Monthly update

Sunday I thought perhaps there was a flea on me. Oh god, do I hate fleas. So yesterday I gave Cersei her heartguard, plus flea treatment. (The kind in the tube that goes between her shoulder blades; I forget the brand.) And I gave Curtis the last tube of cat flea treatment - apparently I only had one left! But hopefully any fleas on Jerome will go exploring to Curtis or Cersei and die a horrible death.

Also I'm a sucker and I had to rescue two kittens. One of the young black cats at the barn had three kittens last month - a grey, a grey-and-white, and a black. They were hanging in there pretty well - small, with raging URIs, but stubbornly alive. All the women at the barn took turns taking them into the roundhouse, cleaning them up, feeding them a little wet food, and taking them back out to momma. But yesterday the grey died. I think he succumbed to the URI - he was just dead in the hall, no obvious trauma. So I took the two survivors home. They're just fighting so hard to stay alive, and I can't just watch them die. Momma is very very thin and I don't think she's got any milk left for them, and they're too small to scrap for cheap dry food with the rest of the big ones.

They are possibly FeLV+ so they're in quarantine. In a dog crate, actually - it's usually Cersei's toy box. Every day I go pick up all the toys and chewies and throw them in the crate, then vacuum, and Cersei goes in and picks out which toys she wants to play with. Well, I evicted the toys, laid down a towel, a sweatshirt for snuggling in, a piepan of litter, and a little dish of dry food soaked in water. I've got some antibiotics left from when Curtis was sick so I'm dosing each kitten with 1/4 of a Curtis-sized dose.

Nobody has the money to take them to the vet. Nobody actually even wants them, but... they're fighters. They want to live. I'm just trying to give them a shot. If they make it - and I'm more hopeful today than I was last night - I'll see if the AC lady will speuter them and take them to my uncle's barn in Como. They'll catch some of his mice and he'll feed them, and it's not a great life but it's better than what they've got now.

I don't know how old they are. Their eyes opened about 7-10 days ago. They've got canines and their incisors are trying to come through. But they're TINY - I can hold both in one hand. They've figured out how to eat, and they're figuring out how to use the bathroom.

Last night they ate a bit then squalled til I took them out of the crate and stuck them on my lap under a blanket, then they slept under that blanket all night. I wasn't sure if they'd make it overnight, but this morning they seemed perkier. They were eating when I left.

Curtis and Jerome are reacting pretty well. Curtis is kinda "what the fuck" and Jerome is just fascinated. Neither is poofy-tail howling, so that's good.

After I handle the kittens, I wash my hands. And empty dishes that come out of their crate
go straight into the dishwasher. C & J have had all their shots, including the FeLV vaccine, so I think the risk to my cats is low. The vaccine's not 100% but if I keep up the precautions I'm taking right now, it should work out.

Also my laptop is in the shop :( My Macbook Pro had a fan start to die so I took it in to the Mac Store. The extended warranty just paid for itself - it's major surgery to replace the fan. But they're getting me a new keyboard too - I'll have a left arrow key again, YAY! 48-72 hours before I get my laptop back :(