New kitty

[ladyjanelly]

New family member, hope he makes it through the night.

So a few days ago, Kendra found a kitten in a field near Austin, probably a pet that someone got rid of.

Sweet little black thing.  her friend told her to take it to the shelter in Richardson, that they'd check it out and stuff.  So we went back today to get it, and they hadn't done anything, no idea if it had FIV or what.  So we picked him up and took him to the vet.

He's got a hidious upper respiratory infection.  He's skin and bones, and severely dehydrated.  The Richardson animal shelter is beyond shitty.

We aren't willing to invest the $225 for the full regimen of treatments and tests and what-not when we don't even know his FIV and Lukemia status and we've only had him an hour.  We got him de-fleaed, picked up the antibiotics, and the Vet's assistant slipped us some of the high-calorie-protien-vitamin stuff in little syringes (for free). 

I'm hand-nursing him for a few days to see how he's gonna do.  He's already more responsive than when we picked him up, trying to drink water on his own and purring through his snot.  I've never seen a cat make snot-bubbles before.  When he tries to eat or drink something besides the syringe, I think he's suffocating so he's given it up.  He seems pretty happy to have me hand-nurse him. 

The FIV test takes a couple days to come back.  Figured we'd make sure he'll live before we spring for it.

Anyways,

Comments

[hatoyona.livejournal.com]

OMG. I think I just died of cuteness!

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

He are buh-dorable. :)

It's so hard to pet him because it feels like I'm going to press his bones through his skin. He's got no padding at all.

[hatoyona.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean! I hope he turns out relatively healthy! Are you going to keep him?

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's the plan. Hopefully he'll still be sweet once he's healthy.


This has sort of got me interested in doing cat-fostering. There's a really good group that has no central "shelter," but they take in abandoned or hurt animals and get them acclimated to people and stuff before putting them up for adoption. It costs like $100-200 to get a cat from them, but they're in great shape and civilized.

[hatoyona.livejournal.com]

Hurray! I hope there will be more pictures? I am a sucker for adorable little kittens, man.

Cat-fostering sounds like a really great idea! But what if you get attached?

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

I think part of why I get attached is not having someone good to give them to. It's a real good program.

I'll get Kendra to take more pics when she gets home. The only camera we have is on her cell.
Dunno if I'll ever actually get around to the cat-fostering thing. It will be a lot of work.

[hatoyona.livejournal.com]

But I think if I were taking care of kittens I would just fall in love with them and not want to give them away. I have friends who train guide dogs, and I know it's hard to give them away at the end of the program. I don't know if I could do it!