Meet Phoebe

I wish I knew Phoebe’s story of her life before she was found, but sadly we probably never will. What I can tell you if that she was found by my friend. Phoebe was hanging around my friend’s backyard and wouldn’t let anyone get close to her. My friend would leave a little food out for her and finally was able to gain Phoebe’s trust. She was just skin and bones. She was obviously someone’s pet because she had been declawed and spayed.

She wasn’t microchipped so they looked for her owner by posting on Facebook and with the vet and shelters to no avail. They searched for a few months, but ultimately they had to find a new home for her because the family was allergic to cats. So I took her in.

We took her into our home in late January early February. She’s not very trusting and for about a month she just stayed in my older son’s room in the basement. She would hide under his bed or couch for the first week or two gradually comeing out while he was there and she would sit on his couch. Then she would sleep at the end of his bed as long as he didn’t move around too much. She must have decided we weren’t so bad cause she would come up the stairs and sit in the doorway to the kitchen and watch me while I cooked, did dishes or just read at the kitchen island.

And eventually she jumped into my lap when I would read or work at the kitchen island.

But she never really went any further than the kitchen. At least for a little bit. Eventually she decided to sit with us on the couch in the living room and just hang out. We found that she actually does love attention from people once she gets to know them. She doesn’t really get along with other cats, but according to my friend who found her Phoebe does get along with small dogs. She tolerates my two male cats, but my little grandma kitty and her constantly fight. She growls at our one year old cat because I think Phoebe finds her a bit annoying to be honest. She doesn’t really pay much attention to the ferrets unless they mess with her. Then she might bop them on the head. Which they kinda like.

Now that she was more interactive with us and wasn’t always hiding I started to notice some health concerns with her. First I found that she wasn’t using any of the litter boxes. She was just going wherever. She has her own in my son’s bedroom, but she wasn’t even using that. One of my males wouldn’t use a litter box for the longest time until I changed the type of litter. So I thought maybe she didn’t like the type at first. Then I noticed blood in her stool and she still wasn’t putting on much weight. She also seemed to get upset if you went anywhere near her belly. I know a lot of cats won’t let you touch their bellies. It’s an instinct thing, but she seemed to be in actual pain. I started to suspect that not only was she stressed, but she might have inflammatory bowel disease. And given her almost constant diarrhea it seemed highly likely. Another thing I noticed was that she didn’t like the hard food as much as the wet food. I always have it available, but I started thinking it was hurting her stomach.

A trip to the vet confirmed what I had thought. Currently just trying to change her diet to see if that helps at all. At her next appointment we’ll see if we need to add any medications. The diet change seems to be helping she’s finally starting to put weight on and doesn’t have diarrhea constantly, but she does have her days where I think she might be flaring up, but it doesn’t last longer than a day usually. So I guess we’ll see. I know treating IBD isn’t that easy. And cats can hide anything especially when they’re sick.

My sons build a chicken coop in our backyard over a year ago so we could let the ferrets play and dig outside safely while we were doing things in the yard. Phoebe has since taken that over for her own safe haven. She loves being in there away from the other cats. She gets upset when we bring her back in the house. My older son has almost finished winterizing it so that she can decompress in her favorite place if she needs to. She even has a heated bed up in the loft and a few heat lamps in there so nothing freezes in there and she isn’t just stuck up in the loft. She can still roam around freely without feeling the winter outside. Of course on the really bad winter days she’s just going to have to pick a spot in the house to hunker down until she’s able to lounge in her outside apartment.

Hope you will follow our journey as we get our animal rescue going and for updates on Phoebe and other animals that come into our care.