I wonder how many times I’ll type through tears during this post. 31.08.
I could never be a veterinarian.
A few nights ago, Andy and I were driving around Five Points. We turned down Girard, and followed as it wrapped alongside part of Maple Hill Cemetery. It’s home to one of my favorite houses. So as we get to the dead end, Andy’s headlights catch two glowing eyes. We squint to see a little kitty. The car goes into park, and out we get. After some coaxing, we finally got the playful little thing to let us pet her. She was so skinny. Andy left and went to Starmarket to get kitty food. I stayed to make sure she wouldn’t run off. I looked around to see where she could have come from. The house to the left was up for auction and across the street was a pile of trash including old vinyl flooring, half burnt wood, etc. This is where she lived apparently. My eyes started to water and I was anxious for Andy to get back. When he returned, she was a lot more fond of us…moreso after the two cans of food she ate. We weren’t really sure what to do at that point, and it was getting pretty late, so we decided to wait and come back the next day. Plus she wasn’t quite sure about letting us hold her or anything.
Sleep kinda happened that night, but it wasn’t very restful. Andy left for work at 8:30, and we agreed we would just go back once he got off and see what “kitty” was up to. 9 o’clock rolls around, and I’m out the door in my tennis shoes and scrubby clothes with cat food and a box. I had a plan. I got to the dead end and meowed to her (we had done that the previous night, and she was “talking” to us this way.) I hear a faint little meow, so I keep up with my end of the conversation. She climbed over the top of the junk pile squinty eyed and making muffins as she walked. I fed her a can of food, and tried to lure her into the box. She wasn’t really going for it, and I felt bad for trying to force her…and I got a few battle scars during the process. However, I faced a new dilemma. I was out of food, therefore, I was nothing more than some big animal dangling long weeds for her to play with. I decided to try to go to Family Dollar to see if they would take credit card numbers over the phone since I didn’t even bring my purse when I left the house. Of course they didn’t, but a woman over heard my story and bought me a can of food. My eyes watered with gratitude, and I hurried back to the dead end trash pile home of the cute kitten that has now captured my heart. However, I still only had the box to work with. I tried being a bit more forceful this time, and it blew up in my face. My hand got scratched up and she wouldn’t come to me anymore. I got really frustrated at myself for trying to rush it…even though it was around noon by this time. Andy met me at Pet Smart on his lunch break to help me look for a better method than a box to get her safe. We purchased a small 10 pound dog carrier and (of course) more food. Andy grabbed some food for himself, then met me for round three. This time, she was very hesitant, and never really came up to us. We decided to wait until Andy got off at 5, because she was more likely to be hungry. Andy went back to work. I went home and took a nap. I woke up around 3:30 to rain. I jumped out of bed and decided to go back up there for fear of how bad the rain was going to get. In hand I had what I believed to now be the proper tools. I parked my car and started meowing. Again, the squinty-eyed, now slightly damp kitten comes to me. I knew it was going to work…it had to, I thought. I opened the carrier door and placed the food inside, like I had done before with the box. She wasn’t as hesitant this time because she could see all around her, and it was larger. I let her eat a little bit and get sort of comfortable before slowly closing and locking the door. She didn’t seem to mind at first, only when I picked her up. hah four hours of coaxing vs twenty minutes. She meowed the entire ride home…and it felt like it took forever.
I was so nervous for this kitten for two days that I didn’t really eat, and the first night we had her I actually got sick. So many things were racing through my mind. Rabies? FIV? Will Sadie hate me forever? It made my stomach churn. She and Sadie did ok the first night. They ignored each other unless they ran into each other, then there was hissing. The next day was kinda the same. I kept having to tell myself that it would take more than a day for the two to be friends. But that, and still not knowing if she would be alright, decreased my appetite even more.
Last night, Andy and I decided to go to Pet Smart to get new kitty toys and to get information on Banfield Hospital. We made an appointment for her to get vaccines and such. I woke up with Andy and the kitties, and played with them after he left for work. They began to play together, and the hissing almost completely stopped. We all ended up falling asleep in the living room. As time neared the appointment, I slumped around to get ready and semi-sobbed all the way to the vet. Even talking to the nurse about her made me get misty. I can’t help it. She’s tiny and it’s sad thinking about where she was living and what could have happened to her. I pointed out a cut that was on her front leg, and the nurse said they would look at it after they ran the tests. All of her tests came back negative (yaaay) but the cut turned out to be a gash that needed three staples (guess who’s lip was quivering while telling Andy this over the phone.) I waited patiently/nervously in the room until she was done. The doctor said she was such a calm, sweet kitty and that we were driving at the right time that night to save this kitten’s life. You could tell the staples were bothering her, and she tried to lick them. Bad news. She got sent home in a “lampshade.” If you’ve never seen your pet in one, good, cause it’s so hard to watch. She couldn’t eat, she kicked litter in her face, and she couldn’t even fit under her favorite hiding spot. I might have laughed if the situation was different. I called my dad to get some advice, and he said it would probably be ok to wrap it in gauze, as long as we changed it frequently and let it breathe while she played in our plain site. ((lauramastodon, any other advice…or are we way off with this idea?)) Phone calls to dad always seem to help. He said that my timing with that call was odd. Right as the phone rang he was looking at this art piece that I did during a vacation bible school. It says “Hurt no living thing” and has cut outs of animals with my name on the bottom. I think I remember that project. We had to pick a phrase in our own words that correlated with what we had learned from bible study that class.
We wrapped her leg and she’s been asleep since, and purring whenever we check on her. I hope by the end of the weekend Sadie and Maple (guess where that came from) will be closer friends. I don’t know that I’ll have all the time I did this week to spend with them and supervise next week. I don’t want to have to leave Maple shut in a bedroom all day. At least Monday is a holiday…it’s great to have Andy to myself again all day 🙂
ok, I think I’m done, and I’m not telling how many times I got choked up just re living thus far.