No, not the food - Meatloaf is a cat. He is my foster cat and he is lovely.
Even when I used to write regularly, I never had a big readership here. But now since I write once or twice a YEAR, I can expect 2 or 3 people to MAYBE read what I post. For Meatloafs sake, I wish I had one of those fabulously popular blogs where all I had to do was post something and a cause would go viral.
Alas, that isn't my blog. But I'm going to talk about Meatloaf anyway. Because I love him!
Meatloaf was living in a rabbit hutch on a chicken farm in Kentucky when a young girl saw him. She had just seen an animal advocate who had come to her school to teach the kids about how to take care of and value animals. When she saw Meatloafs situation she knew it was wrong. She called the rescue group the woman who came to her school was associated with, and they sent someone out. The woman had to call the police twice to get them to come out and allow her to remove Meatloaf from the property.
Meatloaf had open sores all over his body. He had bad eye infections, an upper respiratory infection, and was infested with fleas and mites. The people who "owned" him, had no reason for why he was in the rabbit hutch and exposed to the elements. They came up with various stories about how he got in the shape he was in. He was hit by a car. He was attacked by a dog. But most likely - he was simply neglected and abused. His sores were from his own scratching and infections were from neglect.
By the time Meatloaf was transported to the Chicago area where he came into my home, most of his fleas were gone, but he still had open sores and a horrible case of ear mites. His upper respiratory infection was not completely gone and I was still putting meds into his eyes. He needed a lot of TLC. I was scared when I first saw him, I'm not a nurse and had never taken care of a cat with bloody sores and being so ill. What if he didn't want me to touch his wounds? What if he was too much for me?
There were drops for his ears, ointment for his eyes, sterile cotton and neosporin for his sores. The vet gave him an antibiotic shot and an anti-inflammatory. And there were still fleas and mites that the
vet treated him for as well. That first day when I brought him home from the vet and had him quarantined in my office, he came up to my chair, stood up and put his front paws on my legs and looked up into my eyes and into my heart.
It's taken months for Meatloaf to heal. His eyes are better, his cough is gone, there are no more fleas or mites or open sores. I am still cleaning his ears every 2 to 3 days, but everything else is fine. And it's time for him to find his forever home. If I were going to have a foster failure it would be this boy. He's sweet and laid back, he loves nothing more than to lay down on my lap and have me pet him to sleep after dinner. But if I keep him - I will not be able to foster other cats and I really want to do that. Fostering means being a place for animals that need someone to care for them until a forever home can be found for them. I want to be able to do that for other cats too.
There was a woman who wanted to meet him and I was hopeful. She sat with him, petted him, had him on her lap for the better part of an hour. But she was worried about his cataract - did that mean he might get one in the other eye? How were his teeth? She pried his mouth open to look. Obviously she was not looking for a cat (estimated to be about 8 years old) who had come from a rescue situation.
Too bad, it is her loss. But Meatloaf is still looking for a home. He isn't going to go to just anyone. A special boy like him - deserves a special home.
