Happy September to you. It’s back-to-school time for wee ones of our species…and back-to-the-field time for some of our feral friends.
Although I usually update you on community cats who end up staying at Tabby’s Place, the heart of our TNR program is the feline majority who make it from T to N all the way to R — as in, “return.” For every Baloo, Bubbles (pictured below) or Adelaide, there are several feral cats who return to the great wide open. It’s a triumphant reentry to the outdoor life they know and love…only this time, without parasites, dental disease, or the opportunity to have kittens.*
The great return was a long time coming for one brave tabby this month. When we met Lazarus, he looked like a long, striped raisin.
The poor boy was so dehydrated, he’d need to live into his miraculous name. Battered by one of the worst upper respiratory infections we’d seen, Lazarus had his eyes squished shut, his fever soaring, and wheezes wrenching out of his emaciated frame. If we hadn’t scooped him up when we did, Lazarus surely wouldn’t have seen autumn.
But there were brighter colors ahead for our brave boy. Over six patient weeks, our team treated Lazarus with antibiotics, fluid therapy, and extraordinary patience. The sickly bag of bones was reborn into a robust, rollicking picture of health and strength. Healed, neutered, and eager to get back to living, Lazarus finally returned to the outdoors in early September.
Happy, healthy Lazarus returns to the field with the promise that he’ll never get into that kind of trouble again. He’s joining one of our well-monitored colonies at a local farm, and the folks there love him dearly. Since Lazarus is a Tabby’s Place TNR cat, if he should have any health problems in the future, he’ll come back to us for treatment, to live and thrive again.
And that, wonderful sponsors, is all thanks to you. On behalf of Lazarus, Bubbles, Baloo and all the Tabby’s Place TNR cats, have a beautiful September. Thank you for your generous love!
*And in the meantime, we’ll continue to scoop up those feral-born kittens and find them loving homes — as we did for tiny Lana, pictured above, this month. My apologies for no Lazarus photos, but I trust you’ll understand that this feral hunk was a bit camera shy!