Look... I admit that Ive seemed a little bit, um, touchy the past week. Kittens being tossed out of cars or left to fry in shopping carts bring out my inner bad person. I try not to be bad, and I try hard not to judge my fellow humans. Until you walk a mile in another persons shoes, you shouldnt judge. (After you do that, judge away because you have a mile head start and you have their shoes!) This is why I find it impossible to use Twitter, because I live to digress... Anyway, when I was ranting away this week, I was really, like totally, venting. I was crying about what the tossed kittens and the shopping cart kittens had to go through, the suffering and the unfairness of it, and maybe even having a bit of a pity party because... I. Do. Not. Like. Seeing. Little. Kittens. Get. Hurt. It was a rant. It was me crying. It was me being very angry. It was me venting. It was not a challenge. I was not throwing down some kind of kitten abuse gauntlet and saying, Hey out there, top this! No, sir. No, maam. No way. Today somebody took the kitten abuse gauntlet and bashed me over the head with it. We got a trio of kittens in today who have been so (abused, neglected, completely screwed over by humans, choose your adjective) that only the possibility that we can help them keeps me from climbing the belfry across the street with a machine gun. We named these kittens Ralphie, Ronnie, and Ricky. They look like exotic Sphinx kittens, because they are bald. Their skin was crusted with scabs and dirt. Before we could even see the scabs and dirt, we had to literally scrape away the fleas. These kittens had fleas walking across their eyes, into their mouths, burrowing into their ears. Thank you, thank you, thank you to whoever invented Capstar. Their bath water ran first red - from the fleas - then black from the dirt. Ronnie, the little tortie, lost patience after the third suds-up and rinse, but the other two purred throughout the whole bath ordeal. One of the summer kids helped comb fleas off them after the baths. We retired 2 flea combs, with full posthumous honors. Then it was off to the vet. The kittens were emaciated, with huge bloated bellies. It was obvious they had never been wormed. Lovely. Imagine being consumed by parasites from the outside in, and the inside out. Feeling starved, no matter how much you eat, your belly constantly hurting and your skin itching like crazy. The techs had a blast pulling mounds of earmites out of their ears. Speaking of which, their ears are frayed, probably from tearing at them so much. All of that is very, very bad, but the worst was their feet, and the story they told. All three kittens are suffering from something called bumblefoot. Ive seen bumblefoot before, but only in birds. Its a substrate problem, meaning that it occurs from constantly standing on a hard, dirty surface. Our zoo ducks used to get it, until we renovated their exhibit and modernized their flooring to something that had some give and was more sanitary than concrete. The vet explained that the bumblefoot told him that these kittens had been caged, probably for at least two months. And that the cage had probably not been cleaned. For at least two months. And that these little kittens had probably not had a blanket to curl up in. For at least two months. I am beyond upset. I am beyond crying. I am even beyond climbing into that belfry with a machine gun. I cannot imagine spending two hours in conditions like that, let alone two thirds of my life. That kind of wretched existence is all that this trio has ever known. Until today. It stops now. They have been to see a doctor. They have been treated for parasites, both inside and out. They have been bathed, and will be again. They have been vaccinated. They have been given a lot of food and water. They have a bed, in fact they have three beds. They have a clean litter pan. And, even though they have no clue how to use them, they have toys. And they will learn to play. Challenge accepted. We will not allow the lives of these babies to ever again be anything but perfect.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:25:58 +0000
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