Today, we had 3 more cats fixed at the PAWS-Chicago Spay/Neuter clinic. One was a feral while the other two were 'friendly ferals'. One of the friendly ferals was a Siamese cat with a touchy personality. Tammy could pick it up and hold it, but after several seconds it would start growling - clearly saying 'Hey - leave me alone'. Because of this cats touchiness, Tammy wrote a note to the PAWS personnel saying that they should exercise care in handling this cat.
Mary drove the cats in to PAWS this morning while I picked them up this evening. When I arrived at the clinic, one of the PAWS staff, Chris, brought out our cats to me. He remarked that the friendly had the 'worst case of ear mites I've ever seen'. He said that they couldn't even get a Q-tip in to clean the ears, it was so packed with mites, dead and alive. They did manage to clean out the ears and gave it medication to rid it of any 'leftover' mites, but Chris said that whoever the new owner was would have to be sure and keep an eye on this problem to make sure it didn't resurface.
Let's hope that this severe infestation was also the reason for the cats touchiness - it certainly could be. I know I'm pretty grouchy when I'm in pain (as are most people) and it could be affecting this cat the same way.
With these 3 cats, plus the 9 yesterday, Feral Fixers has now processed 382 cats for this fiscal year and 858 overall since our inception.