Dottie and Bear: Lost and Found
Read the 4 Bear updates below!!! New video! He's doing fantastic!!
Hannah pregnant, about 24 hours before giving birth to 6 kittens!
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In the spring of 2011 I got a call about a female cat that was going to be dumped out on the side of the road if someone didn’t take her in. I didn’t feel I had much of a choice at the time and went to pick her up. After putting the mom in the carrier I suspected she was pregnant and after a visit to the vet it was confirmed. I was about to have a litter of kittens born in my home for the first time!! About five weeks later on August 1st, 2011 Hannah, the momma cat, gave birth to 6 kittens! It wasn’t easy and I had to help, but they were healthy and beautiful! About 15 days later Hannah developed a serious infection and was rushed to the vet where she was not expected to live.
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Mom, Hannah, surrogate mom, Angie and all 6 kittens at meal time.
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Hannah was fighting for her life and remained at the vet so with some help from friends we began hand-feeding the six kittens around the clock. Against the odds, Hannah recovered and with the help of a surrogate momma cat the babies went back to nursing. Eventually, the two mothers shared all kitten raising duties together and the six kittens thrived!
Baby "Bear Cub"
Happily, the kittens were adopted out in pairs, with Bear and Dotty adopted by Shirl, her husband and adult son. Shirl and her husband were in their late fifties at the time. Shirl wrote long letters to me telling me how much she loved Bear and Dotty and how much joy they had brought into her life. Shirl doted on the cats and spoiled them with love and kindness. In 2012, When the kittens 1 year old, I sent out Birthday cards to celebrate. I got pictures back from all 3 homes of the now grown cats, it was great fun to see them all again. So I decided to do the same in August of 2013, but the card I sent to Shirl came back with “deceased” written on it. I went online and found that Shirl had passed away in April 2013.
Dottie
I was surprised because Shirl was so young. I just assumed that the cats were in safe hands with her husband and son and meant to contact them but time went by and it was another year later before I realized it. September rolled around and I was driving to work and suddenly thought of the two cats and had an overwhelming need to contact Shirl’s husband and make sure the cats were safe. I called Roberta, a BDRF volunteer, and asked her to get in contact with Shirl’s husband. Soon after Roberta sent me a devastating email. She discovered that Shirl’s husband had died in 2013, four weeks after Shirl! Not only that but their son had gotten in some trouble with the law and was in and out of rehab.Obviously the cats were no longer in his care.
Bear at 3 years old
I felt panic rising as I worried that the cats had been given away, brought to a shelter or if they might have been left behind outside on their own. Roberta and I went on a mission to track down Bear and Dotty and we weren’t about to give up until we found out what happened. It was 18 months after Shirl and her husband had passed away, it was not going to be easy. The cats had not been micro chipped and could be anywhere or could have been euthanized in a shelter by now.
We started out at Shirl’s old house. The new tenants had no information, but gave us the name of the landlord and caretaker. No luck. No one returned our calls. The local animal control had said they found a female cat matching Dotties description last summer that they had to euthanize. I was heartbroken to think that these hand raised and loved 3 year old cats were lost.
Roberta and I knew the only person who could tell us what happened to the cats was Shirl’s son. But no one seemed to know where he was. Because Shirl’s son had gotten into trouble with the law Roberta knew we could go to the probate court to find out the name of the lawyer that represented him, maybe he could get a message through. After emailing and waiting for two days for a response and not getting one, Roberta finally called the lawyer. Our hopes were dimmed when the lawyer said he no longer represented him and did not know where he was. He did have the name and a couple of phone numbers of a friend of the family that had taken the son in for a while after Shirl and her husband had passed away. She lived on a farm. This was the best news we had heard! Maybe the cats were on the farm. It was the last and best lead we had. I called the first number and it was disconnected, then called the second and it had a generic answering machine. I left a somewhat desperate message of our search for these two beloved cats and hoped for the best. 10 minutes later the phone rang and the woman on the other end was so happy that I had reached out to her, she still had the cats and they were well!
This kind woman had taken them in even though she really did not have room for them. She kept them safe in an attic room for the last 18 months. She told me that just the day before she was with them wishing they could have a real home and the love and attention that Shirley would have wanted for them. She didn’t want them to live in the attic room but did not know what to do. She was thrilled that I would take them back. The following weekend I picked up the two siblings and brought them home. We didn’t give up and, against the odds, we found them.
When I got them home I let them out of the carrier and they appeared to be very healthy but as Bear walked around I noticed something was not right with his back legs. His walk was awkward and labored. I took him to our vet and he was diagnosed with "luxating patella" on on both knees. You can read about luxating patella {here}. Unfortunately this is a problem that only gets worse with time. We have since taken Bear to Dr. McNamara at Hudson Highlands Medical Group in NY. Dr. McNamara, DVM specializes in orthopedic conditions and has done surgery on our rescue cats in the past. He is highly qualified to help Bear. Dr. McNamara said that Bear was just shy of a 4 on a scale of 1-4 (4 being the worst). He stressed the importance of getting this surgery as soon as possible. If Bear gets to "4" his problem will not be fixable. The surgery is estimated at $3,200. If you would like to help with Bear's continued care please click the donate button and donate today!
Read all of the updates on Bear below!!
We started out at Shirl’s old house. The new tenants had no information, but gave us the name of the landlord and caretaker. No luck. No one returned our calls. The local animal control had said they found a female cat matching Dotties description last summer that they had to euthanize. I was heartbroken to think that these hand raised and loved 3 year old cats were lost.
Roberta and I knew the only person who could tell us what happened to the cats was Shirl’s son. But no one seemed to know where he was. Because Shirl’s son had gotten into trouble with the law Roberta knew we could go to the probate court to find out the name of the lawyer that represented him, maybe he could get a message through. After emailing and waiting for two days for a response and not getting one, Roberta finally called the lawyer. Our hopes were dimmed when the lawyer said he no longer represented him and did not know where he was. He did have the name and a couple of phone numbers of a friend of the family that had taken the son in for a while after Shirl and her husband had passed away. She lived on a farm. This was the best news we had heard! Maybe the cats were on the farm. It was the last and best lead we had. I called the first number and it was disconnected, then called the second and it had a generic answering machine. I left a somewhat desperate message of our search for these two beloved cats and hoped for the best. 10 minutes later the phone rang and the woman on the other end was so happy that I had reached out to her, she still had the cats and they were well!
This kind woman had taken them in even though she really did not have room for them. She kept them safe in an attic room for the last 18 months. She told me that just the day before she was with them wishing they could have a real home and the love and attention that Shirley would have wanted for them. She didn’t want them to live in the attic room but did not know what to do. She was thrilled that I would take them back. The following weekend I picked up the two siblings and brought them home. We didn’t give up and, against the odds, we found them.
When I got them home I let them out of the carrier and they appeared to be very healthy but as Bear walked around I noticed something was not right with his back legs. His walk was awkward and labored. I took him to our vet and he was diagnosed with "luxating patella" on on both knees. You can read about luxating patella {here}. Unfortunately this is a problem that only gets worse with time. We have since taken Bear to Dr. McNamara at Hudson Highlands Medical Group in NY. Dr. McNamara, DVM specializes in orthopedic conditions and has done surgery on our rescue cats in the past. He is highly qualified to help Bear. Dr. McNamara said that Bear was just shy of a 4 on a scale of 1-4 (4 being the worst). He stressed the importance of getting this surgery as soon as possible. If Bear gets to "4" his problem will not be fixable. The surgery is estimated at $3,200. If you would like to help with Bear's continued care please click the donate button and donate today!
Read all of the updates on Bear below!!
Update on Bear! #1 |
Video of Bear walking before the surgery
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Bear had his much needed surgery on 3/17. Dr. McNamara said it was a very difficult surgery. His knee caps were so dislocated they were not sure they could get them back in place. But they succeeded on both legs. Now we have to hope that they stay in place. We will follow his care instructions to the letter to ensure the best possible outcome for him.
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Now that Bear is home he doing very well! He's able to get up and move around and use the litter box. It's hard for him to eat with his "hat" on so I hold the dish for him while he eats several time a day. I think he likes being hand fed breakfast in bed!.... I hope he doesn't expect it to continue forever!
He has some pain trying to get up and down but it's been better every day. This morning he tried to sneak by me and get out of his cage, that's a great sign! He's been resting a lot which is just what he is supposed to do. He's finished with his medication today and he is very happy about that, apparently it wasn't very tasty! He's looking a little embarrassed showing off his shaved legs! Bear is a total love and continues to purr right through this tough time, what a great cat he is!
Please note: We were able to raise enough money to get him what he needed. However the cost of his care will continue so we are extending our fundraising efforts to cover his follow up care. Thank you for your support!!
He has some pain trying to get up and down but it's been better every day. This morning he tried to sneak by me and get out of his cage, that's a great sign! He's been resting a lot which is just what he is supposed to do. He's finished with his medication today and he is very happy about that, apparently it wasn't very tasty! He's looking a little embarrassed showing off his shaved legs! Bear is a total love and continues to purr right through this tough time, what a great cat he is!
Please note: We were able to raise enough money to get him what he needed. However the cost of his care will continue so we are extending our fundraising efforts to cover his follow up care. Thank you for your support!!
Bear Update....great news!! #2
I can not be more thrilled to tell you that Bear's follow up exam with Dr. McNamara was all excellent news! Dr. McNamara said Bear was doing fantastic, better that he could have hoped for!
I don't think I've ever seen Dr. McNamara so happy ;-).....He said that Bear's surgery was so late in the deterioration of his knees that it was incredibly difficult to get the knee caps back in place. He really wasn't sure they were going to stay in place. But....success!We are not out of the woods yet, he has some healing left to do but I will continue to follow his care instructions to the letter and hopefully it all gets better from here.
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It's amazing just to see Bear bend his knees again. Dr. McNamara said Bear made his week!
Dr. McNamara said he knew it was a hard decision for us to put Bear through this surgery with an unknown outcome and he thanked me for giving him the opportunity to help this wonderful cat. I told him that Bear was not giving up and neither were we, if we could make his life better we were going to pull out the stops.
Bear also had his staples removed so it was time to remove the dreaded hats! He was very happy to get rid of the hats. He's also ready to come out of the crate but he'll have to wait a while for that!
Bear will remain in a crate for 4 to 6 weeks as his legs gain the muscle needed to hold the knee caps in place.
Dr. McNamara said he knew it was a hard decision for us to put Bear through this surgery with an unknown outcome and he thanked me for giving him the opportunity to help this wonderful cat. I told him that Bear was not giving up and neither were we, if we could make his life better we were going to pull out the stops.
Bear also had his staples removed so it was time to remove the dreaded hats! He was very happy to get rid of the hats. He's also ready to come out of the crate but he'll have to wait a while for that!
Bear will remain in a crate for 4 to 6 weeks as his legs gain the muscle needed to hold the knee caps in place.
Another great Bear update!! #3
I have more good news to report! It's been 6 long weeks for Bear but Dr. McNamara has given me permission to let Bear out for some walks around the house. He's not aloud to jump but he seems to know his limitations. He will walk to the couch and look at me when he wants to be lifted on to the couch. Then he sleeps there for hours so I'm not sure that he's getting much exercise but we are trying! His walking has improved and he is almost moving like a normal cat, it's amazing. I tried to get some video to show you but he is a tough subject to capture! I promise to have video and pictures for the next update. In two more weeks if all continues to be well he will be cage free!! He is even more loving than usual, I think he is very grateful for his new chance at life!
Bear Update - CAGE FREE!!! #4
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I love to report good news and there is a lot of it for Bear!
Bear is cage free and walking better than ever. He actually sat down the other day -- This is something he has not been able to do for a very long time! He is also able to squat in the litter box as opposed to standing while going potty.......good for all of us ;-).....His hair is FINALLY beginning to grow back so he is losing the "chicken leg" look. Bear still can't get up on the couch on his own......lucky for him he has "staff" (that would be me) to put him on the couch whenever he gives "the look" and a meow! And finally, I didn't think it was possible, but he is more and more loving! Seeing Bear walking pain free and so happy brings me to tears, I am very grateful that we could give him this gift. I've attached a couple of videos of him walking almost normally, AMAZING! And some still pictures that don't do him justice at all. Next step: Finding his forever home! Thanks to you all for another "good save"....This happy tale was worth every penny and every tear....... 
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