One of our cats is a terrible mother. She goes through a constant cycle of heat, pregnancy, loose the litter. Before you start chewing me out about getting her fixed you need to understand she is a stray. Please believe me when I tell you, there is no way to catch this cat.
Anyway, she had another litter of three, that I know of, 3 or 4 weeks ago. Amazingly she managed to keep them alive. She kept moving the kittens every time we found them. We hadn't seen or heard them in over a week and had given up on them assuming, like so many times before, she had lost them. I kept holding out hope because she didn't seem to be going into heat and yesterday morning I was proved right.
After feeding the cats (we only own one, several kind of came with the house) I heard the distinct cry of a kitten. It was coming from a crawlspace under the garage but I couldn't find a flashlight (that worked) and I had to leave, so I took off, pleased with myself for finding them and being right about them being alive.
Around noon I found a working flashlight and happily went out to see the cutiepies. As I approached the opening to the crawlspace I heard the crying again. This opening is about 18" x 24" and about 30" off the ground. I stuck my head and flashlight into the hole and, sure enough, there was a beautiful little fur ball crying like mad. It seemed to be in a little bit of distress but not bad. But where were the others?
Upon closer inspection I could see the other two and it didn't look good. The all white one was almost within reach but wasn't moving at all and the dark one was about twenty feet away and still as well. The crier came straight to my hand but the only way to even see if the others were alive was for me to climb through the hole and go under the garage.
Believe me, it's dark in there without the flash but I went in and, amazingly, the other two were still alive, but only barely. The white one was so close to death I considered not even bringing it out but, of course, I had to. The dark one was only slightly better, almost totally unconscious and very cold.
I brought the three of them in and went to work trying to warm them up and scratch up something to feed the crier because she was starving. I was the only one home so you can imagine the fun of trying to save the two critical ones while the other one is crawling around screaming from starvation.
The white kitten didn't make it. She died within an hour.
I'm happy to report, however, the other two are doing great. After getting warmed up and being force fed, the dark one is showing dramatic improvement. The lighter colored one probably had another day but the dark one only had another hour or two at best. Don't even ask me how many times I've kicked myself for leaving them for those four hours. It almost certainly would have been the difference for the white kitten.
There's a lesson there.
Now what? Anybody want a cat?
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9 comments:
thats such a nice story, sad one of them couldn't make it, but I give a lot of credit to you for saving the other two.... great job..
Thanks Pearl. I don't know about credit, it's just one of those things :)
That is an amazing story! It's too bad you had to go and wait until noon to get them :( You did what you could though so you can be proud of that.
Yeah, I had no idea :(
Want a cat? ;)
Be happy that you were able to save the other two. That's a great story - how is the mother behaving now that you have the kittens inside?
It's a big coincidence that I just read this because I just finished tomorrow's post which is cat-related!
Blogstruck - Oh, I am. I figure the other one just wasn't supposed to make it.
That's a good question. Once I got them past the critical stage I tried to reintroduce them to her but she would only hiss at them and walk around them. They were still too frail to leave them outside for long so I had to just give up and bring them in.
Boy, what a difference a heating pad and a full tummy make! Now I'm trying to figure out how to get them back outside.
Want a cat? ;)
I don't think you can mail a cat can you? How would I get it?
If you figure out a way to get it to someone, maybe you could give one of them away in a blog contest ;)
Or maybe you are starting to become the "cat lady" hehe, just kidding.
Nick - I don't know, they're pretty tough now. I think they could make it. Might smell a little strong when they get there ;)
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