saints welcomes sir brutus (and i did not name him)
Carol · Jun 21, 2010
he has an interesting and all too familiar story.
brutus, a plain black, wild tom cat lived outside of a house for 9 years...when the house sold 4 years ago, the new family knew he was there...and there he has been living for almost 13 years. he survived by eating birds and whatever he could find. he disapperared back in january...he showed up again several months later...weak in the bad end, thin and matted. the family started feeding him but could not get near him or touch him.
eventually he let them pet his head and they contacted a group in vancouver who help homeless street cats with vet costs and TNR (trap neuter and release) the plan was to catch this old street cat, get him the vet care he needed and then put him back outside and continue to provide him with food...this group does not run a shelter or have the ability house cats long term.
once he got into the vets several things were discovered...he was anemic, he had a poorly healed pelvic fracture which now was causing him pain with arthritis, he was suffering from kidney disease and dental disease and needed his canines extracted, he was unneutered BUT he had an untraceable tattoo (this happens occasionally, it is a little known fact in rescue...cats who go into the cheap vets which rescues can afford for neutering or spaying are done on an assembly line basis with 20 or 30 cats sedated in a row and pushed thru the line to get their eventual spay or neuter, vaccines, tattoo's...just let one interruption to the assembly line process...a question asked of the vet...a telephone call that has to be answered and a cat gets actually pushed thru without getting his or her spay/neuter but does pick up their vaccines/tattoo as the line continues to move thru...hey it happens when you surgically alter that many cats in a few hours.... shit happens)
anyway, the reality is...brutus apparently got a tattoo and an ear notch in 1996 but somehow missed the neuter. i bet he was an adult street cat TNR'd way back then. what is really sad about this is...brutus is not a feral cat...he was once somebody's pet who has since been living and surviving on the streets for most of his life, right into his very old age...that has got to suck big time for him.
anyway again...this particular groups vet that took some time examining him and doing diagnostics said that brutus is somewhere between 15-20. his back end is painful and weak, he wobbles and falls over, plus he is sick with kidney disease.....the group providing his vet care have no where for him to go...the family providing him with food are unable to let him live in their home...so where was poor old and wrecked brutus to go?
the only option was back on the street...no one wanted that for him so brutus is now our newest saint living temporarily in the medical room in a temporary cage.
we really do not have room for him but then we really could not turn him away.
and this is how shelters and sanctuaries get overful...too many really sad lives are trying really hard to keep living out there.
et tu brutus?
welcome little old man.
how is brutus doing?