Sugarbutt

Date of birth: 6/28/05

(L-R: Callie, Bear, Sugarbutt, Smitty)

We got Smitty, Sad Eyes, Barrett and Little Cal when they were almost 12 weeks old, on September 11, 2005.. They'd been staying with another foster mother for about a week when she needed to go out of town, and so they came to stay with us until they were ready to be adopted.

All four of them were dealing with coccydia and giardia, so there was a lot of diarrhea going on. One of them - Sad Eyes - had what I thought was a prolapsed rectum. I discussed him with the shelter owner, and she said that someone had recently told her to try a damp cloth with sugar on it, held against the area. It sounded odd to me, so I gave it a try. I don't know if it helped, or the fact that I bathed him twice a day (to keep him clean), or what exactly helped, but something did, and matters improved.

And Sad Eyes got the nickname "Sugarbutt." Eventually I took him to the vet for a scooting problem, and discovered that even though things had improved, what he actually had wasn't a prolapsed rectum, but rather infected anal glands. The vet took him off to squeeze the anal glands, and when I got home with Sugarbutt, there were poop issues that ended up resulting in him being confined to a cage for a few days.

Poor Sugarbutt.

Eventually things improved a lot, and Sugarbutt's butt became almost completely normal. After he had improved and the kittens were through with their giardia and coccydia medication, we let them out into the house to play with our cats and roam the house during the day.

There's nothing in this world Sugarbutt likes more than a good belly rub and a kiss on top of his little head. He has gas issues, but hopefully that'll resolve as he gets older. He's very, very playful and tends to want to keep playing even when everyone else is tired and just wants to sleep. He's a little ball of energy, and has gorgeous markings.

Sugarbutt was adopted, but a few days later, the shelter manager called to tell me that the man who had adopted him had brought him back. Sugarbutt was dripping blood from his behind, and was being seen by the vet. She wanted to know if I could keep him for a little while. I said yes, of course, and went that evening to pick him up and bring him home. (The vet said she thought he had coccydia, and prescribed 2 weeks of medication)

When the two weeks was up, I emailed the shelter manager to let her know that Sad Eyes/ Sugarbutt was ready to go up for adoption. She told me that adoptions had slowed down a bit, so it might be a little while before there was room at the pet store.

But before room came available, I convinced Fred that Sugarbutt needed to become a part of our family (well, maybe Sugarbutt himself did a better job of convincing Fred of that than I did!), and in November 2005, we adopted him and officially changed his name to Sugarbutt.

You can see more pictures of Sugarbutt, here.

See his Catster page here.