Last Night with the Rescue Kitties

[fivecats]

Perch
Photo by Bonn



Yesterday afternoon was a confusion of phone calls. Bonn was flipped out because of the condition of the rescue cats, the former co-werker hadn't told her enough to be helpful, someone else from the rescue groups she's affiliated with was calling Bonn demanding information she didn't have…

And in the midst of it all, five kittens lives were at stake.


Graybar
Photo by Bonn

Former co-werker's home is at the end of a development out in the country. Cell phone signals are iffy at best out there. Bonn had to drive to the main road to call me to ask me to find the co-werker's phone number somehow. I managed to do so and then acted as the middle man between people who needed information.

I got the name of a vet the kittens could be taken to and conveyed that to Bonn. She drove them out, got the four smallest of them seen while the vet spoke with the woman who is in charge of the rescue group. The vet and that woman decided to put Perch down due to his condition and level of dehydration.

A series of back-and-forth calls later and we're told that if we can drive 90 minutes away we can hand the three kittens to someone who was driving to the DC area with four rescued dogs that night. Bonn gathered up the kittens and their meds, then picked me up at werk and off we drove.


The Twin Kitties: Minneapolis and St. Paula
Photo by Bonn

We arrived early enough to get some food for the kittens and give them a chance to eat and stretch their legs a bit before the long ride north. The Twin Kitties each started climbing all over me, wanting to go exploring. Graybar was far more subdued, wanting just to be held and warmed up.

After 45 minutes or so, the woman pulled up, swooped up the kittens in their carriers, and drove off.

That should be the end of the story. I should be able to just say, "We did our best" and be comforted in knowing that we saved three of the four Bonn took with her to get help.

Instead, all I can think about is how we lost Perch.

It just makes me incredibly angry. Yes he was a sick boy, but he was fighting, dammit. He just wanted to be held by Bonn so he could get warm and rest safely enough to heal. If we had the money we would have paid for his care ourselves -- but we've been caught in this recession-battered cycle for so long I don't know how we'll ever work our way out of it.

And because of that Perch is gone.

I'm really getting tired of life not being fair and the least amongst us taking the greatest beating.

...

Comments

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

Poor Perch.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

This picture doesn't show his spirit and personality. I gave him his name because he would climb the side of the cage he was in and sit on a wooden bar placed across two sides near the top. He'd get up there and complain that it wasn't his turn in my lap again.

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[examorata.livejournal.com]

A few weeks before I moved, one morning when I went to feed the outdoor cats, there they were: two new kittens. Maybe 10-12 weeks tops, these two - a gray tabby-and-white and a gray tabby - had found their way out of the woods. I'd seen tiny hints of them when they were younger but just before the time change, when it was quite dark at feeding-time, they got bold enough to show themselves when I brought over the food.

And I thought, "Well here we go again." A stable cat population for about eight years and some new ones arriving. I wanted to be able call up the feral groups I've worked with, get the traps, do the T-N-R, get them checked out. I knew they'd have longer, healthier, happier lives if I did. But I couldn't. I was about to move, I couldn't afford the time or expense, even with the reduced-cost TNR neuter programs in my far more urban area.

There's so much we can't do that if that's all we think about, it can be so overwhelming. I get why you're overwhelmed. And I am absolutely grateful to you and to Bonn for doing what you did, what you could. Even that tiny bit really honestly does matter.

Life isn't fair. Sometimes I think our main job is to do what we can to even it up when we can.

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes I think our main job is to do what we can to even it up when we can."

I like to think you're right.

...

[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

I'm sad for you that you were not able to help Perch, but you did the best you could, and that is the important thing. I have experienced that overwhelming guilt, when the best I could do was not good enough. The important thing is, you TRIED! I'm sorry that you still have money problems, that has dragged on for a long time. It seems to be a universal problem.