Quicksilver is our feral cat. His ear has been clipped by a vet after being fixed. Someone, AMAZING, found a cat colony & took them all to be fixed, then returned them to their original home. Which is the Shell gas station down the street. Quicksilver left the Shell station & met Hobbes, our cat. Hobbes showed Quicksilver around & introduced him to me & the dogs. My husky has a strong dislike of him…but Nala, our husky doesn’t like other animals. (Disclaimer: We didn’t raise Nala, we got her from Alabama Siberian Husky rescue, she was about two years old, so i didn’t teach Nala to hate other animals) Quicksilver had shown signs of ear mites. My son & i worked together to bring him into my bedroom, where Hobbes was waiting. We called the plan, ‘Operation Quicksilver’. I was able to put ear drops into his ears & he felt much better…for about two weeks. I do know i’m supposed to put ear drops into his ears everyday…but that is impossible. Quicksilver scratched the back of my shoulder so deeply that it didn’t stop bleeding for a few hours.

Then, a few days ago, i could tell that he didn’t feel good again. You’ll see in these images that he is washing his ears. In some of the photos, his ears are pulled down tight & he could barely open his eyes. After i took these photos. I informed my son that it was time for ‘Operation Quicksilver’ again. My son, Henry, opened & closed the doors required to trap him in my bedroom. This time, instead of trying to wrap him up in my shirt, i put on a thick jacket. If i sit near his food, he always comes to me because it seems that he like to eat with company. So i sat in 98 degree heat with a heat index of 110…in a thick jacket sweating my ass off. (Alabama heat is so humid & the sun is so intense…its hard to go outside anyway. I miss my Vermont summers)

The ear mite murder worked. He felt much better within an hour or so. I always worry that he will not forgive me & move back to the gas station. When i went back outside, to check on him, he came up to me…and rubbed all the medicine that had dripped onto his cheek (he is squirmy & i miss his ears a bit) back onto me.