Saturday, November 04, 2006, 05:04
A Milestone and the Screaming Meemies
How can it be Friday already? Suffice it to say this is not the kind of week that I want to repeat at any time soon -- or ever. A couple of nights with only three hours of sleep and nine newspaper stories later, and I'm pretty much done for and out of it. . .
But even though I'm so tired I can hardly put one foot in front of the other, I'm happy to report that the Itty Bitty Kitty passed a milestone Thursday morning.
For the past couple of feedings, kitten had been getting herself into a screaming fit because she couldn't get the formula down her throat fast enough. I'd put the tip of the syringe in her mouth, and she would be frantic and screaming and wouldn't take the formula.
Thursday morning, fortunately for both of us, Randy goes into work later (on Tuesdays, too).
"Do you think the kitten needs a bigger syringe to suck from?" Randy asked.
I looked at my husband. Looked at the scrap of black fur in my lap.
"Oh, no," I said, "kitten is way too small for a 12 cc syringe."
Up to this point, I had been using a 3 cc syringe and we'd been getting along fine.
After a couple of more attempts and a couple of more screaming temper tantrums from the kitten, I put her down in the plastic "baby sitter" pail I've got rigged up (a bucket with towels in the bottom so she won't wander off), and went about looking for a 12 cc syringe. I found one. The plunger was kind of stiff, but I figured it was worth a try.
I pulled some milk up in the syringe, offered it to the kitten. And that was it. Success! Itty Bitty Kitty went to town nursing.
"What in the world?" I said.
I looked at Randy and he looked at me. And we both arrived at the same conclusion at the same time.
The kitten, it would seem, had grown big enough that when she sucked on the 3cc syringe tip, she couldn't feel the base of the syringe around her mouth anymore. And she wanted to be able to put her mouth up against something bigger than her mouth.
What a milestone. The kitten has graduated to a 12 cc syringe!
Actually, I am finding now that she likes to start out with the 12 cc syringe, but when she gets through about half of her 10 or 12 or 13 cc of formula, she wants to go back to the 3cc syringe because it's easier for her to suck the plunger down by herself.
Friday afternoon when I came home, after my several nights with only a couple of hours of sleep, I figured maybe I could lie down for a little while before feeding the kitten at 4 p.m.
Right.
I had no more than formulated that thought when the kitten started yelling in her box.
I waited for a little while to see if she would settle down again. Sometimes she gets turned over on her back and then yells until she gets herself upright again.
This time she didn't settle down.
So, I got her formula ready and my bucket of warm water and washcloths (to help her with bladder and bowels). Then I went to get the youngster, who was still raising a ruckus and carrying on something fierce.
As soon as I turned the towel back off the top of the box, I could see what was wrong.
Yesterday, thinking the kitten might like to snuggle with something, I put blue, stuffed Mr. Effalent in the box. Mr. Effalent was Pixie's friend when she was a tiny puppy. And he was Sophie's friend last year.
Mr. Effalent, unfortunately, had rolled into the kitten's cubbyhole in the corner by the radio speaker.
With Mr. Effalent in the cubbyhole, baby could not get into the cubbyhole.
And that would never do.
I pulled Mr. Effalent out of the box, and then I fed the kitten. Even though it was an hour early, she still ate around 13cc of formula.
13 cc of formula. That's quite a change from the 3 cc she took at a feeding last weekend.
Baby is growing!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Tuesday, October 31, 2006, 18:44
What Happened?
Okay. So what happened to Indian Summer?
Monday it was warm and sunny with a light wind and a temperature in the mid-60s.
This morning it was cloudy and windy -- wind of 30 mph out of the west, temperature of 22 degrees.
At a little after noon, the sun has come out but there is still a frigid 30 mph wind out of the west. The wind feels icy. And the temperature is only in the 30s.
All of those little trick-or-treaters today are going to get downright cold. If they don't blow away first. Of course, many municipalities held their "official" trick-or-treat hours on Sunday. So maybe there won't be too many kids out this afternoon or early this evening.
Actually, we won't know how many kids are out for trick-or-treating because we never get any trick-or-treaters. We did once, I guess, about 10 years ago when the two neighbor kids came over. They moved away not long after that. Since then, we haven't had any.
Itty Bitty Kitty I'm happy to say that the rug rat -- errr -- kitten -- seems to be doing fine. She's eating between 7 and 8 cc per feeding. And she purrs practically from the time I take her out of her little nest until I put her back in her little nest. It sounds so funny -- tiny sputters coming from a tiny scrap of black fur. She is much happier now that she has the radio for company. If I lift the towel and peek in there, she is most often sleeping with her head by the speaker.
When I take her out, she murmurs and meows, but she generally doesn't have screaming fits. That's one thing I've noticed about kittens in the nest in the barn. I might hear a few meows out of them when they are first born and for the first few days when the mother leaves the nest or comes back. Other than that, I never hear a peep out of them.
The only time the little one gets agitated is when I put her back in the nest and she hasn't yet made herself comfortable in her little cubbyhole by the radio speaker.
Whenever I go someplace in my truck, I listen to public radio. And now when I listen to public radio, I think, "Oh, this is what baby is listening to right now." (Yeesh.)
Also -- itty bitty kitty is 7 days old today! I sang Happy Birthday to her this morning. Yes, I know. I'm nuttier than a fruitcake. But that's the thing about writers. We get to be eccentric if we want to.
LeAnn R. Ralph