We do not know what killed Minerva, the veterinarian on duty explained Minerva did not appear to have suffered from trauma of a vehicle hitting her; however, she was exhibiting signs of having maybe drink some antifreeze common among feral cats and some dogs. Sally and I soaked in this knowledge, my mind, thoughts, feelings did not want to go beyond the possibilities of just that. Minerva in her wondering found a puddle of coolant under a vehicle and lapped some up; unknowingly, poisoning herself. And we had two kittens, Wilburforce (aka Furr Ball) and Runt, our favorites, unaccounted for.
A deep sadness sank in our hearts when we gave the vet permission to euthanize Minerva. Sally and I stayed with her in a quiet office, stroking her soft fur, when it dawned on me this was the first time Minerva had anyone hold and pet her. And even now as I type this, it tears, rips, and crushes my heart to think about. Knowing especially, I felt, Sally and I were so close to domesticating Wilburforce and Runt for possible adoption.
That has been our goal ever since our six black cats had moved onto our front porch and made a home of our home. Yavapai Humane Society would not take them as feral cats; nevertheless, they had an awesome program called ‘Barn Cat’.
http://www.yavapaihumane.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1099
In short, after Sally and I discussed it, she set her sights with some help to catch and have our black cats spayed or neuter and released back at our home. A win, win. We didn’t have to worry about new kittens and our six black cats could stay with us. We would take responsibilities for them. Sally worked so hard to catch them and at this time we still have one, Houdini, that needs to be caught. He’s the wily slick one. In addition, elderly friends of ours down the street have been working with Sally with their crop of feral cats.
Having said all this, I want to share that over the last several months our family of black cats have become our family members, each with different personalities and antics, all with the lust for life. We lost four of the six and now we have another one, a gnarly, battled scared, one eye black cat we named Moshe (aka Ghost). And so I want to close by saying have your family pets spayed or neutered. Keep your area cleared of anything that is poison. And have fun with them.
Please visit;
http://chuckables.artistwebsites.com/
http://jeromeartists-davidson.blogspot.com/
I admire you fo what you are doing.
ReplyDeleteWhen finally after some 15<16 years I felt it was better to put down the cat who adopted me I know the sadness of that situation.