Animal Lovers I Need Your Help!!

This is not a back issue of The AFB.  This is a plea for assistance.  This afternoon (Sunday, 26 Feb 2012) I was heading back from the office where I had been to feed, water and change litter for the three office cats  when I saw the unthinkable.  A car swerved to avoid a tiny kitten in the street.  I am not suggesting that it is unthinkable to avoid running over a cat. I am saying that it is unthinkable that a tiny kitten should be in the middle of the street!  I do not remember the exact words I used but they were something like, "NO, NO, NO, kittens aren't allowed on the street!"  As I shooed the kitten from the middle of the street, I saw two others who were obviously siblings. I carry dry cat food with me because Monica, my cousin, carries cat food with her and in her absence, I am the assistant cat feeder. So, I fed the three kittens and the two adult cats with them who did not appear to be related but I was really hoping they were guardians.  As I was feeding them I heard the plaintive cry of a fourth kitten.  This one looked a bit different from the others with black patches and the worst eye infection I have ever seen. That is when I realized that all of the kittens had eye infections.

I stood there for the longest time trying to decide what to do.  I eventually walked away saying to myself that nature looks after its own blah, blah, blah.  I got two blocks away and knew I could never leave the fate of those kittens up to nature.  They had been put in my path and now were my responsiblility.  So I went to the supermarket, bought packets of soft kitten food and returned in time to see someone else removing one of the kittens from the middle of the street.  I thanked them and gave the cats some of the kitten food and went to the office to get the cat carrier. I still did not have a plan but I had texted Monica while I was standing in line at the supermarket to ask for contact information for her veterinarian and I was praying for a response.  One thing was abundantly clear to me, those kittens could not stay where they were and survive.

I put some of the kitten food in the carrier and the adult cats happily went in.  I was able to pick the kittens up and put them in the carrier. The fact that I was able to handle the kittens suggested one of two things- these kittens were already accustomed to human beings and had been abandoned at this location because of their illness (this would also explain why I had never seen them before) or they were so young and/or sick that they didn't know any better (which would explain the wandering into the middle of the street).  The adult cats were happy to leave the carrier once I started carrying it and I  headed to put the kittens in the hall outside of the office.  I passed a man who was 'grooming' his taxi and he asked about the cats.  I still did not have a plan.

I added a bowl of water and left the kittens in the hall thinking I would change the newspaper on the bottom of the carrier and feed them some more tomorrow when I went in to work.  It wasn't ideal but it was better than 'nature looks after its own'.  In the carrier, in the hall, they wouldn't be run over by cars, eaten by stray dogs, starve or die of thirst. As I passed the taxi driver he asked if I needed a taxi.  I answered no and kept walking for a few meters when it dawned on me that if the kittens were placed in my path then why not the taxi driver too?  I went back and asked if he knew of an emergency veterinarian clinic. He did and was willing to wait while I went back up to retrieve the kittens.

Now I had something like a plan.  It would involve me spending lots of money but someone else saving the kittens.  The taxi driver took me to the Mount Pleasant Referral and After Hours Clinic.  Rodel, the veterinarian technician, contacted the vet on call and proceeded to start cleaning up the kittens.  He was so gentle and sweet using olive oil to remove the crusted on gunk from their swollen, red eyes.  He was just starting kitten number 3 when Jo-Ann Chan, the vet, arrived.  She was a little horrified but what she saw and I cannot blame her.  I have known many cats and quite a few of them were strays but I have never seen kittens in this condition before. While Rodel continued to clean the eyes of the remaining kittens, Jo-Ann checked the heart rate and temperature of 'black and white'. She decided that in addition to an eye ointment they required deworming. The dose for this medicine is determined by the weight of the 'patient' and so the kittens had to be weighed and identified.  Because three of the four are almost identical except for size, we decided to call them small, medium and large. It wasn't until weighing 'medium' that we noticed he has a black nose.  Vets are really very special people.  I was given a discount without having to ask for it because the kittens were strays.

'Small' who I have nicknamed 'scrawny butt' weighs only 430 grams and how that kitten is still alive is a mystery.  'Medium' a.k.a. 'Black Nose' weighs 610 grams and the hefty sibling 'Large' weighs 800 grams, almost double the weight of 'Small'.  'Black and White' weighs 685 grams.  Aside from bulk and markings, the kittens have different personalities.  Large likes sleeping, and Black Nose likes eating. Black and White is the bravest and Small likes being cuddled.  As I write this, all four are in the cat carrier, in the hall outside of our apartment.  I cannot bring them in because there are four other cats who live here.  Jo-Ann said I should wash my hands and change my clothes between handling the kittens and,then,the other cats. Tomorrow, if I haven't found someone to take them, I will bring the kittens to work where they will stay in the carrier outside of our office.

This is where the plea for assistance comes in.  If you do not have cats and you have an enormous heart, these four babies need you.  I don't know how long they will live but I am hopeful that they will grow into wonderful pets.