The Litterbox

Odds and ends and bits and pieces, all bundled together with flushable clay.

Friday, March 03, 2006 , late evening

Dante And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

If you are related to me, you must either stop reading this now, or you must put your hand over your heart and solemnly swear to never repeat what you’re about to read to my mother.

Okay, are we good now?

Flippy and I were at a convention on Wednesday and Thursday, and we attended a seminar each day. The scheduling was unfortunate, as our Wednesday class ended late in the day, but our Thursday class started at 8am, and in-between we had to tackle Las Vegas traffic in both morning and evening rush hour. We were home for fewer than 12 hours between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, which was pretty stressful on the pets. Thursday I was torn about what to do with Eli and Dante, as Dante is crated when we’re not home, and I didn’t know if he’d want to be crated for six hours more after sleeping in his crate through the night. I decided it was better to crate him than to leave him outside, though, and made sure he was up for an hour to “do his business” before we left in the morning. He didn’t eat or drink anything that I noticed before we left at about 6:30 am. Unfortunately, our day ended up being very long, and it was a full 8 hours before we dragged ourselves back home again. I wasn’t too worried, as Dante will sometimes sleep in his crate for as long as 12 or 13 hours at a time (he loves his crate, and I just let him out when he asks), but when we got inside he was standing up and had peed all over his bed. It was just a massive amount of urine, soaking his entire bed, and making me think that he hadn’t peed at all when he’d first gotten up in the morning. I felt really badly as I could tell he was upset, too, but luckily we had a new dog bed in the garage and I was able to just throw his “pee bed” out in the trash. Still, he spent the night very subdued and acted depressed.

I was obviously pretty tired, too (traffic is exhausting… how do you people do it?), and when I put him to bed on Thursday night I was feeling sort of groggy. I put his new bed in his crate, then put him in and closed the door. I then realized I’d forgotten to put his crate tray back in (I’d taken it outside to wash it off), so I went outside to get it, and opened Dante’s crate again so I could replace the tray. He came out, I started to pull out his new bed, and he made a grab for the chewable Rimadyl which I’d left out for Eli. Something in my head went on auto-pilot and I thought, “That medication isn’t his and it could be harmful to him”, even though I know it’s just Rimadyl, but I think I’d read the warning label so many times about Rimadyl being lethal to cats that my main thought was, “Don’t let any animal eat the Rimadyl except Eli”. That was really dumb. I grabbed at Dante’s collar to stop him from getting the Rimadyl, knowing he still wasn’t in the best mood about his day, and he whipped around and went totally ballistic with me, the way he does with Eli over food about once a year, but in a way he’s never done with me in the five+ years we’ve had him. I’m totally blank on the next two or three seconds, but we ended up a few feet away from his crate, me standing, and him with his jaws around my left forearm. At this point I remember everything, and I was very conscious of not wanting to back down to him because I didn’t want this to be the start of any dominance issues. I didn’t feel in “danger”, and his mouth was around my arm but the situation wasn’t escalating, so I yelled “No!” at him about four times until he let go. I then told him to “go outside!” and although he reluctantly went out the door, he did go. I put the panel in the doggie door so he couldn’t come back inside, at which point Flippy came downstairs with a questioning, “Is everything okay?”

I wasn’t sure if everything was okay or not. My arm hurt. I thought it hurt in a bruised kind of way, but then I looked at it and it was bleeding quite a bit—I later found some of my blood outside on the patio, I guess from where I closed the door after sending Dante out. I tried to be very calm as I ran my arm under water for a few minutes to flush it out, and then we got a towel and an ice pack to wrap around it (nothing will make you want to go on a diet more than seeing little globs of yellow fat protruding from your arm, blech). After a few minutes I put the ice pack down, let Dante inside, and put him in his crate again. He was fine, and seemed to me to be submissive and “sad”. Flippy and I finished up things like loading the dishwasher and making tea, all while I had the ice pack on my arm, and with her insisting I go sit down or something. I think I was totally encompassed by adrenaline and endorphins, though… I was crying, not out of fear, but out of anger at myself for being complacent around Dante (who’s always been headstrong, but never aggressive towards us), and for not being sensitive towards Dante’s edginess after his bad day. I was also very worried that my bite was bad enough to require a trip to the emergency room, where I wondered how much information I’d have to give about the bite, and whether or not Dante could be punished in some way for it by animal control. I don’t know what the laws are, here—I envisioned being forced to tell animal control what dog bit me, of having him taken in for “assessment”, etc. I was very, very scared that my own carelessness would result in Dante being harmed. Luckily our quick action with the flushing/ice combo made a big difference, because while I have an amazing bruise (about two inches wide, around the circumference of my upper forearm) and a fairly deep laceration (like a tear), my arm feels good today and there’s minimal swelling. I have a bit of seepage from the laceration but it’s sealing up on its own—last night it looked like it would need stitches. I’ve been putting antibiotic cream on it, and with no hot spots or any signs of infection, I think I got lucky and it will heal up on its own. Oh, but it’s not pretty. It will be 70 degrees here for the next few days but if I go out I’ll need to wear long sleeves.

Dante has been a very good boy today in the aftermath. He seems contrite, he’s been very “cuddly”, and he’s voluntarily been sitting and waiting for commands. I’ve made sure to run him through some “sits” today before doing things like having treats or even going in his crate, and he’s been great about it. He’s always been a tough dog to work with—he’s an unusual breed which still has a lot of “wild dog” running through it, and we’ve noticed that he runs more on instinct than our other dogs do. If it’s cold outside, he’ll dig himself a den in the yard rather than come in—that’s how strong his instincts still are. We’ve always known that he’s more like a wild animal than a regular dog, but we try to respect that, and he’s been giving training and good daily routines to try to keep order. As he weighs about 100 lbs., I’ve always been very conscious of maintaining a leadership role with him, and he’s never been fed from the kitchen table, allowed up on the sofa, etc. Last night I just didn’t keep my awareness up around him, and given his tendency to be possessive of things, I should have known better than to try to take a treat away from him suddenly. He’ll surrender food in a controlled environment, but me grabbing at his collar suddenly didn’t do anything but set off his instinct to guard his food. I take full responsibility for what happened, and I’m lucky that the lesson I learned wasn’t more damaging.

So, I’ve got my first official dog bite, and I hope it never happens again. It will make me a better and more alert owner, I hope. I notice it seems to have triggered my fibromyalgia, as I’m sure the sudden shock wasn’t good for my already stressed system. I can barely move my neck and shoulders tonight, and my entire body aches—everywhere, it seems, but where I was bitten. I’ll be spending most of the weekend sleeping, if you need me.

Just for the record, he’s current on his rabies and I’m current on tetanus, so I think we’ve got all that covered. And seriously, I wrote this out because I think it’s a good cautionary tale for other pet owners, but I thought about keeping the incident to myself. Do not tell my mother or she’ll worry for an eternity.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/03 at 10:30 PM
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006 , evening

Shameless

I was trying to put the pets to bed early tonight, as we have to be down on the Strip tomorrow morning for an 8:am seminar (yawn). Both Eli and Dante, the big dogs, were outside in the backyard. I noticed Eli was just getting into position to poop, so I thought, “Okay, good—Eli can finish pooping, and I’ll get Dante in here and give him his meds before bed. By then Eli will be finished, and then I can finish pilling her as well.” So, I opened the back door and gestured to Dante to come inside, thinking Eli would ignore me because hey, she’s in mid-poop, all crouched over. The next thing I know, ELI runs past Dante into the house, trying to get the tiny dog biscuits I’m holding in my hand. Her tail is sticking up a bit, because out of her butt there’s a big honking piece of poop halfway out. I yell at Eli to get outside (something along the lines of, “Oh my god, are you crazy? Get your filthy ass outside!”), but she ignores me and keeps trying to push up against me to get the little dog biscuits I was holding. I finally had to go outside, put the cookies on the ground as a bribe, then go back inside and quickly block the doggie door to force her to finish pooping. Which she did. Look, I love to eat too, but I draw the line somewhere.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/01 at 09:47 PM
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Sunday, February 26, 2006 , the wee hours

Brush with greatness

You will all be so envious when I show you a photo of the person sitting in front of me at tonight’s Las Vegas Wranglers hockey game. Are you ready? Here it is:

If you’re scratching your head and going, “Who is that?”, then no cookie for you. It’s actor Erik Per Sullivan, who plays “Dewey” on “Malcolm in the Middle”. In the picture he’s accepting a gift of a hockey puck from a young girl who just came up to him and handed him a puck… very odd. She didn’t ask for an autograph or anything, just handed him a hockey puck. In any case, I think his entire family, including parents, were sitting in front of us, and it sounds as if they have season tickets. It’s not the usual area of the arena that we sit in, so we’ve never noticed him at a game before. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to him at all except that the people beside us asked for his autograph, and the combination of seeing his face and hearing his voice rang a bell. He seemed like a nice kid—very quiet and polite, which can’t be said of the obnoxious people he was with. It was a pretty good hockey game, the Wranglers won and there was some bloodshed, but I really don’t care for seats on the sides of the rink. I prefer sitting behind the goal net, as it’s easier on my neck.

A pet update… Dante went to the vet on Thursday so he could have that lump between his toes looked at. The lump, combined with the periodic rash Dante gets on his abdomen and on his ear flaps made the vet suspect the lump might just be an allergic reaction. He was given a shot of steroids, and sent home with more prednisone and some Atarax. If the lump worsens, or doesn’t go away by the end of next week, we’ll have it removed surgically (blech, $$$). So far I don’t notice that the lump has gone down in size, but it isn’t any bigger, and Dante isn’t picking at it at all. That’s a good thing, as the vet wanted to put an e-collar on him and that’s just a recipe for disaster (picture a Three Stooges episode, but with just one Stooge, and it’s a dog named Dante). Dante is uncoordinated at the best of times, and an e-collar means he can’t navigate in his crate, can’t get out the doggie door, and can barely walk for the confusion. That will be another bad thing about surgery—it may necessitate him wearing a collar so he doesn’t pick at any stitches, and that’s going to be unpleasant for everyone. I hope the pills will do their job and the lump will vanish. The Atarax has been great because it makes him sleepy, but the prednisone really makes him drink and eat and pee.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/26 at 12:12 AM
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006 , evening

Do normal people have this many problems?

We took the kittens to the vet today for their 10 week boosters of their FIV/FLV vaccinations, and we found out that two of them have large lumps on their back legs, at the site of their first injections. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything serious, but we’ll have to keep an eye on the lumps and make sure they go away or they’ll need to be aspirated. The lumps are so prominent that I can’t believe I didn’t notice either of them myself—it sort of makes me feel like a negligent parent. I try to “massage” the kittens regularly, just so they’ll be used to being touched all over (especially their feet), but I guess I’ve been passing over their back legs. We’ve got to keep an eye on the back leg lumps, and make sure no new lumps come up at their new injection sites. The good news was that the kittens didn’t have that “malaise” which came over them after their first set of injections, so it was pretty much a normal evening for them.

While at the vet’s office and asking one of the techs a question about Rimadyl, I found out that Eli is supposed to have blood work done next week to check her liver function (a standard procedure for dogs starting Rimadyl, but one which no one told us about). So, we made an appointment for her to go in on Monday for that.

Later in the evening, I was at my desk and I could hear one of the dogs downstairs doing some repetitive licking. Eli’s stopped doing that since she started taking Rimadyl, so I knew it had to be Dante, but assumed he was licking an elbow abrasion (his elbows get scratched up quite frequently from lying in the yard, and I tend to just treat them with Bag Balm). When I went downstairs to check it out, I could immediately see that Dante had been licking one of his front feet, as it was all wet and soggy-looking, blech. I hoped it was just a sore paw pad (again, I drag out the Bag Balm), but in-between two of his toes, on the top of his foot, was a nasty looking red lump. Crap. It looks just like the histiocytoma we had removed from his ear last year (which was thankfully benign). I washed his foot up with some soap and he was quite good about it, and then for lack of something better to put on it, I thought I’d try some hydrocortisone ointment. I figured it could possibly be an insect bite of some sort, and knew the hydrocortisone would be helpful for that. I checked on it again a couple of hours later and it didn’t look as if he’d bothered with it at all since I’d cleaned it up, and the lump had really gone down in size and wasn’t red and oozing like it had been previously. I hope that’s a good sign, but if it’s still there in the morning he’s going to have to go to the vet, too. He’s a bit older now (he’ll be 6 in July), and he’s a large dog, so any suspicious lumps are cause for concern. The sooner we catch a problem, the less-expensive it will be to fix (I hope).

I feel I’m being punished by the gods of the retail pet industry for putting off buying a pet ramp to assist the big dogs in getting in the car. After Eli’s last trip in the car I knew we needed one, but I’ve dawdled about ordering it. It looks like I’ll have one, possibly two trips to the vet over the next few days to remind me of why getting one is so important.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/22 at 09:53 PM
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Tuesday, February 21, 2006 , mid-afternoon

Too much television

It’s a good thing the Olympics only last two weeks, or I’d permanently grow into the sofa. It’s not the evening wrap-up broadcast which has my attention (I TiVo it and zip through it a day later so it’s compressed to about 90 minutes), but I’m totally enamoured of the daytime broadcasts of hockey and curling. Gawd, I’m such a Canadian. I never think that much about curling until I start watching, and then it’s so hypnotic and addictive that I can’t turn away. So, for the past week, I’ve spent three hours each afternoon watching CNBC’s curling coverage (while also reading a book or newspaper, for maximum multitasking benefit). Today is an off day for curling, with the semi-finals starting tomorrow, so I’m in a bit of withdrawal. I love the finesse, the exacting nature of curling—it’s like a chess game played by a group of people. I also enjoy the play-by-play by Canadian announcers Don Chevrier and Don Duguid, as their voices make me a bit nostalgic.

I’ll admit that for most of the big events (for example, figure skating and skiing), I read the results online many hours before I watch the actual event on TV. I don’t really mind, although I notice I do tend to skip past most of the events I’m not interested in when I already know the results. I’ll sit and watch the top couple of runs in two-man bobsleigh, for example, but if I know who wins, I’m not going to watch a dozen other teams who aren’t contenders. I probably would have fast-forwarded through a bunch of the ice dancing short program if I hadn’t known there were so many falls and crashes though, so maybe knowing the results ahead of time is a good thing, too. As I posted on someone else’s blog, I’d ideally love the option to have access to the events in real-time, even if I had to pay a premium for it. My suggestion to NBC, or whomever has the contract for Olympic coverage in the future, is to offer a “pay-per-view” pass to all the raw feeds of all the events. Stick the feeds on some unused cable channels, and I’ll give you $50 or so for the privilege of being able to tune in whenever I want to, knowing I’m seeing live action. That way I’ll be able to watch New Zealand play Italy in curling if I so desire, and I won’t have to curse NBC for generally only showing the games featuring the American teams.

So, I hope my admission about too much television helps explain my lack of posts lately. All the pets are doing well, and Eli is feeling quite well on her Rimadyl. Tomorrow the kittens go in for their 10 week vaccinations, so we expect a quiet night out of them after they come home. Now that they’ve got free run of the house, every night is like a circus as they jump, hop, climb, and run. One unexpected benefit of having the kittens around is that our adult cats really like them. What started with some hissing and spitting from the elders has turned into playfulness, with Derek acting like a young guy last night as he played on a cat tree with Scampi, and at one point, even Jackson came down to play a bit with Tie. Jackson! Jackson hates everyone, and he’s afraid of everything! Our house has been transformed by the zen of kittens.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/21 at 03:36 PM
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006 , the wee hours

Happy Valentine’s Day to the one who pays the bills

I was amused by Flippy’s little Valentine’s Day greeting to me in her blog, thanking me for “putting up with her”. Seeing as she graciously took three little kittens to the vet last week and paid about $350 for their vaccinations and exams, and then took Eli to the vet today (allowing her to sit on the leather car seats) and shelled out about $450, I think it’s me who should be giving thanks. Our trip today literally lasted for three hours, too, so I don’t have words for how much I appreciate Flippy’s patience and good nature when we’re in a situation which could best be described as “trying”. Nothing takes the stress out of a stressful situation like being with someone who makes you laugh. So, for Flippy, a big “Happy Valentine’s Day” back at ‘cha, and thank you for allowing me to fill your house with things on four legs, things which shed, things which don’t flush, etc. They all love you, too. I think I managed to give Flippy the best gift ever this evening… she was on the sofa watching TV, and at one point had three little kittens curled up in her lap, sound asleep. If you want your heart to go pitter-pat, let a little kitten look up at you adoringly while purring, closing its eyes, and dosing off in the safety of your presence. It’s the most incredible thing.

As just mentioned, we did spend a large part of the day at the vet. It was Eli’s annual wellness exam, and I wanted it out of concern that she’s been acting sort of stiff and sore for the past couple of months. She’s also lost some muscle mass, so while her weight has remained the same, I can see that she’s lost some tone (haven’t we all?!). So, she had a very thorough exam today, including a ton of x-rays, and that kept us at the vet’s office for some time while we waited for results. I was getting a bit concerned towards the end of the appointment because normally we’d be done with the vet consultation, and would just be checked out by a tech, but the vet wanted to speak to us. The longer I sat in the waiting room, the more vividly I imagined that the x-ray had shown odd masses or growths or very bad things. Luckily, there was nothing of that sort, although the x-rays did reveal Eli’s bad habit of eating small rocks. The main problem that showed up was very bad arthritis in many of Eli’s joints, especially both hips, her wrists, and her spine. I knew one of her front feet was bothering her and that she was prone to bouts of limping on it, but I had no idea the other areas were in such bad shape. They were so bad that it was another case of “I could spot the problem on the x-ray”, and I don’t know anything about this stuff. Both Flippy and I have always thought of Eli as a bit of a “baby” when it comes to pain, as she’s very whiny about having her ears cleaned, fussy about having her nails trimmed, etc., but she’s obviously very stoic about other pain because she has to be in a lot of it with this degree of arthritis, and she’s only recently started to show it.

We discussed all our treatment options with the vet, but really, we don’t have many. In theory Eli could have surgery for her hips and even have a hip replacement done, but with two bad hips, she might not have the strength to support the post-surgical leg during its rehab time. Also, if there was any sort of terrible complication with the leg and it required something drastic like amputation (say, she was allergic to the implant), there’s no way her other rear leg could cope with all the workload. The other surgical option is a Femoral Head and Neck Resection, but the vet thinks that’s something to keep as a last resort if Eli’s discomfort becomes overwhelming. As she’s been taking Cosequin and getting glucosamine/chondroitin supplements for the last couple of years we’ve already got that covered, so for now, we’re going with Rimadyl for pain, and I’m going to try to get her to be a bit more active to build up her muscle mass again. I’ll also try some MSM supplements and see if they help. We discussed Adequan, but the vet felt that at Eli’s age she wouldn’t get any extra benefit from it than from Cosequin, and of course, it’s terribly expensive. So for now, Rimadyl, and I’m about to order a pet ramp from Drs. Foster and Smith. We’ll have another checkup in 6 months because Eli’s thyoid function was a bit low, but she’s asymptomatic right now, so it can be rechecked in August to see if it’s deteriorated at all. I guess in a 10 year old large dog I should be happy that we got away with just arthritis but a clean bill of health everywhere else.

Today, Eli became our first dog to be tested for heartworm, and put on heartworm meds. While we don’t really have mosquitos here like they exist in other parts of the country, experts here are expecting a big outbreak of heartworm cases starting this spring because of the influx of heartworm-infected dogs from Louisiana. I guess all it takes is one mosquito biting one infected dog for it to start to spread, so even if we only have, say, a thousand mosquitos around town, they’ll be able to do some damage. We unfortunately have to go through the protocol of having all dogs tested for heartworm before they can be prescribed the meds, so one dog down, three more to go. They need to start the meds by the time overnight temps are consistently around the 60 degree mark, so probably by the end of next month.

Eli is serving as a cautionary tale for us, as she was “hip certified” as a puppy, yet she’s still developed hip problems. Starting today, Dante, our Anatolian shepherd, was started on Cosequin as well. He gets some supplementation of glucosamine/chondroitin in his food, but I want to really try to prevent as many problems as possible with him. The Cosequin is a small thing, but I figure every little bit helps. Speaking of Anatolians, there are some beautiful ones who were selected Best of Breed at the Westminster Kennel Club show. We usually just get to see solid-coloured Anatolians, but this year the winners are “pinto” like our Dante.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/14 at 12:10 AM
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Saturday, February 11, 2006 , late at night

Sleeping like a log… I mean, dog

It seems I only talk about the kittens lately, but of course the house is crawling with the adult cats, the parrots, and the dogs as well. It’s one big party all the time, and it usually involves a bit of hissing. Eli the German shepherd turns 10 years old today, and she’s a wonderful sport about sharing her space with cats and kittens (it’s the cats and kittens who have the attitude problems). Tonight Eli had a rare opportunity to reclaim “her” sofa for a nap, and she made the most of it. When I took this photo she was sound asleep, snoring slightly, with her head wedged into the arm of the couch. Yes, that’s a catnip mat hanging over the arm—Eli’s not fussy about such things:

Here’s a photo of just how far she’s come in life… she didn’t always have those grey whiskers:

When I get up in the morning, I’ll be giving her a bath with a good brushing and an ear cleaning—we do this in the backyard with the hose. She’s never thrilled about the ear cleaning part, but has always loved to bark at the hose (I’m sure it thrills the neighbours as well). On Monday she goes to the vet for her “geriatric wellness” exam, which consists of blood work, urinalysis, and chest and abdominal x-rays. It also now includes a heartworm test, which seems a bit silly at her age (especially with our complete lack of mosquitos), but whatever… she can have anything that’s recommended. I also want to see about putting her on Rimadyl for a while, as this past winter she seemed to slow down considerably and is more frequently stiff and “limpy” if she plays or runs hard in the yard. She’s been taking Cosequin for a couple of years, and also eats food with glucosamine/chondroitin, but it hasn’t stopped the onset of what seems to be some light arthritis. I don’t want her to be in any discomfort, and she certainly enjoys life, so I hope Rimadyl will make her a bit more comfortable. I really love the old girl, and hope she’ll be one of those timeless German shepherds who’s still running and playing on their 15th birthday :)

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/11 at 11:20 PM
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Thursday, February 09, 2006 , evening

Sad little kittens

We’ve got three sad little kittens, and it’s not even because they lost their mittens. Yesterday, on their 8 week birthday, we were mean and sneaky and took them to the vet for their first vaccinations, as well as tests for all sorts of initials like FIV, FLV, and FIP. They passed their tests with flying colours, but oh, they weren’t too happy about the vaccinations. When we brought them home they eagerly ate some dinner, but quickly they climbed into bed and slept… they continued to sleep for close to 24 hours, with just the occasional break for the litterbox, water, and a snack. I did keep a close eye on them last night and all day, and as long as they were eating and drinking I figured they were all right. I think they were just sore and exhausted. Now normally, I like the idea of having exhausted kittens every now and then, but not when it’s my fault—it just made me feel guilty. They’re supposed to have another set of boosters in two weeks, and I enquired about having them spayed/neutered, but the vet won’t do it until they weigh 4 pounds. Right now, they’re barely 2 lbs. I’ll try to have some current photos soon.

Btw, did you see all the amazing new species of birds and animals which were discovered in the Indonesian jungle? Enjoy them now, before the logging companies and oil companies and all the other money-hungry folks get their grubby mitts on them and screw everything up.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/09 at 09:51 PM
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Saturday, February 04, 2006 , late evening

Adoption contracts

I’m feeling like a proud parent tonight, as the kittens spent their first day out of their cage, unsupervised, and they did great. They ate when they wanted to, they knew to use the litterbox when it was needed, and they were just good kids. I guess most people would have had the kittens completely on the loose by this age (7 and a half weeks), but I wasn’t comfortable doing it until now. As I wasn’t planning to care for these guys, and they arrived without much notice, I had to keep them in our spare room/office/storage area, and really, it’s full of junk. Before Christmas I had cleaned up most of the house and put all the extraneous stuff in the spare room, and lo and behold, suddenly I needed to use that room for something. It’s been full of empty shipping boxes, old computer parts, Christmas wrap, a treadmill, etc., and I was afraid that if I let the kittens loose in there, I’d never see them again! So, they lived in a Rubbermaid container, then a large cage, and now they’ve graduated to the room. They had supervised “out time” every day before this, but today was the first day they were masters of their domain.

Of course, they’ve managed to get into everything I’d hoped to keep them out of. If I put a box up on a shelf, the shelf was the first thing they learned to conquer. I figured they’d ignore a pile of padded envelopes, but no, they use the pile as a ramp to jump from. A floor lamp is like the centerpiece at a motor speedway, and the treadmill is where they quickly turn around to run back in the other direction. They’re utterly fearless, although the German shepherd still elicits a hiss.

On Wednesday, they’ll have their first vet appointments, shots, FIV/FLV tests, etc., and they’ll be microchipped if they’re big enough. While they’re old enough to be adopted out next week, I’d like to keep them for another couple of weeks to get another set of vaccinations into them, as well as to acclimate them more to “big house living”. I also want a few more days to figure out exactly how to proceed with the adoption process, because we’re obviously attached to them, and want to make sure they have the best lives they possibly can.

Regarding the “best lives” part, it’s been a confusing week. Since we first started to care for the kittens, we’ve had a couple of interested adopters in mind, and we had no doubt that the families would be a great match for our kittens. Perhaps I’m just being overly cautious, but this week was full of odd red flags about everyone we’d considered, and we found out a lot of things which surprised us. One person had been enthusiastic about the kittens since they were a week old, but when I called this week to find out if the adoption was still “a go”, I found out that the spouse didn’t know a thing about any kittens. “Kittens?” said the spouse. “You have kittens? Why do you have kittens? I wasn’t told anything about adopting kittens.” This doesn’t mean these folks aren’t still great people, and they take great care of their current pets, but there’s obviously been no planning involved. I don’t think the spouse was opposed to the kitten idea, but I didn’t detect enthusiasm, either.

A second person, who we’ve known for a couple of years on a casual basis, has been interested in adopting a kitten from us and we think person is responsible and reliable. If I had a business to run, I’d hire this person to manage it without a second thought. However, when we raised the kitten issue again this week, the person said, “I can definitely take a kitten now, as I just got rid of my dog”. Holy crap, what on earth does that mean? I was so shocked I didn’t even ask, I just sort of changed the subject as my mind was reeling. Flippy thinks perhaps the dog is being cared for by other family members, but I’m very uncomfortable with the wording “got rid of”.

The final red flag of the week was a chance meeting with old friends. We love these people, have spent a lot of time with them, and have seen them take diligent care of their current pets. I watched one lovingly hand-feeding a sick ferret in the weeks before the ferret died of old age, and they always get prompt vet care when any problem arises. They even took in a homeless stray cat, so I felt that they were people who “thought like me”. While we’d never discussed the idea of them adopting a kitten from us, in the back of my mind they seemed like the perfect family. We haven’t been in touch very often since they had a baby, but I figured they were still “animal people”. Given all that, imagine my surprise when we bumped into these folks at the vet this week, where they were planning to have one of their cats put to sleep rather than paying for its surgery. This isn’t an old cat, but it has an undiagnosed illness, and if the illness couldn’t be treated orally they didn’t want to pay for surgery because it was going to cost about $1000. If they were pinching pennies and on a tight budget, I’d understand, but they aren’t pinching pennies. Like us, they bleed money in dribs and drabs by eating out, buying new cars, paying for all the premium cable channels, having all the latest electronics, etc. At least we know that we do it, and we cut down on it when the need arises, and we’ve never not paid for a medical procedure simply because of cost. It’s none of my business how they budget their money, but they can’t tell me they can’t afford surgery, while telling me about their new television set five minutes later. I was horrified, and shocked, and sad, and it took all my willpower not to offer to take the cat from them so I could take over its care. Another cat wouldn’t be a good fit in our home right now, and I don’t think I have the physical ability to care for any more pets (the kittens have taken a real toll on me and my fibromyalgia), and I can’t save them all. But the conversation kept me awake at night, and it’s put a black cloud over the affection I had for these people. At what point, when you think you know people, do you honestly really know them?

All that is why the subject of this entry is adoption contracts. My innate personality is to keep quiet about things and to not rock the boat, but this past week has made me determined to have very detailed and obnoxious adoption contracts for the kittens. When we adopted Derek from Best Friends, we had to answer all sorts of information before we were cleared to adopt. What pets had we had in our lives? If we didn’t have those pets any longer, what had happened to them? If a pet needed vet care and we couldn’t afford it, what would we do? If we died, what plans had we made for our pets? Did we think it was acceptable to declaw a cat or let a cat roam outdoors? All those questions and more we had to answer in detail, and we also had to agree that if we were ever at a point where we couldn’t keep Derek, or couldn’t afford veterinary care for him, we had to return him to Best Friends. They even remained the “alternate contact” on his microchip. Frankly, I love all that, and that’s what I want to do with the kittens. They’ll be microchipped with their new family’s information and our information, and I’ll make it clear that if the new owners ever have to give up one of the cats, that it must be returned to us. I also want the option to pay for veterinary care if it’s a situation where the cat will otherwise be euthanized despite a treatable condition.

I know that’s taking on a lot of responsibility, but you know, these kittens deserve the very best life they can be given. I promised to care for them when they were a day old, and I won’t stop doing that when they leave our house. I’ll feel better knowing that if there’s a problem down the road, even if it’s 15 years from now, I’ll have the chance to look out for them again. As for who’s going to adopt them, well, I think we’re still a bit up in the air about that, but I guess we’ll see what sort of reaction we get to my adoption contract and go from there.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/04 at 10:37 PM
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