Welcome to Gaia! ::

I need to be upfront and say that what happened here is not for the faint of heart. If you're easily upset involving accidental situations involving animals and cats in particular, then I suggest reading no further.

Otherwise, please scroll down as I can use some advise here....

















So today, my mom was taking me to a doctor's appointment. She wasn't paying attention, and I'm never paying attention when not the driver. As a result of our mutual lack of attention, neither one of us noticed a cat trying to go until our garage until it was too late. The poor cat ended up pinned by its head under the garage door. I noticed first and got out of the car as my mom got out the remote to open the garage.

The cat walked away from the garage in a motion that looked a jerky then just sat down. It gave no protest when I picked it despite the fact that this was the first time I encountered the cat. My mom has seen this cat before in the evening and knows that normally it is very shy with people. I carried the cat over to where we have a food and water station set up on the side of the house. The cat sat there for a few minutes and would move its head/neck. After a few minutes, it drank some water then hunched up like it was trying to keep warm. We did put out some wet cat food, which I do not know if the cat ate or not as there are two other cats that will come around. However about 3/4th of the wet food was gone when we got back home.

As much as we would have liked to take the cat into the vet, the extra money isn't there. I'm also allergic to cats, get shots every month and still have to take antihistamines daily. We really cannot bring another cat into the house. However I am still very concerned for this cat as it is all skin and bones, almost like an irritable bowl kitty, only much much thinner. I think it was an abandoned pet. >.<

I'm hoping that the cat does come back, but I'm not sure how to go about putting weight on this cat quickly. I'd also like some advise for setting up some shelter arrangement for this one cat. [I live in the Sacramento area of California and while it does not actually snow here, winter temperatures can drop down into the freezing range.]

There's an additional complication in that there are two other cats that come around that technically belong to one of my neighbors. While I don't mind them getting food handouts as we'll just put out extra food, I'm not sure how to discourage them from using any shelter arrangement I set up here for that other cat. [I want them to go home to their owner who does take them to the vet.]

I've since convinced my mom to let me talk to the group I volunteer with and see if the cat can be added to their sanctuary with me fostering it until the cat gets at a level of health that it can be adopted out. If the cat was taken anywhere else, it would be killed for no reason other than not being an immediately adoptable condition.

Right now, it is a matter of if the cat continues to come around and if I can catch/trap it. However since I suspect this cat is an abandoned pet due to how thin it is, it's probably not getting food anywhere other than at my house.

I still have to talk to the sanctuary. If they don't want to bring in another cat, even if it is being fostered, then I'll tell her your suggestion of trying to find a place in the garage. I don't want the cat wandering loose in the garage as besides there being too many places for a kitty to get into trouble, I don't want it to try sleeping next to my car's engine.

I would have placed the cat in a crate or somewhere contained and called animal control/human society/one of your local rescue groups. They would at least be able to get the cat in for vet care or put it down and end its suffering if it was that damaged by the accident. I also might have checked with all your neighbors to see if anyone knows if the cat possibly belongs to someone and is an indoor/outdoor pet.

Wow. Any luck finding him or her?

Ah. Hopefully it's only a matter of the waiting game. Best of luck and do keep us updated. If you do happen to catch him/her would you perhaps be able to have a friend or relative house and proceed to nurse him/her up to speed?

Ah. Good, good.