So here's my sad - but mostly happy ending - kitty cat tale of woe...
Last year on August 4th I "rescued" the crack-house neighbors momcat. This was after watching her live outside by the street, fighting the raccoons for food, and having litter after litter of kittens. I have a couple of her kittens - that also were NOT taken care of - buried in my back yard, after I scraped them up out of the road when no one else gave a crap. Suffice it to say that I HATE THE STINKIN' CRACKHEADS!
Poor little momcat hid herself in my couch for 2 days in terror and I was starting to feel guilty about traumatizing her... Then my sister fished her out of the couch and we began the love therapy. In a couple of weeks she was starting to adjust pretty good and putting on weight. Her backbone and hip bones were no longer sticking out making her look like a death-camp cat.
By the middle of August it was apparent that she was carrying a litter of kittens again. Even though we already had 5 other cats we were really happy about it. We were going to let her have them, then find them homes and get her fixed. Then she was going to be our happy (retired) princess momcat. We named her Princess Violet. Her eyes are an interesting blue that is almost violet in certain light.
Shortly after that all the other cats in the house (all indoor) started getting some cat cold virus. Then PV got it. The others got better after 3 or 4 days but she didn't. She got pnuemonia. Probably because she never had shots and was not taken care of properly.
By the last week of August we were taking her and leaving her at the vet hospital every day where she would be on IV meds and fluids, and picking her up at night and keeping her in my room with the vaporizer on. She was so sick that the vet initially had wanted to do an emergency spay, but the xrays showing the pnuemonia kept us from being able to do it. We were not sure that she was going to make it. We eventually got to the point that she was getting 4 different antibiotics a day before she started to respond and slowly get better... But I am getting ahead of the story...
Sometime around the 3rd of September she aborted a kitten during the night. Then on Saturday September 10th while she was at the vet hospital for the day, and I was out of town on a weekend camping trip, she delivered a premature baby boy. On Sunday September 11th while she was at the vet for the day again she delivered 3 more kittens, 2 girls and a boy. The vet had her mark their little foreheads with food coloring so we could tell them apart.
I came home from camping that Monday morning to my poor sister who was worn out from bottle feeding them every hour or so all weekend long. PV was still so sick that she never produced any milk. We worked out a schedule to be able to feed the kittens. Since I work graveyard shift I started bringing them to work with me so my sister could sleep and she took them to work with her in the daytime so I could sleep. Things went well for a few days.
Then life turned to shit for a while:
September 19th the littlest boy kitten ("Greenie"), who had gotten sick, died.
September 20th it became apparant that the other 3 kittens were also sick. PV was still sick and not showing any improvement.
September 21st one of the little girl kittens ("Yellow"), who had been waking up screaming for most of the day, died.
September 23rd PV got a grim prognosis from the vet. She was taking 3 antibiotics at this time. We added the 4th antibiotic but were not sure it would do anything.
September 24th the remaining girl kitten ("Pinkie") started to purr.
September 25th the last boy kitten ("Bluey") died.
September 28th PV turned the corner and started to improve.
The last kitten ("Pinkie") was still sick and continued to get worse over the course of the next few days. Out of desperation my sister looked up the dosing info for the last antibiotic that was given to PV (and helped her start to get better) and we started the kitten on that.
Fast forward to today...
Princess Violet aka momcat made a full recovery. She has been spayed and is now retired from the kitten factory business.
Princess Pinkie just turned 11 months old a few days ago. She has permanent damage (extensive scarring) in one of the lobes in lungs, which they initially recommended be removed, but would have been another $6000 or so over the ~$4000 already invested in trying to save them. She does not know that she is not perfect and acts like a normal teenage cat, except for the heavy breathing when she over does it.
Now for the obligatory pictures...
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Here's the whole herd:
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Probably some asshole kid with an air rifle. I bet you can pinpoint him from his practice shots...
