Well, my old man Squeaky Toy finally lost to age and a little over a month ago had a massive stroke while curled up on my lap. This left our 8 year Snowcap greatly depressed and on the constant lookout for his life long brother and friend. So we adopted a new baby sister for him. She was very sweet and highly affectionate however the shelter we adopted her from was not a very good shelter. She was with them for 4 months and it was obvious by her health problems, most importantly a pulled tail injury that led to a fully paralyzed tail was also causing her to be unable to void her bladder of deficate and given the abdominal X-ray our vet took it had been going on for quite a while and was obviously not being treated.
After 3 weeks of trying all we could to return her to health she began a rapid decline which included breathing difficulties from the severe dehydration caused by her colon and infection spreading from her bladder to her kidneys and liver filling her poor abdomen with fluid. With nothing else that could possibly be done we took her to the vet and had her peacefully euthanized, after which I have begun my warpath on the shelter we received her from. Contacted Florida department of agriculture to demand inspections of the shelter and connected vet office, the better business bureau, online reviews sharing gumdrop’s story and even contacted the local news station. Since the vet I took her too has had many many issues with animals that have received care at their “low cost clinic” and many stories just like gumdrop’s from their shelter. Including a litter of puppies that were neutered at just 10 weeks of age, and not treated for the Parvo they all had nor the three different types of intestinal worms, and yet they put them up for adoption when they were infected and untreated for Parvo!
I’ll stop that rant now... but it has led to a good thing for not one but 2 very special little boys who were 2 days away from being split up and shipped off to hopefully greener shelters for new homes. Named Necco and Spree, the two are about as close to identical twins as I’ve ever seen in cats... very minuet difference separate their appearances, a few more white hairs on Spree’s back in the middle of the black spot on his shoulder and a lack of the extra black eyeliner on one eye of Necco. And they love to perfectly mirror each other. These two sweethearts were at my local and very well known shelter where yes I should have gone first I’ll admit, but for gumdrop at least she spent her last 3 weeks with love and affection out of a pound and being made as comfortable as possible for her finally moments... but I digress... they are absolutely darling! And healthy as horses which is a great thing as I can’t see snowcap doing well losing anymore friends.
The shelter was also very happy and excited that my DH and I decided to adopt both! Spree may have been fine on his own, but Necco suffers extreme separation anxiety if Spree isn’t right by him. But hey they’ve been side by side for 9 months and 66 days of that was in a pound.
As to what my 8 year old thinks of kittens a fraction his size and age but with more energy in their little toe than he has in his whole body??? He’s actually loving it, he’s taught Necco to play fetch... as in he wants the toy and Necco brings it to him, he bites and kicks it away and Necco bounds after it and brings it back to him (snowcap is only wondering why we didn’t learn that trick as quickly as Necco) and he’s doing his best to teach them both the classic rag doll”flop” and all about the easy Hakuna Ma Tata way of life that he believes in.
In the photo below, Spree is on the left and Necco is on the right 😻
