In Over My Head

At least, that's how I'm feeling right now. I'm also feeling like that saying "no good deed goes unpunished" is true. Not that the end result is a punishment. This was just one of those times when I tried to do the right thing and ended up creating more mess than anything else. I'll start at the beginning.

The dogs were at my parents' house for a week so that our fence could finally be repaired. I will admit that it is SO nice not to have to chain them up. Anyway, yesterday morning they were still on the chain because the gates were not yet installed. But Josh noticed some strange behavior from them. They were pack hunting, and they were trying their hardest to get behind the shed. This is somewhere they regularly go, but the chains were holding them back. I went out to see what was the matter after Toby suddenly crouched and bristled. Hearing the growling coming from underneath an old piece of fence, I determined that they had cornered a cat. And then I heard the mewling. Oh no. Not a cat. A mommy cat...and kittens. It seems that at some point in the past few days (as in the day before yesterday), this cat decided that our yard would be an ideal location to have her kittens. And they were so very, very small.

I had a dilemma. You see, I hate animal control, but none of the no-kill shelters are really equipped to catch animals like this, and I could not leave them in my yard because of the dogs. So call animal control I did. I made them promise me that the kittens, at least, would be put up for adoption when they were old enough. Well, the officer failed to catch the mom, and the shelter said that the kittens would have to be put down because they aren't old enough to eat dry food. Umm...no...thanks. He decides to put the kittens in the back of a live trap with some cat food, to try and lure the mom back. We were supposed to check the trap once an hour. Well, I left them in there all day, poor things, and there was no sign of the mom. I called our vet to see what could be done, and was told that the kittens wouldn't survive a cold night without their mother, and that they sell cat formula and bottles. So just before the vet was to close, I took the kittens out of the trap. This was about a minute before animal control showed back up. He wasn't too happy with me, but I'm still not sure if he was just checking the trap or if he intended to take it and the kittens then.

Later that evening, we caught another glimpse of the mommy cat - darn her hide for taking so long - so, realizing that the best chance these kittens had was with their mother, I decided to put them back out there for her, though she is probably feral, so in reality I most likely just condemned them to life on their own. She found them, and began moving them one by one to a new place. This was taking a very long time, and it was late, and cold. By 1 am, there were still two kittens left, and I was afraid for the last one that would be left so long on its own. So I had Josh put a heat pack in the bottom of the box. I am so glad I did.

I woke up this morning and rushed out to the box to make sure all of the kittens had been safely taken. At first I didn't see anything, but I was a little nervous when I noticed that the towel had been bunched up - presumably by mommy cat. I moved it aside, and sure enough, there was one lone kitty laying there, abandoned. It was heartbreaking! I picked him up, sure that he was dead. He was so cold and stiff. But I was so happy when he made just the slightest movement! 101 Dalmations flashed into my mind, and I started rubbing him to warm him up. He started moving more and more, and even started making some noise. As soon as I thought he could I tried to feed him, and thankfully was able to get him to eat. Well, he's so young that he has to stay at a foster house...and so...

Meet Lucky:

I named him that because he is lucky to be alive, and because I was thinking of Lucky on 101 Dalmations. He is my charge for the next few weeks. It is definitely a challenge, since I have to feed him formula from a syringe. So far the feeding is going well, and I think that he is going to make it. I still feel bad about the other kittens though. Will they be feral? Did they survive? I don't know. Next time maybe I'll just leave well enough alone, since I still feel like I just created more problems than I solved. At least this little kitty has a chance at a good life though...maybe that will make up for some of the mess I caused.