In remembrance

(Oliver, Emily and Saffron "Saffy")

Fostering kitties can be messy, as I've noted. It can be fun. It can be rewarding. But it can be really, really sad. Last week we lost three of our foster kittens. The kittens were brought to us by a nice couple who rescued their mother and took care of her during her pregnancy and while the little ones were nursing.

We didn't notice anything wrong when they first came to live with us, though a visitor who was adopting pointed out that the runt "looks very fragile." They were a little odd looking, in that their eyes looked too big for their little heads. They cried a lot, but Mom thought they missed their mother. So she put another cat in with them who had had kittens that were already adopted.

Things seemed fine. The kittens ate, they played and they seemed to be growing. Another foster volunteered to help Mom (she had nearly 20 kittens!) and took in the little ones. We got the runt, Saffy, back after a day because she wasn't eating and cried a lot. Mom took her to the vet, but he saw nothing wrong. The fecal test showed nothing wrong, though she had diarrhea. Mom watched her closely and fed her often, making sure she got plenty by letting her eat alone. Still she wouldn't play with the others. She would just sit on Mom's leg or shoulder most days, content to be near her.

After a week, Mom got the entire litter back except Emily and she went to a different foster. They seemed fine. Eating, playing, running around. But still the crying.

On Sunday night when Mom came home from her adoption event, she decided to de-worm all of them again after talking to some other fosters about their crying. The three she found were listless. She went to find Oliver and he was laying on the floor. He meowed, but she knew he was very ill. She took him to the ER immediately, but he died in the 15 minutes it took to get there. When Mom got home, she buried little Oliver in the back yard.

Then she called Emily's foster to check on her. She found out she had been sneezing, so Mom decided to go get her and take the rest of the litter back to the ER just to be safe. She went to pick up Emily and when the foster brought her to her, she told her she was dead. Mom was stunned. She went on the ER with the three surviving kittens. The vet there told her there was one of three things that could be wrong: intestinal parasites, food allergies or genetic problems. The kittens were tested for parasites and none were found. They were given fluids and Mom went back home with them. She got home at 12:30 a.m. and buried little Emily that night. She didn't sleep much.

The next day she took the other three kittens to her vet, whom she trusts completely. Little Saffy nearly died on the way there. Mom held her in her lap while driving and stroked her begging her to hang on ... she did. After they got to the vet's office, they had to wait about five minutes and Saffy again nearly died, but Mom urged her to hang on. Our vet tested the kittens once again for parasites ... none seen. They were given fluids and special food to try to keep them going. Mom came home and fed Saffy by hand, putting tiny bits of a/d in her little mouth and feeding her CliniCare by syringe. She had to go to work, so she kissed her and asked to hang on until she got back, but knew in her heart what would happen.

When she got home from work around 1 a.m., little Saffy had passed away. She buried her the next morning next to her brother and sister. Three tiny little graves with three tiny little kittens in less than 36 hours.

The two remaining kittens, Otis and Merlin, are doing better, though Mom says they aren't out of the woods yet. She is keeping them in their own room and feeding them several times a day with a/d, CliniCare and a special formula she found on the Internet. They play a little, but run out of energy quickly. She gives them lots of hugs and kisses and praise. Just like she did with Saffy. If their lives are going to be short, at least they will know love.