Harley Needs a Home!

The Story of Finding Harley, Cream/Flame Point Siamese......Part I

One day I was asked (begged actually) to help assist in feeding a colony
of feral cats living under and in the drain systems around a large shopping
mall complex near where I live.

These poor cats are the unwanted litters and off spring of people's free
roaming un altered male and female cats. Some are dumped, some
are "lost" and some are born into this sad state. (Please, fix your
pets if you do nothing else for them! There *are* low cost options
out there... and I can/will help hook you up if you need the information!
Urge everyone you know to fix their cats and dogs).

At any rate, the lady begged me - she had been feeding all these
colonies and was now being moved by her job out of state. She
feared her cats would not live without the food and water she
supplied them. Many had been trapped and neutered but
there were kittens that needed catching and fixing, and
she was working on that. To top it off, it was mid-February,
the hardest time for a cat to find food.

I already feed a colony - one that lives in a pretty good location -
with shelter nearby, and food and water. I've fixed 18 cats
last count there - and adopted out 17 litters of kittens. 2
of these cats came to live with me. :)

So, I very reluctantly set out to catch the litter of kittens
(3 in all) and feed ....

Thus I was set on the path to discovering Harley.

I trapped all Feb, March and April a little. I got
2 kittens out of the drains at ages 9 wks and 12 wks.
Brothers. Lovely brown tabby boys. They were tamed
up very quickly and both got good homes.

But I worried there was one black and white girl I had
not caught. Occassionally she'd mew at me from the drains.
She was so sweet! I finally caught her and she too found
a home. And was fixed in the nick of time, she was going
into heat when I got her.

So for a while I was fine just feeding.

But then, the lady who had moved away emailed to ask
about her favorite boy Harley. He was a siamese she told me. And she
thought he needed help. He looked so lost and sad she
said. Could I trap him and take him to the vet, just to check on him?

So I made up my mind to trap Harley and check it out.
And just as I did that - Harley himself decided to walk into
one of our traps and mew his head off - as if asking to
be taken off the mean streets.

Well, turns out, Harley was a very shy but tame boy.

On the vet visit, we found he had 3 broken/injured teeth
and severe dental disease. The vet thought he'd been
abused, he was terrified of him, but not of the female
staff. He extracted 3 teeth, cleaned the others up,
gave him antibios and de-wormed him. Gave him a rabies
update, and then told me the bad news.

Harley was FIV+. This is not a death sentence - it just means
the cat needs good nutrition, low stress and good care. Most
FIV+ cats live a full life and die of diseases not caused by FIV.

In some cases they do develop dental diseases, and this was
the case with Harley. The vet said the injuries to the teeth
caused by abuse, coupled with the disease
and poor diet resulted in his dental infection.

But he said, Harley would be fine. His blood work was
good, he didn't seem to have a URI - although he was
quite dirty.