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Old August 23rd 03, 09:24 AM
Annie Benson-Lennaman
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Default Gem the Gray Kitten (long)


We moved from San Diego to Jefferson County Missouri about three months
ago, Lenny and I. We drove, renting a truck and towing the car behind.
It was hard, because we were also towing along our four cats, Skitty,
Velly, Abondigas, and Jeeves. Well, Abondigas and Jeeves were really
the next door neighbor's cats. But they never took them to the vets, or
let them inside, and we ended up taking them because they were really
just being ignored.

So, it was a fairly trying trip (*you* try driving 2000 miles with 4
cats) but we made it. It didn't take us long to find the house we are
in now, on two acres of land, in a Mayberrish town called De Soto. We
don't need to lock our front doors. I fell in love with the house
immediately.

The cats seems to accept it as well, once they settled down (we had
been living in Motel 6's for a about a month). Within a week or so, we
spotted the feral cats living on our land. They were gray tabbies... in
fact, they looked just like Velly. They avoided us, but the soon
tumbled on to the idea that we had a cat door. Soon, they were having
run ins with our cats. Abondigas got into a fight with one in the front
yard... his tail got bit and infected. We had to take him to the vet.
He recovered, but seems to be deeply scarred emotionally. A couple of
days later, we heard a horrific battle in the front yard. We still
don't know what happened, but we do know that we haven't seen Velly
since. We suspect that she was driven into the woods, where she got
lost. We hope she got adopted by someone else.. but we are not sure.
It was hard.. we love our cats.

A couple of days after that, I saw Jeeves prancing excitedly in front of
the sliding glass door that leads to our deck. He's normally a very
mellow cat, so I investigated. On the other side of the glass, there
was a fluffy gray kitten! It was tiny... less than 3 weeks old I would
guess. It ran when it saw me, but not before I saw a couple of other
ones. Lenny and I saw the kittens a few times after that. We decided
to catch the feral cats, so protect our own, have them fixed so they
didn't keep making kittens, and then release them back into our yard.
About a week later, we got the live trap from animal control.

It took a couple of days, but we got a grey tabby. We waited for the
morning to take it to the vet's. Lenny checked on it during the night,
and saw a kitten cuddled against the cage next to the cat. But he
couldn't catch it. We took the cat in, named her "Momma Cat", asked for
her to be spayed, and took the trap back. Within a day, the vet's
called to let us know that they had changed the cat's name to "Poppa
Cat". For some reason, the kitten was trying to cuddle with a tom. We
figured then that the mom was not taking care of them.

The next day, we see a kitten dash into one of the sheds. Of one
mind, Lenny went the the front of the shed, I went to the back. We shut
both doors behind us.. and the kitten was still there! Trapped! With
some effort, we cornered the spitting hissing thing, and threw a coat
over it. Into the cat carrier it went! But... the kitten was in bad,
bad shape. It was thin and bony, like it hadn't eaten in a week, it had
a hole in it's lip ... and it was having a hard time breathing. Off the
the vet's!

The vet said it was about 4 to 6 six weeks old, and it only weighed 1
pound 1 ounce. That was way underweight. We could feel every bone in
its spine, every rib in its chest. The mom cat had abandoned it quite a
while ago, he believed. He told us she was a girl kitty. The hole in
her snout was probably from an infection, and she had some sort of
infection in her chest. He didn't know if she could pull though, or how
long it would take us to socialize her if she did make it. But he gave
us some food to feed through a syringe, and some antiboditics to take,
and told us to come back in three days.

She attacked the syringe when we fed her. She was starving. And after
we gave her two meals worth, she started to purr. It took us less than
two hours, from capture to feeding, to fully socialize her. She just
seemed grateful that someone was willing to give her a full tummy for
the first time in who knows how long. We put her on the bed, and she
just lay where we put her. It seems like she was too weak to move. She
pretty much stayed there for two days. She didn't do much but eat and
purr and sleep.

On the day before her next vet visit, another gray tabby invaded our
house. It ran back and forth, and I finally I got tired of chasing it
and just grabbed it as it was cornered, then stuffed it in the cat
carrier. I was bit and scratched, and the blood flowed pretty freely.
I just really wanted to catch while the other was at the vet's because I
knew that it would be the only time I could be sure it wasn't the same
cat.

So, off it goes to vet with the kitten. The vet says it will be a
good idea to hold it for ten for rabies quarantine, and I agree. The
kitten is doing much better. She gained ten ounces, and her mouth is
starting to heal. But she still has chest congestion. He tells us that
there is a chance that that will never clear up... and the kitten isn't
out of the woods yet. We take Poppa cat home and release him... he runs
like he had the devil after him. The kitten goes back into the
bedroom. And within a few days, she started to play. After a week, we
can't feel the bones in her spine or ribs any more. We decide to name
her Gem, because she is Gun Metal gray, and because she has such a sweet
temperament, it's like at least something precious came from all this
mess. We decide we are going to keep her, if she survives.

Ten days pass.. and Momma cat doesn't have rabies (whew!), and she won't
be making any more kittens. We release her also. We haven't seen any
of the other kittens, despite searching. The vet says its a pretty good
bet they starved to death just about the time we caught Gem. We regret
this, but we know there really wasn't much else we could have done. At
least one got a chance.

And what a chance! She soon was at her normal weight for her suspected
age. And playful as all kittens ought to be. But she was still sick.
The first round of vaccinations caused a reaction.. she could barely
breath. We rushed her to the vet. He gave her decongestants. Because
she is so tiny, we have give her 1/10 of pill at a time. We end up
crushing the pills, and making lines of them, the dividing the lines up
and mixing the dose with food. A pain in the neck, but it die seem to
work.

Then next time we take her in, the vet gives her a different type of
pill.. one that tastes real bad and makes her drool. We hate giving
that as much as she hates taking it.... but we want to give her every
chance to make it. The vet says he thinks that she will always have
this problem, because she was hit so hard so young. Well, I am
constantly congested due to allergies... not the same thing, but I can
relate. She is growing normally now, and is clear eyed and playful, and
seems to be very happy with her new life. She's poking the back of my
legs right now with her little claws of terror, and batting a bottle cap
from a 2 liter soda bottle around our hardwood floor. She's almost
impossibly cute.

So, with all the Bad Things that are going on in the world, at least
one creature caught a break and beat the odds. And I feel a little bit
cheered up every time I see her.
--
Annie

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