Catalina's Journey

 "Catalina" Week 1

Catalina in her condo

She needs only a brief introduction as many of you know her story well. Her future has opened up thanks to so many wonderful people. She is charging full speed ahead (literally) and enjoying the life a cat should.

Catalina rode home with me from Kentucky after I attended a Feline Conservation Federation convention for 3 days. We rode home quietly and arrived with no stress after a nine hour trip. Catalina's condo here is a middle apartment with another F1, Leo on one side, and 4 other lovely Bengal girls on the other side. 

Front view of condo - outdoor sections are in the back

 

Her first few days here she was not interested in food. She would hide in or behind her little houses that Dr Keener had sent with her. I tried a smorgasboard of various foods as a cat that won't eat can get in trouble fast. She woul dhave none of it, but started to nibble on her dry food at night when ther was no commotion around her. I was certain she could use a bit of a diet and more exercise anyway! There is a nice windowed door that she can look out into the yard and see the other cats frolicking, chasing each other and the dogs (yes the cats rule here...). She just wanted to stay at the back of her room and pretend not to be seen.

She used her litterbox well for bowel movements but not really for urinating. She certainly was not a happy camper when it came time to express her bladder. Break out the cat gloves, pee pads and towel was the routine and she knew it! My years of being a vet tech always comes in handy. It seemed her bladder needed doing every 3-4 days, I could tell when she started to leak more it was time for attention. That also involved much grumbling and growling on her part and when we were done she couldn't get away fast enough. Poor girl :( She never tried to bite or scratch, she was just very untrusting and scared of people and things being done to her. She wanted to appear threatening but inside I knew there was a special girl wanting to be understood.

By the end of the week, she settled in a bit better, eating at night and exploring her digs. I could see her looking out the window every time I came out, and then she would pretend not to be seen and then scamper off as I walked near the door. I so wanted to see how she used her hind end, and once she slowed down I would get a better assessment. I was looking forward to week 2 and introducing her to the clicker!

Persephone's Ear Tumour is gone!

Persephone is home and recovering like nothing ever happened! Her ear looks remarkably normal now. The mass in her ear was a polyp that apparently had run down into her throat, hence the Dr suspects adding to her congestion and gurgli-ness. Who would have thought? 

 

 

Persephone went from being emaciated, dehydrated, congested and pregnant with an uncomfortable ear mass to a happy and healthy young feline.I told my husband last night how I was so glad I made the decision to bring her home. He agreed and said he could just tell by the sound in my voice that she was en route to our Cat Sanctuary.

Ear Before

Ear After

Persephone greets us with her dainty little meow at even the slightest eye glance her way. Her appetite is as voracious as ever and she is carrying around  toys in the kitchen. She sharpens her claws passionately on each post she finds. She really enjoys knocking thing off counters!

 

The greatest of thanks and appreciation to each of you that chipped-in to help with Persephone's surgery and to the Batesburg-Leesville Animal Hospital. We run this sanctuary with our own funds right now and every contribution makes a BIG difference, most importantly to the cats. Purrs, meows and love bites from Persephone xoxo 

Persephone Needs Ear Surgery

About four months ago, I went to pick up a horse in Ocala, Florida for my training
business, Avalo farm. Emily, one of my working students, came along for the ride to
keep me company. We stayed at an RV park which housed far too many
feral (and population growing) felines. 

None I could handle except one very frail and weak female who was very friendly
and probably far too sick to run off even if she wanted to. Every time she got up to
move around a small section of the stairs she almost fell over. She must have
weighed 3 lbs and was pregnant. She also had an upper respiratory infection and
a horrific ear infection with a dime sized, angry looking, puralent,
cancerous tumour in her left ear. We named her Persephone and packed
her up in a box and brought her home to SC.

Persephone with her newborn kittens 

 Since then her URI has cleared up, she had her kittens and they have been weaned. 

With regular good food she now weighs about 5 lbs. She is happy and loves other 

cats and our dogs too! It's now time for her to be spayed now that she's healthier 

and to have her tumour removed (which is now the size of a grape)! See picture 

below of the tumour after a good cleaning and ointment applied to her cheek.

   

Please, if you are able to help, we have created a 'chipin' fund to help us with Persephone's 

ear surgery. We are working on our 501c3 but right now everything is out of 

our own pockets here at the farm. Any support is greatly appreciated!

You can also see more pictures of Persephone at our Facebook site: 

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150322123329456.366027.339054144455&type=3

Tertius - one of Persephone's kids

Many thanks for being friends 
of Avalo Cat Sanctuary.
Please follow us on facebook!

www.avalocatsanctuary.com 

Monkey's Blog

"Eyes blue and not near mild,

Markings extravagant and wild.

A sweetheart she shall be,

Little claws crawling but messy.

She likes it when people come to stay,

So she can have a new buddy for some play.

And when one person leaves one day,

She'll beg for someone to come and stay."

Monkey is a beautiful female Bengal who came to Avalo Cat Sanctuary through through Bengal Rescue in the Philly area last year. Monkey is a total love bug by the way. She has her own room here at Avalo. Our guests come to stay and Monkey go around under the covers, sleep on thighs, and talk very loudly to anyone who will listen. Her claws are also quite sharp and pointy. She especially loves it when Emily (author of the above poem) comes to visit and meows extra loudly in excitement!

Monkey had an IBD diagnosis prior to arriving and was on a special holistic food. After checking several poop samples (also for tri-trich) and switching to a variety of good, different foods it just wasn't getting any better. Her stools were always very soft and sometimes runny. She even often appeared 'hunchy' like and sore in her stomach.

I've been wanting to try raw diet for the cats forever, but due to time and $ contrainsts, and procrastination, never made the leap. She loves to eat raw chicken but needed a more complete diet. I wanted to take her off her hard food and the canned food (which she had been quite enjoying). So, we started on Instinct Rabbit Raw diet (rabbit is a cooling meat which helps to offset inflammation). I am thrilled to report that this week Monkey has had 3 days of normal BM's as well as looking far more comfortable in her abdomen. See picture below (which only a cat person can love!)

Monkey's normal poop!

I now am trialing 4 cats on this diet - Nala a Female Bengal with bladder stones; Roo a very active Female Bengal; Chasity, and older Female Bengal with Coccidia quite some time ago and a very sensitive stomach with soft stools consistently (fecal check all good).

I am delighted to say that Nala is in and out of the box less, Chasity has normal BM's and a less red bum, and Roo enjoys the diet a lot. Monkey, a week later, still has normal poop and no hunchy look to her! She's a lot more vocal and active too! This week we tried chicken which wasn't as much as a hit. Although they all are eating the chicken they don't fancy it as much as the rabbit. We have beef but haven't opened it yet. Last week we tried lamb and it was not a success. None of them cared for it, the smell turned them off even! It even caused two of them to vomit after eating only a taste. They turned their finicky cat noses up at this choice. So, off to Aiken again on Friday to pick up more rabbit :)

Avalo Cats

Julia - Bengal  Julia came from a nice home in NC but was having challenges with cat aggression and inappropriate urination. She is now Avalo Cat Sanctuary's Queen!

Welcome to Avalo Cats first blog! We are a Cat Sanctuary for Hybrid and Domestic Felines. We offer Hybrids a home when they are just not fitting into "regular" households due to various reasons (aggression, inappropriate urination issues, medical concerns that make it difficult for them to be adopted etc). Of course, Domestics are welcome as well and if healthy with 
no "issues" we try to find them their forever home.

Liger - DSH  Liger was found as a stray and cared for by Full Gallop Farm & The Aiken Cat Alliance before being adopted by us! Liger is THE best fetcher in the house and put our dogs to shame!

It a super time of year to introduce you to our resident cats here at Avalo Cat Sanctuary. To overwhelm you right from the get-go here are the names of all of our Cats: Hoyt; Didi, Fox, Capri, Reuben, Monkey, Breezy, Bianca, Chasity, Roo, Pahktek, Dauphin, Jubel, Ses, Ame, Hidey, Liger, Layla, Skye, Zach, Nala, Puma, Baby, Calais, Baler, Wink, Tobi, TicTac, Yarts, Janie, Flint, Gary, Hamlet, Conan, Juno, Duffie, Pixie, Trixie, Hannah, Carter, Tristan, Julia, Scully, Mully, Khonsu and Kemisi. That's a grand total of 47 Felines!!

Puma - Bengal  Puma also came from NC from a retired breeder who just was not in a good situation to keep him and his siblings. He is long, slender and sleek like a cheetah and has a very distinguished Bengal meow!

 We have 2 Savannah Cats, 2 Chausie Cats and 10 Bengal Cats.  They are all spayed and neutered except "Yarts" ("stray" backwards), he has been a feral showing up consistantly for the past few months and only now is he letting me touch him at feeding time only. All of the cats certainly don't get along all of the time, but for the most part they sort their heirarchy out pretty well. One group tends to hang around the barn, another group near the front porch and then also a group on the back porch. They all can be seen following us at horse feeding time around the property hoping it will be their feeding time shortly after. Wink and Baler, the sneaks of the gang, slide in through the front and back doors to mooch quite often.

Baler - DSH  Baler's Mom was accidentally killed in a hay baler when he was only 3 or 4 weeks old. He has somewhat of an overbite but it sure doesn't affect his eating habits!

On our website www.avalocatsanctuary.com our cats will soon have their own page so you can read about each one's history and how they came to be part of our Avalo Cat Sanctuary Team. 

Please follow our blog and share our news with your friends if you love cats as much as we do! Join us at Facebook and Twitter at avalocatsanctuary for lots of cat info, pictures, breed information, health, behaviour and care tips and more!

Contact us at michelle@avalocatsanctuary.com

Time for a catnap - purr ya later!