New Cat Alert! Found on Halloween.

So me and Sophia were going for lunch in Gadong on Friday and we heard this mewing coming from the rubbish dump. This emaciated cat was crying with all its might, trying to get noticed. Well, we noticed. I didn't really think of bringing it home with me yet, but the idea just grew on me during the day, and at 5pm I decided that if I can still find the cat I will take it home with me.

Well, as luck would have it, it was still there. We confirmed it was a she and Sophia helped commandeer a box from the office to bring her back in. This was a truly miserable looking cat, she has been starving for a while and was all bones and skin. She was even skinnier than Tuffie was back then.

She was quite filthy and besides the skeletal appearance she also had a few missing teeth, sniffles with yellow-green snot (eew) as well as ear mites (double-eew) and a whole host of crawlies in her fur (eew-ack). Oh not to mention internal wormies too.

Day 2: Look at that bony leg! When we got home she just kept crying...definitely was one sick kitty. Before I brought her to the vet I gave her a dose of de-flea and a quarter of a de-worming tablet. She was as light as the kittens so I decided to go with a kitten dose. The vet suggested to dose her once every week for 3 weeks. He also prescribed 2 meds for her runny nose.

I decided to give her a bath after the visit to get rid of all the grime and crawlies on her...that was quite the experience. I've never given Tuffie a thorough bath as she was always very clean, but this was different. So I ran some lukewarm water, grabbed the flea shampoo and the cat. There was quite a bit of yowling and wriggling, and when I cracked out the hair dryer she flipped out. The sun chose that day to hide in the clouds, so there she was sitting in the shade shivering :( She had not eaten much during the day and her body temperature was a bit low while at the vet...

...but once she settled down, she managed to get the appetite for food, and I was much relieved. This pic was taken just after she got dried off. What a difference clean fur makes. :)

Day 3, Sunday: Starting to get a bit of caturday on us, eh? I guess she felt way better, as she could stretch and roll and yawn. She got rid of a huge worm and seemed much relieved by it ;)

Despite this I had to give her another bath, but the sun was out and it was nice and hot. I also made sure the water was warmer this time, as I want to really get rid of all the fleas. So ensues the second round of yowling and splashing, and the dreaded hair dryer again. But the second round was worth it, got rid of most of the fleas.

Well, here we are at day 4, still skinny, but her fur is finally fluffy and clean. :D Also eating for 3 cats apparently. She's got a lot of weight to catch up.