This morning Flash was dropped off at the local Humane Society to be spayed. My friend  Haley got her there right at 8:00. At 3:00 p.m Flash was picked up by another one of my friends and brought back to me. I had made a difficult decision to go ahead and surrender these three remaining kittens to the  Humane Society next week. I wanted to surrender all three of the kittens at the same time and asked that they stay together in the same cage until they’re adopted out. They are currently so friendly and loving, I don’t suspect they’re going to be there very long. I will be monitoring their adoption online as that’s the only way I can do this right now.

Flash had to be a late spay. She was spiraling out of control the minute I let her out of the cage to check on her and see what her incision looked like. I also freed her from the dreadful plastic cone and replaced it with a Trimline collar which is made of fabric and therefore, not a scary thing for a young kitten to deal with.

We moved her cage into the bedroom and covered it with a dark blanket and left her just to try to decompress from what she had endured this morning. I know from past experiences that they keep the dogs and the cats in the same room. (When they are waiting for spays/neuters.) Although the room is quite large, the dogs are kept on one side, the cats on the other. But the barking of all those dogs can be very offputting to cats and especially to kittens. So that, plus all the scary pheromones along with the anesthesia, she was quite altered.

Normally Kota sleeps with me in the bedroom. Tonight, however I banished him out of the bedroom and went in there about 10 o’clock to sleep. Flash had been meowing incessantly.  I had gone in there a couple of times trying to quiet her down or calm her. But nothing worked. Even giving her a little bit of food and water at 8 PM did nothing to even ease her into sleep.

I laid in bed for about two hours, listening to her cry and she sounded so pathetic and so scared. I knew that if I opened the cage door and let her out she wouldn’t calm down. She would just become a whirling dervish in the room and that’s not going to help her at all.

Finally, I just started singing her some Negro spirituals I learned long ago. The one that calmed her down immediately is called. Let There Be Peace. (Pretty ironic when you think about it.) But it worked for her and after three rounds of the song, she has finally fallen asleep. It is almost 2 AM. I am now in the living room and probably going to sleep in my chair instead of the bedroom. I do not hear her crying anymore and I’m grateful that she is now at peace herself.

I am hoping once morning breaks that she will be back to herself,  so she can rejoin her sisters. I know they won’t recognize her because she won’t smell the same. Thankfully, I have still in my cupboard, pure vanilla extract (not the imitation.) I will be putting this on all the kittens before setting her down in the room. They will all have it on the tip of their noses and under their tails. That’s how cats greet each other. They sniff each other’s noses and they smell under the tail. If I don’t do this, there’s going to be a fight. I do not want any fighting, especially when one of my cats just got spayed.

If times were different, circumstances not so overwhelming. I would have loved to keep all five of the kittens. They are so unique and so special. But that’s not going to happen. I still have 14 rescues here. Also my two indoor kitties, Aspen and Addie have not adapted to these newcomers even though they’ve been here several months.there is a lot of charging the screen door that stands between them. A lot of growling and posturing from my resident kitties to these babies. All pointing to the fact that chances are pretty strong they will never get along. One of the reasons for that is, they’re all female. If these were male kitties, this wouldn’t be happening.

So this is my last rescued litter (Knocking furiously on wood as I say that). I pray the Humane Society stays true to their word of keeping all three girls together in the same cage until they get adopted. It would certainly lower their stress level and mine.

We are still under a flood watch and my creek is definitely flooding. It’s halfway up the footpath right now and the current is booking. It is so swift that even Kota understands the power of this current. He does not even try to venture to go down and drink out of the creek. He just stays with me at the top of the path. Such a smart dog. I think they call it animal instinct.

For what’s coming with me next, instead of asking one person to take care of not only me, but also my animals. It would just be too much. So I have asked several people to come in and take care of the outdoor kitties, another one will come in and take care of the indoor kitties. One lady is coming to only take care of Kota- and still another one will come in to pick up my mail periodically and bring it in the house, as well as take out my trash cans if they need to be taken to the curb. I thought that would be a lot easier than asking someone no matter how much they like me to do everything. I know because I do everything every day  and it’s a lot for me.

My biggest concern remains Bentley. I don’t think anybody can give him his pill. I am thinking about perhaps making very small meatballs, inserting a pill inside of each meatball and then freezing them in a ice cube tray. Have three taken out at one time to thaw out. Working it that way, but again. He’s very famous for spitting out his pill.

I’m just trying to cover all the bases. I don’t know how long I’m going to be immobile. My surgeon told me that he won’t know either until once he gets in there and sees what’s actually going on and does his best to put everything right. Good thing I don’t like to fly because he says I’m going to start setting off metal detectors in airports.

It’s hard to imagine having a shoulder joint that is reversed from how nature intended it work. But as I mentioned before, he has a 90% success rate with this surgery and he’s been doing this surgery for 20 years. Wish us all luck-