Jumanji lost his battle with kidney disease and was euthanized today.

Oct 15, 2016 Jumanji was noted in the evening to have left his tuna ‘cicle uneaten. That was a pretty clear sign that something was wrong. I let Jamie and Dr. Justin know but since he was laying in the bushes, with his head up, I didn’t think it was an emergency. I was hungry and exhausted and running out of daylight to get home on my bicycle. Just as I turned onto the last leg of my ride home, Jamie texted and said they were worried about Jumanji and were going in to check on him. I told her I’d go with them, and did.

By the time we returned to the sanctuary we were just about out of light and everyone was leaving for the day. Gale was doing a family outing an hour away. Lauren was house sitting for a former employee. The interns were all locked outside the gates for the night. It would be just the three of us to try and figure out what to do.

The golf cart had no lights and the windscreen, which has been broken years ago, was zip tied to the frame. Holding a flashlight outside the cart, and pointed ahead, just barely made the tour path visible, because the windscreen was so marred from years of gravel induced scratches. It was overcast and raining a bit, so there was no star or moon light. Jamie tried and tried to call Jumanji to the side of the cage so we could check his dehydration level and possible give him fluids. We knew it was bad when he couldn’t stand, despite trying.

I left her to continue calling him and went after a bucket (so he might think there would be food involved), 3 nets, a Y pole (to hold his head away from biting the vet), gloves, a cordless shaver, so we could shave a spot and draw blood, and a pile of blankets, towels and a carry tarp. Meanwhile she and Dr. Justin determined that there was no way Jumanji was going to come to the side, so they sent me back for a carrier big enough for a leopard, that would fit through the door.

Jumanji was so “down” that we feared sedating him would kill him, so we decided to go in and see if we could hold him down with the nets and Y pole well enough for Dr. Justin to draw blood and give him fluids.

Jumanji said, “NO!” He wasn’t aggressive about it, but he made it clear that his good humor could turn ugly if we kept a net on his head.

We decided to try and corral him into the dog carrier but he couldn’t stand well enough to get him moving the foot or so into the pet taxi. We worked a carry tarp under him and he was sick enough and upset enough to vomit all over one end of it three times. We couldn’t go near his face, so Dr. Justin looped the Y pole through the two loops at his head, while Jamie and I lifted the back end, and tried to push him into the transport.

He decided the whole idea of being forced into the carrier was beneath him, no matter how bad he felt, he wasn’t going. He growled his displeasure and bit at the carry tarp, but the geometry of the situation wasn’t working. We just couldn’t get a good angle on lifting him, without having a person right in his face, and we couldn’t risk that. Dr. Justin left to load up a needle to sedate him. It was a last resort, because the sedation alone could kill Jumanji, but we had to treat him.

8:09 PM While he was drifting off to sleep (25 minutes) Dr. Justin went to get the X-ray machine running. We don’t have access to 3 Phase power here, so we have a generator. When he flipped the switch, nothing happened. None of us have ever had anything to do with the generator maintenance and didn’t have any idea what we were doing, but Dr. Justin noticed a panel that said we were low on fuel. This generator is about the size of a Volkswagon, so I have no idea how much fuel it takes to run the thing, or who is in charge of keeping it filled, but I called Scott Haller and asked if we have any Diesel on property. He directed me to our stash and after a few failed attempts with the container, Dr. Justin finally emptied it into the tank. When he hit the switch, nothing happened.

We were freaking out because we really needed to do blood work AND X-rays to make sure we were treating Jumanji properly for whatever is ailing him. Dr. Justin hit another switch and the generator roared to life! There would have been high fives exchanged, except that we had to find something better to carry Jumanji in, since cramming a sedated leopard into a dog carrier wasn’t going to be ideal. Due to Nala Serval taking up our two best transports, for her recovery from breaking her leg a few weeks ago, we didn’t have anything appropriate and Jamie was calling and texting us because she didn’t want Jumanji to wake up before we got back.

Turns out that wasn’t much of a concern, because Jumanji was really out of it. We loaded him into the pet taxi and I lit the way so that Jamie and Dr. Justin could see to carry him out through his cage which is thick with bushes and trees. This time we had the dump truck golf cart, and it has headlights, but only room for 2 passengers, so Jumanji and I rode in the back. We whisked him into the Windsong Memorial Hospital and began drawing blood, doing X-rays, checking his teeth and giving him sub-q fluids. The only thing we found was a lot of gas, from his abdominal breathing, and his kidneys were three times worse that just a month ago.

Jumanji’s blood work indicates he has suspected acute kidney disease/kidney infection. His blood pressure was high, which is the opposite of how kidney disease usually manifests. Acute kidney disease is different than what are cats typically suffer from which is chronic kidney disease. He was given fluids and medications that night and we wrapped up around midnight. His white blood cell count is high, so he’s fighting something off and we will help him. They are growing a urine culture, but that takes days.

Dr. Justin and Jamie have checked in on him a couple times today to administer more.

Oct. 17, 2016 his blood work was even worse. The medications were not helping and Jumanji was clearly ready to go. Jamie asked that the hospital cage be taken out by the lake where she and Dr. Justin could spend some last moments with him before helping him cross over to his next big adventure. Under the shade of the Grandfather oak on Tiger Lake they spent their last few precious moments together. Jumanji was euthanized and a warm, soothing breeze ruffled the air for a few minutes before he was gone. He may have left his cage on Easy Street yesterday, but he will always be with us.

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion. Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk