Ugh!

We take a break from our regularly scheduled programing to discuss how I am a kitten murderer. Seriously. Saturday night as Jerad and I were eating dinner, he got a text message from his friend and Supervisor Ken who had just returned home from a few days out of town with his family only to find that a stray cat had had kittens all over the place and abandoned them. 4 of them. Without cleaning them off or anything. They had all sorts of dried goo, toes dried together, one was even stuck to the ground.

He had gathered up three of them but couldn't get the 4th one unstuck. They were teeny tiny little things! After finding out that no vets would take them (because Animal Services won't take kittens from vets and they don't want to deal with them) I agreed to take care of them over the weekend until we could give them to Animal Services on Monday morning. I have done the bottle feeding kittens thing a LOT of times, so no big deal right?

So, it was warm towels, hot water bottles, and bottle feeding kitten milk replacement every 3-4 hours. Not to mention cleaning them. See how tiny? Two little spotted ones, and two black ones.
Well, 2 were dead when we went to do the 3 AM feeding the first night (the spotted one that had been stuck, and the biggest black one that I thought for sure would make it). I had warned Jerad before we went to bed that they probably wouldn't all make it, they had been neglected for probably 2 days of the most crucial time when they needed to be kept warm and eat blah blah blah but I still thought he was going to cry. Softie.

The next day the little black one that was left got more and more lethargic and also passed away around 11pm. Great. The little black and white one was still super feisty, loud, eating, I seriously thought it would be fine. I had been filling up a big nalgene bottle with boiling water and wrapping it in a towel because it would stay warm for about 8 hours. I'd put that in the box (on top of another towel) and then throw in other regular water bottles filled with hot water around the kitten, a warm towel from the dryer, and then a big towel over the whole thing. So, even though there wasn't a momma and the rest of the kittens to keep it warm, it is not like the poor thing froze to death, it was nice and toasty.

I have no idea what happened, but some time between 11 and 3AM that one died also. I was really hoping at least one would make it... I guess it was kind of far fetched since they spent so much time alone.

I told my mom as the numbers started to dwindle Jerad was wanting to keep one (since 3 cats and 2 dogs aren't enough) and her solution: have some babies. Er, ya mom, cause thats the same thing. She also told us the same thing when we went to visit them on Friday at the beach house they were renting "you guys need to have kids while you can still get free babysitting out of Addy." Okay, subtle. Like when my dad tells Jerad he feels left out cause all his friends have grandkids. I always point out that since Addy goes to public school she will probably get knocked up soon... they don't like that (she's 12). Hey, whatever it takes to shush em up right?!?

Anyways, sad kitten weekend. I got no sleep, and all weekend long kittens were dying. Not fun.