by Jackie Dale

As we are thrust into the chaos of kitten season, I continue to get calls and texts every single day from people needing help with kittens. However, I can’t help everyone. There is only one of me. Everyone has an excuse why they can’t step up to the plate, and everyone thinks that their reasons are the most valid. I have an extremely low tolerance for sorry excuses. Obviously, no one wants to be inconvenienced. But sometimes the situation calls for people to step outside their comfort zone. I’ve become a bit more hard lined about who I help. If I feel that the situation is one the person can handle one their own, I give them help, advice and support. But I explain that I can’t possibly take in every kitten.

One day I received a frantic call from a lady I had helped in the past. Her cat had returned home injured and needed veterinary attention. But she had no money. I got her an appointment at the vet’s and paid for the visit from my donation funds. The kitty is recovering nicely. The family is very low income so I will not ask to be paid back.

A few weeks later I got call from another lady I had helped previously. She was concerned her cat may have been poisoned as he was exhibiting some neurological symptoms. I paid for the cat to go to the vet, but poison was ruled out. The cat had a mild UTI so an antibiotic was prescribed. After a week the cat was showing marked improvement. Then, in a sad and sudden turn, the cat had a seizure and died. There are many possibilities about what went wrong with the cat, but the truth is sometimes you just never know.

I continued to work my way down a list of people who either needed a cat(s) fixed, or they needed TNR. As I was toiling away at trapping, the rescue called, and my friend drove seven adult cats to the rescue. As I am trapping and running peoples’ cats back and forth to the vets, I get an urgent call from the local senior mobile home park. An elderly couple who has been caring for a mom and her kittens have sold their mobile home and will be moving in one week. They want to find a place for mom and kittens. I didn’t want to, but they dangled a $1500 donation in front of me. And I am earning every single penny as the kittens were INFESTED with ringworm. All over, everywhere. A trip was made to the vet for fungal shampoo and oral medication. Mom and kittens were separated and Mom received meds as well. Mom kitty was quite ferocious, and she was returned to the park as soon as her ringworm treatment was complete, and she was fixed. The four kittens, all girls, are responding very well to their treatment. They are actually on a waiting list to get into a Bay Area rescue that has a ringworm unit.

That SAME DAY, the local vet’s office called and said that animal control had brought in three healthy, but young kittens. Apparently, they must be a certain age to go to animal control. I agreed to take them.

When it rains it pours!! It is still the SAME DAY when a friend calls to say she found a carrier left next to a bank of rural mailboxes in the middle of the proverbial nowhere. The carrier contained a mom and three kittens. One of the kittens was already dead. I thought perhaps the mom accidentally smothered it. No, it turns out the kittens had so many fleas on them, they were all suffering from extremely severe anemia. I have never, ever, seen so many fleas on a kitten. One by one, all three kittens died. Mom was flea treated of course, and she was sent to the rescue.

And the calls kept coming. One call was from a lady who said her son found a tiny white kitten on the street by itself at night. I accepted the kitten, and she turned out to be quite the charmer. Named Pearl, the little cutey also has a stellar personality, and the rescue is excited for her eventual arrival.

I continued my frenzied trapping, fixing, and returning while Janice drove four adult ladies to the rescue. The rescue had too many boys and were thrilled with the group of girls.
Speaking of boys, my SIL texted me a picture of a young, male tuxedo cat. He said he found it in a box at the ATM of a local bank. Of course, we brought it home where it is currently residing in a bathroom. He has been fixed and is just waiting for some spots to open up at the rescue. A friend asked me to hold a male cat because the owner got evicted and had not found a new place yet. Mr. Meow is patiently waiting as his owner claims that she will be able to get him back at the end of the month.

As I was working on my final TNR project at a local taco restaurant, the nearby college called me to say that they had trapped a cat they had been trying to trap for two years. I was lucky enough to be able to schedule the cat in for the following day. I caught four cats at the taco place. All were female, one was pregnant, and three were lactating so I expect to get called eventually about kittens. One kitten was found by the employees, and I am currently bottle feeding it.

Two people called at the eleventh hour to ask about getting female cats fixed. The rescue called and said they were looking for fixed kittens for an upcoming adoption event. The vet was AWESOME enough to accommodate all my cats. On the last day before the vet left on a one-month vacation, I took in the two females in traps and six of my kittens who made the weight. One of the trapped females was 1st trimester pregnant with SEVEN! The other lady cat came with two kittens who will remain with me once Mom is returned to the business where she lives.

It felt good to have made it through my entire list of TNR projects. The next month will be spent caring for the cats and kittens in my charge until they go to rescue. It will be a little bit of a break for me.

DONATIONS ARE ALWAYS GREATLY APPRECIATED!! All these cats eat TONS of food. Donations also help maintain a fund to pay for people who don’t have the money to pay. If you would like to make a donation, I have a PayPal account jackiejoy@hotmail[dot]com You can also support the post office and send donations/supplies via good old snail mail to Jackie Dale P O Box 1859, Reedley, CA 93654. Thank You!!

You can check out more animal rescue articles in KRL’s animal rescue section! Join our Pets Facebook group to help keep up with our pet articles.

Jackie Dale is a freelance writer who lives in Reedley with her husband of 27 years, Frank, and their 2 children. A former ballerina, Jackie now teaches yoga and fitness classes privately and at local area gyms in addition to her cat related duties.