Petco Foundation Grant--Scooter

The Amazing Adventures of Scooter the Diabetic Cat

He felt terrible, starving but losing weight, peeing all the time … the vet diagnosed diabetes. He felt his human didn’t want him anymore. He wished he could go back to how things were when she adopted him just a couple months before. He needed help

Diabetic Cats in Need (DCIN) received a call about Scooter in remote western Canada. The caregiver was ill equipped to provide appropriate care; DCIN could help. It provided education and paid for vet bills and insulin. It also donated supplies so the caregiver could test Scooter’s blood sugar, and encouraged her to join an on-line forum for feline diabetes.

My belly can be your playground.

For more than a year, DCIN stayed involved, both with financial aid and moral support. Once DCIN agrees to sponsor a cat, it stays involved as long as necessary. Scooter needed a dental (bad teeth can elevate blood sugar) but the caregiver never provided a cost estimate. Finally, in January 2013, the caregiver agreed to surrender Scooter and DCIN began the rehoming process.

He sensed change was coming, and his spirits rose! But the months wore on, and he began to lose hope. He dreamt of the moment he would meet his new humans, and planned what to say: “My name is Scooter. You have rescued me. Prepare to be loved!”, and he would purr and smile, thrusting his head into their hands.

The caregiver’s situation changed and it appeared Scooter would be abandoned or confined to a small bathroom; either way he was facing diminished quality of life or death. DCIN made Scooter’s rehoming a 911.

In June 2013 DCIN received an adoption inquiry from Maine. With the help of many individuals and organizations, DCIN planned his transport across the continent and the international border.

Is it you?

Scooter had vet visits for vaccines and the necessary health certificate. In August, volunteers drove Scooter towards Vancouver, then flew him to Toronto, where he spent a week being treated by a DCIN case manager.

Is it you, he wondered? “My name is Scooter. You have rescued me. Prepare to be loved!” Purr, smile, head-thrust.

But near a Canada/US border crossing, Scooter was handed off to a DCIN transport manager.

This must be it! “My name is Scooter. You have rescued me. Prepare to be loved!” Purr, smile, head-thrust.

However, she immediately took him to a US vet for another health certificate and on Labor Day Monday delivered Scooter to the airport for a two-leg flight to Portland, Maine. But there were weather delays; Scooter couldn’t fly until Wednesday. The rest of the trip went smoothly; he arrived in Portland on schedule. Maine requires an import quarantine, which a diabetic-friendly shelter with which DCIN often partners provided.

Scooter with his new Mom!

Saturday morning, someone came to collect him.

“My name is Scooter. You have rescued me. Prepare to be loved!” Purr, smile, head-thrust.

Thanks to DCIN, and after traveling 3600 miles in 17 days, Scooter finally had the right human.