The Lucky Cat

I haven’t posted for quite some time now. The reason for this was another project that took up all my time, an Ironman triathlon. I ‘ll write about this some other time.  But now, with my  Ironman out of the way, I was just waiting for the right moment to resume my blog. Yesterdays events gave me the push I needed and I describe them in this post, “The Lucky Cat”. This seems an appropriate continuation after my last post ” The Lucy Dog” although I don’t intend to start a series. (Lucky Banker next ?)

Cats Don’t Give Birth On Sidewalks

When I was in High School I wanted to become a veterinarian. I have always had animals in the places where I lived and once, when I was a student, my cat had a litter in the top drawer of my filing cabinet. I still have the filing cabinet, it is in my study in our home. That is what cats do when they have to give birth, they find a safe and quiet place. So when Valeria and her visiting friend Catalina found two newborn kittens, with placenta still attached on the sidewalk not far from our house while walking our dog in the middle of the night, something was clearly wrong. We don’t know how the kittens got there (not difficult to guess) but the mother cat would not have delivered them on the sidewalk.

From The Sidewalk To The Kitchen

Anyway, they severed the kittens from the placenta and took them home were they were delivered into my care. When I was young, abandoned animals would often be brought to our house, where my mother would try to take care of them until they could take care of themselves. When it was the time of young ducklings, a few weak or abandoned ones would always live in a cardboard box in our kitchen until they were strong enough to be set free. At one time we even had 2 piglets.

One Lives, One Dies

What to do with 2 cold and wet kittens that could not have been born more than 1 hour before ? A box was quickly found, a desk lamp installed on the worktop in the kitchen and placed so that it would warm the kittens. We found an empty medicine bottle that had a eyedropper attached. Because we were having guests, we had fortunately some milk at home (we don’t drink milk). Cow’s milk is not the best for kittens, but there was no choice at 1 in the morning and they were clearly in need. I weighted both kittens, one was 99 gr and the other 114. According to our internet search a kitten needs about 10% of its weight +10ml per 24 hours. In the first weeks they need to be fed every 3 hours. Because it was already late when we went to bed this meant I had only to get up at 5 to feed them. Next feeding at 8 was a bit early on a non working day after a late night but still OK. Anyway, it was rewarding to see them alive. Valeria called  our veterinarian next morning and although it was a holiday we quickly got the right soft of milk powder  to feed them. After 24 hour the larger one looked OK but the smaller one didn’t make it through the night and died at the age of 24 hours. At least she didn’t die on the sidewalk

A Greek Tragedy ?

It sounds a bit like a Greek tragedy. The newly borns in the house are arranged to be killed. The person charged with the task doesn’t dare to kill them with his own hands but sends them to certain death by throwing them as dog food in the street in the middle of the night. As by miracle they are found by an animal lover who saves their lives. One of them survives and later becomes king and does great deeds and revenges the death of his little sister.

I don’t know what future this kitten has waiting for him or if it will surprise catkind with great deeds but I’ll do what I can to make this happen. In practice this means to get out of bed twice every night to feed him.

 Nomen Est Omen

I”ll call him Oedipuss.