Today goes into my records as one of the saddest in recent memory. As many of the folks here know we have been trying to adopt two rescued basenjis. We have spent just over a thousand dollars all told to get them carry cages, beds, collars, leashes, food, vet bills, 2 steel "baby gates" and a host of toys and treats. We were as committed to making this their forever home as we could get.
We have 2 cats and we made it clear to the shelter and to BRAT (Basenji Rescue and Transport) that we could only deal with cat friendly dogs. We were lied to about this. The dogs refuse to not chase the cats. The gates we got to divide our home into areas in an attempt to give the cats some ability to roam, tho never the freedom they gave up. It has become a bit like living in a state of siege. and the cats are losing.
Today Almond Nut, our little girl cat - who has lived huddled on a top shelf of one of the bookcases in my office since the dogs came here, venturing out only if she though they were gone or penned in the master bedroom - started throwing up blood. Trip to the emergencey vet clinic, during which she peed herself and cried pitiously, then was poked, prodded, x-rayed and 2 blood samples later the vet says no bad stuff like feluke or fids, but either the feline version of IBS or, more simply and more likely - Ulcers. A stress disease. No question about that being a cause. So she is in overnight, dehydrated so being given IV. Hopefully this will help the physical results, tho mental/emotional is likely not going to be good. If it succeeds without a second IV series, we'll bring her back tomorrow, along with 3 meds and orders to give her a stress (i.e. dog) free environ. Possibility exists that she may be on one or more of the meds the rest of her life. Current vet bill $684 so far, but with another close to $300 expected. Call it and even 1K.
We were gone 43 minutes. While we were the dogs, deprived of any human presence for less than 3/4 of an hour, destroyed two sets of blained,s. Blinds that bt were not even closed, but were available to be chewed on to show their displeasure at our rushing a cat off to the vet because of them, but not taking them along. Probably cost to repair/replace approximately $500 as they were custom cut cherry wood.
I have come to love these animals, truly feeling a bond. However enough is now become too much. Kisa was in tears over Almond Nut and I was so concerned I drove to the vets without my wallet (meaning No driver's license) at speeds well exceeding the legal limit and helped clean her piss off her so that she could stand to be out of her carry cage, petting her and feeling her once again butt her head against me - something she has not been able to do with the dogs ready to chase her whenever she climbed off her shelf. I can not even manage to allow the dogs in here as I type as I know my heart would go out to them and I must harden it once again.
I may not be online much in the next couple of days, partly because I will be back at work tomorrow and partly as we run hither and yon to get what "Nutter" needs to live here safely again. And then there will be the process of handing off the dogs. They are good dogs, just not cat friendly and entirely too needy of a human IN SIGHT all the time to live here.
