Felicity’S HAPPY ENDING
Another sick cat saved from the SPCA by AAS...
Much has changed at the SPCA since this article was written, some for the better and some for the worse. Read more: The BC SPCA Now.
We first saw Felicity at the SPCA nine days after she had been surrendered. She was in a communal cat room, facing the wall, her nose only mere centimeters from it, her entire body shaking uncontrollably. She was the picture of a terrified creature trying desperately to pretend she was somewhere else.
When we returned to the SPCA the following week to get her we were told she was sick with upper respiratory disease. She was depressed, with great long strings of drool coming out of her mouth. She was sold to us with no medication, told to simply wipe her nose with Q-tips. The first thing we did as soon as we got her out of there was take her straight to our vet.
Our vet diagnosed Felicity with severe calicivirus. She was extremely underweight and likely had not eaten for most of the two weeks she had been at the SPCA, if at all. Because the cause of her illness was viral, the most we could do was give her supportive therapy. We administered fluids under the skin to her twice a day, gave her vitamin supplements and antibiotic injections to fight the secondary infection caused by the horrible calicivirus ulcers in her mouth that caused the drooling and inability to eat. It was next to impossible to even force-feed Felicity, as any manipulation of her mouth resulted in gagging, retching, and even more drooling. The SPCA had left her like this to die of painful starvation.
We worked with Felicity for the better part of three weeks, giving her medication and fluids, offering her food that was always rejected, watching with despair as she continued to lose weight. But she was a fighter. Even at her weakest, she struggled to carry on, and complained at every medical treatment we administered.
And she survived. She lost over three pounds more, but she pulled through, she fought, and she recovered. It took almost two months to get her back on track, and another two months to get her back to a healthy weight. Today she is a healthy, beautiful cat with her whole life ahead of her.
Felicity got lucky. It is a miracle that she survived the disease-filled SPCA. The only reason she survived is because AAS removed her and nursed her back to health. The SPCA was not giving Felicity any medical treatment that we were made aware of, and worse, it told us NOT to take Felicty to a vet. It also has not once phoned us to see how Felicity is doing.
We wish we could help all the Felicitys of this world, but there are not nearly enough resources. For every "Felicity" that is lucky enough to be saved, thousands of others never make it out of the SPCA. SPCAs are overcrowded and disease- ridden and kill’s animals because they won’t stop the lucrative business of disposing of unwanted pets.
AAS rescues as many Felicitys as it can, but we don’t have the funding and homes that it would take to save more. If Felicity could speak, she would ask that you treat any animal in your life as if they were your dearest friend. No one would ever abandon their friend to a stainless steel cage and an unknown fate at the hands of pet disposers.
