Friday, November 21, 2008, 21:06
Home Again. . .
As soon as I walked into the vet clinic Thursday morning, I heard them.
"Are those my babies?" I said.
"Yes," said the vet tech. "When I got here first thing this morning, it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. But as soon as they saw me, they started. First one, and then right on down the line. 'Mew, mew, mew.' It was so cute!"
I had taken the five barn kittens, Rosie, Violet, Petunia, Miss Kitty and Sir Thomas, into the vet clinic late Tuesday afternoon. They were scheduled for spay and neuter surgery Wednesday. In the afternoon on Wednesday, the veterinarian called to say they were all doing well and could I come and pick them up at 9 a.m. on Thursday to free up some kennel space for the clinic?
You betcha!
So, when I walked into the clinic Thursday morning, they were all awake and vocal and ready to go home.
When I walked into the back room and talked to them and they saw me -- there was a fresh chorus of meows.
"Okay, let's get you into the kitty carriers," I said.
Randy took my truck to work Tuesday so I would have the bigger truck with the back seat to put the carriers in when I took the kittens to the clinic. Randy took my truck Thursday morning so I would once again have the bigger truck with the back seat to bring them home.
I got them all into the two carriers, three kittens in the bigger carrier and two in the smaller carrier, and then the vet tech helped me carry them out to the truck. It was a very cold day Thursday with a high of 20 degrees and a strong wind out of the north/northwest. I told the kittens they would not want to be outside now anyway.
Before I left home, I had prepared Charlie's kennel for the kitties.
I cried the whole time I was shaking out Charlie's blankets and sweeping the floor in the kennel. Randy got the two big dog cages ready for me Wednesday night, but I figured if the kittens would stay in the kennel, it would work out better because they can move around more, and it would be easier for me to take care of them.
When Charlie was alive, I would periodically shake out his blankets, or put down clean blankets, and sweep the sand up off the floor that he had dragged in on his paws. Charlie would invariably come around to the basement door while I was cleaning out his kennel, and if I left the blankets outside while I swept, he would curl up on them as if to say, "These are mine."
It seemed so strange to me while I was cleaning out the kennel that Charlie is no longer here with us. It has been four months since our Springer died, and the inside/outside kitties in the basement still have not gone into his kennel. They always used to like to curl up with Charlie. Only one of them goes into Charlie's kennel occasionally for a drink of water. I keep the bucket in the kennel filled with fresh water because I know that my black tom, Rocky, sometimes goes in there for a drink.
I don't think Charlie would mind that the kittens are using his kennel until they have recovered enough to go outside. They were out of the nest a while before he died, so he had a chance to see them. He always, every year, had to stick his nose down by little kittens to check them out. And every year, a momma cat would charge in and whack his nose, and he would come out of the barn yelping. He only stuck his nose down by kittens once each year. Then he knew better after that.
The five barn kittens rode home relatively quietly with only a few meows out of them. I carried the kitty carriers into the basement and set them down in the kennel. I closed the kennel door and then opened the carrier doors. The kitties immediately came out to snoop around.
"I'll go get you some food," I said.
Before I left to pick them up, I put some kitten chow in a dish, poured milk over it, put it in the microwave to heat it up and then let it sit to soften up. I mixed some canned kitty food with it and took it downstairs. All five them of immediately came to the food to eat a little. So that was a good thing.
Monday night I started the kittens on Clindamyacin to try to avert the pneumonia that many of my cats have developed after spay/neuter surgery. The clinic technicians gave them Clindamyacin while they were there. I started in again with giving them Clindamyacin Thursday night. The vets tell me that the female kittens tend to develop pneumonia more often because they are under anesthesia longer.
As of Friday morning, a couple of the kittens sounded a little rattly in their chests. But Petunia was the worst. She was actually coughing and hacking, although not as bad as Sophie or Katerina or Dora when they came home from their spay surgeries.
All in all, the kittens seem fairly content in Charlie's kennel. They curl up on the blankets for a nap or they go into the kitty carriers to curl up. Even little Miss Kitty, who is very shy -- I suppose because she can't see much out of her bad eye -- seems content. The kitties really ate quite a lot of food all together on Thursday. A good appetite after surgery is a good sign they are doing well.
When I go down to the basement to see how they are doing, they stand up and stretch and yawn and come over to see me. When I go inside the kennel with them, they come for pets and to see what new tasty treat I have brought for them. They don't necessarily think the Clindamyacin is so tasty, but they are willing to take it if I insist.
I know the kitties are going to get more and restless as the days go by, but that will be all right because it means they are feeling better. I do not want to turn them outside until I know the respiratory problems are cleared up and that their sutures are well on the way to healing. The vet clinic always tells me to keep cats inside for five days after they have been under anesthesia. It's so cold out now that I am glad I have a place to keep them inside for a while.
So far, so good!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 20:00
Single Digits
The temperature first thing Tuesday morning was 8 degrees Fahrenheit. I checked back in my weather records book, and the last time the temperature was in the single digits was last winter on March 10, 2008, when it was 0 degrees. That was eight months ago. After the last low temperature of 0 on March 10, it warmed up a little bit and the low temperature did not drop below 10 degrees from there on out.
The first time the temperature got down into the single digits last year in 2007 was November 27 when it also dropped to eight degrees -- nine days later than this year.
The average daily temperature for last week was 30.36 degrees Fahrenheit. When I checked the weather book to find out when the last time that the average daily temperature was below freezing, I discovered that we had not an average daily temperature that low since the first week in April of 2008 -- more than seven months ago.
Although the sun was shining on Tuesday and the high in the afternoon was about 30 degrees, the air had a cold, piercing quality that makes you think maybe you should have put on another layer of clothing before you left the house. I was surprised to see that the wind was out of the south when I was picking up horse manure around the pastures. Of course, there is nothing colder than a south wind in the winter. Seems kind of strange, but I think it's because a south wind is usually a damp wind, so that makes it feel colder.
I spent an hour Tuesday morning hauling manure with the wheelbarrow from Isabelle's pile to the tomato bed. The septic tank is under the tomato bed, and I don't want the outlet pipe to freeze. That happened the first winter we were here, and I would rather it didn't happen again. We've got straw in the barn that I *could* use to cover the tomato bed, but I don't want to use it. Isabelle will need that in her shelter to make a place where she can lie down when there's snow on the ground.
I also do not want to use any of the hay to cover the tomato bed. We had to buy hay at $2.50 a bale this year, and I don't feel like using the hay to put on the ground. When we have our own hay from our own hayfield, then it's not so bad. But I have a feeling we are going to need all of the hay we've got, especially if it's going to be as cold a winter this year as it was last year. And if the temperature first thing Tuesday morning is any indication, I think maybe we're in for another cold winter . . .
LeAnn R. Ralph