The Prisoner of Meowcatraz

I first built “Meowcatraz,” an outdoor kennel, for Ragoon, a FIV, FELV, FIP AND heartworms positive friendly stray I picked-up at a restaurant. Any Corpus locals may remember a light orange tomcat at the Surf Club, that’s Ragoon (formerly known as Dusty). Ragoon was in rough shape when I first met him, skin and bones, poor coat quality, and sores on his face. I had originally only planned to trap a kitten I saw there, but asked the staff if I could also have Ragoon because he was so friendly. The manager agreed, they said Ragoon just showed up one day and they didn’t really want him.

So I took Ragoon home and to the vet, where I found out about all of his medical problems. I couldn’t set him free in my house because I have other cats and didn’t want to set him free outside because I have a cat colony. Even with vaccinations, most of these diseases are communicable to the other cats. My solution was to make him an outdoor enclosure he could comfortably spend the rest of his days in. Little did I know how few days he had left…

Shortly after I took Ragoon in, he began experiencing ascites (abdominal fluid build-up) from the FIP. The vet said it would be a matter of days before the ascites got so bad he wouldn’t be able to breathe, so we made the decision to humanely euthanize him. Unfortunately, none of the diseases Ragoon was suffering from are curable, however, they are ALL preventable.

Meowcatraz was only half-built before we ended-up having to put Ragoon to sleep. We put on a real roof this weekend and have plans to make more cat-friendly furniture for the inside. “Catification” as Jackson Galaxy says. We hope to utilize our outdoor kennel for more strays and ferals that need medical attention or monitoring, but cannot be brought inside.

Please consider making a Donation so we can continue to provide services for cats like Ragoon.