Chatterbox: Inkwell

Oh my gosh!!!!! I have a pretty amazing, and true, story that happened last night!

I doubt anybody knows, but my family and I help foster kittens from the humane society in the city I live in. A few weeks ago, police found a woman with 45 cats in her house! Actually, it was just a 1-room trailer, not even a house, really. The woman, Jean P. was 51. Most of her cats were Himalayan, (like a long-hair Siamese) but some were other breeds. The humane society was called out to help and to take in all the cats. Then, the next day, we were called to take the "bottle babies" (kittens that still need to nurse), because their mothers were too undernourished to care for them. The vice-director person, Christiana, said that when she went in the house, it was painful to breath! There were obviously not enough litter boxes, because the cats had used whatever was around; counters, carpets, even Primrose's parents! So I guess that from this, you can tell that they were really abused when we got them. We got 3 Himies (Himalayans) from the same batch that were about 2 weeks, another Himi that was about 3 weeks, and a little calico that looked about 1 week or so. The calico, that we later named Hope, had an eye that was so infected, that it was now dead. Also, the calico was actually about 3 weeks, but she was so tiny and sick from the infection that she looked 1 week! Anyway, that's kinda just the prologue to the real story..  

We have been working on them learning to lap KMR (kitten milk replacer) and eat special kitten wet-food. They had been doing pretty well, so we figured it was safe to leave them for about 7 or 8 hours while my mom and dad were at my grandparents, working on relandscaping their backyard. When we came back, we opened the door to the room our kittens were in, and they all came running out.... all, but Hope. I looked inside their little kennel (we leave the door to it open)  and she was just lying there! I picked her up, and she just slumped in my hand! She looked all stretched out and like she wasn't even alive! Then I saw her take a tiny, struggling breath. She was completley limp and her mouth was hanging open! I had seen that happen to a kitten once, our first "bottle baby", and he hadn't made it. I ran out to my mom. She took one look at her, and started getting a syringe out. She filled it with karo syrup , (just melted sugar and water) which is what you give to kittens when they go into shock. Hope was only breathing about once every 30 seconds. We got out a heating pad and a towel and wrapped her up. My mom squirted the syrup into her mouth and rubbed her throat, trying to get her to swallow. We weren't sure if she was alive or unconcious or what. We talked to her and just kept giving her karo syrup and KMR. She started breathing about once every 10 seconds. Her breathing started to become more even. We kept her warm and just kept feeding her, until her eyes opened and she was breathing pretty regularly. She was still limp and my mom wasn't sure if she would live. After an hour, she could raise her head. We gave her tons of KMR. My mom said she was extemely dehydrated. After around 3 hours, she was looking pretty normal. My mom got up every 3 hours to feed her. This morning she was looking just fine!

When our first "bottle baby" died, we had no clue why it happened. We thought that it was unfair for him to die when he was only 8 days. We learned then that you give kittens Karo syrup when that happens. It turned out that Pip, our first "bottle baby," had, in a way, died for Hope. 

That's my story. Kinda soppy, but... Anyway, I just thought it was a good story that would be fun to share with you guys. :)