Rusty

This is Rusty...he is 7 years old and is an indoor only cat. He has issues (lots of them), so he can't go outside anymore. When he first showed up here, he was fine outside. But sometime after he'd been here for maybe a couple of years, he disappeared for about a week. When he came back, I caught him on the porch late at night trying to eat. He was so skinny..but I couldn't catch him. After about another week, I was able to catch him. I set up the kennel on the porch and kept checking outside for him so when I saw him out there, maybe I could lure him in the kennel with food. After a few tries, I woke my husband at 5 am one morning to help me catch him and we set him up in my studio. I thought is was just temporary, until he was well, but I realized he had so many issues, he'd have to stay inside. He has a terrible urinary tract infection, was really skinny and had pulled out his hair so badly that you could see his skin, which was raw and bleeding. Over the years, we have figured out he has flea allergies, food allergies and IBS. Now that he is on a homemade food diet, he is better. His diarrhea is much better, but he does still have some problems with skin allergies. I have to keep a close eye on him and if he seems itchy, he gets some prednisone and, if needed, treated for fleas. I hate to give him prednisone, but I also hate to see him itchy. As if all the other stuff wasn't enough, he also has stomatitis. He has no teeth from his fangs back on one side and a fang missing on one side, so sometimes he has that Elvis smirk! Right now we are working on screening in the porch so he can enjoy going outside and hopefully keep his allergies in check. I am considering bringing another kitty (Sookie) in with him as a companion, but haven't had much luck with that. We will try harder after the porch is screened in. He's a pretty good "studio cat", he doesn't really bother anything or jump on things much. He does like to sit right in front of my computer screen while I'm typing, just like he's doing right now, but I just look around him and give him a scratch now & then and we're both happy!