Pets Niagara Sanctuary Residents - Mr. Mittens

Mr. Mittens.  Arrived: May 29, 2023.

Meet Mr. Mittens. If you have not followed his story since July, 2022 let me provide a quick overview of his situation. Mr. Mittens was taken off the streets of Hamilton, Ontario during 2022 where he had lived for the first 9 years of his life. His rescuer is a very caring and experienced animal rescuer who brought him back to St. Catharines. She didn't realize, though, that Mr. Mittens was coming with some very serious medical issues - issues that remained hidden while he was living on the streets but became quickly evident once he was given an indoor foster home.

So, even though it was hoped that Mr. Mittens could be suitably vetted and quickly put up for adoption it became abundantly clear, after numerous vetting appointments and testing, that he was FIV+ and suffers from chronic incontinence with no guaranteed or easy fix. Both of these medical issues left him, on the one hand, not suitable to be adopted out as a barn cat because of the FIV+ status, and on the other hand, not suitable to be adopted out as an indoor-only cat required by the FIV+ status because of the incontinence. Many efforts were made by both Mr. Mittens' rescuer and Pets Niagara to find him a suitable home somewhere - anywhere! All interested candidates, one-by-one, turned Mr. Mittens down feeling unable to cope with his two major medical issues.

This fellow's time and options were running out. He came from Hamilton, where, sadly, he had lived his whole life on the street after being abandoned by his owner. Although he was cared for by a neighbourhood caretaker, that fellow had to move, leaving Mr. Mittens with no one to care for him. So, Mr. Mittens hasn’t had a real home in many years. He even sustained an injury during his life on the street which was never properly vetted, so the poor little fellow has had to contend with the pain and discomfort that the injury has caused him over the years. His rescuer was able to get him on pain management medication - Gabapentin, which continues to this day.

During his time in foster care he visited a vet for a physical exam and received his first set of vaccines. He also had a flea treatment and dewormer, just in case. It was discovered that he was already neutered and micro-chipped. Follow-up with the microchip company led to a dead end. Mr. Mittens’ chip was implanted at HBSPCA in November, 2017. He was also neutered there. At that time, the SPCA estimated him to be 4 years old, so he was born sometime during 2013, making him nearly 9 years old. Mr. Mitten's may have been part of a TNR colony or just a neighbourhood cat and after he was neutered and micro-chipped he was returned to his former street life. Unfortunately, the microchip company didn’t have anyone tied to the chip until 2021 when the feeder provided an update explaining that he was not the owner but was feeding him.

Overall, Mr. Mittens’ health generally checked out well. His left upper canine is broken but doesn’t require surgery or anything at this time. So, aside from the incontinence, FIV, and walking slightly off gait, he's in good health.

Pets Niagara has a sanctuary for pets just like Mr. Mittens. I have 10 years experience dealing with FIV+ cats and know what it takes to keep them healthy. I have even more experience dealing with incontinence in pets and know, also, what it takes to keep the environment clean. On both counts, it's a lot of work. But, we have offered to take Mr. Mittens on as one of our life-long sanctuary residents. In order to do so, we needed to build Mr. Mittens his own special little home. Unfortunately, Mr. Mittens only alternative would have been a very sad end. He is such a sociable, lively and precious little soul, definitely worthy of being rescued. He loves everyone he meets!

Purchasing an existing structure and renovating it to suit our needs would be the most cost effective option for Pets Niagara. However, we would still need to find the manpower needed to go to the site, disassemble the structure and transport it back to St. Catharines.

In the meantime, though, time was of the essence and Mr. Mittens' time in his last foster home was limited. So, we needed to go forward with the plan of building him a little home. Our building by-laws permit residents in this City to build outside structures of 100 square feet or less without the need of a building permit or code inspections. The difficult landscape we have at the sanctuary will only allow a 10' x 8' structure on the foundations of an old structure that was demolished many years ago. Through immensely generous donations and the fabulous work of the construction teacher and students at Holy Cross Secondary School in St. Catharines, Mr. Mittens beautiful little home was built. He moved in on May 29, 2023 and has thrived in our care.