Thankful Thursday.....

We are gonna let mom take this since we weren't really involved. MOL

I live about a 20 minute drive from work. Normally our office manager is the first one into the office, but for whatever reason she was running late on Monday. I got to work, parked and walked up to the front door. Next to the pillar in the mulch was a pile of black fuzz. Animal shaped and not moving despite the noise I was making. I was sure whatever it was had passed. However, I stepped closer and said "hey baby" and a black and white head popped up and gold eyes stared at me for a second. Then the skinniest cat I have ever seen (and I used to work with hoarding and abuse cases with our humane society) stood up and walked over under a bush. HOLY CARP!!!

I opened the front door, turned off the alarm and ran back to my car for the cat carrier I keep in the hatchback (and people laugh at me for that). I walked to the bush and the cat didn't move so I reach in, pulled her out and put her in the carrier. OK - now what???

Thankfully the vet that works with our rescue likes me. :)  I called and asked "are you booked this morning?" They squeezed us in between appointments and I took off...thankfully I work in a small office and they all know the rescue work I do on the side (plus the one partner has a dog and so does the office manager).

"Name?" "I haven't thought about it." "Gender?" "Didn't check." "Background?" "No idea - just found her."

Rob (their vet tech that I adore!!) took me back. Low temp but purring like MAD!! Rob gave her a treat which she barely stopped to chew. Weighed her - she weighed 4 pounds!!!  OMG.....  The vet comes in and checks her over - can't check her heart, she won't stop purring. No id, no microchip, not spayed.  So we discovered she has lice (ewww) which after some research I discover comes mainly from neglect/unsanitary situations (and can be treated with Frontline - yeah!) [and is species specific - which means I can't get it....though I did spend Monday with the "itches"]. She has a limp and her back left leg is "jacked up" as Dr T put it. The vet says it feels like something we should x-ray but is further down the list of things to worry about. We gave her fluids and a name - Licorice.

Oh - and the really important thing: her FIV/FeLV test was....NEGATIVE!!!!

Now, keep in mind that at that time I had: my crew. The space kittens in the bathroom. The s kittens in the playpen in the living room.  And the lice that Licorice has can be passed cat to cat or through common blankets. Great....  so, I set her up in a crate in the garage until I got home from work. I hated the idea of her there overnight and came up with the idea of putting her and the traveling crate in the bathtub. She stayed in the crate so no exposure to the space kittens but she was upstairs in the a/c.

The space kittens went back to the shelter on Tuesday morning. The 3 bigger ones will be spayed/neutered on Thursday and go to the adoption floor. The smaller two will go back into foster care. And, since I was going to stop fostering for this group anyhow, Licorice gave me the ability to say I can't take anything for the time being.

So, short term: she is eating, though she does seem to struggle to bite down (hard to explain) and doesn't seem overly attracted to the canned food (I tried the kitten version of fancy feast). She has been treated for the lice which should kick in by the end of the week. She has been dewormed and will be vaccinated tonight. From there it is just slowly put weight on her. Then x-ray the leg (more for informational purposes - I suspect it is an old injury) and get her spayed. The vet wasn't able to pin down age other than to say "she isn't a kitten and isn't 20" - awesome. LOL   She will make someone a wonderful companion. She is happy to see me when I walk into to spend time with her....makes biscuit, purrs and will (slowly) get up and come over for scritches.

Some of the comments on facebook said she was lucky I found her....there was no luck involved on my part - she was sitting right there.....I can't ignore that (though now I have to wonder.....last summer they found out where I live [the alcohol kittens] and now they know where I work).

 Wish us luck. I have a feeling she is a long term project....but once she is healthy I suspect it won't be too hard to find someone who wants this super sweet girl in their life.