Kitties
A week ago Alice and I decided to head down to Oregon Humane Society to see if there were some feline companions we were interested in. We were lured by some photos on the site of an adorable pair of orange kitties. Completely adorable. I don’t know why car salesmen don’t just pack all the cars in the showroom with mewing kittens. Anyway, the adorable pair were gone by the time we get there.
Oh, yes, getting there. The pet-themed map on their site doesn’t make clear that a red paw is the rough equivalent of fifteen thousand miles. It looks like you’d just be walking a few blocks from the bus stop at MLK and Columbia. No, sir. Well, you’re walking. On a gravel path for a few miles with big scary semis driving by.
We found ourselves at the humane society looking around to see if there were any remaining pairs of kitties that we could see. It turned out there were a pair that were brought in as strays and were confined to the ICU. They explained that the kitties had an upper-respiratory infection, which is really common you understand, and that they’d bounce right out of it. We thought about it for a bit, not very long really, and decided that we were willing to give it a go.
We took them to the vet the next day and found out all sorts of exciting things. Most interestingly that while URI is very common in confined kitties, it turns out that the humane society is breeding some crazy advanced strain that the vet keeps seeing. Instead of a week or so of sick kitties we’re looking at months and hundreds of dollars. I guess you win some, you lose some. We’ve bonded now, though, so there is no turning back.
They originally had stripper names, it seems. Sheena (really?) and Donna. Alice changed those right-quick to Triffid and Chocky. Chocky is the poor girl with the hilarious dome around her head. She was biting at the stiches left behind from her spaying so she has to be kept from them for a few days before they can be taken out. Triffid is the dome-free one on the left who is about 30% under weight.
For all that, though, they sure are adorable. Even their tiny little cat sneezes are cute.
jenni wrote:
Beautiful kitties! They are lucky that you guys came along.
Posted on 29-Mar-05 at 4:37 pm | Permalink
Eric wrote:
Hey Zach! I still check into zabbo.net every now & then. Nice kitties - my wife & I have had cats for the last 18 years. Take care of them and they’ll take care of you.
Posted on 29-Mar-05 at 7:02 pm | Permalink
Eric wrote:
Hey Zach! I still check out zabbo.net from time to time. Nice kitties - my wife and I have had cats for the last 18 years. Take care of them and they’ll take care of you.
Posted on 29-Mar-05 at 7:06 pm | Permalink
Nic wrote:
Aren’t animal shelters awesome. How long before the kitties start playing tetris?
Posted on 29-Mar-05 at 8:25 pm | Permalink
janice wrote:
Pretty contented looking kitties. I think they know they’ve won the kitty lottery having Alice and yourself to take care of them now.
All of the cats and kittens I’ve had have been from shelters or given away by owners. The bestest one by a huge vote from those who knew him was Comet, a black and white cutie who had URI all his life but the worst of it when I first rescued him. I had him for 10 years and he was worth all the vet visits and pills (only at the beginning and he was a bad case - not like your pretty babies - honest) Love and good food takes care of a lot of cat problems it seems.
Congratulations on becoming cat parents!
Posted on 31-Mar-05 at 9:19 am | Permalink
alice wrote:
While I know that the cats will eventually get better right now it is a little overwhelming. Chocky is now on four medications - including one that has to be placed directly in her eye. Triffid is doing a little bit better, but she can still only breathe through her mouth and I discovered yesterday that she has been using her tail to wipe her nose. Eww.
Right now all they really do is sleep in a big kitty lump and then get woken up for meds. I fear that they are going to hate us forever.
Posted on 01-Apr-05 at 3:43 pm | Permalink
caton wrote:
awww… sleepy kitties :) congratulations, you four. how old are the little sneezers?
Posted on 03-Apr-05 at 11:10 am | Permalink
zab wrote:
> how old are the little sneezers?
The humane society guessed that they are around a year old, maybe a little less. I think that’s the going consensus, though I don’t remember the vet saying anything either way.
Posted on 04-Apr-05 at 7:45 am | Permalink
abby wrote:
How are the kitties doing now? It’s been two weeks, I need an update. :)
Posted on 20-Apr-05 at 8:30 pm | Permalink