Anywho I had given up the idea of taking him home until I noticed him getting sick. The first day I noticed it I didn't really say much because I didn't want my bosses and my fellow co-workers to think I was a crazy cat lady. I had already been deemed "horse-whisperer" by one of them, and that was enough. The next day though, he had gotten much much worse, he wasn't eating or drinking, not even flinching for a can of smelly tuna. At this point I knew something was wrong and decided that he needed to go to the vet. I was really the only one capable of doing this, even though I really couldn't afford it I knew he would die if he didn't get some help.
He had a serious upper respiratory infection, and after lots of liquid antibiotics and some tender love and care he started to eat and drink again. Even so, he wasn't gaining much weight and I noticed that he would still cough and choke when he ate and drank, so we took him back to the vet. At this point he wasn't even half the size of his brothers that were still on the farm, his coat was rough and messy; he looked really pathetic, and for a lack of words, half-dead. This is when the vet noticed his cleft palate, and the most serious case of ear infections that she had ever seen. She was shocked; she had never seen a hole like this so far back in the roof of the mouth and so far off to the side. She gave the bad news that without surgery, he would one day get aspiration pneumonia, at which point there would be nothing we could do to save him. She referred us to another vet for a consultation, and started treating the ear infections, which would take weeks.
After thinking about it all night, I came up with the idea of the rabbit feeder. Like I said, I had a rabbit as a kid and I knew that his head needed to be elevated in order to not choke on his food and water. The next day, a Saturday, Ashley and I would take turns taking him to the feeder, playing with the little ball so the water would come out, and putting the water to his lips so he would understand what it was. By Saturday night, he had it down. He drank nearly the whole bottle that first time.
Our new vet, Dr. Chris Runnels of the Lititz Vet Hospital was nice enough to wave our $118 consultation fee because he was a rescue, and because she fell in love with him in the first minute she was checking him out. He really is something, all sprawled out on the vet's table...purring, who couldn't love him?!?!? To make this very long story short at the end, she is going to do the surgery with some very generous breaks included. She is cutting the costs that she can and neutering him at the same time so we don't have to pay for anesthesia twice (most exspensive cost).
We are hoping to get the surgery done well before the holidays because he will need 2 weeks of recovery in which he will be fed a feast of wet food only. I know those two weeks will be the happiest of Prudence Sunshine's(the other feral cat) life.
I never thought that this sort of thing would actually work, I just posted it on facebook with a "what the hell" kind of attitude. We had already planned on paying for the surgery, no matter how much we had to scrimp and save and give up for ourselves. I may be a crazy cat lady but little Zorro is really something else, and he deserves a long and happy life with us, and we can't picture it without him now. I know that while Prudence growled at him in the beginning when he was just a sick little rat fink boy, she loves playing tag and chasing him around now. With surgery, I imagine they will one day be boyfriend and girlfriend, and Prudence would surely miss him if he did't make it. And if you don't know Prudence you should know that her liking anyone or anything is a miracle! Thanks for looking, Zorro appreciates the attention! Ashley and I appreciate it more than you could know. We have great friends and family to support us and our furry little ones!
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