Alana, a.k.a. Bugly, was truly the happiest cat in the world. I could never imagine a happier cat, but she didn’t start out that way. In fact, her beginnings would go down in the annals of cat history as one of the most unfortunate and truly unlucky starts in life. But all of that changed, when 697 cats, including Alana, were seized from one of the worst cat hoarding cases in U.S. history. At the time, in summer of 2011, it was considered the biggest cat hoarding case and rescue in the country’s history, with nearly 700 domestic and feral cats rescued from severe and willful neglect. When the Humane Society of the U.S. came onto the sanctuary property, they witnessed sick, dying and dead cats everywhere at the now shuttered Haven Acres Cat Sanctuary in Florida. But for Alana and the other nearly 700 cats, that was their lucky day, and the beginning of whole new and better life.
I first met Alana at the enormous warehouse shelters that were set up to take in and house all of these cats, supported by the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS). I was deployed in August 2011, as a shelter volunteer to provide direct care to these hundreds of cats in their temporary shelter, that included feeding morning and night, cleaning cages, socializing cats, sterilizing crates, and restocking supplies. On my daily rounds, I developed relationships with certain cats out of this endless sea of felines. One of them was Alana. I would get to Alana toward the end of my shift of 100 cats, each day. The connection we had was palpable, immediate and exceptional. Our unique and magical connection was not shared by the other volunteers. They never knew her. But when I arrived to her small, stacked wire cage, she would step out of her litter box where she quietly hid and slept, and jump excitedly to her small blue plastic tub where she would promptly lay sideways and spin around and around in circles, non-stop! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen a cat do. But it was her way of expressing her utter and complete joy and abandon about our magical relationship. This spinning around her blue plastic tub became her trademark move, until of course she grew too big to do it any longer. But that was much later and down the road.
Over the months that Alana and all the other cats lived at the warehouse shelter in Gainesville, it became very apparent that many of the cats suffered from severe stomatitis or Feline Chronic Gingivo Stomatitis (FCGS). This chronic disease is extremely painful and debilitating, and results from extreme inflammation of the mouth tissues. Alana was one of the worst cases at the shelter. She received daily pain meds to get through, but she had all but stopped eating, and was now losing weight. Cats with FCGS often have difficulty chewing and eating, and will drool and paw at their mouths. Less than 1 percent of all cats get this painful inflammation. It is known to often develop through viral and bacterial components and inflammatory dental disease, or through resorptive lesions that can be involved too. Cats with a compromised immune system are also vulnerable to getting it. A cat’s over-reaction to the bacteria will trigger the severe inflammatory reaction, which progresses to a much more serious auto-immune condition, causing the body to attack the dental tissue itself.
By this time, I was on my second deployment of two more weeks from the San Francisco Bay Area, and the legal case was finally winding down and coming to a close five months later. As a result, the cats were finally free to put up for adoption. Through two huge adoption weekends in September, hundreds of cats were adopted to good homes. But Alana was not one of them. She was excessively shy and afraid of people, and her painful mouth and dental condition was a concern for most people. Fortunately, for Alana and all the cats that had this chronic dental condition that was preventing their adoptions — the University of Florida Veterinary Department stepped up to conduct and perform the dental surgeries needed for every single cat with FCGS or severe dental problems, and the HSUS found a partner to finance it. It was a win-win, especially for the cats. Since Alana was not adopted, and was one of the nearly 100 cats left because of their age, or shyness, or health conditions, I decided I would formally adopt her after her dental surgery.
Alana was picked up by a local rescue group, who supported her medical recovery. I flew one last time to Gainesville, worked the final week just before the HSUS closed down the temporary shelter, feeding and caring for the last 100 cats, while they found homes for these remaining cats. When I arrived back in Gainesville, on my second day, I got to pick up Alana! She recognized me immediately, and I swear, was over-the-moon happy to see me! At the end of my work shift, I drove her the 30 minutes back to our hotel room, where the HSUS had arranged a special room for me that week, where I could have Alana with me. We played, slept together, watched TV together, and she spent all the time she wanted in her blue plastic tub, spinning and spinning in utter joy. Life was more than perfect.
With Alana in tow, we boarded our first of two flights across the U.S., making it a very long journey for Alana with a several hour stopover in a busy airport. But Alana was such a sport, and so “cool” – and somehow knew she was going to a better life. She knew she was safe with me, and as long as I was there, she was going to be fine. So she took the hours of flying, and the loud, busy airport, all in stride. She got to her new home late at night, and somehow knew this was her forever. She quickly adjusted to living in her cat cottage with three other cats whom she came to love – Gracie, Simba and Romeo. She had lived with almost 700 cats, so living with three was a breeze for Alana. That first week, I took her to my trusted vet, Four Corners Veterinary Hospital in Concord, to have her mouth examined as all of her teeth had been removed during her surgery in Florida. Sure enough, there was bleeding from several roots that were left in, and there was inflammation, so a quick surgery was done to remove all the remaining roots, and 2-3 steroid shots later, Alana was good as new! The happy cat was born!
Alana made up for any and all lost “life” time spent at the cat-sanctuary-turned-hoarding-sanctuary in Florida, — at our house. Every morning when I opened the door, Alana would run out whip-speed like a race horse let out of the gate, madly dashing at break-neck speed across our yard, to plop down on the shrubs, bask in the sun, revel in the dirt, listen to the birds, sit with her best roommate Romeo, then race back to the cottage again at break-neck speed when it was time to come in 30-60 minutes later. Our yard was safely fenced with a 6-foot tall fence, both cats had no interest in jumping over. Morning and night, this happy running ritual played out with joyful exuberance and sheer ecstasy at going outside. Alana ran for her life like a cheetah being chased across our green grass to her favorite place in the dirt. That is, until the last week of her life, and the day she died, some 10+ years later.
For the first year Alana lived with us, she spun in her blue plastic box every time I brought it out, until she grew too plump and big to even move an inch inside it. She wanted to, but she realized she couldn’t, so she lost interest. She quickly graduated from the blue plastic box to running at break-neck speed inside the cottage, across all the ramps, and levels of the cottage, around and around, flying from one level to the next, down to the floor, back up to the ramps – she buzzed like a bee, and ran like a cheetah. Alana was a blissfully happy cat, and she wanted you to know it. At the end of her mad dashes, she would plop down on my lap. That was always the final destination. Getting her pets and physical adoration time by her cat mama.
Alana was pure joy. She loved Simba, tolerated Gracie, and looked up to Romeo. She was never alone. She had us for hours each day to rub her belly, scratch her chest, pet her back, and love on her endlessly. She was sick only once. And seriously sick. She had gone over the fence one time, and got stressed, and got very sick. After several antibiotics, expensive veterinary bills, and countless prayers, she healed and became healthy again. But I won’t say we weren’t scared Sh***less. We were. She was our “bug.” Our “Bugly” – the cat that I imagined having for at least another 10+ years. But it wasn’t to be so.
Bugly was now somewhere between 12 – 15, we don’t know her exact age. But that was what was estimated when I adopted her at 2 to 5 years old. I had her 10 years now. And in the winter of 2020, just as COVID-19 was starting to rear its ugly head, and we began to shelter-in-place and the country was shutting down, something was happening to my beloved, blessed Bugly. Blood tests showed elevated liver enzyme levels, that could be possible lymphoma. Or it could be possible “Triaditis”—a concurrent inflammation of the pancreas, liver and small intestines. So in late winter 2020, we started treating Alana with Prednisilone, subQ fluid therapy, B12 injections, and Cerenia. But Alana was not getting better. She was not her old self – happy, joyful, running, playing, exuberant. She was quiet, still, feeling sick, and feeling bad. She wasn’t eating well either. And she was losing weight. She went from a robust 11. 5 pounds slowly to 8 pounds over several months. We had turned to Dex Sodium injections now daily, along with critical care food, but nothing was really helping her. Then finally Alana crashed.
It was the day that she did not come inside the cottage when I called her outside. Alana always came. Always. She would run inside the cottage like a cheetah being chased. But not today – I couldn’t find her anywhere outside. I ran an errand, and was meeting our new real estate agent at our house to sell our house, since my husband and I were getting a divorce. And there was Alana, right in the middle of the grass, and something was very wrong. Of course, I made a lousy impression on our real estate agent that day, but I quickly told her something’s not right with my cat, and I needed to take her to emergency. She left right away. I grabbed Alana and took her straight-away to SAGE Veterinary Center in Concord. I ran her up to the door, which is totally a faux-pas during COVID-19, but I was desperate, and they saw the terror in my eyes, and accepted her right away.
Five long hours I waited. The prognosis was dim. Worse than dim. She was dying. And they didn’t know exactly why. I could try more diagnostics, but even my vet was perplexed and didn’t know what to give her. I think Alana had been poisoned by licking (she had no teeth) something in our garden during the winter. But honestly, I will never know. It was her time, and I could do nothing about it. With every rescue cat I have had, I have always known what caused their death, it was clear and obvious. It was due to a chronic disease that was being treated in most cases, leading to a slow decline. But not with Alana. It has sat so heavy with me ever since. It feels unresolved, and I like resolution.
My husband arrived to meet me at SAGE that night, and together we sat with Alana for an hour, loving on her before letting her go. Letting this sweet, beautiful soul, and happiest cat in the world –go, was unbearable and so painful. I was already in so much pain from our divorce, letting go of our house of 20 years, and now I was letting go of this beautiful soul who had shared so much life with me in her short 10 years with us. But we had run out of options. It was deemed the best thing to do given she was really suffering, and in pain, with no other option. There, I let go of my beyond-happy, joyful cat.
Thank you Bugly for always making us smile, laugh, feel lighter and feel better – you always made our lives happier. Your life on Earth was meaningful, your life mattered, it had significance. Thank you for sharing your most beautiful soul and spirit with us, it was no mistake that I met you 3,500 miles away, and that we had the blessed pleasure of sharing our lives together. I am always grateful, forever, dear one. I will never forget you.
Alana with Simba and Gracie
