Hey, good morning, Caturday folk. Do I have a story for you...

It's about her.



My wife has a garden. It started small, but then a spaghetti squash grew out of the compost, and gave us tasty, tasty vegetables, and what started as a small bit of the back yard suddenly changed to a significant portion of our vegetable bill becoming home-grown. Anyway, she went outside on Thursday, and next thing I know, she's knocking at the back door. In her arms, she's cradling a delicate little black kitten, and the thing's purring so loud I can almost hear it through the glass.

So I throw a handful of kibble into a bowl, and some water into another bowl, and take it out to the patio. Set them down, and the wife sets the kitten down... and that's when we noticed an issue. From her "waist" up, the kitten worked. Her back legs, though... they just kinda splayed across the concrete. We were absolutely sure it was a broken leg, and decided pretty quickly that the little fuzzbutt had been hit by a car.

At that point, we had two options. One was to do the "sensible" thing. A crippled kitten that couldn't move... she couldn't really make it in the wild. No one would question if we put her out of her misery. Option two was going to the vet. That would mean spending money for the cost of a vet call, almost guaranteed x-rays, and who knows what else. Any sensible person would have looked at the facts and chosen Option One.

Here's the thing, though- I'm a veteran of Iraq, and thanks to a sniper, I know a bit about a limb not fully working.



Call me sentimental if you will, but I wasn't going to write off a perfectly good cat over a bad peg. We piled into the minivan- that's how typically suburban my life normally is now, I own a Honda minivan- and took the kitten to the local vet clinic. They offer a substantial discount for strays, which is nice. We dropped the kitten off in a comfortable towel, and told them to do what they needed to do. That was Thursday.

On Friday morning, the vet called to give me the news. I assumed, when I saw the number on my Caller ID, that it would be what we all expected. I assumed he'd say that the kitten had a broken back, and putting her down would be humane. The doc sounded amazed when he told me that the X-rays surprised him, and showed no fractures. At that point, he wanted to ask me about the last 4 or 5 days in the cat's life, and I simply said "no", and told him the garden story. The doc speculated about a potential blunt-force trauma to the little girl's back, and I was horrified. Could someone have done this on purpose?

Anyway, the doc asked to do a screen for Feline Lukemia and AIDS, and if either of them were positive, he recommended euthanasia. I agreed to those tests. Well, late yesterday morning, the tests came back, and the kitten was clear. At this point, I had signed up for a pet care credit card, so I figured we had a fifth cat.

And so we did. And 3 of our other 4 cats have sniffed the girl- preliminarily named "Xena the Warrior Kitten"- and accepted her. At least, they didn't hiss.

And then Xena wanted to leave her room. She walked into the master bedroom, and her legs worked much better than they did yesterday.



She has other issues to deal with. She's the youngest of 5, and her big sister, Sif, isn't sure what to think.



And, she has a toddler to futz around with. That's always unpredictable.



But she's home, and she's walking, and she has a place of her own, and that's a win, right? A Forever Home and a family is a pretty good deal for a little girl who managed to drag herself to the garden, isn't it?

Oh, and if any of you fine folk would like to put a huge checkmark in the karma column- because there's something to be said for "helped out a crippled kitten"- we could use a little hand. I start a new job on Monday, but right now, the budget's still kinda tight. Chip-In here. Either way, I hope you enjoyed my happy little story.

sherpa:

hai? oh hai? dis thing on..



I has a message for my Dragons:

Meowmeow, mew meow. Mroooowwwwww. *purrrrr*

Plz to be telling hims.

Luff,
Minmin

Gonz: Hey, good morning, Caturday folk. Do I have a story for you...

It's about her.

[i47.photobucket.com image 640x480]

My wife has a garden. It started small, but then a spaghetti squash grew out of the compost, and gave us tasty, tasty vegetables, and what started as a small bit of the back yard suddenly changed to a significant portion of our vegetable bill becoming home-grown. Anyway, she went outside on Thursday, and next thing I know, she's knocking at the back door. In her arms, she's cradling a delicate little black kitten, and the thing's purring so loud I can almost hear it through the glass.

So I throw a handful of kibble into a bowl, and some water into another bowl, and take it out to the patio. Set them down, and the wife sets the kitten down... and that's when we noticed an issue. From her "waist" up, the kitten worked. Her back legs, though... they just kinda splayed across the concrete. We were absolutely sure it was a broken leg, and decided pretty quickly that the little fuzzbutt had been hit by a car.

At that point, we had two options. One was to do the "sensible" thing. A crippled kitten that couldn't move... she couldn't really make it in the wild. No one would question if we put her out of her misery. Option two was going to the vet. That would mean spending money for the cost of a vet call, almost guaranteed x-rays, and who knows what else. Any sensible person would have looked at the facts and chosen Option One.

Here's the thing, though- I'm a veteran of Iraq, and thanks to a sniper, I know a bit about a limb not fully working.

[i47.photobucket.com image 432x500]

Call me sentimental if you will, but I wasn't going to write off a perfectly good cat over a bad peg. We piled into the minivan- that's how typically suburban my life normally is now, I own a Honda minivan- and took the kitten to the local vet clinic. They offer a substantial discount for strays, which is nice. We dropped the kitten off in a comfortable towel, and told them to do ...

Next time, Gonz, tell your wife to quit harvesting kittehs too early. She picked this one while it was still green on one end. Put Xena on a window sill for a few days, and she'll ripen just like a tomato. Happy Homecoming to Xena!

tigerose: Brian Blessed's Bastard Boy I am glad to hear that the day went well. It must be tremendously hard for you to see your wife in a wheelchair. I know you have to keep your chin up for the kids/wife, but if you ever need to howl at the moon, I am sure there are several ears/eyes available here among the Caturday Family!

Now. The thing I gotta ask..Are the ferrets using their wheelchair bag?? :)

Using as in sleeping in it, no. Using it as a toy, yes. Muenster has decided it is hers and when they come out to play, she grabs it and runs off with it to some corner of the house and leave it. Then a few minutes later she'll take it to some other part of the house. They're all like that with toys. They all have toys that are theirs and if one of the other ferrets plays with it, then they fight. But for the most part, they all respect each other's toys and stick only to their own. Never seen pets not only that territorial about toys, but that all of them have their own and usually they don't mess with each other's. I tried to put it in the cage for them to sleep in, but Muenster threw a hissy fit with all the others who tried to sleep in it. Toys are not allowed in the cage because they all flip out if something other than the litter boxes, food and water, and bedding is in the cage, they all lose it. Just another strange thing that seems to be ferret only. Maybe that's why their all terrorists.

Wife is on the way back to the hospital. She did pretty well today. Ferrets were a little overzealous with her and she got a couple of scratches on her legs, but nothing major and they were cleaned quickly. Let her hold the cast iron campfire pie holder and make her own for dessert, but she still wanted to handle the steaks and potatoes. Kittehs spent a little time with her, but were more interested in what was going on outside. Dog just sat under the tree and eyed the steaks. She was pretty tired by the time we loaded her in the van and I'm sure that she was asleep long before she got to the hospital. Now it's time to get everything put away, get the kids settled and ready for school tomorrow, and sit on the couch, drink a little wine and decompress for a couple of hours before calling it a night. Still have to let the little terrorists out here shortly, but hopefully they'll be tired from their conquest of mom. They usually don't play much at night, but we'll see. Have a great night everyone and I'll see you all again tomorrow or next Caturday.

House cleaned and everything ready for the wife to show up in about half an hour. Sunny and 70 today outside, so I need to figure out how to build a quick moat around the grill so she doesn't spend her whole day outside screwing around with that thing. Other than that, everything so far this weekend has gone well and hoping to finally be done with the downstairs and our bedroom by tonight. Happy Sunday everyone.

they're not friends by any stretch of the imagination, but they've progressed to sharing sunbeams

I'm posting this in both threads because Fanny deserves her fame as a LOL-cat.

I love caturday! I am allergic to cats, but love them, so it is great to see so many cute pics. Gotta go. my D-O-G is jealous and is singing to my to go out.

Salsa is ready for Ferretday. Everything here at the B4 house is going well. Hoping to finally be done with the downstairs done today and if I have enough energy, get the kids rooms finished tomorrow. Wife will be back here again for another visit tomorrow, and at least this time, it won't be raining. OT found a carpenter for us, and he should be here monday to build a ramp for her up to the door. Next week the plumber will be here to install the new bathtub, and then that should be it for the improvements. The wife had her final surgery on Tuesday, and everything went fine with it. Three more bone spurs were taken care of and she tolerated the surgery well. Back home time is back a week though, but they're just being cautious and making sure there are no signs of trouble from the surgery. She's a little behind in some of her physical therapy, but she's getting there, so everything is still looking up. Now to get moving this morning and get things ready for her to show up tomorrow. Giving up and getting stuff for the grill and seeing if I can work it so she can use it, because she won't leave until she does. Happy Catferretday everyone.