It's a Girl!

A few days ago, one of our devoted Pennsylvania SPCA volunteers became the proud new mother of a baby girl named Katie. 

Did I mention that Katie is a cat? And she's not really a baby -- she's almost 19 years old?

Here's the scoop on how this miracle came about....

Last summer, the Pennsylvania SPCA Humane Law Enforcement Officers rescued a cat from a horrible case of cruelty and neglect. The cat's cage was overflowing with feces and debris and the cat was emaciated and covered with fleas.

When the cat arrived at the PSPCA, a very special volunteer, Vienna, started working with her. She named the cat "Kate" after a famous supermodel known for her "hungry-looking" appearance. Over time she became "Katie Cat."

Vienna recalls:

"I work with cats as a volunteer at the PSPCA. About 6 months ago I started working with Katie because she was aggressive. I believe her behavior was due to fear and the stress of the shelter environment. Slowly she became used to human contact and we were able to take the “caution” sign off of her cage.

As I worked with her I started to notice she was wasting away physically. She just wouldn’t eat. One day I took her from room to room in the shelter to see if there was an environment she was most likely to eat in. I found that she would eat if she was away from the sound of barking dogs. Oddly enough the loud sound of roosters crowing didn’t bother her.

Since there wasn’t a cats-only room I could put her in, I called my husband and asked if we could foster her. He said yes.

Initially Katie couldn’t be picked up because she was so emaciated that her bones would move in our hands. It turned out that in addition to stress, she was undiagnosed with hyperthyroidism. Once on medication and in a quiet room she had all to herself, she began to eat and gain weight. Unfortunately however she still had blood in her stools and she was losing fur.

But in a matter of months, Katie got to a healthy weight and not only did her fur grow back but it became soft and shiny."

After months of serving as a foster parent, Vienna officially adopted Katie Cat! Congratulations to the proud parent of a "baby" girl!