It's a bit of a story of course how these two became part of the Wright family (that's Monty on the left, Butch on the right - photo taken 18/1/07 ) so I'll attempt to be brief. It started when Cat became a volunteer for the R.S.P.C.A. working in the admissions department with all types of animals from your usual dogs, cats, guinea pigs etc as well as ducks, pigs, goats, baby possums, even pigeons.
November is the beginning of kitten season and the centre is inundated with masses of the little blighters, most of which end up being euthanased. The chances of them making it through to adoption are much improved if they can be fostered to a certain weight which will then enable them to be de-sexed and vaccinated etc. So, Cat bought these 2 incredibly small and cute babies (much smaller & cuter than the above photo!) home for us to do our part to help the cause.
I headed off to Japan mid November, comfortable with the concept that soon after I returned "Boodge & Woodge" (from "aren't you cute!? boodgey woodgey woodgey!") would be heading back to the centre, having gained enough weight for the snip and the needle and then into the pens for the chance to brighten up some kid's life for Christmas. "What happened?" I hear you ask, dear reader. RINGWORM, that's what!
Apparently, it's very unusual for animals to contract it at the R.S.P.C.A. centre. We just happened to be the lucky ones! Cat took them back there to be treated and was met with the stark reality of life in the world of stray animal management - "we'll have to put them down". The alternative? Take them back home and treat them (daily applications of ointment, bathing every couple of days, tablets and quarantining them from the rest of the house) for 28 days and if they recover, then they can be put back into the system for adoption.
I arrived back from my trip to discover the lounge room had given birth to a makeshift kitten house approx. 6 ft long by 3 ft high constructed of numerous cardboard cartons and 2 rolls of packing tape! Contained therein the two patients one of which had virtually no hair on his face and looked in a pretty bad way. We then discovered that ringworm has a 2 week incubation period before it shows up as a rash - basically, you've had it for 2 weeks by the time you know you've got it! Of course, leading up to this, the boys had been running around the house, climbing all over the dog and been in constant contact with Cat. So now she and the dog had a couple of suspect skin irritations!
The long and the short of it is that the boys recovered and after this extended period of treatment, we succumbed and weren't able to let them go back for adoption. So we did what any self respecting animal lovers (read "suckers") would do and adopted them ourselves!
You'll be pleased to know that both Cat and Max the dog also made full recoveries, however we now have Patch the 21 year old blind, deaf geriatric cat permanently quarantined in the laundry with a pretty severe case of ringworm - but that's another story........
November is the beginning of kitten season and the centre is inundated with masses of the little blighters, most of which end up being euthanased. The chances of them making it through to adoption are much improved if they can be fostered to a certain weight which will then enable them to be de-sexed and vaccinated etc. So, Cat bought these 2 incredibly small and cute babies (much smaller & cuter than the above photo!) home for us to do our part to help the cause.
I headed off to Japan mid November, comfortable with the concept that soon after I returned "Boodge & Woodge" (from "aren't you cute!? boodgey woodgey woodgey!") would be heading back to the centre, having gained enough weight for the snip and the needle and then into the pens for the chance to brighten up some kid's life for Christmas. "What happened?" I hear you ask, dear reader. RINGWORM, that's what!
Apparently, it's very unusual for animals to contract it at the R.S.P.C.A. centre. We just happened to be the lucky ones! Cat took them back there to be treated and was met with the stark reality of life in the world of stray animal management - "we'll have to put them down". The alternative? Take them back home and treat them (daily applications of ointment, bathing every couple of days, tablets and quarantining them from the rest of the house) for 28 days and if they recover, then they can be put back into the system for adoption.
I arrived back from my trip to discover the lounge room had given birth to a makeshift kitten house approx. 6 ft long by 3 ft high constructed of numerous cardboard cartons and 2 rolls of packing tape! Contained therein the two patients one of which had virtually no hair on his face and looked in a pretty bad way. We then discovered that ringworm has a 2 week incubation period before it shows up as a rash - basically, you've had it for 2 weeks by the time you know you've got it! Of course, leading up to this, the boys had been running around the house, climbing all over the dog and been in constant contact with Cat. So now she and the dog had a couple of suspect skin irritations!
The long and the short of it is that the boys recovered and after this extended period of treatment, we succumbed and weren't able to let them go back for adoption. So we did what any self respecting animal lovers (read "suckers") would do and adopted them ourselves!
You'll be pleased to know that both Cat and Max the dog also made full recoveries, however we now have Patch the 21 year old blind, deaf geriatric cat permanently quarantined in the laundry with a pretty severe case of ringworm - but that's another story........
1 comment:
Well said.
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