Kitten Foundling

On a Tuesday afternoon, I came home tired and more than a little stressed. It was a bad budget month-my truck was due for licensing, and I’d just learned that I’d forgotten to pay my personal taxes. This economic event was “taxing” my resources well-past the limit.

As I entered the house, three of last-year’s kittens were rowed up outside the closed (closed? That’s unusual!) study door, glaring at me. “Hello,” my room mate called from inside the study.

I opened the door. Curled up in my desk-chair was a small marmalade kitten. “Oh, my!” I said, “Where did the little stranger come from?”

“She was in the back,” said my roomie, “I think she slipped in through the meshes of the kennel.”

I picked up the kitten and sat down in my chair. The little cat mewed, and begin to buzz. As I petted it, I realized that what I had at first taken for an open mouth was actually the skin of the lower jaw, pulled away from the bone and muscle! I gave the kitten a careful once-over, realizing that I was actually holding a little boy kitty (whew!). I relayed that info to my room-mate. “Well, it was hard to tell,” he said, “He was pretty scared, and the first thing I did was give him a bath. He was filthy.”

That explained the clean fur, and a dollar store bag and empty cat food can in the study also explained the healthy bulge in the middle of an otherwise scrawny infant-albeit a very clean one.

My roomie chuckled. “My mom says we should go into business as a foster home for cats.” I sighed. I’ve always been a foster home for cats, dogs, turtles, snakes, lizards, bugs, even the occasional run-away teen-or anything else my children managed to drag home during their growing-up years. (I usually managed to return the humans within 24 hours-even though it sometimes required a little diplomacy.)

The problem with being a foster home for stray critters is that it is pretty much all expense and no income. The other problem is that there is no shortage of homeless infants. Just page over to here , the Humane society’s webpage, and you will find a number of articles on homeless animals. According to Humane Society statistics 3-4 MILLION cats and dogs are euthanized each year. They also estimate that 3-4 million are adopted. That means, folks, that at least 6 million unwanted or lost puppies and kittens make their way to animal shelters each year. Consider that this doesn’t count the lost litters that are dumped on city streets (some little kid would just love to have these!), thrown into rivers, shot, drowned…all as a result of irresponsible pet ownership.

When my children grew up, and I no longer had in-house softies dragging home strays, I made myself the rule that I only took in the ones that landed on my doorstep. You can see from the above statistics that my individual efforts would be a tiny drop of care in a huge desert of neglect. My household is already bulging with two dogs, fifteen cats, and a room-mate who started out as a renter but is currently dog-walker and care-taker due to being between jobs. (Don’t get me wrong-he does a nice job of it, and saves me a lot of steps.)

So here he was-Prince William the Conqueror, making conquests by virtue of a smoochy, oochy attitude and a powerful buzzing purr and an incredibly unsightly wound. Sneaking onto the patio made him very much a doorstep find, so I didn’t feel we could put him back on the street. Besides , at the tender age of about 8 weeks, with a debilitating condition, his survival chances were slim.

I went over the budget. Non-existant? A small check coming in, big check 2 weeks away, creditors already wanting to know where’s the money…thank you, Department of Revenue. Well, that part was paid, anyway.

I tossed and turned in bed…and awoke knowing I could not avoid it. Willie boy was going to get a trip to the vet. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to call up my first-born and ask him to sell himself to the good doctor to pay the bill. Animal lovers, I’ll keep you posted on the outcome-as well as fill you in on the stories of my other foundlings. Right now, it’s time to be out the door-earning the cash to keep my Home for Foundlings open another day or so.

Links to rest of story:

• Foundling Kitten 2
• Foundling Kitten 3