On Friday March 12, my best friend, a colleague Kate, and I rescued Franklin and brought him to the vet. A stressful story but hopefully with a happy ending.
A little background on Franklin and how we got there.
Franklin appeared in my colony on a February evening for dinner. I do a headcount each night to make sure all cats are accounted for and mysteriously I had one extra cat! It was dark out so I thought I was going crazy and in the near blackness of night I realized that this new cat had a white mustache. He was a little skittish but immediately bullied his way to the food and scarf down his meal. I was wary of this new animal but he seemed friendly enough and told him that if he came back tomorrow morning, I’d give him breakfast. He complied.
Franklin has been a fixture in the colony for a little over a year and really after the first 24 hours has been one of the more friendly cats I’ve ever met. He’s a stout tuxedo cat with a white mustache and a cloudy eye (more on that later). It took a week of spending time with him between meals for him to feel comfortable climbing into my lap and covering my hand with drool of happiness. On multiple occasions I’ve had to carry him away from oncoming traffic because he was too happy to be in my arms. I thought he was an older gent with glaucoma and was happy to have a new cat to care for but was pretty sure he wasn’t a feral so much as a stray that wandered into this colony.
This past week on 3/10/21 I noticed that Franklin was late to breakfast, a little listless and completely uninterested in food. His looked at the food, but came to me for skritches and went to lie down in the sun. I thought it odd that a street cat would show no interest in food so I spent a few extra minutes trying to get him to eat. During the course of the next two days I left the apartment to spend more and more time to keep him around the apartment and feed him food but I got no where fast. After the first day I reached out to the vet to schedule an appointment since I was worried that not eating for 2 days was going to be dangerous to his health and i was a jumble of nerves.
Thankfully on Friday he showed up, walking slowly and unsteadily and still showed no interest. It took 3 of us to corral him into a kitty carrier and to the vet. Franklin, who was not a particularly vocal cat while outdoors, was screaming like a baby. The vet visit had me pins and needles but the vet called midday to let me know his status.
Franklin was a very sweet cat! Though terrified while in the carrier, upon opening the cage and allowed to wander the room, accepted pets and cuddles from the vet and the technicians, confirming that Frankie was definitely not a feral cat.
What was more surprising was the vet saying the glaucoma may be secondary to something else, possibly viral. The lack of appetite seems to be tied to the swelling of his cloudy eye, causing something similar to migraine pain. As someone who gets migraines, I can attest that food is nowhere near the forefront of my interests. I’m still waiting on blood work results but hopefully the antibiotics he’s on will kill whatever is ailing him and the steroid eyedrops will help with swelling. My colleague Kelly has graciously offered to watch him since she has a spare bathroom for him to convalesce. Franklin will then be moved to my apartment when Kelly is out of town and I’ll continue fostering him until I find him a home or grow so attached to him that he becomes a foster fail.
During this experience, I am reminded how grateful I am to have friends and colleagues who care greatly for the animals I care for. Kate paid for the vet visit, I paid for his eye drops and initiated triaging Franklin, and Kelly is fostering and administering 3 sets of medications. Many thanks to friends who donated to the Rockwell Fund to ensure that the alley cats are cared for.
If you are interested in donating to the Rockwell Fund please check out: https://www.ramonsola.com/how-can-you-help for more information. All proceeds go to the feeding, housing, and preventative care for these cats.