Kittens, kittens, and more kittens!

Rosie - 10 weeks old

Madison and her baby

Chip and Lucy 2

Some of you that have followed our blog for a while may remember back in October we lost our kitten, Lucy. The sweet lady we got her from offered to get her momma and daddy back together if we decided we wanted another kitten. After a bit, we decided we did want another kitten. Actually, I came up with the hair-brained idea that if there were enough kittens in this litter, I wanted to let all the kids pick one. The babies were due around Christmas time...what could be better than Christmas kittens??


Momma cat had the babies on December 28th. They were precious! There were only 2, so the boys decided to share the girl, which they named Lucy 2, in honor of our first Lucy. The girls decided to share the boy and named him Chip.


Chip struggled from the very beginning. I wasn't even sure he was alive at first. The momma cat's owner, V., has become a sweet friend of mine. She let us bring momma to our house before the kittens were born so we could be with them from the very beginning. Anyway, like I said, Chip took a little longer to perk up after birth than Lucy did. Momma cat didn't really start licking him so I picked him up and wiped him off with a towel. He stared meowing and I put him back in front of momma and she did start to lick him and clean him up then. The babies were born a little after midnight. I finally went to bed around 4. Every so often I heard the babies meowing really loud. I would go in and momma had moved Lucy and left Chip behind. Not a good sign.


We kept momma and the babies at our house for 4 days. On the evening of day 3 I noticed Chip was pretty lethargic. V.'s husband came over and looked at him. We decided at that point to start dropper feeding him. He was a very lazy nurser and just wasn't getting enough to eat. Lucy was growing and Chip wasn't. So, every hour that night and the next day I dropper fed Chip. In the mean time, momma cat quit eating. Finally I called V. and talked to her about momma not eating. We agreed that she probably needed to go home. V.'s husband came over and took momma cat and the babies to their house. Then V. started bottle feeding Chip every hour.


This went on for a week and a half. I went over to visit the babies a couple times. Chip never did gain any weight. The last time they weighed the babies, Chip was still holding at 2 ounces, while Lucy was thriving at over 6 ounces. We knew this wasn't good.


Thursday evening V. called and said Chip was starting to go downhill. They weren't sure he would make it through the night. Madison was devastated. She just cried and cried. She gets so attached to our pets and takes it so much harder than the other kids when we lose one. Steve and I got 2 kittens just after we were married. We lost Sasi, our Siamese in December 2007 to kidney failure. She was 14 years old. It was so hard...she was my baby before I had my babies! Madison took it much harder than the boys did. We finally decided to get another kitten last fall & found our first Lucy. We only had her a few weeks before we lost her. Chloe Grace still thinks Lucy 1 lives at the vet's office :) Before Christmas the old cat we still have, Meca, was diagnosed with cancer. The vet removed the tumor - it was on her chin. The lab reports indicated that the entire tumor was removed, but I found another spot in her ear that looks like the first tumor did when it started. She's 15 years old, I'm not about to put her through radiation or chemo. Madison is really attached to her and was pretty upset with the cancer diagnosis. For now Meca seems to be doing ok. She's eating well, breathing well, doesn't seem to be in any discomfort. Then, we lost Chip last Friday. I just didn't know how much more disappointment one child could handle!


So, before Madison got home from school on Friday and learned about Chip's passing, I scoured ads on line and found Rosie. She is Madison's early birthday present from Steve and I. Rosie is a Snowshoe Siamese and is just as sweet as can be! She loves to play, but also loves to be held and cuddled. She is snuggling in my lap, sleeping as I type this! I think Rosie has helped start to mend Madison's heart a bit.


Lucy 2 will come home in a little over a month. She's almost 3 weeks old now. I took the kids over to V.'s house to visit her on Tuesday. Lucy has opened her eyes and is starting to walk around and play. She's getting so big! It was good for the kids to see her and to know that she's doing well. V.'s kids love her too, and are playing with her lots while she's at their house.


Hopefully our pet drama is over for a while. Jarod wants a puppy for his birthday....we'll see. There's just no part of me that wants to house train a puppy! I've always been a cat person. I tried to talk him into a kitten instead, but so far he's not wavering!