Lucy aka Chicago

October 4th, 2008 - Sandra Marshall

Updated October 7th with new video and photos ….. see below

This is Lucy, the stray cat that I brought back from the Cat home on Monday (29th) as I just couldn’t leave her to die. She had been missing for 3 or 4 days and looked so thin and lifeless. I also felt very responsible for her as she is one of our Almerimar strays and it was me that helped to catch her and take her up to the rescue home in the first place.

She had been there about 3 months and should have been off to Germany in early August in search of a home or ‘family’, but owing to some infections at the cat home no one has been leaving for a while. This was concerning and things have been made worse recently by Gisela, the lady who runs the home, being taken ill herself.

I think little Lucy may have been ill for a few days and no one was there to notice. I always check all the cats when I am there and particularly the ones that came from us. Thank goodness as when I brought her back on Monday she was so lifeless and didn’t seems to have the strength to eat even if she wanted to. I’m not sure if I have ever seen such a thin cat and Begona, our vet, said that she was dangerously de-hydrated.

Anyway we have persevered with syringes of liquids and later meat smoothies every couple of hours, and in the last couple of days she has started to eat and drink on her own, and is doing a lot of snuggling, purring and cleaning. We have a long way to go, and she is still on antibiotics but we are very hopeful for her now.

AND we are getting very fond of her!

Video

Some footage from Day 4 and 5 when she had started to show signs of good progress:

Click To Play

QIK Video

In case you missed the QIK videos that Chris streamed on Friday when he was feeding her:

Lucy Eating

Lucy Snuggling

Photos

Why Chicago?

Well she has 4 white paws so white socks = Chicago White Sox according to Chris! It gets worse, he is now saying that Chicago = musical so she can be called Roxy!!!

Twitter

Chris has kept a really good log of the care and progress on Twitter, which you may have seen across the top of the site, and you can see below:

You can follow her future progress and much more on our twitter account.

Please check out Almerimar Life Strays for ways in which you can support the strays, and if you are interested in helping with a donation, foster home, helping feed or clean then please email me.

October 7th Update

She is getting much stronger, happier and cheekier!!! We have moved her into a bigger cage with a basket to sleep in, food and water and a litter tray. As you can see she is certainly friendly. She still has a slight cold and is still very thin and unsteady on her legs, but she has started to show some interest in playing with a ball.

Click To Play

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar

Almerimar is a great place to live as an expat amongst the expats, or to work amongst the Spanish. There are all kinds of properties including villas, apartments and town houses for rent or sale. It is a very traditional part of Spain, with traditional Spanish foods so if you plan to travel to Spain either to look for jobs, for your company to trade with companies in Spain, or to learn Spanish and enjoy the Spanish weather then come and take a look.

If you are interested in purchasing a property in Almerimar please visit our sponsors Mediterraspain. If you have purchased a property and need it furnished please check out our Sponsors DBJ who will give you a Exclusive 5% discount with the code AL2008.

If you want an amazing activity based day out in the mountains and to learn how to ride a motorcycle off road then check out our sponsor The Long Way Round and get 5% off with the code AL2008.

If you want quality printing at affordable prices then please check out C&R Printing Services

Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 births and excellent boatyard facilities.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Almerimar Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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AlmerimarLife Strays » Blog Archive » Almerimar Cats Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
[...] for us, as you may have already read, we have our own patient Lucy. She came from Almerimar originally and a week ago when I found her in the Casa she was desperately [...]

13 Responses to “Lucy aka Chicago”

Chris Marshall Says:
October 4th, 2008 at 8:25 pm Quote
Have to say that this has been one of the most rewarding things I have done. when you first brought her home I thought she wasn’t long for this life and that the best we could do was make her last hours comfortable.

When she came back from the blood test 1/2 sedated I thought that was the last we would see of her, but she is a tough little fighter. Each day she has got stronger, and she loves nothing better than to curl on our knee and purr and clean herself, so there is a lot of hope for her.

Hopefully the slight cold and cough she has are minor and the antibiotics will clear them up as she certainly still seems a much happier kitten.
Jennifer Says:
October 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm Quote
I’ve been following your twitter comments and have seen the video of Lucy. She has made a fantastic recover and now seems happy and content. I haven’t seen a cat with such long white whiskers above the eyes before. You’ve both done a great job. Have Mori and Saidi been introduced to her yet?
Chris Marshall Says:
October 5th, 2008 at 2:44 pm Quote
She is doing really well, but is still very week, and has what we hope is just a cold. She also has parasites which we need to start treating next week. A number of the cats from the home have had various things wrong with them and although she has had a couple of blood tests that don’t indicate anything is wrong with her, we want to make sure that she is 100% and much stronger before we consider what to do next.

I think that our main objective is to make sure that a) she doesn’t have to go back to the home while she gets a permanent home sorted out and b) that she finds a really nice home long term. I think we would both be happy to give her a chance here depending on how Mori and Saidi reacted, but that is a couple of weeks away at least.

Both Mori and Said are aware that there is something going on outside our front door, and Mori saw her and hissed a few days ago, but no they haven’t been introduced yet.
John Says:
October 6th, 2008 at 4:29 pm Quote
What you are doing with these little cats is admirable. Cats have given our family so much over such a long time that we really identify with them all. It is such a pity that so many are running ‘wild’ without a caring home where they can do what they do best, give. (When I was born, ages ago (!), and I came home from the nursing home evidently the family cat, Minnie, had her kittens in my bed!!!)

Doing what you and Sandra are doing is like Canute! The real solution would be to stop the situation where so many strays roam around producing even more – wake up Spain. The other real problem as I see it is that they are all so easy to get attached to, with all that implies.
Sandra Marshall Says:
October 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm Quote
I’ve just spent another morning doing litter trays (3 days old!!!) up at the cat home. All a bit out of hand but I’m doing what I can. Found another really sick little kitten lying on the ground which Gisela’s vet doesn’t hold much hope for. Basically we have a rather sick German woman who is still in hospital and who has 50 odd cats!

My plan for the future is that I can liaise directly with the cat charity in Germany and send Almerimar strays direct. This means finding people willing to foster for about 6 weeks while they have jabs etc. and get passports to travel. See how you need a place here?!!! First however I need to help get most of the cats out of Gisela’s, partic as some of them came from us in the first place. I feel a huge responsibility to them.

Today I also found out from Pam that some Spanish people in our street may have moved leaving a mother and 3 beautiful kittens! AND we had talked to them, and they assured me they were taking them with them!

I’m really involved, and enjoying making a difference. Chris is being very supportive not minding me doing all this. Meanwhile little Lucy is improving daily. I need to get her blood tests to make sure she isn’t a threat to our 2, and then the plan is to introduce them. Maybe we will end up with another cat. At least we hope to keep her until she is fit enough to be found a good home. She is not going back to the cat home.
Mac Sokulski Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 8:09 am Quote
I am really impressed with what you guys do for these seemingly unwanted creatures. Hopefully Lucy pulls through and you will be able to find her a decent home.
Chris Marshall Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 8:23 am Quote
Thanks ……. maybe slip her in your case when you go back

She seems to be doing really well, but still got a cold and is very weak still. She probably has parasites as others have had but the vet wasn’t too keen on treating that until a) she thought she was going to live and b) she was stronger.

I think we will get another blood test done on her soon to double check that she hasn’t got anything serious wrong with her, and start treating the parasites later in the week. They should clear up in 3-5 days at which point we can think about bringing her into the apartment to see how Mori and Saidi like her!!
Jennifer Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:44 pm Quote
We looked at the new photos and video and thought that Lucy looked very happy and content.
Chris Marshall Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:45 pm Quote
Got to find a better name for her IF she is going to stay

She is certainly a lot happier, loves to be stroked and to snuggle up. Apart from fact that she will be glad to be feeling better I also think this is by far the most fuss she has ever had. She is really thin still though, but getting stronger!!!!!
Jennifer Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:50 pm Quote
You certainly have a difficult decision to make about keeping her. It is always a good sign to see her washing herself.
Chris Marshall Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 11:54 pm Quote
Not really. We both feel that we can and should provide a home for her as it has been so rewarding looking after her, and she seems to have such a sweet nature and be so grateful for being looked after.

The decision though depends on two (well three things):

1. The vet. She needs to have a blood test to make sure that she has no problems and is clear of the various ailments that she had.
2. She then needs to get on with Mori and Saidi. If they are OK with her then she stays, if either of them have a problem then it wont be an option.

So far they have both shown some interest in the fact that she is in the corridor, and if we do try and introduce her then it will be gradual as she just isn’t strong enough for any fighting, playing, escaping etc etc.

I think she will go to the vet on Wed or Thu, in which case we will have the results by the weekend and will be step closer.
Sandra Marshall Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 8:15 pm Quote
Here’s the latest update on little Lucy after today’s visit to the vet.

We didn’t need to take more blood which was great for her as the lab still had some, so I await the results hopefully tomorrow. This will confirm that she doesn’t have any nasty virus’s that she could pass on. When we get the all clear (fingers crossed) we won’t have to be so careful with changing clothes etc.

She still has some cold so she is on antibiotics til Tuesday when she will be checked again and weighed and we will be ready to start treating the parasites in her bottom! All fun. Today she also had treatment for parasites in her ears.

AND she is still anaemic and way too thin so we have a long way to go and it will be probably be another 10 days before we can bring her into the house.

Begonia has had an interesting 10 days as she has seen a total of 8 kittens from Gisela’s all with multiple problems. Lucy’s biggest one was to me the fact that she was starving and we will probably never know exactly why. Thank God I went there that day and checked for her.

Anyway the great news is that she does seem very much alive and on the mend. Begona asked if we had bathed her as she was SO much cleaner, but actually she has done it all herself which is a really good sign.