Saturday 31 October 2009

It's very late, I'm tired, and I'm too afraid to go to bed

No, didn't watch a scary movie tonight. Did watch a stupid one - The Uninvited. Snore. I'm afraid to go to bed because I have a very sick little kitten on my hands.

Our "resident" stray cat Shakey has gone back to being Bad Mom. She gets pregnant often, has her kittens, and brings them around to mooch off us. I've lost count how many kittens she's had in 3 years. Anyway, the same pattern emerges almost every time. Has kittens, takes care of them until one day she begins to growl and hiss any time they come near us or food of any kind. This usually happens when she is pregnant again.

She's had kittens that have taken refuge in the wheel well of our car and have come to awful, untimely deaths as a result - very sad and horrifying. We've managed to adopt out some of the kittens, thanks to my friend Karen. But the rest stayed feral and are scattered across the countryside.

This latest batch was born in our shed. She decided she was going to stay there - we had one window pane that had fallen out, so we figured ok - we brought in an old bedspread and an old pillow, and on Aug 24th she had 5 female kittens. 2 were adopted out. The most feral one hasn't been seen in ages; we have no clue what happened to her. The other 2 were both healthy a few days ago. This evening my husband came into the house talking about what a bitch Shakey is. The most friendly kitten who always comes up to him is near death. He figures she doesn't let this one eat because she's a jealous bitch (to be honest, she really is). Any kitten that shows "Daddy" affection has always gotten the hostile treatment from her. The other kitten is quite healthy and solid. This poor thing can barely move.

I found a boot box, put an old piece of clothing and an old baby towel in the box and put her in. Miraculously, my husband didn't rag on me about it. He does not want animals of any kind in the house, despite the fact that he's really a Cat Whisperer. Cats love him. We've recently found out skunks do too but that's a digression. Anyway, I found a dropper, put a little saucer of milk in the box and we made her drink some of the milk. (She's far too weak for solid kitten chow.) I've been doing this off and on during the night. Recently switched to water because the milk might be too rich for her stomach, and I don't want to leave milk out overnight. Might make her even more sick.

I don't think that would really be a problem right now. Once in a while she repositions herself, but her eyes are glassy and she can barely hold her head up. At this point I'm afraid to move her head to get the dropper in her mouth because it's too loose - she gives zero resistance, but her jaw is shut tight. Her breathing alternates between fast and very slow. Her nose is very hard to the touch with no colour at all.

This picture was taken a month ago. Her colouring has become darker since then but she's still cute nonetheless.

I will be very surprised if she's still alive in the morning. My problem right now is that my son will get up bright and early in the morning and will go to pet her. I don't want him touching her if she's dead. I left a big note on the back of the box cover that says "DO NOT TOUCH HER" but he has tunnel vision - he sees what he wants and ignores everything else, even the obvious.

If she's meant to die tonight, I hope she doesn't suffer any longer. Poor little thing.

I'm going to go to bed now. It's past 1:30 and we have to be at the pool by 10am. If there are typos and/or grammatical errors galore, I apologize. Too tired to proofread.

2 comments:

  1. No, she was too far gone. I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did - she was gone by the time we got back from trick or treating.

    ReplyDelete