Joy and sadness

So first, take a look at the video below (if you've got broadband).



Meet Happy and Kevin, littermates from a feral cat that lives near the Del Rey Yacht Club. The caretaker traps young kittens each year and turns them in to the animal shelter in Avalon. He gave us two on Mother's Day. We took them home and gave them baths because they didn't smell so good and were filthy. Then the Things started terrorizing them.

Kevin had a gooey eye, which the next day turned into two gooey eyes and a runny nose, which the next day turned into a wheezy breathing, with eyes that didn't really open. We were really worried about this, and so tried to get a vet appointment for Wednesday. Now there is a vet in Avalon, but it just so happened that he was out of town because of a death in the family, and wouldn't be back until Saturday, which we feared would be too late. So Wednesday morning the kittens we popped into a carrier, and I drove across the island to catch a ferry for a mainland emergency run. This may seem like an awful amount of effort for an easily replaceable kitten, but Thing 1 had grown attached to Kevin (this was 'his' cat), so parental love overrules logic. The vet looks at Kevin, prescribes 3 antibiotics (one for eyes, one for nose and one oral) and back we go to the ferry terminal for the return trip. That night Kevin seemed a little better.

But the next day, Kevin stopped eating and slept all day, sounding no better and maybe worse. We talked to Thing 1 about there being no guarantee that Kevin would get better despite our best efforts, and his response was suitably sorrowful. We went to bed that night with the awful feeling that little Kevin would no be with us the next morning.

But when we awoke, Kevin was still wheezing away. He seemed no worse than the day before, which was hopeful. Still not eating though, so I retrieved a dropper from work and we force fed him some milk. I managed to arrange for a visit to the local vet Saturday afternoon.

Now some of you may be asking why all this fell on my shoulders, why Sweetie didn't take Kevin to the vet. Well, she has just left to teach a three week course on tropical marine ecology at her former place of empolyment. She has been going crazy the last few weeks trying to get lectures prepared, gear assembled and packed, and make sure there's food and clean clothes for us for at least the first week she's gone. We had planned to all go over to the mainland with her on Friday and spend a night and a day playing before she had to leave, but Kevin's condition forced us to cancel that. (How's that old joke go? We'd call up the cat-sitter and she'd say "Uh, your cat climbed up on the roof...")

So yesterday we had a send-off picnic for Sweetie (down at the rope swings) and put her on the 2pm ferry, and then the Things and I jumped in the car to head to Avalon. This was an interesting trip. It started with me removing the muffler, which had broken loose from the catalytic converter, and throwing it in the back. Then I realized we had forgotten some paperwork, so we had to turn around. And then the truck started making a funny buzzing noise under the hood, which I initially thought was related to removing the muffler. When I stopped and raised the hood, I saw that the bracket that holds the stick that holds the hood up (STHTHU) (is there a technical term for that?) had broken, and the STHTHU had jostled down onto the radiator fan. One piece of rope later, we were back on the road. It was one of those days, too, when all the bison seem to want to stand in the middle of the road.

So we finally get to Avalon and manage to find the vet's office (not too difficult, but also not obvious). Dr Denney takes a look, gets that concerned look on his face, and makes the bad 'hmmm' sound. To him it looks like a calicivirus or maybe a herpesvirus (which would be why the antibiotics weren't helping), and a very bad infection, but one he thought Kevin would survive (although there may be damage to his eyes). So he's keeping Kevin for the week so he can give him intravenous fluids and some antivirals. I'm sure this will end up being more expensive than the ~$200 I spent on Wednesday taking the silly cats to the mainland vet, but again, love > logic.

So we got ice cream and came home.

Happy seems like she may have a much less severe case of the same thing (a barely runny eye, and a sniffle). We'll keep and eye on her.

So the boys have learned quite a bit this week about the joy and sadness associated with having pets. Okay, Thing 1 has. Thing 2 is still a little too young to really get it and not say things like "Kevin's going to die, but Happy is okay" at the dinner table.