Milkshake was a stray girl who found her way to a loving community member. Right away she knew that the cat needed help as she was very pregnant. She took her into her home and kept her well fed and comfortable while she contacted local rescues. She got in contact with Jenn at Furry Friends and we just knew we had to take this girl in. It was a time deemed as “kitten season” so Furry Friends had many requests to take in pregnant mama’s. Fortunately we had just acquired several new fosters and we decided that Milkshake (named while with Furry Friends) would go to new foster mama Danielle.
Upon Milkshake’s initial exam everything looked pretty straight forward for a pregnant cat, normal vitals, temperature, and everything else. While with Danielle she began the tale tell signs of nesting, picking her birthing spots and kneeding everything in sight. During this time Milkshake grew a worldwide following through her Facebook group “Milkshakes yard” where everyone anxiously awaited her “beans” to arrive, while teasing that she brought all the boys to the yard. The group quickly grew to almost 3,000 follows over night with people from all over the world.
Although everything appeared normal, Milkshakes foster mom just felt like something was off and asked for a vet appointment. We take our foster parents intuition very serious and our new Medical director, Kensie made an appointment for Milkshake right away with our local emergency vet for an ultrasound.
This is where Milkshakes story takes a turn. It was discovered that she in fact did not have any “beans” she had a rare infection called a pyometra. This is caused in unaltered cats because of their heat cycle. Essentially, her uterus was full of infection and over 2lbs of fluid. This condition can mimic pregnancy so closely that in most cases you don’t know until the cat is in imminent danger.
Milkshake had to have emergency surgery to try and save her life. Facing an initial cost of over $5,000 Furry Friends did not hesitate to do what it takes to rescue this girl. Milkshakes foster mom, Furry Friends and 3,000 people across the world now anxiously awaited her recovery. It was a long several hours, but we finally received the call that Milkshake did amazing through surgery and had a good prognosis for recovery.
The world could breathe a sigh of relief. Her followers were sad that she wasn’t going to have kittens, but were thankful that she could be saved. Donations started pouring in from all over the world to cover the cost of her life saving surgery and they are even in the process of designing shirts that will help bring awareness to the dangers of not spaying/neutering your pets.
What Milkshake didn’t do was have kittens, but what she did do was bring a community of over 3,000 people together and shine a light on what pyometra is and how it can be prevented through spaying your pets.
Milkshake didn’t bring the boys to the yard, she brought all of us to it.
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This is just one example of the type of things that Furry Friends deals with. It is not unusual for emergency situations to pop up out of the blue. We have spent from $300 to $5,000 on cats to get them to a place of health and then adopt them out for $100 when they are ready. We are a small shelter that is volunteer run and does not have deep pockets. We are constantly fundraising to make sure we have enough in the bank to be able to handle the emergency situations. Our wish is that we would be able to expand our medical room and equipment so that we would be able to diagnose more problems and take care of the cats more efficiently. If you would like to help cats like Milkshake, please visit the Furry Friends website to make a donation https://furryfriendswa.org/donate/
Furry Friends is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit no-kill cat rescue serving Clark County, Washington and adjacent counties. Founded in 1999, we are a volunteer run organization that rescues and adopts out homeless, relinquished, and abused cats. We shelter and care for them as long as it takes to find them forever homes. We provide medical exams, medications, spay/neuter, food, and litter for up to 500 cats each year.
For more information, please visit our website at https://furryfriendswa.org/
Or contact us at information@furryfriendswa.org message phone (360)993-1097