As the founder and CEO of Friends of Bear Cat Rescue (FOB), cat lover Haley is used to keeping her eyes peeled for needy felines in Northern California. She often saves sick and homeless cats around her Bay Area neighborhood, but one recent case happened surprisingly close to home.
While leaving one day, Haley heard a familiar scream ring out from a bush in front of her house. Her heart sank as she got closer and realized someone was sadly living in the foliage.
“I believe someone dumped this very loud cat, who is terrified, and she’s just been living in my bush … and screaming at me …” Haley wrote on X, previously Twitter.
Haley tried using an enticing treat to lure the cat from the bush as she did with most of her rescues. The cat, later named Birdie, showed signs of hunger, but there was something unusual about her manner of eating.
“She would jump and run away from her food, even though she was clearly hungry, and would just hide in a bush and cry, not letting anyone touch her,” FOB wrote on their website.
You can watch that moment here:
Haley’s heart broke for Birdie. The cat’s behavior suggested a mouth injury, but the poor girl wouldn’t let anyone get close enough to help. After days of trying, Haley finally trapped the cat and shuttled her straight to the local vet hospital.
The vet team welcomed Birdie with open arms and reassured the scared girl that she was safe. They gave her medication to make eating less painful while she waited for surgery, but it didn’t help as much as they’d hoped it would.
“Her mouth hurts so bad that she’s afraid of her food, even with pain meds,” Haley wrote on X. “She’s just uncomfortable and hungry [but] still purring because she’s so sweet.”
When they were able to anesthetize Birdie safely, the team thoroughly examined her mouth and diagnosed her with stomatitis — an oral condition that causes debilitating inflammation.
“[A]s you can imagine, this condition is so, so painful — one of the worst things that a cat can experience,” Haley wrote on X. “The only solution is to extract ALL teeth and roots.”
The solution, although extreme, would finally allow Birdie to eat pain-free. The strong girl underwent surgery and, despite a rough recovery period, she eventually started showing signs of improvement.
“[S]he is eating and feeling better after starting a strong steroid to knock down her inflammation,” Haley wrote on X. “She requires very soft, watered-down mousse and 3,000 belly rubs per day during this delicate time.”
As she figured out how to eat without teeth, Birdie soon shed her fear of food and started gaining weight again. She eventually grew to love food again, getting just as excited about her next meal as she did over belly rubs.
When Birdie became eligible for adoption two months after her rescue, FOB found the perfect forever home for the sweet girl. She’s now living her best life, and her rescuers at FOB couldn’t be happier for her.
“[She] now lives with her amazing human mom and kitty brother and is already the princess of her new home,” FOB wrote. “It is so rewarding helping cats like Birdie finally get some relief from their suffering and find the wonderful forever homes they all deserve.”