Sometimes I forget about this blog. Months pass, I don’t update it. I wonder why but fail to type something in this block. I guess I don’t expect anyone to read it anyway, the classic blogger’s nagging doubt!
Hmm. So why haven’t I written since September? New kittens.
Andy was a sick with diarrhea, as were his litter mates. Apparently they got into a bad grasshopper or two, became infected with an amoebic disease that caused diarrhea (most distressingly!). He appeared better by the time I picked him up.
In the week or so after I first took Andy home, however, he lost ground. I called the lady who gave him to me, telling her about his continuing diarrhea and apparent decline. I was afraid I was going to lose another cat, a kitten, if he didn’t have medical care!
She took Andy that night, and put him in the veterinarian clinic for observation and determination of the specific cause of his illness. Probiotics and antibiotics helped. A week later, he seemed on the mend again, and was released to me.
I placed Andy in the carrier, a cathedral-sized one meant for a Louie-sized cat, and waited for the bill. The technician came out with another kitten, a kitten from Andy’s litter that’d become his best play buddy that previous week.
Would I be interested in another kitten, she wondered, noting Andy and this little guy’d played so well together. She knew my plan was to find a companion cat for Andy at the pound. The issues of finding a cat Andy liked and played with came up earlier, and this little brother looked like a good deal!
Yes! I’ll take the kitten, I told her.
These kittens are pedigreed or pure bred. I never can keep the distinction clear in my mind…one of the two! They were mostly black when I got them, and, at a little over five months in December, show the handsome coloration of smoke Persians. Andy in particular has the lovely silver and black combination, though Dougy shows the colors in a darker shade.
Oh! I hadn’t mentioned the new kitten’s name yet!
Andy is named after the patron saint of Scotland, St. Andrew, since I have significant Scottish ancestry. The second kitten, I felt, should have a good, Scottish name as well.
I posed the question on Daily Booth, where several people who follow me are Scottish. What should I name this second male kitten? Archibald. Angus. Murdoch. And so on. Then it occurred to me my own name, Douglas, is about as Scottish as you can get! To stave off suggestions I am egotistical, I settled for Doogie, the Scottish diminutive of Douglas.
I started out calling the new kitten Doogie. I no time, it gravitated toward the easier, friendlier Dougy. To hell with it. I named one of my kittens after me! The more ornery one, it turns out! Judge me if you wish, world! Ha!
Videos? Yeah, I made videos and posted them on YouTube. They are a hoot to watch.
Diarrhea and normal kitty problems managing to keep themselves cleaned up continued to plague the kittens and me. I never had to give Louie a bath, yet the kittens needed them practically daily! Whew! I called the veterinarian to determine if the kittens should go back in for further work.
Andy, in particular, seemed worse off, and I sent him to the clinic first. He was there eight days, then I took Dougy in. He wasn’t as bad off, but he just wasn’t right. I couldn’t see continuing with more of the same. If one was sicker, both were sick with the same thing. Dougy needed to be there for treatment, too.
I missed the hubbub of kittens, but I didn’t miss the diarrhea and the sense that the kittens were more than I could handle after the death of Louie. They, their health issues, definitely weren’t lightening my mood.
Kitten poop. Kitten baths. Long stays at the veterinarian’s and long examinations of whether it was crazy to keep the kittens or not: That’s the summation of three months past.
Someone said “There is no such thing as a free cat.” The two kittens given me, pet quality smoke Persians, can retail between $500-$1000, per one internet source. I don’t know. I’ve never had such fancy pets, let alone for nothing. I’ve never asked the lady at the clinic why she chose to give them to me. It seems if someone does something nice for you, you should graciously accept that good deed and not worry about motivation.
The veterinarian bills so far hover near $1000. That includes routine vaccinations, of course, but largely is for kenneling and treatment of the root cause of the diarrhea. The kittens are well-known to the staff, and have spent more time in the clinic than at home, I think, but that’s starting to turn around.
Now, the kittens and I are bonded for life. Often, when I fall asleep in my recliner, one or both will be sleeping on my lap when I wake up. I find one or both in bed with me when I wake up. I suspect it is so they can monitor me until it is time to wake me up to feed them.
Call me crazy, but I’m keeping them!
There is nothing like the love of a cat.
You know it!
Thanks for reposting this. Never knew their origin story. Sounded like a little bit of a challenging beginning but the guys are worth it 🙂 Glad they are healthy and keeping your lap warm. My two boys like to sleep at my feet. One of my childhood cats, Alex liked to be my pillow. Chewie and Jiminy refuse to be a pillow. I miss Alex, she was the best sleep I ever had, she was so warm and fuzzy.
My two are pests in the bedroom, especially Dougy, but Andy can be counted on to settle down and sleep on top of a dresser.
What a great story! I’m so glad that the kitties got the treatment they needed & made a full recovery, thanks to the vet & your kind heart! I hope you can now sit back & truly enjoy retirement now that your in the company of Andy & Dougy! Purrs!
That was when they were kittens, and kittens are astonishingly fragile beings. I’m glad they recovered as well because they are a lot of entertainment and fun, even when they misbehave.
I just discovered this page; the kittens are adorable. I will show it to Benji when he wakes up; I am sure he can relate.
They were! I had enough questions about their early history that I thought this page would be helpful and of interest. Glad you enjoyed it! They were a handful when they both had diarrhea as kittens, but they and I got through that phase. Whew!
There is resemblance with the care Ms. Zulu and Benji need right now. I feel like a full-time doggy nurse.
One can get that way.
I am glad you got them such excellent care and they grew into handsome little kitty men. 🙂
It wasn’t a sure thing. I can’t tell you how relieved I was the day I realized they finally were OK, and that I didn’t have to pamper and bathe them any more. That’s when they started to be pure fun to have around!
“There is no such thing as a free” … pet. I have had two dogs and five (wow five?) cats – all of them “free”.
Free? HAH!
The only free pet might be a stray that you occasially feed, but once you let them into your home and into your heart there is no such thing as free anymore.
Kind of reminds me of the joke about the married man who stated proudly “I would never pay for sex”.
Heinlein’s famous TNSTAAFL could easily be shortened to TNSTAF. 🙂
I’m laughing, because that’s exactly the realization I came to shortly after I got the first veterinarian’s bill for the boys. I think the final total for the free kittens was around $1400. The retail price for pet quality Persians, I found out on the internet, is between $500 and $1000 a kitten. It seems I paid an average of $700 for mine, so got a “bargain”! LOL!
Good you kept them – now you three are all happier.
Yeah! I was beginning to think I couldn’t handle another poopy kitten by the end (no pun intended!) of it!. The poopy kittens were getting pretty tired of it all,too.,
Well, when my two came they had the same problem – but that could have been down to transition – when nerves are trembling so are the guts.
They recovered and FunTom is still with me. Just little Mashka who had toxoplasmosis died 2011 in January and I had to get another companion for my tom by the end of February, he was not used staying at home alone all the time. So I got Kessy – love at first sight!
I don’t plan on getting any more cats or pets after Andy and Dougy, given my age, but I know I’d probably get an adult from the local shelter before I’d get any more kittens. Louie was an adult cat when I got him, and the transition to my home was a simple as Louie spending a few minutes his first day here walking around the house, opening all the cabinets and checking all the potential kitty spots out. He wasted no time at all figuring out he was home and that everything was his to use! LOL! I think my jaw dropped when he opened the first cabinet door. I’d never seen a cat do that before. Now, I know that’s not that unusual, that they all will try it, and the strong and/or clever ones will succeed.
Either my cabinet doors are harder to open, or all German cats I know about are dumber than American cats.
Or American cabinet doors are mounted with weaker springs or hinges that even a cat can over-power!
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your website.
Do you ever run into any web browser compatibility issues?
A couple of my blog readers have complained about my site not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox.
Do you have any suggestions to help fix this issue?
I haven’t had any issues, or, at least, I haven’t heard anything from people visiting my blog having any issues with web browser compatibility. I use Google Chrome, and haven’t accessed it with any other browsers.