Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Leo Pictures

Here is a new picture of Leo the Lionhearted enjoying his new favorite hobby ~ mealtime! I really think he'd eat non-stop if given the chance. He's a skinny guy under all of that long hair, so he has some missed meals to make up for. You can see his hair is very short on his head and neck, that's where his scabs were from his mange problem. He also has some areas on parts of his feet (from grooming) that are affected too. Everything appears to be healing back in; we'll get the results of a skin scraping that checks for mange mites today, and a fungal culture within the next couple of weeks. Once his mange problem is resolved, we'll move on to do some bloodwork and neuter and rabies vaccinate him too.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy July 4!


Here's wishing you and your families a wonderful and safe July 4,
and as always, please keep your critters inside today and don't forget - spay and neuter!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

He Has A Guardian Angel...

When I heard the phone message asking for help for this little guy, I said "yes" sight unseen. Labeled "feral" and with a mange-type skin condition, he really didn't stand a chance in the county shelter just before the July 4 weekend. And he wouldn't let anyone handle him either, a huge strike against his chance at a home.

This tough-guy feral cat is really just a sweet old tom cat who can't see because his eyelids are swollen due to the bad skin. He growls and hisses when he hears anything resembling a cage door opening (like his new crate "home" with us) but a few soft words have him quietly waiting for someone to hold him. It looks like he does have mange, which the shelter started to treat and we will continue. His eyes look a little less ouchy today after some antibiotic eye ointment treatments which he easily took to here. He's eating well and enjoys lap time and petting, he even has a pretty good purr motor!
It will take some time to heal all of the wounds from what this guy has gone through. He already looks like a changed cat from the photo you see above (his shelter photo). I hope to post some pictures of him in the next couple of days. I don't know what his name will be, but for now I've been calling him "Leo the Lionhearted" because it's a brave kitty that went through everything he did. Thank you Renee and all of you shelter angels, who work so hard on behalf of the animals ~ "Leo" and those like him wouldn't be here without you!