Am I a cat magnet or a fool?

This morning, I went to the local grocery store with the full intent of buying more canned kitten food. I drive up and park. A car drives up next to me and parks too, even though the entire parking lot is devoid of cars and there are so many other spaces close to the store she could have chosen.

As I get out, so does she, planting a cat carrier on the roof of her car! I hear frantic, tiny meowing and my heart sinks…another abandoned baby!

I look over at her, she smiles and declares “I have a kitten I need to get rid of (grr I hate that terminology) do you know anyone who would want a kitten?”

I look over, reach for the carrier and turn it so the door faces me. I see the most beautiful (black and white) kitty. She is on her back legs, rearing in the air pawing to get out of confinement.

I sighed, and shame on me thinking to myself “God, why couldn’t you give me a kitten of color? So much easier to adopt out?”

I explained to the woman who I was, that I currently have 30 cats and told her I would take the baby if she could donate something towards the care. She did, she gave me enough to buy 10 more cans of food.

The kitten has been to the vets, other than discovering she has been eating gravel, dirt and twigs, she is doing well. She has been deflead, de-wormed and her stool was full of yard debris. 🙁 I am giving her some canned pumpkin to move things along and she has been introduced to the Fab Five and after some preliminary hissing and spitting. Piper has asserted herself quickly and is now running amok in the house with the others.

Oddly enough, she is the spitting image of our long-deceased Hissy. She even hissed at me and swatted when I took her out of the carrier. Her rectum is protruded a bit, so I put some desitin on it. The vet thinks it is because she has been eating things kittens don’t need to eat and she is about 6 weeks old.

So what are the odds? I told Mike I wanted to take off the cat magnets somehow attached to my car and not be subjected to how some in this world disvalue a life to the point of just throwing it away.

Anybody reading this in Oregon or Washington and you want a nice black or black and white kitten, I now have plenty to choose from! I will deliver to your door. 🙂

Mike said this morning, our home is now infected with the Black Plague! LOL

It is clear that yes, I did the hardest but the best thing for them. They are completely loved and cared for. The lady and their family just are nuts over them. Race is being ridden bareback only only in the field, while Trav is still being acclimated to being ridden. The family a week ago rescued yet another horse, this one could be Trav’s brother except he has thrown white on his belly. The previous owner put this stud colt into the same small pasture as a pregnant mare, and the mare ripped most of the boy’s face off But he is in much better hands now and they are working with him slowly. He is not in with Trav and Racer until his wounds heal and they have more hand’s on work with him. So all is good. I did do the right thing

Here is a photo of our enclosure. If you notice, there are two tunnels elevated off the ground which serve as tunnels into the house (through the dining room window) The tunnels are actually irrigation culverts that farmers use to bring water into their fields. We went to the manufacturer, told him what we wanted to do and he gave us a good price on two damaged pipes. we elevated them because of all the rain here and I wanted the cats to be able to get through from the house into the enclosure without getting soaked or challenged by the local wildlife.

The kittens are now in general population and the house is alive with movement. It is becoming increasingly difficult to walk around here especially for Mike. His balance is already off but add 8 small kittens to the mix and it becomes something like a demented waltz he performs when he walks.

Still no adoptiong hits on the kittens, which is sad but pretty much expected in this backwards town.

I will be away for a few days. I am getting a bad tooth pulled in the morning and probably will not be up to blogging for awhile. I put off going to the dentist as I have no insurance- but it has gotten to the point where I can’t ignore it any longer. The dentist said the way the infection is traveling, had I not gone it today, the next trip would have been to the ER. The infection was headed back from my neck toward my head and my tongue was getting swollen. She said that the infection very well could have cut off my airway in about 24 hours- yikes! So I am glad I swallowed my fear and went in. Although tomorrow isn’t going to be pleasant, it is necessary to get this poison out of my system

Once again, this website that was constructed with love and care has turned out to work to the positive in saving a kitten.

The gal who contacted me shared her story. She heard a small kitten crying at night and went outside searching until she found the wee one. It was skinny, scrawny but not knowing what to do right away, Heather decided to leave the kitten. A common mistake made by so many people who think that mom will return to get the kitten back. The truth is, the mom abandoned the kitten in a place where predators would find it so it wouldn’t endanger the rest of the nest. Finally, Heather couldn’t handle hearing the cries anymore and went to fetch the kitten.

Once she had it inside, she was in a dilemna. This was the first abandoned kitten she has ever encountered and she didn’t know what to do. She turned to the Internet and found kitten-rescue. She made up a cardboard box with a heating pad, mixed up a batch of kitten glop and then fired off an email to me.

Her concern (and it was viable) was the amount and the size of the fleas on the kitten was killing it. Which is exactly what was happening. I told her to bathe the kitten with a few drops of Dawn liquid dishwashing soap and warm water which will stun the fleas, comb them out with a baby comb or flea comb and then use tweezers to crush the buggers before dropping them into a jar of hot water and flushing them away.

I just got a phone call from Heather, the kitten has survived and has been adopted into another family who had a queen still nursing. The kitten was readily accepted and it is clean, fed and rid of fleas. Heather wanted to thank me for kitten-rescue. She said that it was a “kind website, full of good information and a lot of love.” That made me smile-that is why I created it out of love for these creatures that some in the world would rather throw away and forget about them.

Thank you to all the Heathers out there who care enough to interrupt their lives and administer to the many needs of these kittens.

I constantly hear Matuse calling to me in my head, and when I go outside, I still see him lying in the grass. I am so tired of loss- the toll on our hearts right now is so overwhelming. I can’t even cry because I am afraid if I start I will never stop. I hope he didn’t suffer long and that I was able to find him in enough time to take him away from his pain. Between his departure and the horses, I feel like I am slowly coming apart.

The rains have stopped and we are once again in the heat of things. I rearranged the cat enclosure yesterday trying to create good places for the cats to hang out at. I brought several of the barn cats indoors, but I still have three that are MIX- Chappy is still outside, he takes off under the house every time I try to get close to him. McKinley has reappeared a few times since his departure. He looks worse than ever but he stuffs himself at the feeders then vanishes again. Squirrel is outside, she hangs out with a neighbor’s cat, they are great friends, and I think Lucy feeds both the cats. Mercedes has told me she doesn’t want to come back inside. She is my pariah and at least outside, she doesn’t continually get beat up by the other cats. So I continue to feed out on the porch for the outside cats and everyone else is inside.

Received an email this morning from a lady in Africa who has found a small kitten in the bush. The umbilical cord is still attached, and this missionary worker is worried the kitten is dying. Go figure, that although she is in a remote location, she has enough internet access to find my website and shoot me an email! I told her a few things to try- one thing is good, she has an unlimited supply of pure goat’s milk! I will pray Umbisa makes it through the night as this lady hovers and worries nearby.

Tonight, I arrived home from work to find Matuse laying in the back pasture. I heard him crying and it sounded like a really bad cry so I located him finally in the tall grass. He tried to run from me- which is a first because even though he is a barn cat, he always run to me. He was dragging his back legs and didn’t get very far. I rushed him to the vet only to find out that his spine was broken, more than likely from a collision with a vehicle. There was nothing they could do for him-so amid a flood of tears, I said goodbye to him. He now joins his brother Ollie and the others who have gone on before him.

Goodbye sweet boy, I hope you didn’t suffer long and I was able to find you in time to put you out of your misery. We will meet again my black and white boy- now I wonder who will rise to the rank of Alpha.

This morning when I went to take a shower, I couldn’t get the bathroom door closed. Five black kittens were lying across the doorway, so I left the door open. In this house, the rule is “Do Not Disturb the Cats!”

About mid-way through my shower, I heard a rustling of the shower curtain. Looking down, I noticed a little black face peering up at me. He didn’t seem to mind the shower going full force, and he would occasionally swipe his paws on the shower stall chasing water droplets.

By the time I finished my routine, he had joined me in the shower and was wetter than me! So much for cats not liking water. He looks more oriental, otherwise I would swear he was Turkish Van since they love water.

I still can’t tell five of them apart and there are no hits or interest in adopting them so far. Looks like they will be staying with us. So what do you call a black kitten who isn’t afraid of water? Tugboat? Sprinkler? Fishy?Neptune?