Flower has been mentioned in this blog on and off for the past six years. For the most recent post about Flower, see Last Stray Surviving. For more background about the active dog fighting ring and how I found out about it, see Clare’s Story. 

The dog fighting ring has been reported, but nothing is being done about it. The SPCA and the Sheriff Department state that it brings in too much money. People bet on dog fighting. When asked about the cat used as bait for the dog fighting ring, both the SPCA and the Sheriff’s Department have said, verbatim, “cats don’t feel pain.” This is how they justify animal abuse. Of course, this is false. Cats do feel pain. 

The local SPCA fired their humane officer and is set to close. While they have not publicly admitted it, I am wondering if this is due to their inaction about the dog fighting ring. I did not know there was a dog fighting ring here until I found a spray-painted cat (see Clare’s Story) taking refuge on my front porch. Since Clare, I have trapped and gotten four cats to rescue. 

Flower is the last cat in this area to help. As described in Last Stray Surviving, Flower had lived in the house next door. The dog was taken for neglect and Flower was kicked out of the house, as the local SPCA does not care about the welfare of cats. Those neighbors have since moved. Flower has been on her own outside since being kicked out of her home. 

She often takes refuge in my garage where I provide food, water, and insulated cat shelters to try to help the cats trying to evade being used as bait for the dog fighting ring. Members of the dog fighting ring often cruise throughout the village saying “here kitty, kitty” trying to trap their next victim. 

A few years ago, I saw that Flower had been spray painted and had a broken front arm. She had been used as bait for the dog fighting ring. I tried to trap her to get her medical care. I was unsuccessful. I have trapped and gotten four other cats to rescue. It was always whoever went into the trap was rescued. Flower never went into the trap.

In addition to the SPCA that is closing and says, “cats don’t feel pain,” there is a small non-profit cat rescue in my area that is run completely by volunteers. It is the rescue from which Simon was adopted. They are the rescue that helped me with three of the cats I trapped. In fact, it is that small non-profit rescue who told me that cats were spray-painted when they are being used as bait for dog fighting rings. I never would have known there was a dog fighting ring here if not for that first spray-painted cat. 

Anytime I trapped a cat to take to rescue was when this small cat shelter had room. They know I am trying to help the cats here escape the dog fighting ring so they are not used as bait. They would say they had a space. I would set the trap. Whoever went into the trap went to rescue. 

The fourth cat, Kenny, was super friendly and young. She was one of two kittens that had been thrown out of a pickup truck here. I was worried about her being easy to pick up as bait for the dog fighting ring. The small rescue here that had taken the other three cats was full. Through the power of Cats of Twitter, I was able to trap Kenny and get her to a rescue about three hours away from me. She is now in a loving forever home.

Flower is the only stray left.

Every time I walk into my kitchen, I look out the window for Flower. When it rains, I see her taking refuge in my garage. I take fresh food and water out to the garage every morning. Flower hides under my car. I talk to her. We have been doing this for six years. Over time, she has gradually let me get closer to her, but did not allow touching yet.

About two weeks ago, I looked out the window, and Flower was noticeably limping. She was favoring her front right arm. She was struggling to run, which is a bad sign when there is a dog fighting ring looking for bait.

I contacted the small shelter that helped me with the other cats. They are full. They do not respond to injured cats. The SPCA that is closing is responsible for responding to injured animals. Their response? “It’s fine. She’ll adapt.”  They also indicated that if they sent out a deputy that Flower would be shot as a mercy killing for an injured animal. 

This cat should not be shot and killed. This cat needs help.

So Flower limped along and everyone in this neighborhood smiled and nodded seeing an animal in pain. The neighbors around me love seeing people and animals in pain. If you read my other posts about the attacks and physical injuries the neighbors have inflicted on me and my house cats, you know they are sadists.

Call me stupid, but seeing an animal in pain is very distressing to me. I could not just watch her limp and do nothing.

So even though the rescue is full and won’t take her, I set the trap. Flower is injured and needs medical care.

I honestly did not expect to trap her. I have not been able to trap her for six years. I was not able to trap her when she had visible broken bones after being used as bait for the dog fighting ring.

I must have caught every cat in the village in my live trap. Of course, I released them all. Some even had collars. No wonder I’ve been going through so much cat food for the outside cats! I’ve been feeding every outside cat in the village. 

Trapping is very hard on me physically due to my disability. I said that after day five, I would stop trapping. I haven’t been able to trap Flower for six years. If I couldn’t get her now after five days, I would stop.

When the trap was set for those five days, the only food dish in the garage was inside the trap. I was literally starving her out. If she wanted food to eat, she needed to go into the trap. I know I am Flower’s only food source. I see her every day.

It was about lunchtime on day five when my security camera picked up Flower sneaking into the garage. Those days when they trap was set, Flower did not come around much. She gets overwhelmed with a lot of other cats, and there was so many cats coming to the garage for food and going into the trap instead!

I waited a bit and went into the garage on the afternoon of day five. Flower was in the trap!

I quickly brought her into my basement where I have a dog cage set up with cat pan, food, water, blankets, etc that I use when I trap cats. The cats I have trapped have stayed with me anywhere from 2-7 days depending on when I can coordinate transfer to the rescue, so that is where Flower went. 

The day I caught Flower was a Sunday afternoon. I called the vet office first thing Monday morning and was able to get her in to be seen Monday afternoon due to her injuries.

The shelter is full. I never would have trapped a cat with the shelter being full except this cat is injured. I only trapped her because she is injured and needs help. 

For the record, the shelter will no longer respond to me. They will not help with any advice or support for fostering, they are not helping to find her a home. Nothing. I am 100% responsible for helping this injured cat. I am responsible for her medical bills, care, fostering and trying to find her an appropriate forever home. I did the right thing and have no regrets, but way to shit on a person for doing the right thing. I’ve been completely abandoned by the shelter that had been helping me with the cats being used as bait for the dog fighting ring because they are full.

I cannot take on a fourth cat for multiple reasons. I cannot do this long term.

Here is what is happening with Flower medically and her status:

I am fostering her until I can find her an appropriate forever home. 

Right now, I am so overwhelmed with her care, my three house cats, working full time, and just life, that I don’t have enough spoons to find her a forever home. I need help. This is a lot of time and energy for someone who struggles with their every day. 

I was correct that Flower is the cat from the house next door that was kicked out and those people moved years ago. I thought she was about 7 years old. The vet said she is at least 12 years old. She is geriatric. She is a spayed female. Well, they confirmed female. They did not shave her to look for the tattoo for the spay, but there have not been any kittens. Based on what one of the children told me before they moved, I’m pretty sure she is spayed. 

She is riddled with fleas. They gave her flea treatment, worm treatments, rabies vaccine, distemper, etc. 

Flower is very gentle and sweet. She allows pets. She did extremely well with all handling at the vet office. They said they can’t handle feral cats how they handled her – this cat is NOT feral! 

She just needs love and patience. They were able to do more for her than expected. We were there for a long time and it totally put the vet schedule off because they were able to do so much with her. She even behaved better than Jude when he goes to the vet.

They said her teeth are ok. She is missing an upper canine tooth. 

They did a blood test for feline leukemia and feline AIDS. Both test came back negative.

She does not have a microchip. I told them I thought she would scan to the house next door, but there is no microchip.

They gave her medication at the vet office for her injuries. She ate it in baby food. They sent me home with medication to give her the next 3 days.

Injuries —

She has injuries to her hind legs up into her pelvis. The vet thinks these are old injuries. The limp I am seeing is that there is an injury to her right elbow. Again, the vet thinks this is an old injury. What it looks like is one dog attacked her hind end and the other one grabbed her right arm. 

Anyways, the vet says that they are old injuries, however, the injury to the right elbow is what is causing the limp I am seeing and caught on video. She thinks that arthritis has set in, given her age, living outside and the weather getting colder. 

Flower needs to be kept in an inside home. She will need a home that can handle a geriatric special needs cat and will need additional care to more properly ascertain the extent of her injuries and how to make her comfortable.

For now, she has pain medication and is fine in the dog cage with movement restricted. I did heat up the heat disc I had been using for her outside and put that in with her. I am trying to provide her with as much extra warmth as possible for arthritis. She is still hiding in the cat pan, which is normal behavior the first few days after trapping. She is traumatized with the whole situation.

The vet office does not normally help to find animals homes. That’s not what they do. However, now that they have examined her and see she is a geriatric special needs cat, they are going to try to help see if they can help me figure something out.

I am thinking that her issues are basically going to be mobility issues given her injuries, but I’m not 100% certain. At some point, she will need full blood testing for kidneys, thyroid, etc. 

So, Flower is currently with me as a foster situation. For those of you who follow us on Twitter (and now Bluesky), I have been posting an Evening Foster Flower update daily. She has been with me for about a week now. 

This obviously is an ongoing issue, which is why this is part one. Flower was injured. The shelter was going to euthanize her. I trapped her and got her medical care.

She will need a very special forever home who can handle a special needs geriatric cat who is completely traumatized from being used as a bait cat.

Despite her horrible life, Flower is a sweet and loving cat. She is very submissive and allows all handling. She will need a patient home with a lot of love. 

Now that Flower has been trapped, I am no longer putting food and water out in my garage for the outside cats. Many of the cats who were in the trap had collars. They are not homeless. I am leaving the insulated cat shelters for anyone who needs them.

Yes, we have an active dog fighting ring here that is still looking for bait. I have now trapped and helped five cats’ escape. I can’t do any more. Especially now that I am fostering Flower, I just can’t help anymore. I am surprised and dismayed that there is no help for injured animals here. If you find an injured animal, you are 100% responsible for it. I do not regret getting Flower medical care, but trying to foster a fourth cat is very, very hard. 

When Flower needs further medical care, I will probably set up a GFM for help. The extent of her medical issues is not yet known. This is going to be ongoing. Her initial vet visit was for the arm injury, vaccines, etc. 

I will need help finding her an appropriate forever home. I am trying to think about what that looks like, the process for finding her a home and vetting a home. Right now I am so overwhelmed with the day to day. 

The good news is, I no longer must worry about outside cats. I had been worried that if my house cats and I need to evacuate our home due to imminent risk of physical injuries from neighbor attacks, that I would not be able to help the outside cats. Now that Flower has been trapped, I only must worry about keeping everyone safe who is under my roof.

The neighbors are an ongoing problem and continue to threaten our safety daily. 

Flower needs a forever home. I can’t keep her. Right now I am focusing on the health and safety of everyone in this house.

So this is part one of Flower’s story. I’m sure there will be a part two, as she needs a forever home that can meet her needs. I cannot keep myself and four cats safe from the attacks from the neighbors.