Conference misery::feline

    Hi Holly,
    
    Gee - that's terrible - the poor little babies!
    
    I'm sure in the past, the PBS shelter would be more than happy
    to help.  But as you've seen in the past notes, our vet bill
    is WAY more than it's ever been, and there's no way we can take
    in any more kitties, even for a short period of time.  It's a
    real shame, but we do need to take care of the cats we already have.
    And it's very difficult for us to find volunteers to take in
    bottle-fed kittens - they need to be fed every 3 hours around the
    clock - and most of our volunteers work full-time jobs.
    
    Idea - didn't one of your females just give birth to one kitten?
    Is she still nursing?  Could she be a surrogate for a little while,
    just to get them over the "hump"?  
    
    Let us know what's happening to these poor babies.
    
    Pam

    Pam,
    
    I'd be willing to pay all vet bills for these babies.  All I need is a
    mother to nurse them to get them over this "hump".
    
    Kyra and Pima are not nursing anymore, and their nipples have dried up. 
    The kittens are 7 weeks old now and completely on canned/dry food.  
    
    Right now, Heidi's mother is feeding them every 3 hours.  However,
    she goes back to work next week (she's a school teacher).  And there'll
    be nobody to feed them.
    
    Like I said, I'll take care of any vet bills.  I just want to find a
    mom for these poor babies!
    
    Holly
    

    Sorry to say, it's not just a matter of vet bills.  Right now,
    we have about 80 adults and almost 50 kittens, and it's also
    a crowding problem.  When there are too many cats at the shelter,
    stress builds up and the cats get sick.  And with sickness comes more
    vet bills.  And with kitten season, we deal with about 10-15 calls
    a day with people asking for help.  It kills us to have to say no,
    and that's the worse part of the job.
    
    I don't have the final say on who gets taken in, but all the 
    volunteers have been told that we definitely have to say no for
    a while until our numbers go down and the bill is more manageable.
    
    It's an awful thing to have to do, but unfortunately a necessary
    one.  Hope you find a momcat soon - or someone who can spend the
    time to feed them.  It's not a small job, especially with four
    hungry mouths!
    
    good luck and let us know how you make out,
    Pam

    try contacting other local shelters and vets.  They may have or know of
    someone who has a nursing mother.  
    
    Good luck!  It sure is a heartbreaker.
    
    MaryAnne

    Well, this story has just taken a twist.  My friend's father was up in
    their hay loft this morning moving the hay and he found two more kittens! 
    How they've survived for the last two days is amazing and a miracle
    within itself.  
    
    But, the FELINE people have come to the rescue again!  I have been
    exchanging mail with a FELINE person who has said that she will take
    the four kittens and feed them with a bottle/syringe until they are 
    weaned.  As soon as they are weaned, I'll take them back and we will 
    find homes for them.
    
    I had called my friend while I was sending a mail message back to her,
    and she told me about the other two kittens.  Shortly after, I got
    ANOTHER phone call from a woman who said that she would take two of the
    kittens to wean them.  When I told her what had happened and that I
    had found someone to take the four of them, but they found two more
    kittens, she said that she would take the other two and wean them for
    us!
    
    So, this story isn't over yet.  We still need to find homes for these
    lucky little babies after they are weaned.  
    
    FELINE people are absolutely amazing!!  God bless you all!!
    
    Holly

    Really glad to hear there is good news for these little tykes.  Please
    keep us posted and god bless whoever has offered to foster these babies
    for awhile!!!
    
    Sandy

    
    You people all amaze me.  You're all going to go to cat heaven someday
    and be saints.  Much as I love cats, I keep telling myself, "you can't
    save them all".  But you go ahead and do it anyway.
    
    I'm honored to know you, even if only over a wire.
    
    len.
    

    Wow - that's terrific news!!  Glad it all worked out.  Hope they
    find good homes soon.
    
    Pam

    FYI, I've keyworded this note SURROGATE_MOM for future reference.
    
    Jan

    
    
    	Yay!!!  clap, clap, clap, clap!!
    

    Holly, if the surrogate moms need any financial aid in the KMR
    department, please extend to them my offer to help them out if needed?
    Thanks!
    
    I love it when a plan comes together! Thanks Holly for your help in
    getting these little guys the help they needed, and bless the two
    people who are taking them!
    
    Lens right! There's loads of people that will be going to Kitty Heaven
    from this file!
    
    Love,
    
    Yonee
                                   

    Well, I'm planning on giving the people who are weaning the kittens all
    of the KMR they need.  I'll hit the pet store tomorrow night and buy a
    few cans.  Enough to get to Labor day until I can get them at a more
    discounted price at the cat show in Fitchburg Labor Day weekend. 
    Well Yonne, I was planning on supplying them with KMR.  But if anyone
    wants to help with the cost of it, I'll take it!  That would be great!!
    The way I figured it, these people are generous enough to even take
    these babies and feed them, they shouldn't have to be burdened with the
    cost of the formula as well.  
    
    I'm planning on going tomorrow night to buy enough KMR to last until
    Labor day.  By then they'll be about 4 weeks old.  They'll still need
    some KMR, but I'll buy it at the cat show in Fitchburg at a cheaper
    price from Martha.
    
    Heidi and I will take the kittens as soon as they are weaned and keep
    them in her Tack room in her barn until we find homes for all of them. 
    They'll be given their first shots at least.  If anything, I'll bring
    them to the Framingham show at the end of the month and see if I can
    find homes for them there.  
    
    I haven't seen the two new kittens, but the first four are absolutely
    adorable.  There's a cream, a brown tabby, a calico, and this CUTE
    little gray one with for white feet.  He's stolen my heart because when
    you look at him, he looks like a baby mole!!  He's SO cute!!
    
    Thanks everyone for your help!  And a special thanks to the two people
    who are taking these babies!!  You truely are special!!
    
    Holly
    

    Please excuse the contents of that last reply!!  I tried to edit it
    after I had entered it (deleted, then did reply/last).  I got a bit
    confused and was in a hurry.  Didn't mean to repeat myself so much!
    
    Holly
    

    Holly!
    
    from our house to your heart...
    
    			B I G  S M I L E !!!
    
    		....and warm purrrs!!
    
    
    Lyn,
    Holly (AKA Big Kitty from note 569 fame, Bandit and newly adopted
    Barney! from 31.214ish)
    

    Holly,
    
     I understand you repeating yourself. Your getting married soon, and
    you've been spending MUCH too much time in my head lately! That wuold
    cause ANYONE to stutter/repeat themselves! ;-)
    
     Please keep us updated on the babies!
    
    
     HUGS!
    
    Yonee

    Holly
    
    Great Job!! Thanks for hanging in there. I heard the worse story I
    could have ever heard. Almost the same scenario. A man I used to work
    with here, retired from DEC this past March. I happened to go to his
    house recently telling him about a cat I was desperately trying to
    find a home for (106.25) and he mentioned how his daughter has a farm
    and how people dump them off there all the time. He said he took all
    (about 20-25) of the cats/kittens to the vets to have them euthanized (sp?)
    I could not believe it. I was so shocked and I asked why he had not tried
    shelters or gradually try to find them homes, or something, but he said
    he found it more simple to just bring them down. And then he was
    complaining about the cost of the shot to end their lives. I just was
    heartbroken. I know that on one hand it was a humane way to die, rather
    than other sadistic measures, but I just felt totally destroyed inside.
    I am not particularly a cat lover, (dogs - yes!) but I can't see any
    animal be hurt, abused, un-loved, etc.  It is so good to hear about
    this wonderful story and ending. 
    
    Let us know how you make out.
    
    Karen 

    I don't know Karen...I think your slowly turning into a cat lover
    too!!!  Anyone who goes out of there way like you did to find the
    DEC kitty a home.....is a true animal lover at heart!!!!
    
    That story is so sad...and just to think if that person could have
    neutered/spayed the pet...he wouldn't have had to deal with the sad
    ending.  It probably cost him JUST as much to have the cat euthanized
    as it would have had the original one to spayed/neutered.  I just don't 
    understand some people...but I pray he never gets another animal in
    his lifetime!!!!
    
    Sandy 

    If you have never been in a situation where you have had to find a
    homeless animal a home, you couldn't begin to know how difficult it can
    be.  Karen, I followed your story in Canine and commend you on the
    efforts you put forth to match the DEC kitty up with a home, but it was
    difficult, was it not?  Multiply that by 25 cats and I can certainly
    understand why someone would opt to euthanize.  It is unfortunate that
    the kind, caring and compassionate people like us are stuck cleaning up
    ignorant people's messes.
    
    I couldn't agree more with Sandy.  If every person would spend the
    one-time fee to spay or neuter their pet, no one would be dumping off
    cats and kittens at barns or expecting the already overcrowded shelters
    to take them in... and becoming indignant when the shelter volunteers
    must turn them down.
    
    I once had to euthanize a mother cat and her four kittens, after
    befriending the mom who lived in my back woods.  It took an entire
    summer to get her to trust me.  When I finally got her to the vet she
    tested positive for felv, and her kittens, who had to be humanely
    trapped and were extremely feral, would have been tremendously
    difficult to place into homes.  No no-kill shelters would help me,
    understandably so, since they were already full.  I didn't want to
    leave them at a kill shelter, because I felt if they had to be put down
    I wanted to choose the place and the veterinarian to do it.  It wasn't
    easy, and I had difficult sleeping sometimes for months afterwards. 
    But I couldn't afford to devote the much needed time, effort, and
    expense to tame them all and adopt them out.
    
    There are always going to be more homeless cats than there are homes,
    and the decision one must make when faced with the problem in their
    own backyard will always vary depending on the resources we have to
    remedy the problem.
    
    -Roberta
    

    I'm afraid I've got some bad news.  I just talked to Heidi.  She came
    home last night and was told that one of the kittens that they later
    found has died.  She had expected that it might happen because he was
    so far gone.  He had been starving for two days up in that hay loft and
    just wouldn't eat afterward.  He died some time during the day
    yesterday.
    
    Holly
    

    Whoops!  I was wrong.  It turns out that it WASN'T one of the ones that
    they found later on that died.  The little calico died.  She was so
    pretty, too.  She just wouldn't eat like the rest of them did.  Poor
    thing!
    
    Holly
    

    
    I hope this story has a mostly happy ending.  I don't know if I can
    work my own trio any harder to keep coming up with amusing stories to
    offset these sad tales of our less fortunate foundlings.
    
    len.
    

    (585.17)  Sandy,   Shhhhhhhhhhh..............
    
    I think I am too.... and you know why?  I think it is because of the
    "FELINE MEMBERS" in this notesfile. I also check into the Canine notes.
    And of course we all have wonderful stories to tell there too, but
    especially when I noticed the "Silver Lining Memorial" note 20. I
    realized how humane, caring, and an almost guardian-angel like spirit
    everyone in this file has for the animals.  I think it is great. From
    reading the stories I read, I can't help but find cats a pretty comical
    fun-loving pet as well as the canine...Wait! did I say that?! Only
    kidding, I have begun to open up to them.

    Well, it seems as if this story has taken a turn again.  A kind of
    bitter-sweet turn.
    
    My friend called me this morning to tell me not to come pick up the
    kittens tonight to bring them to the people who are going to foster
    them.  It seems as if they had another female that was dropped of a
    while ago that was pregnant.  They didn't expect her to deliver for a
    few weeks since she was so small.  Well, she delivered two kittens
    yesterday.  One of them didn't make it. )-:
    
    They figured they'd try and see if this mother would take these older
    kittens and nurse them.  She took to them unbelievably!  She is now
    taking care of all SIX kittens.  The five older ones and her newborn. 
    (don't worry, they're making sure that the littlest one gets enough to
    eat).  
    
    This is truely amazing!
    
    Holly
    

    What a story!  I'm so happy that the kittens will have a "real" mother
    now, who will be able to teach them all the things kittens need to
    know. ;)  I bet those foster moms will be disappointed though.
    
    Holly, please keep us updated on the kittens for at least 9 days
    anyway. ;))) 
    
    Steffi

   Anyone know how the kitties are doing ???  I'm assuming Holly's away
   now, doing who_knows_what_people_do_on_a_honeymoon !!!!!!!!!!!!  Did
   anyone hear anything before she left ????????????

   Debbi

    Update on these babies.
    
    All of the kittens that are left seem to be doing well.  I saw three of
    them running around the barn last night.  One gray with white markings,
    one cream and one torbie/white (a calico with tabby markings).  I have
    all seemed to be doing QUITE well.  I've fallen in love with the little
    gray and white baby.  He is SO cute!!  They have the kittens running
    around the tack room.  I walked in there and there was the little gray
    and white kitten just sitting in the middle of the floor.  I picked him
    up and he just looked at me .. he is SO sweet!!  
    
    There are a total of 5 kittens.  two have already been spoken for. 
    They'll be picked up next week.  Three are still available.  This
    gray/white one, the torbie, and the female cream (I didn't see her last
    night.  I saw her brother).
    
    Holly
     

    Well, it looks like these babies are ready to go to homes.  Two of them
    have already gone.  They're VERY tiny, but are 8 weeks old now and
    eating solid foods.  We believe that the reason that they are so tiny
    is because of the fact that they went for so long without food.  
    Please note:  These kittens are unbelievably friendly.  They were hand
    raised and really LOVE people!
    
    Here is what is left:
    
    1 gray/white boy.  He's absolutely adorable and my favorite.  He's
    mainly gray, but has four white feet.   
    
    1 cream male.  He's got a really cute face .. a bit of white on his
    muzzle only.
    
    1 torbie/white female.  Torbie is a calico with tabby markings.  She's
    a bit bigger than her brothers, but is still quite small for her age. 
    She's a little h*llion, though!
    
    All of these kittens are located in Lancaster, MA.  They haven't had
    their shots yet (Sorry, finances won't allow it right now).  
    
    Please contact me if you or someone you know can give one of these
    adorable babies a good home.  They really deserve it after what they've
    been through.
    
    Holly
    

    Holly,
    
    I can't believe you're not going to take that adorable gray and white
    one that you have fallen in love with.  Isn't there room for one more
    little cat? ;)
    
    Steffi

    Steffi ... the inn is FULL!!  I've got a husband to deal with now and
    he says the same thing ... the inn is FULL!! (-:
    
    One thing I forgot to mention about these babies.  They are long
    haired.
    
    Holly
    

    In my daily visit with Abigail, Linda asked me if I would post 
    this note for her.
    
    Someone found 2 kittens (one male and one female) who are 24
    hours old (in a dumpster) with the umbilical cords still attached.
    She is wondering if some kind hearted soul had a nursing "mom"
    cat at home who would take the kittens to feed.
    
    They can be hand fed but they really need the nourishment of 
    mothers milk.
    
    Please call the CENTRAL ANIMAL HOSPITAL - in Leominster, MA at
    (508) 537-0239.  They will take the cats back when they are
    weaned.
    
    Thanks - and here's praying someone can help to save these babies
    lives.
    
    Marilyn