losing faith in Hide

Unfortunately, thanks to my aunt and my neighbor, Silver escaped outside and Hide got loose in my grandmother's house. Silver has been hanging around for food, and Hide has been eluding my every step.

Last night, my uncle was back from teh states, and in a flying RAGE about Hide being loose in the house,
in spite of the fact that he has been a MIRACLE with the litter box,
and I was informed that either HE goes, or I go and THEN he goes *painfully.


So...
I was able to corner Hide this morning.
I have not had to use gloves even once while handling him since i caught him, even while giving him a bath, so i didn't have any.
I was armed with a towel in case he DID get frightened,
and things looked good,

until he jumped up on this toolbox and fell on a bag of coal and went BERSERK
and all i could hear was SCREAMING

I got the towel partway over him, but he turned around, and he had it out with both my hands while i tried to hold him down and wrap him in the towel..
He ripped a cubic millimiter of meat out of my thumb, and bit through my thumbnail, and clawed my arms and wrists, and peed in a neat little arc across the stairs and down the wall.
I've got some heavy bites and scratches on my left hand and arm, and my right arm.
So that try didn't work.

The second attempt was a lot more what i would have expected. After a hiss, he quietly let me pick him up and immediately started purring as i held him against my chest...

I've called animal control, and they have picked him up and have quarentined him to make sure he doesn't have rabies or anything else...

I went to the health center with a purple swollen thumb, and a perscription was SHOT at me as soon as i held it up (after being in the waiting room for TWO HOURS that is) and i was directed to the nearest pharmacy, where i was fed antibiotics before they had even finished counting them.
And the tylenoll.... THANK GOD for painkillers...

I felt like the inside of my thumb was being eaten and whatever maggots were eating it were increasing in size as they ate and that my arm was on fire and my hand was going to EXPLODE.
The scratches are deep, but painless.
The Bites are what hurt.

*sigh*

I've got a trap for Silver,
and i would like to give him as much opportunity as Hide has got, but my uncle is only gone back to the US for another week.
so chances are Silver will follow Hide to animal control very soon.
I'm going to do my best to increase Silver's chance at having a forever home

*sigh*
I seriously feel like I've failed Hide, and Silver too. They belonged together, but when one thing went right the other went wrong.


That rescue went out of my hands.

I'm sorry to hear things aren't going well. The main thing is that you're ok. Cat bites are worse than dog bites. I'm not surprised they pumped you full of antibiotics before they finished counting them! Infection is a very real thing with cats.

I hope you're able to rehouse the cats. (this probably won't go over well here, but here goes) Perhaps you could find a working farm, or hobby farm, that they could have a forever home at, once they're fixed of course. Don't need any more feral cats eh? At any rate, I wish you luck with everything.

Funny story. I went to a clinic with a cat bite a couple of years ago, a really good, bone-bruising bite. Was prescribed some very expensive antibiotics. Took them religiously. No problem. Except I subsequently discovered that I had been taking Tylenol, also in my bag, and the antibiotics were still in there, untouched. Talk about placebo...
But I agree about the pain factor. Ouch!
Ferals can be so unforgiving. You did what you could under very difficult circumstances. Try to persuade the shelter to vaccinate, worm and neuter Hide and to release him, if they cannot find a home. Which seems the most you can hope for; not many people are looking to adopt a little banshee! You may have just found them too late; I even see it in some of the cats with homes who hang out in the alley; they are never handled, outside from dawn to dusk (and sometimes all night) and although well fed, some of them are almost as agressive as ferals.

perhaps they would consider neutering Hide, and de-worming him , and then releasing him again,
and I could probably neuter and de-worm Silver without having to give up eating real food for more than a week,
but i know my uncle isn't enthused about having the cats stay in the garage.
He's had it out with me for feeding them,
saying it's MY fault that they're sticking around, and he wants them GONE

so if Hide was released, no one would want him here.

On top of that, i would be stressing my already stressed budget just a little too far trying to cover the neccessary de-wormings and de-fleaing costs, for three cats
after all these cats are in contact with my Tragic, ALL THE TIME, so whatever ails THEM would likely be passed along to Tragic.

(And all the neighbors cats)

I THINK i may have found their mother as well.... I'll post that somewhere else...

That is very sad for Silver and Hide...as for cat-bites,I've had 2 trips to Emergency because my otherwise docile sweet Tabby attacked me.
No he's not a banshee cat..just went berserk,seeing a strange cat outside.
I have a big dent in my leg after the second attack,it ended up infected.I had to see a wound-specialist,I had a hole in my leg half an inch deep :eek:
Much thank's to this Forum and Lucky,I understood the situation and Rocky's problem and although friends and my doctor would have Rocky put down(it never entered my mind!)my big sweet lumbering Tabby is still with me :love: and I take care never to have that situation happen again.

I know what you mean about avoiding certain things that cause cats to attack unexpectedly.

I know what it is for Hide, and I'll be careful NOT to have to find out what it is for silver.
I did manage to catch Silver, by the way, he got in the trap this morning.
I'm gonna call animal control and give them their trap back, but im keeping the cat!
For now.
He;s gonna get dewormed!

Well, i was talking with a health inspector on the phone yesterday, and things didn't sound good for Hide.
I had just handed him over to animal control,
and he was on his was there to be quarentined whe the health inspector called
and he was really worried that they would kill him right away and then not have the ten day quarentine!

So yeah, things sounded pretty bleak, for him.
I mean, this guy seriously thought that he'd be dead as soon as he was carried though the doors, and he frantically called them to make sure they'de be keeping him alive "For at least ten days!"
and i know they're crowded, so no huge surprises there...
I guess...
It's really not looking good for him,
But i honestly would rather him not be living out here, because this is not my house!
I would get blamed if he were to come back here.

I'm lucky my grandmother is madly in love with Tragic,
so my uncle will only go into a mad rage if she goes directly into HIS room, and the rest of the house is Ok,
but ONLY because my grandmother cries pitifully whenever Tragic doens't come home at night.

what a sad sad tale doll. you have done so much and your heart must be big. rescuing feral kitties is so demanding. i used to live on a small farm with my parents when i was a young teen... and there was always some slob dropping off unwanted pregnant cats or boxes of kittens at our place (and neighbors farms as well). they never bothered to tell anyone, just dropped in the middle of the night and ran. that's one of the many reasons it's so important to spay/neuter huh?

one particularly painful rescue involved a brother and sister cat (we assume) who showed up at our farm one night. they were so skittish that even though they were young enough that they should still have been nursing, it was very hard to even get a glimpse of them--they moved that fast. after months of feeding, woo-ing and deworming (through the food) we finally convinced them to trust us enough to be lured into our house and out of the barn. after another 3 months (!!) of hard work we managed to turn them into lap kitties. my parents and i kept the one little gal and found a home for the fella. the cute guy was living in a new home with a little girl for about 6 weeks when there was a big storm. he flipped out and attacked the little girl's face. she required plastic surgery, the cat was put down and we felt terrible. the whole situation was just awful, sad and terrible.

my point i guess is just to know that you've done a great thing in trying to look out for them. sometimes things don't work out as you want them to but your story touches my heart and i had to tell you that it's nice to know that there are people out there willing to do battle with clawed critters, enraged uncles and animal control just to look out for two little lost kitty souls.

:love: