How I became One-Eyed Willy...
It was a week after July 4th and I was ready to head out on a family vacation when I got a call from The Montgomery County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to help an elderly lady that was reported by neighbors for neglecting a colony of cats and kittens. I have seen this before and knew that my family vacation had to be put on hold or lives would be lost.
Upon arrival, I saw about 20 cats scatter. The woman explained that she had been feeding most of the cats for about 20 years. There was an old building on her property and I asked if we could take a look inside to see if we could find any kittens, and she agreed and let us in. We were there for about 10 minutes and my legs started to itch. There was no electricity, it was very musty inside so I walked back outside to diagnose my itching and it looked like I had black socks on. There were hundreds of fleas on my legs! Any cat or kitten that had entered the building would only have survived a short time because of the flea bite anemia that would have occurred.
Willy after being rescued and post eye surgery!
So black socks and all, I re-entered the building and rescued 9 kittens. All were very dire in appearance, three in particular. Two had severe eye infections that enucleations (an eye removed) had to be performed, all had eye infections, one had severe flea bite anemia, all had worms, fleas, upper respiratory infections, ear mites, and they were all malnourished. This was truly an emergency like no other!
Ollie after being rescued, cleaned up and resting at his new home!
It took weeks to nurse them back to health and some other fosters stepped up to care for them. All of the 9 kittens survived and are now living in their new homes.
I would say that Fulfilling a Dream was certainly the end story for me and for the kittens.
Heather Heilman
CRNA, MSN at Grand View Hospital
Foster Home Coordinator/Volunteer at Stray Cat Blues (4 years)