Shelter Volunteer Bites & Meet The Feline Odd Couple

It’s raining kittens at the shelter and lots are being adopted but many, many more homes are needed. They are too adorable. Check out the latest kitten photos on Facebook at NewRochelleHumaneSociety and share if you can.

I have to admit I was nervous entering the room where my muse, Angel Gray Boy used to live. Would his cage be empty? Would I burst into tears? Was his spirit still there? I took a deep breath and marched over to the cage, my insides roiling to think a cold metal cage was his last “home”. Nothing of his energy remained. I peeked inside the cage and saw no new cat. It’s fairly dark inside and I opened the door. A pair of bright yellow eyes from a solid black stared back. He hissed. He’s a story for another day.

This week’s adventure as a shelter volunteer involves cat bites. I’m used to handling cats and in the past six weeks I had a perfect record of no nips, bites or scratches until last week. I lost my focus for a second by the cage next to Gray Boy’s and was a victim of re-directed aggression. A tiny, claw swipe, a drop of blood and my gut said uh oh. You can how small it was from the image. Small can be dangerous because the skin quickly heals trapping bacteria underneath. The following morning, there was a bit of swelling, redness and bruising but it was painful and I suspected the most common culprit of cat bites/scratches, the bacteria Pasteurella multocida. The shelter cat is perfectly healthy. Just about every healthy cat carries the bacteria and so, I drove to our local hospital.

I’m lucky to live near a small hospital where it’s rare to wait and it’s like going to a five star hotel. After getting settled on a cozy hospital bed and having one person after another cater to me, I wanted to stay for a week! Yeah, it’s been an exhausting time. The delightful internist chatted with me about pets and sent me home with good old penicillin, 4X daily for a week. Apparently the the old school antiobiotic works best for this bacteria. It’s rough on the digestive flora so I’m on probiotics as well. For more details about cat bites and scratches see our article Killer Cat Bites.

The take away is: if you’ve been bitten or scratched by a cat and your symptoms get worse over night, please seek medical attention

Well of course a little nick won’t stop my shelter visits and there’s a pair of bonded cats from the hoarding situation I’d like you to meet.

They’ve come a long way and I’ve grown quite fond of the very ODD COUPLE. They remained nameless for weeks and I couldn’t think of anything suitable so they became Pa, the older gray and white boy and Babe, the tiny, younger brown tabby boy. Both are very affectionate considering their past and bonded. The white parts of their fur are still stained with urine and excrement from being caged without litter boxes. They are improving every day and unlike many of the other hoarding cats are well socialized.

Babe is tiny with dwarfish legs and the same rabbit soft fur of Lil BUB. He’s about three-years-old while Pa is an older mancat of about ten. It pains me to think how many years he spent locked up but whoever adopts him will reap a bonus amount of joy in his remaining golden years. Babe boldly leaps out of his cage but Pa is reticent to jump, yet. Both love giving headbonks but Babe is king of the cuddlebugs. Pa is feeling better after some dental work and the future looks bright for this true #AdorableAdoptable odd couple.

If you have any questions about any of the cats, email me [email protected] or visit www.NewRochelleHumaneSociety.org Thanks for sharing. If you pin the graphics, they can be automatically be shared on Facebook.

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