WIld Charlie

Wild Charlie passed away yesterday afternoon.

Most of you do not know Charlie well. She was a feral who lived in the upper house for the past 10 years. The only time she has ever been touched in that whole time, was to give Revolution 2-3 times a year. Everyone called Charlie a "he" but I'd always thought she was a girl, just because of her small frame and the way her face looks. And in May, when she had a severe cold and we needed to medicate her, we found out she was indeed a girl, and a very sweet one at that!

Sarah, myself and volunteers Jim and Colleen were there and the 4 of us chased her around the patios and Sarah I think, finally got her by throwing a towel over her. We took her into the office and I held her and she completely relaxed! I held her for over 30 minutes and scratched her head and ears and she was purring and loving it!

She lived in the office for a couple of months and in September we moved her to her own enclosure in the lower house as she potentially had FIP and we had to isolate her from the other cats and give her treatments. She would still hiss and slap her paw at us when we would first try to pick her up, but the second, and I do mean the second we held her, sre just melted and would purrrrrr and rub up against us like you would not believe.

She has been doing very well in her enclosure in the lower house - eating great and enjoying her ledge and watching the cats and birds through her window. Over the weekend we had great snuggling and brushing sessions after her treatments. But Wednesday Sarah noticed her lymph nodes were swollen, one severely. and she was just not acting herself and would not eat. Our vet tech David examined her and with no improvement yesterday, Sarah brought her down to Canyon after lunch and Dr. Alacala examined her and said she was not doing well at all and recommended she put to sleep as soon as possible. Sarah called me at work and I left and met her down at Canyon.

We took her outside and spent time with her and cuddled her and kissed her and brushed her - all the things she loved for us to do with her. She responded to us and snuggled up against us and headbutted and purred and made her little crying sounds. We layed her on the ground on a towel, Dr. Alcala administered the injection and I cradled her head and scratched her ears and chin, and Sarah scratched her belly and back. We gave her kisses and told her how much we loved her and she slowly fell asleep.

Sarah and I shared something special with Charlie that no one else did. Thank you for letting us be part of your life, little girl. We will miss you so very much!!