A Feline Turn of Events: My Life with Cats

I didn’t have any cats until my mid-30s when someone dumped a heavily pregnant cat outside my neighbor’s house with a carrier and cat food. My neighbor already had 5 cats of their own, so they couldn’t offer the pregnant cat a home.

How I ended up with Cats

As for me, I was living with my father who is not a pet lover. He didn’t say a word, which I knew meant I couldn’t bring the pregnant cat into our house. So, I tried to feed her every day outside the house until the day she gave birth to 4 kittens.

I learned from the internet how to find homes for them, but I wasn’t sure if the adopters were genuine. I managed to find homes for 2 kittens but was stuck with the remaining 2 kittens, which grew up to be 1-year-old cats.

One went missing and the other, a male, I named “Ah Boy”. Unfortunately, his life was cut short when he was attacked by a pack of dogs. His injuries were serious. I took him to the vet, but after a week of medication, his condition worsened and the vet suggested putting him down. Without experience, I made the hard decision and agreed. I hope I could have done better for him. I’m sorry.

As I did not have knowledge about spaying and neutering, the delay resulted in the female cat becoming pregnant again with another 3 kittens. This time, I learned how to deal with it. Once the kittens were about 4 months old, I quickly sent the female cat to be spayed, followed by the 3 kittens when they reached 6 months old, as all 3 were females.

From then on, I took part in cat volunteer events, learning how to trap stray or feral cats for Trap-Neuter-Release programs, a humane way to keep the community cat population under control.

I couldn’t offer them a home, but my neighbors were supportive and allowed me to place kitty litter boxes and food for them. As of now, the mother and 2 of her girls have passed away due to old age. The only one left is a girl named Panda, who is now 17 years old.

She had a major illness when she was about 8 or 9 years old. Her whole face and gums turned yellow. She was diagnosed with jaundice. I took her to the vet and she was hospitalized there for 2 weeks. The bill was luckily affordable as the vet clinic knew me as a volunteer.

Recently, in August 2023, she had another setback. She stopped eating and was always lying down, restless. I could see in her eyes that she seemed to be giving up. I made an appointment with the vet and got her there as soon as possible. I asked the vet to hospitalize her and examine what was wrong with her.

They took a blood test and force-fed her to make sure there was food in her. She was also put on drips as she was dehydrated. She hadn’t been eating due to old age and gum problems, which caused pain during eating.

After a week of care at the vet clinic, she was back and active again. I hope she can still enjoy as much as she can. I’m happy to foot the vet bill as long as she fights on.

In my next topic, I will go through Cat Lover Vs Cat Hoarder. During my volunteer days, I witnessed things that I can’t forget.