My Itchy Fingers

My Fat Lady

The first time I saw her was on a raining day. She was sitting at the carpark and when I approached her, she greeted me with her sweet voice. That was when I was smitten by this beautiful fat lady. A few other encounters at the same spot at the carpark later, we became friends and I named her Dusty for her coat colour. Yes, Itchyfingers is talking about a kitty…. 😀

Meet Dusty, the Carpark Warden at my new block…A bit chubby but very 
beautiful…She is also very sweet-natured…

Whenever Itchyfingers come home, we will try to make a detour to check out if Dusty is around…and most of the time she would be, often lying underneath someone’s car.

This day, when we were playing with Dusty, Tisu Boy saw some white stuff on her butt. Initially we thought it was just some dirty thing that she picked up from the ground and got stuck on her butt hole. Then when it dropped on the ground, I noticed it curling up! My goodness! It’s a worm!! Dusty just excreted a disgusting worm from her butt!!!

We knew that Dusty needs deworming but we didn’t have anything that can transport her to the vet. Even if we have, Itchyfingers are totally inexperienced with cat handling as we have never kept a pet cat, even though we love cats. We didn’t know who is the feeder and couldn’t get help from the person. In the end we sought help from Tisu Boy’s colleague who owns a rescued cat and borrowed a cage from her.

Unfortunately we had to do the caging ourselves and that worried us a lot cos of our inexperience. Should we lure her inside with food? Or should we catch her and put her into the cage? Will we need to chase around for hours? Will Dusty hate us for caging her? Will she bite and scratch us in her struggle?

In the end, we decided to try the more civilised food method first…

Tisu Boy trying to lure Dusty into the cage with some kitty biscuits…

But the smart girl seemed to smell a rat…pun not intended…She took some
biscuits from the ground and those near the entrance of the cage but simply 
refused to move further in…We had to pacify, plead and coax her to go in….

Then I saw it again….!!!!

Oh my goodness!!! Another disgusting worm wriggling out of Dusty’s butt hole!!

This made Itchyfingers so determined to bring her to the vet immediately. I read that worms in the guts can cause some serious problems. So we tried again to give her some more biscuits…I was already contemplating the catch-and-cage method and let her hate me for the rest of her life, when, out of a sudden, Dusty decided to move into the cage for more goodies!!!!! We were so happy that she did that on her own, and miraculously while our itchyfingers were fumbling with the various locks of the cage, Dusty didn’t struggle much or try to force herself out of the cage! Totally unaggressive at all! She didn’t even scream until we carried her to the car. Her cries were so heartbreaking…Itchyfingers felt like “Catnappers“….But we had to do this in order to help her…

Dusty continued to meow while we were on the way to the vet…Again, the
sweet girl didn’t struggle but was obviously nervous and shaken …She only
stretched out one of her paws once throughout the whole journey

Luckily it wasn’t too crowded at the clinic and we got our turn within half an hour. Dusty had her weight taken and the chubby girl weighs 5.7kg! No wonder Tisu Boy was complaining of the weight!

Much to our surprise, Dusty was so well-behaved and cooperative during
the whole consultation. No struggle at all when the vet checked her teeth and
sticked the thermometer into her butt to check her temperature. But she was 
drooling a little cos of nervousness….Even the vet said she was very sweet-natured….
I always suspect she must had been someone’s pet before since she is so tame…
But if that’s the case, why did the person abandon her? How can they bear to
do such a thing to this sweet kitty?

She was then fed some deworming pills behind doors so we weren’t sure if
she did struggle…We were instructed to apply this topical gel Selamectin  
two weeks later on her neck – the only area that cats cannot reach to lick
themselves. The gel is supposed to “fights both internal and surface parasitic
infection”. Once applied, it is absorbed into the body through the skin and
hair follicles, and travels through the bloodstream, intestines, and sebaceous
glands. Parasites ingest the drug when they feed on the animal’s blood.”

I had initially thought if the medical fee is too costly, we would try to appeal for some help through the Cat Welfare Society. Luckily, the bill didn’t turn out to be too hefty a number so I guess we would just absorb the cost. We brought Dusty back and this time she was totally quiet and calm, though I thought I saw her eyes were a bit wet with some tears at the corner…Or was I just imagining things? She turned away when I wanted to take a photo…

The moment Tisu Boy opened the cage, Dusty ran out immediately! I thought she would be scared and angry at us for making her go through all this. But apparently she was just running out to check out if it was her familiar car park, and maybe count the number of cars around… 😀 When Itchyfingers called her, she was still responding to us by meowing back! The sweet girl was not a bit angry with us!!!! This is just so great to know!!!! We pet and praised her…but then…

There was another evil worm coming out from her butt! Like the other two
that we saw, it was immediately caught and crushed to its death! Die! You
stupid evil worm for causing discomfort to our daring Dusty! Die! This is
probably a segment of the Tapeworm, which is transmitted by fleas. Cats become
infected with this tapeworm by ingesting fleas during self grooming and licking.
See this site for an interesting illustration of the transmission

Hopefully the medicine will clear up these evil worms in Dusty’s tummy very soon!

Also see related posts:
> In Loving Memory of Puss (2000 – 2012)
> Puss in Boots
> Odd Encounter