So the morning after we trapped Angel I brought him, still in the trap, to Tree House for his scheduled spay/neuter surgery. At the time we didn't know if he was a he or she. Hours later I received a call from the wonderful Denise of the Tree House Clinic. She delicately informed me of the results of Angel's combo test. As discussed in the decisions page, we had decided to give the "combo test" to any of our Tiny TNR trapped cats. This is an optional test and you must ask for it if you want it. Angel tested negative for the highly contagious Feline Leukemia, but positive for FIV, which is an immune deficiency virus spread from cat to cat by deep bite wounds only. The neuter surgery had gone fine. Denise also mentioned that Angel had a minor nasal infection and the vet prescribed antibiotics. Denise wanted to know what we planned to do with Angel. Would we release him within 24 hrs, would we euthanize, would we adopt out? She wanted to know if we would keep him long enough to give him the 2 weeks of antibiotics for his nasal infection. She did not push us one way or another which was nice, and we had already planned to adopt out any FIV+ cat instead releasing so the decision for us was obvious. I said we'd foster him, give him his full 2 weeks of antibiotics, bring him back in 3 weeks for his 2nd PCR vaccine shot, and adopt him out to someone we would carefully screen. It was pretty intense finding out his test results so it underscores the importance of planning out and documenting your ethical and procedural decisions ahead of time. Also we had planned ahead of time to ask the Tree House vet to give us an age estimate. This is very useful to know but you must specifically request this ahead of time to get it. Denise informed me that the vet estimated him to be 7 years old.
On to the subject of Angel's temperment, his reaction to people. You can see in the carrier photo that his ears are not straight up and forward which would indicate comfort. His ears are bent and sideways, indicating discomfort, fear, anxiety, or anger. He always stared right and us and hardly moved at all. We learned from Joan the feline behaviorist at Tree House that Angel was litterally scared stiff! He was very frightened of people! I had read that some eye contact was a sign that he was more comfortable with humans, but I learned with Angel that nonstop staring coupled with no movement means the exact opposite. It's as if he thought at any moment we could pounce on him so he would always be on guard and not take his eyes off of us. If he wasn't captive he would no doubt run far away and hide.
Adopting out Angel would be challenging, due in part to his age and extreme fears. So many adopters are looking for a young kitten or at least a lap cat, and Angel was more an under-the-bed cat. :-) Over years he could make small advances with an extremely patient caretaker with a low-stress and low-noise environment, but again that would be a special caretaker. Most of all, Angel was FIV+ which meant he needed a human guardian who would take him for vet checkups at least every 12 months, keep him indoors, help him through minor or major illnesses, and keep him only with other FIV+ cats. The Tree House vet had noted that Angel's teeth were in poor shape due in part to his age, his lack of previous dental care, and perhaps even his weaker immune system. He'd need multiple tooth extractions in the near future. It is especially important that FIV+ cats get good dental care so that tooth decay does not put extra bacteria into the bloodstream and contribute to other illnesses. As far as finding someone to adopt Angel we knew of the Pets section on Craigslist.com and more importantly of Petfinder.com. The first few days we were feeding Angel in his carrier, hiding his antibiotics in his food, learning of his fear of humans, and taking his photo. If he had not had FIV or the nasal infection we would have released him at the trapping site 24 hrs after his surgery.
About 5 days after his neuter surgery I put a listing in chicago.craigslist.org in the Community section under pets. I knew that the section is infamous for a few extremists who may reply to your posting with emails filled with insults, and some highly emotional animal lovers who may not be great with follow through, or even animal horders who take in far more animals than they can handle responsibly. I was ready to screen carefully so I started there anyway. In the posting I said that there'd definitely be an adoption fee, to discourage deceptive people who want animals to resell them at a profit for medical testing. The first day I got no responses and the evening of the second day I got a response from a woman who had a friend in Indiana with an animal rescue who is great with shy or fearful cats. I learned she was talking about Cherie Bishop of Last Chance Rescue in Indiana. I contacted Cherie and learned about how she gets discounted vet care for all her cats and has a custom-built barn with windows and a heated floor with a separate room for FIV+ cats. We played phone tag for a while over scheduling a meeting, and in the meantime we got Angel his 2nd PCR shot/vaccine at Tree House.
A few days after his 2nd PCR shot Jenny Volpe who was dutifully fostering Angel made an independent, mistaken decision which led to Angel escaping into her studio apartment. This was especially critical because we really didn't want an FIV+ cat escaping outside her building into a foreign territory which would probably cause him to get into fights which would spread FIV to other cats through deep bite wounds. Also it just increases the anxiety of any cat to be out in a larger, unknown area. He was better off in his carrier. Jenny is very considerate and had wanted to give him the world's most thorough cleaning job for his carrier so she thought she could just put 2 carriers face to face and he'd go from the dirtier one into the cleaner one and stay there. Before I had more cat experience I thought like that too. I learned with Zen that no cat wants to stay captive and that cats are much stronger than you think and can and will squeeze through the smallest opening if it means getting free. Naturally, in Jenny's absence Angel pushed apart the two carriers and escaped to the highest place inside her apartment, on top of a kitchen cabinet. My fiance was the first one to realize that we'd have to actually re-trap Angel within Jenny's kitchen to transport him to his forever home.
We essentially gave Angel many trap rehearsal nights in Jenny's kitchen, putting his food inside a trap that was wired to stay open no matter what. Since there was no accessible food elsewhere he would indeed go in the trap to eat every night. I was elated to learn that it was working because some cats will never re-enter any trap again after being trapped once. The evening before I was to take him to the Last Chance Rescue I took out the wiring that was holding the trap open. I even tested the trap by taking it to Jenny's bathroom to check that it was working without Angel hearing that trap sound. That night when Angel ate inside the trap it trapped him inside. The next day I drove him in the trap all the way to Indiana to the Last Chance Rescue and we met Cherie Bishop. She is smart and dedicated and her rescue is definitely clean and the cats looked healthy. I decided that it looked OK for Angel so we released him into the FIV room by opening the release door of the trap and walking out of the room. It's important to use a trap with a release door in addition to the trap door as it makes releasing much easier in case you need to do that. Tree House has many traps for rent with release doors. Cherie asked me for nothing in return but I gave her a $50 donation at that time. I plan to give her more in the future. Though I do believe Angel is in good hands I would probably not bring other cats there in the future because to me the place looked super full and I wouldn't want to contribute further to that potentially health-threatening issue. Every shelter makes their own calls about what is full. I think full for Last Chance Rescue is about twice as full as Tree House's full, but it's a very complex issue. I am very grateful to Cherie for her rescue.
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