So where did I leave off? We took the three kittens down to get spayed/neutered last week, they got their 4-in-1 vaccines, were de-wormed, and got a Frontline treatment for fleas. Everything went just fine. Now we had to start with the adopting out process.
Just a day after I brought the cats home from the vet, I was at PetSmart buying some…well, when you're at PetSmart, you buy pet stuff of course, so I was buying stuff for the cats. "PetSmart. Where the Pets Go." Anyway, there was this lady there with a local shelter organization and I, shy Jessica, got up the courage to go ask her if she had any room at her shelter. She said no, but asked what I had. I told her about the kittens and what they had just had done, and she said that she was just getting set up there and the come back and hour later so, We could talk, because they already had so much done to them in terms of the aforementioned procedures.
I had an errand to run that took about an hour and then I came home and got the papers from the vet that showed what the cats had performed on them at the vet, made copies, and took them to her when I went back to PetSmart. She looked at the paperwork and asked more about the cats, and she said that she'd give me a call. I was SO excited. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but this sounded like it was going to work out. She even said she reimbursed for about as much as we wanted to sell them. So I went home and waited, and waited. Nothing. Sigh.
WELL, I knew she was going to be there all weekend, AND I needed to pick something else at PetSmart. So I went down there in hopes that she'd still be there and she was. I asked her about the cats and she said she wasn't able to take them, but she works with another lady who goes to another pet store as well, and she'd have more room. She said she was coming at 3pm, and if I wanted to wait around and talk to her, I could do that. It pretty much was 3pm. So I bought my stuff and then hung around, playing with and talking to the kitties. I had some very enlightening conversations with them. After about half an hour I decided to go. This other lady said she would call me, and I asked her to please call me even if they couldn't take the kittens. No call. A few days later I called the shelter and sent them an email. No call. No email. Meanwhile, two unexpected surprises occurred during that week.
1. Mommy cat (who we now call "Allie") is pregnant.
2. Archie got sick.
Oy vey. What are we going to do about Allie? Very soon we're going to have her spayed. It makes me so sad to know that her babies are going to be killed. I am pro-choice so I think that's weird. I have no problem with abortion. I feel like Allie has no choice though. Does that make me a horrible person, feeling sad about pretty much aborting kittens, but not babies (if the person consents to it)?
We took Archie to the vet last week. He has an upper respiratory infection. This is quite common and both of my cats got them after getting vaccinations. I think it's kinda like getting sick from a flu shot (which, it is always said, is not true). So they gave us some amoxicillin to give Archie, in the liquid form, with a dropper. This was (and still is) NOT an easy thing to do. Archie HATES it and has to be held down by my dad while my mom gives him the med. Poor little guy. He wants to run when he sees the bottle, and he won't go near my mom for about an hour after she gives him the med. He was also dehydrated and they gave him some fluids. For the next day or so, my mom could not get him to eat or drink, and we were very worried, but he is now just fine and back to his playful little self. He is still sneezing though. He was sneezing like CRAZY before we took him to the vet last week, and today he was still sneezing more than I would have liked today.
After still not hearing from anyone, we finally put up a listing on craigslist. That was a huge pain in the ass. For some reason their site is not working in terms of putting up certain types of listings….they won't show up in the search, but the URL will work, and my pictures wouldn't show. Jeff finally figured out a workaround that SEEMS to work. But we're in competition with like, "free kittens, 8 weeks old!" "Adopt kittens for $5." Yeah, we're gonna get lots of replies.
So now I'm at today. I had to go to PetSmart again to get a bigger litter box. In order to take Allie to get spayed, we need to keep her in some type of captivity because she can't eat after 10pm the night before the surgery, and should not be roaming around outside for one day afterward. We had a hell of a time coming up with what to do because we have nowhere to keep her in the house. Finally, I looked at the kittens' litter box and thought, hmm…the cat carrier is quite roomy, I wonder if the litter box would fit in there, and we could put Allie in there with box, and some water, and the blanket. Sure enough, with measurement, the box SHOULD fit. OH MAN I hope it fits (we couldn't test it out b/c it was full of litter of course). So today I bought a larger box for the kittens, who needed it anyway, and am going to attempt to make a little "home" for Allie that she will be able to stay in for a few days, if I can catch her. She only comes around during certain times of the day, but this is also intermittent.
Oh…back to my story. So at PetSmart today, that lady was there again. I walked by and petted the few kittens she had there, looked at her and smiled, and she said hi. I was hoping she'd recognize me. I thought, oh well, she didn't say anything, never contacted me, why would I want to work with an organization that was so unreliable? But then I got up the guts to go talk to her. I said, "Hi, do you remember me?" and she said she did. I said, "So I guess taking the kittens was a no go?" And she said, "Can you remind me, I don't remember what that was about." So I did and I said no one ever contacted me. She said she told me to remind her, which she didn't. I tried to tell her that I called and emailed, but she didn't let me get that out. She said that lady who I was waiting around for last week was coming soon and I should talk to her. Well THIS time she showed up. She said that she would have to see the kittens and that they would need a feline leukemia test. Twenty dollars each. So sixty more dollars. We exchanged info and I told her I'd talk to my parents first, because I didn't know if they wanted to spend any more money because they had already spent so much. But I forgot to ask her how much and even IF she reimburses, because the other lady I talked to said she is less likely to do so, or doesn't reimburse for very much.
After that, I went over to my mom's and we got another one of those little "unexpected surprises." Spitty is now sick. I've been trying to handle her more in hopes of taming her at least a bit more, so I went directly for her when I got there. She actually has been a little better about hissing and scratching and such. I picked her up, took one look at her, and knew instantly that she had the same thing as Archie because she had some gross watery stuff coming out of one of her eyes. Then I put her down, and "sneeze, sneeze, sneeze!" As I was cleaning the cage, I could have SWORN there were sneezes from the other two cats…my mom and I were trying to figure out who sneezed. Me: "Who was that? Was that Spitty again? I thought it was Spooky." Mom: "No, it was Spitty, she was shaking her head around like they do after they sneeze." But I DID see one or two sneezes from the other two cats. And Archie…though he is better, I don't think he should still be sneezing as much as he is. I think we took him down on…Thursday, yeah, last Thursday, that's 3 days or so ago. And he has about 1/4 or so of his medicine left.
So I'm going to call the vet tomorrow to set up an appointment for Allie and also tell them about Spitty. I'm hoping they won't have us bring her down because it seems like she has the same thing as Archie, and that we can just gets meds. But give meds to SPITTY??? I'm sure I don't have to explain my trepidation about that. BUT it'll only be a matter of time before the other two get it! So I'm wondering if they'd let us have meds for the three, w/out bringing them in. I see myself having to go over to m parents' house every day, twice a day, to help give the meds, esp. to Spitty. And also, there is NO WAY that woman would take the kittens if they are sick!
Oh what a mess. Would I do it again? Oh yes, no question about it. Would I do it differently? DEFINITELY, knowing what I know now. I would get the kittens "out there" sooner (in ads and whatnot), get most of their vaccinations taken care of earlier…basically do everything sooner. The only problem is that most vets won't spay/neuter kittens until they're at least four months old. I also do not want to just give them away for nothing.
So that's where I stand right now. I still don't think I did the wrong thing. I suppose I have a TINY bit of regret, but then I think of those little beauties being euthanized, and it all goes away. Lots and lots of obstacles and roadblocks, but we'll get there. Yeah…um…we'll, get there…yeah.
No comments:
Post a Comment