Ex Patria

A little flower

She hung in there.  She suffered and she refused food and she lost weight every day.  But she fought valiantly and just didn't give up.

In the end, we had to make the decision for her.  The wound seemed to be closing, only to reveal on closer inspection that fly grubs had started invading.  I tried to get them out with tweezers (I know, that's disgusting) but they wiggled away deeper into her body.  This is going to haunt my dreams for a long time.  There was no way she would survive this, only maybe another day, or two, and there would be much pain.  We didn't think she deserved that.

I named her Sakura, Cherry Blossom.  We will bury her next to her brother.

We really tried.

[LATER]

We buried her, together with the kids.  Alan was inconsolable and convinced he could wish the kitten back to life.  David asked many "why" questions.  I didn't have any good answers to any of them.  We said a little verse, and I am going to plant some flowers on the two little graves when we come back.  That's the way of life, no?  It doesn't make it easier to understand for little boys.

A little hole, a little pat,
A little wish, and that was that.
A little sun, a little shower,
A little while, and then - a flower.

Kitten, singular

The second kitten died yesterday.  When we woke up, he was already dead.  Doug and I buried him in a corner of the garden, and the kids don't understand it.  Alan in particular was sad and cried and then wanted to see the grave and still didn't understand.  How do you explain death to a child?

The first kitten (still not named as Doug feels it's much harder to have a cat die on you when he has a name) is hanging in there.  Still not eating much but purring whenever you stroke her.  The abscess has developed into that huge open wound which we try to keep clean.  This involves much killing of ants, the beasts from hell.  Antibiotics, kitten glop, pedialyte.  We're doing our best.

Kitten update

The kittens seem to be doing well - or not.  We're actually not so sure.  They are still alive which is a point in our favor.  They are also lively and will climb out of the basket whenever they can. They are not taking in as much food as we would like them to but they do pee and poop, so that's good.

The first kitten (yet to be named) developed an abscess at the puncture wound I mentioned.  I guess we should not have been surprised by that.  I bathed the kitten in warm water and the abscess opened and it was plain yucky.  I mean yucky.  Considering that I'm not a cat person at all I am going to great lengths to keep these things alive. There must be some good karma in store for me now!

I've been draining the abscess regularly for the last day and have put some Neosporin on.  I hope this will help although I noticed a second opening which I'm not sure was there before the abscess.  We are trying yet again to get a vet come and see the kitten.  I'm quite grossed out by the whole puss and poop thing.  I am constantly washing my hands to keep bacteria contained and not spread any to the kids.  (Jacob was hospitalized for three weeks after his birth for a bacterial infection - ever since I'm left with a deep distaste of bacterial infections and him under the same roof.  It may be unreasonable but there it is.)  I am washing the cats' rags separately from our own laundry although that means washing a very small load by itself which I usually would never do because it's a waste of water.  Oh, I'm not squeamish, I think.  But additional to my own kids' digestive tracts I now have to deal with the cats' and with re-filling yucky abscesses and...  yuck.  Just yuck.

But they live.  I'll be darned if they won't live.