I was cruising Craigslist one day in June, and came upon a crazy person's ad in the pet section. I don't often look at the pet section these days, since about 85% of the ads are from crazy people. Anyway, this ad was crazy even by Craigslist standards. The title of the ad was: "SOON TO BE ORPHANED KITTENS". I sat and stared at it for a long moment trying to figure out the stupidity of that title. It wasn't already orphaned kittens, it was for soon to be orphaned kittens. After taking a deep breath, I opened the ad figuring I would find some nut threatening to kill the cats if someone didn't take them. What I found was much more bizarre! The woman's cat had had a litter of kittens, and she was taking them away from her to give them away...they were only 17 days old!!
I sent her an email immediately, being as nice as one can be, I wanted to get the cat and kittens before they were all dead! I told her we would take them all! I got most of them along with the story about why she "needed" to take the kittens away so young. Turns out she had gotten the mother cat and her sister a year ago from a neighbor. After having the 2 girls for awhile, she figured out she was allergic to cats. She started looking for homes for the 2. In the meantime, one of the cats became pregnant. Instead of taking the cats to the shelter or give them away, she opted to keep BOTH cats until the one delivered. Once the cat gave birth, the woman immediately started to farm the kittens out to people to bottle feed, figuring it would be easier to find a home for the mother without the kittens.
Well, the mother is a very beautiful tabby that we called Paisley. The sister was a back and white tuxedo we named Dallas. As for the kittens, we ended up with 4 of 6. One had died, surprise(!), before we could rescue them. Another one had been farmed out and the woman refused to give it back to Paisley. When I asked the woman WHY she would even think it was okay to give away the babies, she said her neighbor had HAD to bottle feed kittens when the mother feel ill. I explained to her that it was one thing to bottle feed the kittens when needed, but it was animal cruelty to do it for convenience reasons!
Keeping with the Oregon cities name theme, we named the kittens John Day, Aurora, Ashland, and Eugene. The kittens were 17 days old, very skinny and sickly. Paisley, being less than a year old herself, really had no clue what to do with these babies. It wasn't her fault, she had had them taken away from her. When we put them back together, things were bleak. 3 of the kittens knew what to do, but Eugene didn't want anything to do with Paisley. It took many days and a lot of coaxing to finally get Eugene to see that Paisley had a lot to offer! All went well for the next few weeks, even though Paisley really did not want to be with her kittens.
When finally all 4 kittens were eating food, Paisley pretty much pushed them away. Without the kittens to care for, Paisley became the social butterfly she really was. It wasn't long before Paisley found a home of her home, one that will love and keep her forever. I am almost certain this is the first time the rescue has ever adopted out the mother before the kittens, but Paisley was just that cool!
The 4 kittens stayed here for awhile, they were all much too tiny to be spayed and neutered since they had not been properly nourished when they needed Paisley the most. Eventually John Day and Aurora were big enough to be spayed and neutered. Unfortunately that same day Eugene past away. It happened very quickly, the vet says it was likely a ruptured spleen. Ashland was the only one left, since John Day and Aurora moved on to find their forever homes.
Ashland is still so petite! At nearly 3 months old, she weighs in at only 21.7 ounces!! She is so small, it is a frightning concept to think of her running around the house. To keep her safe, she is confined to the bathroom. Oh, don't feel badly for her, she also gets to go out with us when we leave for long periods of time...well except for last week when the temperature was in the triple digits!! I figured her being lonely was not as bad as if she got too hot!
I have been contemplating keeping Ashland. I mean how do you justify keeping a kitten when you already have 9 cats!?!?! Only a crazy person would do that, right?! Well, I might just be crazy then! Ashland is staying! I look at her and I just laugh at her tiny little kitten body zooming around and up and down all over the bathroom! She is a perfectly healthy 3 month old kitten, she just happens to be the size of a 1 month old!
I sent her an email immediately, being as nice as one can be, I wanted to get the cat and kittens before they were all dead! I told her we would take them all! I got most of them along with the story about why she "needed" to take the kittens away so young. Turns out she had gotten the mother cat and her sister a year ago from a neighbor. After having the 2 girls for awhile, she figured out she was allergic to cats. She started looking for homes for the 2. In the meantime, one of the cats became pregnant. Instead of taking the cats to the shelter or give them away, she opted to keep BOTH cats until the one delivered. Once the cat gave birth, the woman immediately started to farm the kittens out to people to bottle feed, figuring it would be easier to find a home for the mother without the kittens.
Well, the mother is a very beautiful tabby that we called Paisley. The sister was a back and white tuxedo we named Dallas. As for the kittens, we ended up with 4 of 6. One had died, surprise(!), before we could rescue them. Another one had been farmed out and the woman refused to give it back to Paisley. When I asked the woman WHY she would even think it was okay to give away the babies, she said her neighbor had HAD to bottle feed kittens when the mother feel ill. I explained to her that it was one thing to bottle feed the kittens when needed, but it was animal cruelty to do it for convenience reasons!
Keeping with the Oregon cities name theme, we named the kittens John Day, Aurora, Ashland, and Eugene. The kittens were 17 days old, very skinny and sickly. Paisley, being less than a year old herself, really had no clue what to do with these babies. It wasn't her fault, she had had them taken away from her. When we put them back together, things were bleak. 3 of the kittens knew what to do, but Eugene didn't want anything to do with Paisley. It took many days and a lot of coaxing to finally get Eugene to see that Paisley had a lot to offer! All went well for the next few weeks, even though Paisley really did not want to be with her kittens.
When finally all 4 kittens were eating food, Paisley pretty much pushed them away. Without the kittens to care for, Paisley became the social butterfly she really was. It wasn't long before Paisley found a home of her home, one that will love and keep her forever. I am almost certain this is the first time the rescue has ever adopted out the mother before the kittens, but Paisley was just that cool!
The 4 kittens stayed here for awhile, they were all much too tiny to be spayed and neutered since they had not been properly nourished when they needed Paisley the most. Eventually John Day and Aurora were big enough to be spayed and neutered. Unfortunately that same day Eugene past away. It happened very quickly, the vet says it was likely a ruptured spleen. Ashland was the only one left, since John Day and Aurora moved on to find their forever homes.
Ashland is still so petite! At nearly 3 months old, she weighs in at only 21.7 ounces!! She is so small, it is a frightning concept to think of her running around the house. To keep her safe, she is confined to the bathroom. Oh, don't feel badly for her, she also gets to go out with us when we leave for long periods of time...well except for last week when the temperature was in the triple digits!! I figured her being lonely was not as bad as if she got too hot!
I have been contemplating keeping Ashland. I mean how do you justify keeping a kitten when you already have 9 cats!?!?! Only a crazy person would do that, right?! Well, I might just be crazy then! Ashland is staying! I look at her and I just laugh at her tiny little kitten body zooming around and up and down all over the bathroom! She is a perfectly healthy 3 month old kitten, she just happens to be the size of a 1 month old!
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1 comment:
AWWWWWW! Ash is such a cutie! And you conveniently forgot to mention that Ashland LOVED my purse, went to sleep and didn't want to get back out. :)
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