After reading about Catnip's black and white kitty I decided to tell
you all about my rescue cats.  Could use a little advice too.

Knew of a "breeder"/collector who lost her home and had to move all her
cats (Scottish Folds) out in an old decaying barn in the middle of
nowhere.  It was like "out of sight, out of mind"...every week or so
she would bring out a bag of cheap dry food and leave it.  Coyotes,
raptors, dogs as well as below zero temps and starvation shrank the
group to 7.  Finally my girlfriend and I drove out there and over the
course of 2 days caught 4 of them.  Between her and I and a sympathetic
vet we got them their shots, wormed,  and the grey smoke spayed.  She
lives alone so took 3 and kept them on her front (enclosed) porch away
from her other critters, and I took the one that needed antibiotics and
seemed to be sick and kept her in the upstairs bedroom that used to be
my son's.  Hubby wasn't thrilled, but went along as she wouldn't be
permanent (would NOT have approved of what we'd done---I only wish we'd
done it far sooner).  Now, we call her Matty because she was one, solid
piece of felt.  I kept her on antibiotics for 2 weeks with no change.
Difficulty breathing, blood and sludge coming out of nose, doesn't
appear to be able to smell although eats very well.  The vet said it
looked to be long term infection from bad teeth that went up into her
nasal cavety.  Several were removed and she was put on more antibiotics
and I put a vaporizor in her room (oh, and while she was under the vet
de-matted her!).  Now, 2 weeks later we still hardly see a difference.
She is affectionate and loving and, as I said, eats well, but still
sneezes bloody snot all over the place and she breathes like she is
extreamly congested.  We have adopted 2 of the cats out together, a
calico to a nice retired nurse, and the longhaired smoke shouldn't be
hard, she is so sweet.  With Matty's problems no one is going to want
her.  Does anyone have experience with this?  What more can we do to
help her beat this?  Could it be something we aren't thinking of?  The
vet doesn't think it is viral and none of the other cats have anything
like it, nevertheless they are still kept seperate.

One of the cats left at the barn has been adopted too because we
brought their plight forth and the other we intend to go back and
capture.  Poor thing is up there all alone now.

None of us knew how bad the situation had gotten until we started
talking together.  This person obviously is not very forthcoming about
her cats and to all intents and purposes is a normal functioning member
of our little society here.  She is quite angry that somebody took her
cats...she wanted to start breeding again.  The boy that's up there is
one of her studs.

Ok, that's it for now.

PatM