Update on Babalu, the Friendly Cat from the Rockstar Colony

Babalu is now fully vetted and available for adoption. His paw is now bandage-free and almost healed thanks to all of you who shared his story, and the amazing donations from rescue friends Trudy, Mary, Eliya, Doug, Bonnie, Erica, Rob, Ella, Rhodri, Mari, Dorota, Colin and Dawn! Your generosity helped cover more than half of Babalu’s $900 vet bills.

Whenever I bring in a friendly cat from a colony to foster, I get them fixed, vaccinated, tested, and whatever else they need. Babalu was clearly comfortable as soon as I bought him inside. He just wanted me to stay and pet him.

He was also clearly hungry.

Normally the cost is around $80-200 per cat after a couple of visits at Tree House’s vet clinic. In Babalu’s case, though, I also brought him in because back paw looked injured. This photo is as close to his back paw as I could get. He did not want to touch it either. It looked infected and filthy.

At Tree House, Babalu tested FIV+, but other than his paw, he is a healthy cat. They referred him to Dr. Castillo over at North Center Animal Hospital. Dr. Castillo also volunteers his vet services over at Tree House.

Dr. Castillo determined that Babalu would need surgery for the paw. Since Babalu was going to be sedated, he also recommended getting his dental work done. Sedation can be difficult and complicated, so I really wanted to get it done for Babalu all at once to avoid putting him through that again. Your donations made this possible!

Babalu ended up losing just a claw, rather than a toe, thanks to Dr. Castillo’s expertise. His dental work also included getting a few teeth pulled. Regardless, he seemed just fine when I brought him home. He obviously was not pleased with the bandage, but at least he left it on.

In the meantime, Beth and Zac, my amazing, animal-loving, animal-rescuing friends, offered to foster Babalu until he can be adopted or admitted into a no-kill shelter!

Here is Babalu showing off his funny ears and enjoying the ride to Zac and Beth’s house. I’ve never seen a cat enjoy car rides so much, even though all of them so far have only been to the vet.