To the Editor:
Recently, we have had the privilege of being given a distressed stray mother cat we named Meg and her five little kittens named Moe, Maisie, Mike, Mark and Mack. I say “privileged” because we were able to save Meg’s life and that of three of her kittens. Moe and Maisie died after fighting a valiant battle to live, but they just couldn’t fight the horrible parasite called Coccidia. Meg came in loaded with the parasite and passed the horror onto her five babies. Because Meg was too sick to care for her babies and actually required five days in the hospital to survive her own illness, her babies were raised by syringe feedings around the clock by my friend and volunteer Anne Price and myself. When Meg returned from the hospital, she appeared to understand that she could not provide for her babies and she was content to watch us syringe feed them. After the feeding, Meg would provide a loving wash of their little faces. Soon all three of us felt like one big mother team to the litter. Meg relied on us for the care and feeding of her sick babies and we relied on Meg to clean their faces, and provide the love and training that only a momma cat can do like using the litter box and being a nice pet. Meg protected the isolated room like it was Fort Knox. The door to her room is a full glass door and each time one of my own cats would venture near the door, Meg would come flying out of her bed to slap the glass, thereby, issuing a warning against any intrusion to her little family.
When people think they are doing an “OK” thing by dropping a cat along side the road or at a town dump, they need to consider the ordeal of poor Mother Meg and her five babies. Coccidia is a fairly common parasite for stray cats and dogs and it is an ordeal for shelter staff to deal with. Left to its own devices, this ugly parasite feeds off the animal through the intestinal walls destroying their entire system. Meg was without help for a long time and she is lucky to be alive. Meg passed the parasite onto her babies during the birth process and neither she nor they had the health and strength to fight it on their own. We made several trips to the vet with them, and yet we still lost two of the babies. This is not an unusual tale for shelter staff to endure. We give countless hours helping a pet fight a disease due to their abandonment and yet we know we will lose a few despite our efforts (in this case, we lost two). Knowing this fact doesn’t make it any easier to bear when we hold that still little body in our hands.
Coccidia is only one of numerous diseases stray, abandoned animals must face, many of them fatal, all of them horribly painful. On a very basic level, abandoned pets will suffer worms, ear mites, fleas, ticks, injury by accident or by cruelty. Exposure to extreme heat and cold is deadly as well as the world of predators like coyotes, fox and fishers, etc. There is nothing “OK” about abandoning your pet. If you can’t keep it, reach out for help, write ads in the inexpensive Swap & Shop booklets, place classified ads in your local newspapers, call your police department, call the shelter your town has contacted with. Remember, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil” and if you apply yourself and work intensively, you will find help for placing your pet in a safe situation.
Halfway Home Pet Rescue is an all-volunteer, 501c3 non-profit shelter. When leaving a message on my answering machine, speak slowly and repeat the telephone number twice. We greatly appreciate your returnable bottles and cans at 88 Bennett Drive Redemption. Please e-mail me at Milton@mfx.net if you wish to be on our newsletter mailing. Check us out on petfinder.com our ID is ME110. Our website is www.halfwayhomepetrescue.org and our legal corporate name is Halfway Home Pet Rescue, Inc. Our mailing address is PO Box 488, Caribou, ME 04736.
Madawaska Lake
