HORRIBLE NEWS

We received word this morning that Flossy has died. For those of you who may remember, Flossy was a little all white female found starving, emaciated and very near death in a feral colony in the city's west end. We fostered her for 14 months in total, and during the course of that time she rallied back to blossom into a beautiful, dainty, precious little girl who despite her previous trials, grew to trust and love again.

Flossy's Mom is absolutely heartbroken, as are we. I've copied an excerpt of her Mom's email to me as well as sharing one of the last pictures of Flossy before the disease took over - she was SUCH a special little kitty and we are so shocked and saddened to know that after all she'd been through, her happiness on this side of veil was so shortlived.

There is comfort in knowing she was loved, so well cared for, and happy during the last few years of her life. Again, HUGE thank you's to "R", "J", and "H" who all had a hand in bringing her to safety and of course to "S" her Mom who loved and cared for her through her final days. To her furry friends Belle, Whispurr and Teddy who now miss her terribly, losing a friend is never easy.



I hope this note finds you well. I have started to write it so many times, but I just didn’t know what to say, so I kept putting off the writing of it. But it has been nagging me in the back of my mind that I need to let you know that our beautiful Flossy, our baby girl, has gone to kitty heaven.

I am heart broken. She developed squamous cell carcinoma, a very aggressive cancerous tumour in her mouth. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything we could do because of its location. Surgery to remove it would have required cutting away half of her jaw and I didn’t want to do that to her and the vet recommended against it. Because of the type of cancer it was and it’s aggression, unfortunately chemotherapy was not an option either. We did everything we could for her to keep her comfortable and happy until it was time to say good bye. I did not let her suffer. She was her beautiful, playful, happy Flossy self, right up until our final good-bye. She was ready when the time came, nuzzling into the vet’s hand, closing her eyes and going off to sleep. She was very peaceful. My vet was very touched saying she hadn’t seen anything quite like it before.

I syringe fed her for 3 months because there wasn’t anything else wrong other than it was difficult for her to eat on her own. She had a hard time picking up the food, with having no teeth other than her fangs, and then battling this big lump (the tumour) in her way. I was able to keep her healthy by using the syringe to redirect the food past the tumour to the back of her mouth where she was able to manage it quite fine. But eventually the cancer took over and wore her down. Her final 2 days when I noticed she wasn’t interested in playing any more and I looked deep in to her eyes, I knew it was time. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I bonded with Flossy more than any other pet I have had, or presently have, she was truly a very special baby girl. But for her, I knew I had to put my own feelings aside and say good bye. She was so special that even my vet had a soft spot for her, having tears in her eyes that last day as I openly wept.

TOUGH DAY

Buster's new Mom "N" has been great about sharing photos of him and his brother Blueberry since the adoption. Alot of these shots just make my day, none moreso than this next one which had me laugh out loud in the office when I opened it...........

And this is a kitty that just afew months ago found himself in the shelter system - LOVE IT!!!!!!

ONE CUTIEPIE

Cocoa is doing wonderfully! She spends a great amount of time with us and if she isn't sitting next to us, she's not very far off. Her appetite is great, her litterbox habits are perfect, and her disposition is becoming sweeter and sweeter by the day. The last few nights she's decided that sleeping with us is a swell idea (although she doesn't stay all night), and has even begun to take Rocky's perturbed attitude in stride; preferring to give him a little hiss in return for his growls and then she simply just saunters off like the typical female she is..............as if to say, oh poohey on you!

I have discovered in the past few days that she has had a series of scabs on her back and some on the tips of her ears. The back appears to be drying up and thus, clearing up but the ears I'm watching more closely. I suspect it may have been some type of allergy to the food she was being fed previously OR it may have been stress related. She's been scratching her ears quite abit but a further investigation inside doesn't show anything obvious that could be wrong. I put abit of neosporin on the inflamed area's that are on the outside and will keep an eye. If need be we can switch her to a hypo allergenic food if it's required, but since the back appears to be clearing up, I'm hoping that the ears will follow suite.

She is just a sweetheart of a little thing and so well behaved. She's settled in and that can only mean that adoption calls are right around the corner.

PROOF

I smiled to myself when a couple of you indicated after my posting that Miss Addy had been adopted, that you wanted proof of her happiness.

I'd safely say that these next couple of pictures will be the evidence your looking for. Her new Dad reports that she's doing terrific and has become a lap cat! It just goes to show that in the right environment (which for this sweet girl was a home without other cats), they can be so incredibly relaxed. These shots were affirmation that rescuing senior kitties is just as important and can be as much a happily ever after as their younger counterparts.

A TREASURE AND A HALF

Cocoa has turned out to be one of those fosters that makes it seem as though she's been here forever. After only 4 days, her acclimation into our home as been nothing short of amazing and if it weren't for the serious growling she's still doing at Rocky when he gets too close (there's no love loss there at this point), I would seriously find it hard to believe that I haven't been fostering this little girl for much longer.

She was only quarantined in her guest room 1 night............having been in a pet store for the last little while and knowing that her URI had come and gone long ago, I knew the chance of there being any risk to our boys was very low. She did AMAZING that first night, and although I've been placing her back in her guestroom during the day while we're at work, she's had free run of the whole house every night, tried to sleep with us on Night #2 and last night slept all night in our room in a cat bed without a peep of any kind!!

As I type this, she's downstairs snuggled up against hubby on the sofa watching a movie. She is a DOLL, a complete and utter little sweetheart who we both can't understand how anyone could have abandoned her. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, is so well behaved and affectionate!

I submitted her pictures and bio this evening to the rescue. There was apart of me that toyed with the idea of holding off for afew weeks since she's so happy as are we, but that's not fair to her because she deserves her happily ever after and I'm not going down that attachment road. The sooner we can find her forever family, the sooner we can save another, and most important of all, the sooner I can put my eye back on the rescue ball - anything else is not an option.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

First and foremost, here is a picture of our sweet girl Miss Addy in her new home, relaxing and having herself a well deserved nap. Her new Dad "D" has decided to rename her Marla - and reports that she's eating well, has explored much of her new home, and is already starting to show signs of settling in! *YAY*

Next up, we wasted no time in welcoming in our new houseguest who we've re-named Cocoa. She's approximately 8 years of age and has spent the better part of 4 months in a cage after her family dumped her at Animal Services. She arrived yesterday and was one of the most appreciative little kitties; giving us head butts of affection and rolling around purring wildly. She's very pretty and very sweet............

That's it for now, more to surely follow very soon. :))

WHEN RIGHT IS RIGHT

The potential adopter arrived this morning right on time (I personally love punctual people).

What can I say, except that I was smitten with him and his girlfriend who accompanied him, almost instantly. They are a young couple, serious animal lovers, and they were so thrilled with Addy the moment they laid eyes on her! For Addy's part, she was very friendly with them, came down to greet them, even rubbed against her potential new Dad's leg once or twice. He shared pictures of his home (a gorgeous looking loft in the city's west end), and we went over everything related to Miss Addy in fine detail.

If ever there was a meeting that screamed PROCEED - it was this one. I think that our little darling is going to be so well cared for and fussed over (even her new Dad's parents are anxiously awaiting her arrival), and I know that having her own space without the presence of other cats to worry about is going to make her so happy.

We'll keep in touch over the coming days so that I can know she's settling in nicely and all is well; but we are really so very thrilled with this adoption...............oh and Miss Addy just as I had hoped, let me know in her own way that she was more than ready to head home.

Goodbye our little sweetness.

ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE

I went out for a lunch break today at the office and came back to discover that there was an adoption enquiry for Miss Addy!

It is a young man and he's never had a cat before; but he's evidently had lots of exposure as his longtime girlfriend has a cat. It would be just he and Addy living together and he's already assured me that he's home a great deal of the time AND that he understands full well, she will need time to adjust to him and new surroundings yet again. He sounds very nice, very responsible (he's a graduate student with his own home and car), and best of all, his response when I asked him his desire to adopt such an older cat as a first cat - "Because I know that kitties at Addy's age are very often overlooked for adoption and I'd like a mature, quiet kitty to have as a friend" was seriously admirable.

The appointment is arranged for Saturday morning - wish us luck. My fear is that Addy will be too nervous or that because he is a male, she will just be way too fearful to even let him near her. I can't gage her reaction and I won't know for certain if this is a fit, until like every other time, I see them together and ask myself whether this person would make a good Dad for our little bumblebee.

Steve has been working with her to help her overcome her fear of men and help her to see that not all are bad.......let's hope if this potential adopter is seriously interested and wants to adopt her, that Miss Addy will be on board.

BOOKWORM BABE

Late yesterday afternoon and into the early evening, Addy decided to join me as I caught up on some reading. I was thrilled because up until now, she's preferred to do her napping on her own and although she seeks us out for affection, she's not been able to relax long enough to stay around us. Yesterday was a definite change...........she snuggled down between the pillows on the bed and was super sweet and relaxed!

She also seemed to take a real liking to my book for some reason which of course meant that I didn't get done as much reading as I had hoped *L*

We see more progress with her every day now and it's wonderful.