5 Reasons I Haven't Been Knitting and Blogging

Here they are, my 5 little excuses:

Mochachino

Frappachino

Java (aka "Baby Fruit Bat")

Kona

Chicory (in her healthier days)

Frapp and Mocha are 2 lucky girls - they have both managed to stay healthy and as a consequence are about a 1/2 lb. bigger than their siblings. Java was the first to get sick, just a couple days after I brought them home. His eyes started running a lot and then he got such a stuffy nose, he couldn't smell his food and stopped eating. So he had to leave Kittenville to go to the sick kitty ward in the downstairs bathroom, where we set up a humidifier and a very comfy nest in which to recuperate. I had to stay up into the wee hours one night, feeding him a few drops of kitten replacement milk every hour. He was the first one I was afraid we'd lose. But like I told him, "No kitties are going to die in this house." I can be very bossy when I have to be.

He was perkier the next morning and ate on his own, having decided that chicken babyfood and KRM were worth coming back to life for. By the next day, Kona started having symptoms, so I got him into the kitty ward, but he went through the same severity of symptoms as Java. Another late night of kitten nursing. He didn't bounce back quite as quickly, but he was the runt and not as hardy in the first place. So just as he was recovering very nicely, his sister Chicory developed goopy eyes and a little sneezing. She went into the sickbay with her brothers. The vet had us bathing her eyes and putting in drops, but the next day, her eyes were half-closed and she was clearly not feeling well. Mr. C called me at lunch to tell me she had eaten and played a little but by the time I got home that night, she was limp and unresponsive and had a fever. She also couldn't open her eyes.

I get a weird kind of reaction in crises. Part of my brain is wigging out, but the other part is totally calm and focused. So at the same time I'm shaking and thinking "no no no!!", I called Mr. C, who was at an Animal Haven board meeting and had him ask the vet, who was also there, what the fork to do. I put Chicory into a carrier and dashed off to the emergency clinic, which is thankfully not far from home. I talked to her all the way there, telling her she was NOT going to die and that she WAS going to be fine. And did lots of praying. One of my favorite authors is Anne LaMott. She has said that her 2 favorite prayers are "help me, help me, help me" and "thank you, thank you, thank you". I use these a lot, especially when I'm too distraught to think clearly enough to compose my own.

When I got to the clinic, Mr. C was there, and I just broke down crying. I didn't realize how attached I had already become to this scrappy little furball. We were the only ones there, so saw the vet right away. She had started perking up at this point, especially when they took her temp, poor thing. She had a severe eye infection which she probably picked up from her mother. In addition, she had started sneezing, so also had the virus Kona and Java had. She got some antibiotics and some super-strength eye ointment. They wanted to see if she was able to eat before they sent us home. Whatever they gave her brought her all the way back from the dead and she scarfed it down like she had never seen food before. Lucky for her, otherwise she would have spent the night in the hospital.

She still couldn't really open her eyes, and we were told that she might lose her sight. She was still so weak she could barely stand up. When we got home, we gave her more food and the medicine and tucked her into her nest. By the next morning she seemed to be feeling better and could walk and even open her eyes a little bit. She's gotten progressively better each day. Her eyes are open all the way again and she can obviously see because she's chasing and tackling her sibs again. The boys are feeling better although they both still have a little of the sneezing. We're still keeping close tabs on Chicory as she has developed the stuffy, sneezy nose virus too. She's still eating like a truck driver, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there won't need to be anymore long nights and bossy lectures about no kittens being allowed to die in my care.

I'm so grateful to have an extra day off this week. I've taken care of kittens, done several hours of much-needed gardening and now am going to sit and knit on the porch for a couple of hours before going to our neighbors' for a barbeque. Have a happy Independence Day!