Charlie will be the one going to the vet this morning, as soon as the clinic opens and I can get an appointment. His tree-climbing and getting stuck up there for 24 hours has caused him to come down ill. I was up and down with him all night as he vomited and gurgled and cried. He has been lurching his throat trying to swallow and I am hoping this is just a case of kitty tonsilitis (did you know cats have 6 tonsils?)

My greatest fear is that when Allen dropped him feet first from 15 plus feet in the air and I caught him in my down-filled coat- that I might have hurt him as well. That was a long drop, but he didn’t know Allen and therefore tried to get back up the tree and away from his rescuer. Allen was standing on a fairly large limb, hanging on to another with dear life and then had Charlie in his free hand. There was no way that he could descend the ladder and keep both of them safe, so the decision to drop Charlie was made by me.

Gosh, I don’t want to go the vet yet again but I have no choice. I have no money for the visit, but will have to take bill-paying money and use that to pay for this. My cat is more important, even if it means stalling the utilities company yet again for their payment. The clinic opens in an hour. I will let you know what the outcome is when I get home.

I have been receiving comments in my blog that I am not approving for personal reasons. I just want to clarify something- I am NOT a vet. I do not medicate any feral, stray, or kitten without it first being approved by a vet either by phone, email or in an actual visit. Those of you asking me to diagnose your cat’s illnesses- I will not do this. I am not qualified to do that- heck, you would be hard pressed to find a vet over the Internet that will do this!

When I talk about email- it is with a specific vet in the area who has given me her email address for use during emergencies only (after hours) Most of the time she has seen the cat or kitten before, and I am careful with weighing the kitten, explaining in great detail what is going on and I don’t self-medicate any of my crew- EVER! Self-medicating is a dangerous practice especially with strays and kittens. Your best bet is to see a vet in your area and go with his/her recommendation. Please don’t expect to find the “magic cure” on some Internet site, especially mine!

Now all that being said, I took barn kitty to the vet this morning because she was sneezing multiple times, she has clear drainage from her eyes and nose and she sounds like a washing machine. Ben looked her over carefully and thankfully proclaimed her lungs clear, and just said she has a massive URI mostly concentrated in the sinuses. She has been put on a heavy duty antibiotic twice a day, and she is now moved downstairs into the bedroom where she lives with Guinevere and Fiona. He agrees she needs to be spayed, and if I can successfully keep the kittens off her for then next 10 days, she should be dried up enough to get spayed. He won’t spay a lactating queen because it causes the female to be in great pain depending on the size of her mammary glands. He agrees with me that four litters in her short life with multiple kitten deaths is unacceptable and she needs to be spayed quickly. I haven’t contacted her owner about her illness because quite frankly, I don’t want to hear her tell me she will “care for the family.” I have seen how she cares for this family and her schedule is just to busy to accomodate this feline family’s needs.

This morning bright and early, a friend of ours Allen climbed up the tree to retrieve Charlie. Unfortunately, Charlie didn’t know him, so the minute Allen finally had Charlie who was about 20 feet up in the tree in his arms, Charlie tried to climb back up the tree- but Allen grabbed him.

There was about a 10 minute claw struggle until Allen finally disengaged Charlie’s claws from his shoulder and dropped him down to me. God was in control because I caught this pesky orange kitty safely in a down-filled coat and hustled him inside.

Now, he can’t get enough loving and he seems to be okay. He isn’t eating, but that is to be expected after the stress of being treed overnight. I will continue to watch him for signs that he might be ill, but for now I am smiling, because God was in control and Charlie is home again!

Today while I was finishing up the wash, Charlie darted outside. I tried to catch him, but he ducked out the window on the porch and vanished under the house.

I looked for him in vain during the day and it wasn’t until later tonight that I discovered he is up in the pine tree about 30 feet up. This tree is home to a nasty male coon and Mike and I tried with the extension ladder and bribes to get Charlie to come down lower. I tried to climb the ladder to the very top but it was perched precariously against the tree and I couldn’t overcome my fear of heights to rescue my golden boy. We used canned food, the laser light and gentle calling but he is stressed out and tired and up there for the night. I left the ladder against the tree and a bowl of food at the bottom and although it isn’t going to be bitter cold tonight, it is going to be foggy and 40. God please bring him down because I cannot.

I feel like the house now belongs strictly to the cats. All the kittens are upstairs in one room, Onions is in the room across from them. I am waiting for her milk to dry up so I can get her spayed (thank you Kim!) and then return her back to her owner. After three litters, this almost 2 year old girl deserves the rest coming!

Lazarus and his ringworm are now under control. The kittens all play together now and Mudslide and Perch seem to get the brunt of all the rough play as they are the two weakest in the bunch. Even as kittens, the group knows who is most vulnerable.

The older cats suddenly being denied access to the upstairs have their noses clearly out of joint and there are skirmishes nearly every day. Baker and Trump seem to be the most put out by this sudden denial of the upstairs and they race down the tunnels chasing each other out into the enclosure at least 4 times daily. I have Toots in the hall closet- not to worry folks, we cut holes in our canning closets on the stairs so the cats can have access and air. He likes to hide in the dark, so he has that spot, Onions is in the cat room and the kits are in the room across from the cat room.

Mike says he gets vertigo every time he walks into the kitchen because all the other cats follow him and he swears the floor is moving. The cable guy came by the other day and he had to contend with Charlie stealing his screwdriver, Matuse swatting his behind as he crouched under my computer following the cable lines. Perch climbed up on his back and I think he was really glad to leave this place, although he was a good sport about it all.

Mike and I talked about it and there will be no tree this year. We have had problems in the past with the cats climbing the tree and Lord knows the kittens aren’t going to let a wonderful opportunity of tree climbing pass them by. I just wish we still lived out in the middle of nowhere, but progress has advanced on us and the road has widened so the cats have to stay in the house or the enclosure instead of having the run of our acreage and being able to climb their own trees.

This morning Ripley our barn cat raced by me on the way to the barn, scampered up the walnut tree and leapt from branch to branch having the time of his life. I noticed McKinley and Mercedes watching from the enclosure and I could just hear their thoughts about why they don’t get to come outside too. Cats need to be outside, to play in the grass, chase prey and run up trees, but people around here would hurt them or even kill them if I dared just open up the enclosure and told them all to go play.

There has been no signs of Madison. I am sure she just found a dark place and went to sleep. I feel like I failed her and I hope someday to meet with her and tell her so.

I haven’t been very faithful in writing in this lately because even after the big speech at work that my boss was cutting back our hours, my hours have increased. Tonight was the 5th night in a row that I closed and I am bone tired. I need to sign off, go feed the horses, feed the kittens and the cats and then drag my tired self to bed. I am sure I will have plenty of company once I find my pillow- and I hope to be able to sleep in tomorrow. I am supposed to have two days off and I need it to put this house right.

It is so hard to accept that there are kittens this time of year. But every year as the winters get less severe, breeding season becomes extended. The arrival of the latest kittens took me completely by surprise and they are cute although they are in really bad shape. Anemic, wormy, the black and white kitty Mudslide was near death when he arrived, but after a few small doses of coffee flavored by Karo syrup, he has more life in him. Autumn is a beautiful tortise shell girl and Hailey is a gold and white beauty.

Of course Mike wants to keep all of them- and we have the mom in the bedroom although she has now been spayed and is hissy with her family. We will keep her, but hope the kittens will find loving homes once their health has been restored.

Last night is one, that I hope never to repeat again. Laz was in the living room playing with Perch under the coffee table. I came in before having to leave to work trying to straighten up and finish the laundry. I noticed the kittens pummeling each other under the table, turned around to leave with the laudry basket in my hand. I was barefoot and suddenly underneath my foot, I felt something soft. I stepped down because it didn’t register that it was the belly of a kitten. 🙁 I heard something pop and he screamed and gurgled and I screamed and stepped back. I picked him up and he was open mouth breathing. I flipped him over, and he vomited all over my feet. it was then that I noticed he had pooped and peed all over himself and my heart sank. All I could think of was that I had ruptured something and killed this poor boy.

I had to go to work, so Mike rushed Laz in to see Dr. Doer who could find nothing visibly wrong with him. he was alert and perky during the exam and even tried to nail her a few times with his kitty claws. We have had him confined now overnight and this morning I let him out for a few minutes and he bolted across the floor and jumped on Perch! Thank God- I could barely concentrate last night at work and I tried to not cry about what happened at least not in front of the customers. I just felt sick to my stomach because it was Laz and he has already been through it and back.

This morning he seems just fine and is running around the front room jumping on Oliver and Matuse. Thank you God for delivering him from my clumsiness. That vet visit is going to be costly because it was after hours- but I was so sure I had killed him because in all the years that I have been working with kittens, I have NEVER once stepped on one!

It was a bad night last night and I kept waking up to check on Laz. I found several piles of fresh sick on his blanket a few times but this morning, it looks like God has once again delivered this spitfire from possible death.

Tonight, another orange baby arrived at my door. He is bone skinny and wormy and he was full of fleas that were larger than Manhatten! I gave him a good bath and cleaned his rear- his owner was feeding him dry and wet food! His digestive system hasn’t caught up and it played havoc with his rear.

I think he has Persian in him somewhere and he strongly resembles our beloved and departed Prowler.

Onions owner contacted me the other night and she wants to care for the kittens and Onions which I refuse to do. I told her I was not stealing her cat but I wouldn’t be returning Onions until she is spayed and same goes for the kittens. I know she will just shut them into the cold concrete garage and call it good and where they are they are warm, fed and cared for and this is where they will stay for awhile.

At any rate, meet the new kit on the block!