Hello, furriends!
I realized it’s been a LONG time since we updated, and this is a big part of why: after months of working hard on PT and with our vets, we finally decided that Feta’s bad back leg was not going to make a comeback, and so we opted to make her a double-amputee.
She is now Feta the Two-Legged Cat (link goes to her Facebook page) and doing great! She scoots along like she did before, but a bit more easily now without the dead weight of her bum third leg.
The biggest problem we’ve had is that we moved into an apartment with wall-to-wall carpet, and Feta has discovered she LOVES to pee on carpet. It’s not that she can’t pee in the litter box, it’s that she really doesn’t WANT to.
We’ve had to move to extreme measures, and Feta now goes into Bathroom Jail every morning at breakfast time. She has two litterboxes like this:
They’re marketed as “dog litter boxes” but work perfectly for her needs. In “her bathroom” (master bath, sigh) she has 2 of these, 1 filled with Yesterday’s News litter (though really she doesn’t seem to mind whatever type of litter) for her to poop in, and one with an absorbent “puppy pad” (unscented only) for her to pee on.
She is locked in the bathroom with a bowl of water and her heavily-watered-down wet food breakfast, and when she has peed in the pee box, she gets let out to join the rest of the house. Usually this takes 30 minutes or less, though sometimes she decides we should play a game of “litterbox chicken” and she tries to wait me out. If I cave, she pees on the carpet immediately.
This “jail” program works relatively well since she only pees once per day (part of why I water her food down – I worry about dehydration) but occasionally we get out of sync and she either has to stay in jail for a long time or ends up hitting the carpet before I imprison her for the morning.
I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy or fun, but it seems to be the best solution we can come up with for now.
Meanwhile, she uses the “normal” litterboxes like a champ when she has to poop. Cats!!!
So Feta is a total pain in the neck about her litterbox habits, but we suffer through because she’s a good soul and I love her anyway.
We are continuing to foster A LOT with TLC Rescue (NJ). Feta has gone from “seriously annoyed about strange cats in the house” to “oh hey look, a new kid – do they have any food?” She doesn’t love the kittens and their annoying antics, but she puts up with them, and is very good with the less-annoying adult cats.
One of our longest-term fosters was Justin. We had this poor sweet trainwreck kitty I posted about earlier for about a year and a half – it ended up being a “fospice” since he was older and very sick. He was a very sweet boy and we had to put him to sleep just after Thanksgiving. :'(
Feta also now has a permanent kitty sibling in Julius, a beautiful and sweet orange tabby who was kind of a “foster fail” – raised as a bottle baby, adopted out, then returned. He and Feta are really good friends and I love watching them together!
So, that’s the updates of the moment! We’re more active on Facebook and Instagram (@courtneys_critters, and @theluckycatrescue) than here, but still get notifications on comments etc., so if anyone is looking for any tri-kitty or now BI-kitty tips, always feel free to hit us up!
I had to read a couple times and breathe. Omc… But she looks wonderful! And now she has a sibling to help her ❤️
So sorry her leg didn’t heal, but now that it’s gone she looks pretty content.
Jackie and Huckster ❤️
Yes, it was hard to admit “defeat” in that she was never going to regain use of that leg, no matter how hard we tried, but she’s doing great post-amputation! She used to bite at her toes on that leg, too, so I think it was causing her discomfort. Now she seems pretty happy!
Wow you guys must of known that we were talking about Feta in the chat today. A new member was asking for litterbox help for her cat with a knee dislocation on her only remaining rear leg, so we pointed them to your very helpful post. And wow what a joy to see that you heard our chatter!
It’s wonderful that she is happy and doing well! Had no idea about the second amp (I’m bad about following on IG so thank you for this update). At some point, would you mind sharing more details about the amputation and her recovery? This is big stuff, and an area that we have had a few members deal with. But we don’t have any real content about it, so we would love to be able to share some details about how the procedure and recovery went.
You are such an amazing kitty momma! We learn so much from you. And we don’t discriminate against bi-pawds so post away!
P.S. Looks like you were trying to upload or share videos? If so, know that the easiest way to do that is by sharing a YouTube link (Facebooger doesn’t allow you to embed videos on other websites, they want all eyeballs on them). We would love to see them. Thanks for any you want to share.
Aha! Thanks for the catch. Google photos hiccup.
We will work on something about the amputation recovery. Honestly, it was a total non-issue the second time. The first one was rough because of recurring infections, but the second one was no big deal at all. The biggest concern for us was keeping clean with the litterbox (used Yesterday’s News litter so it wouldn’t stick to the incision) and making sure the incision stayed clean as it was healing (kept her in a bathroom, checked it daily, cleaned the floor daily). As soon as it was closed up nicely she was ready to rock and roll just like normal!
It really drove home to me how much better it is for them to go ahead and have the amputation than suffer with a painful and/or dysfunctional limb. And honestly if I were to do it all over again, I’d have them take the whole leg up to the hip rather than leaving the little stumps she has (I think having the whole leg gone would be better for balance purposes – as is, she’s kind of butt-heavy).
Feta these days is super happy – she loves to roll around on the floor, scratch on scratchers (/the carpet), goes wild on catnip, and goes up and down the stairs all the time. Even the litter box issues are no longer really an amputation problem, but really just a behavioral challenge at this point. I am grateful for the amputations that saved her life and made her comfortable. She doesn’t care how many legs she has as long as she gets lots of cat food!
I am always happy to help field questions and support other ampu-kitties, so Jerry and others always feel free to get in touch!
I encounter a fair number of tripawds in my rescue work and always send them here since it’s such a great group for help and support 🙂
Feta!!! How did I miss that you lost that darned, annoying leg! You gave it a good try but it sure looks like you don’t miss it.
I’ve always admired you and your mom’s perseverance, hard work and great attitude. I’ve referred potential tripawds to your blog to show how cats are very resilient.
I’ll check up on you on your facebook page.
Lots of scratches because I know that’s what you love!
Kerren and Tripawd Kitty Mona
Omg! You two are SUCH amazing souls! You are both badas$! Thank you so much for sharing – such an awesome reminder of the resilience and strength of kitties – we are fools to understatements mímate such incredible beings!
Could you please post the link to your IG – for some reason I can’t find you. Thank you again!