up (much to my surprise!) and  so I took him inside our house catio. He FREAKED OUT immediately! Crying loudly and jumping up on the walls and knocking down my door curtain in an attempt to escape! You would have thought that we were throwing him in a horrible dungeon or something! I have never seen anything like this before in my life! Poor guy. All I want to do is HELP him!!!

I called to hubby who was sitting in the living room at the computer to come quickly! "What should I do?" I said, "Just look at him panicking!" As soon as he opened up the inside kitchen door which is attached to the catio, Mr. Gray darted inside and ran into the living room. Scaring the other cats in the process, we tried to guide him back out into the catio where hubby had already opened the door to the outside for him. It is hubby's opinion that if Mr. Gray knows that he can walk in and out freely, eventually he may deicde to actually spend some time in the house? I don't know. Gray is very obviously a wild cat and I fear that this may have been the only chance I will ever have to get him in the house! I pray not, but we shall see in time I suppose. I just hope that he will learn to trust me again after this little episode. You know cats!

A new venue

I am still working with Mr Gray. Feeding him and caring for him everyday. This afternoon I made a special trip to Petsmart to pick up a little outside shelter for him. Somewhere where he can feel fairly safe and keep dry and somewhat warm on these nights which are getting cooler.

I originally wanted to buy him an Igloo but not at $114.00 a pop! So I ended up purchasing an outdoor dog box instead. I also placed a towel inside it which has his scent on it thinking that perhaps this will encourage him to use it. He walked up to it cautiously and looked inside of it, but would not yet venture in. Hopefully, he will use it when it rains or he gets too chilly. We placed it in back of our house mainly in an attempt to keep him away from the road as much as possible.

We would still like to find a way to bring him indoors, but until then we will do whatever we can to help take care of him. The way I see it, he deserves that much!

Oops! I did it again!

As far as Mr. Gray is concerned, I may be no substitute for his little Tabitha, but he really doesn't appear to mind very much. In fact, he has bonded with me in a way I never expected from him.

The daily routine: He usually waits for me early in the morning before I leave for work in which I feed him his breakfast. Every evening around 7-7:30 he patiently waits underneath my car for me to come outside with his dinner and call to him, "Mr, Gray, Mr. Gray?" He then proceeds to run over to me and chat endlessly until I sit down on the ground next to him Indian-style. Takes a few bites of his food and then rubs up against me while purring happily and contently. There, I sit side by side with him for about a half an hour or until he gets restless and leaves to do whatever he does every night.

So you tell me, how could I NOT fall in love with this sweet little boy? Hubby can get close enough to pet him for a short time, but as soon as he sees me he runs excitedly to me! Last night, hubby said to me, "Boy, you can sure tell that he has HIS favorite! LOL!

So where do we go from here? Well, it is still pretty much up to Mr. Gray himself, but the plan is to eventually somehow get him into the house and keep him with Haley in her catio. I have no idea exactly when or how this is going to work, but I haven't given up on him by any means ...

Mr. Gray greeting me with a meow!

 

Rolling around next to me while I pet him from head to toe

 

 

 

Seriously, how could I resist such a little sweetheart? The answer: I can't!!!  ;)

Just Call Me Mr. Handsome!

We are finally beginning to see a little of Mr. Gray's personality come out. While giving him his food and cat treats at feeding time last night, he waited patiently underneath my car as usual. I slowly walked around him, placed his food dish in front of the garage door and sat down in front of him. I began to shake the bag of cat treats while he cautiously made his way over to me.

Not too long after I gave him some treats, he surprisingly allowed me to pet him. Until now, this was something that neither my hubby nor I were able to do before without him backing away from us. Then, out of nowhere, he began rubbing up against me ~ meowing a couple of times and purring!

This is a huge milestone for him and quite a relief as we were not too sure that he would ever really show us any level of trust. From what I can see, he is not a "Catch and Release" like Tabby and he is most likely still in-tact. None-the-less, we still fully intend to help him any way we can. Next step is to treat him with the Advantage II topical flea control.

Isn't he such a handsome fella?

Much Ado About Mr. Gray

 

Are you all ready for the continuing story of what appears to be our home turned catery ~ LOL! Well, it appears that our cat Tabitha (A.K.A. stray cat now turned domestic house princess) had a buddy outside who misses her terribly! The next night after we brought her into our home to begin her new life as a spoiled feline, hubby had asked me to go outside and feed Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray is a lovely solid gray male with what I call a white"beagle face marking" around his mouth and nose and a white bibb on his chest.

Apparently, Tabitha and Mr. Gray had formed quite a very close bond with one another while co-existing outside. As I walked out the front door to give him his nightly dinner, I heard a very loud noise which, at first, I thought was the sound of two cats fighting! Turns out that it was only Mr. Gray literally howling for Tabitha! Talk about pitiful? It actually broke my heart to hear that sad little, but loud, cry.

So what now of Mr. Gray? Well, since we can not possibly take in anymore stray kitties, we have decided that we have two options:

1) We could continue to work with him in an attempt to gain his trust, trap him, immediately get him examined at our vet, and then take him to one of our local No-Kill shelters called, "One By One Cat Rescue" which deals strictly with cats only and placing them in good homes, or,
2) We could choose to continue to take care of him as best we can outside and provide him with shelter by installing a cat door in our tiny shed in back of our house. This would also serve as shelter for other strays in need of protection from the harsh weather conditions.

Surprisingly, since Mr. Gray no longer has his little companian to hang out with, hubby has actually been able to get a bit closer to him ~ feeding him cat treats as we did with Tabitha and allowing him to approach us. We can only do so much; however, and the rest is up to him!