Since we're on the topic of pets this week, I have a story to tell everyone. Just as an advisory warning, this is kind of a sad story. At the commencement of this blog, I made a preliminary list of topics and projects for me to write about. I was extremely excited to talk about Wall-E. Not the cute Pixar robot, but pretty close.
This last spring, we had two pregnant cats: Sushi and her just under a year-old daughter, Peaches. Sushi gave birth to her litter of kittens no problem. Peaches, unfortunately, had complications. She gave birth to her kittens prematurely and right off the bat, three of her seven kittens were dead. The rest were struggling, and Peaches was distraught by giving birth, so much so that I had to show her how to lay on her side for nursing and she didn't clean the kittens properly. Most of them were clean enough to be alright, but one of them, a tiny black kitten, had dried pregnancy goo all over them including over its nose, thus it was struggling to breathe. But for a struggling cat, it sure was lively. Already having had a dog give birth on me once, it was no problem for me to go and clean the little guy up.
About a week after giving birth, I was watching TV with my sister when I heard a crash in the bathroom where Peaches and her remaining four kittens were being kept. I went in thinking that she had maybe knocked over some shampoo bottles, but instead I walked in to find the cat convulsing on the floor of the bathroom, having soiled herself and foaming at the mouth. At first, I was terrified that she had somehow contracted rabies, but after looking up her symptoms, I realized she had been poisoned. She had probably gotten into one of the neighbor's mice poisons somehow. I did everything I could to induce her to throw up whatever she had swallowed and even held her up so she wouldn't choke on her vomit. But at the end of it all, she was too far gone and eventually died in my arms. Needless to say, I was bawling. I take the pain and death of any creature quite seriously.
At first, we weren't certain what to do about her premature kittens. Sushi was nursing her two-week-old kittens, and we were worried that she might reject or even harm these other ones. We decided to risk it though, and we were able to witness this beautiful miracle of life unfold. Sushi took on the nursing of the four kittens and would even arrange her older and bigger kittens around these smaller ones to keep them warm. It was amazing to watch for the next couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, as Sushi's kittens grew older and stronger, Darwin's law took over. While her kittens were normal and growing, these younger ones were the size of newborn kittens at six weeks of age. Sushi suddenly started to refuse to feed or take care of them, at least not nearly as intently. We've theorized that survival of the fittest came into play here. Sushi's kittens, not being much older than the others ones, but correctly developed were given most of her care and attention to ensure their survival. Slowly, two more died. We began to give out the older kittens, hoping that by doing so Sushi would once more take care of the premies. We realized this wasn't working however, when Sushi began to move the two left in places for them to die. One of them way out in no man's land in our greenhouse, and the second, the little black one from before, she actually buried alive.
This black kitten was no quitter though. He dug himself out and managed to make it to our back door. We found him covered in dirt and, realizing what had happened, went searching for its sibling. Like I said, we found it half buried in no man's land barely alive. I took the two in and immediately began to try to nurse them back to health. The one we found just had no will left to live though. Despite my efforts and attention, it shortly died, again in my hands, thereafter, which made me just feel terrible. I could never be a vet because I would just bawl my eyes out all the time.
All that was left was this little black kitten with some spunk and big eyes. Being the last of its family and such a fighter, we called it Wall-E. We removed him from Sushi's care, and I spent the next week as its caretaker. I would use syringes and evaporated milk mixtures to feed him, and he slept in my bed with me. He was really quite adorable as he liked to curl up right by my neck and just became the sweetest kitten. He would come to his name when I called him. We all adored Wall-E. The rest of the kittens were in new homes, and we planned to keep him after putting so much time into him. With all of the kittens gone, Sushi decided she wanted to take care of him again so we would allow her to feed and clean him under our supervision since it was easier for her to do. Between her and us caring for him on a daily basis, he began to grow stronger He did have some health problems as a premature kitten. At ten weeks of age, he could still fit into the palm of a hand. But he was growing and starting to develop normally. It was wonderful to see him grow and to witness this little guy's will to live. More so, I took great joy out of caring for a creature and feeling like I was making it happy. I know it's just a kitten, but really, after putting so much time and effort in, it was something special.
A couple weeks ago, however, Wall-E somehow ended up with Sushi unsupervised and went missing shortly thereafter. I'm quite sad about it because I am quite certain that he did not survive whatever happened. I'm pretty sure Sushi removed him from our property and left him to die somewhere as she did before, seeing as how she's a very jealous cat and my sister did catch her trying to take Wall-E from the yard earlier that week. Needless to say, I'm not quite fond of Sushi. Sushi is also pregnant again thus also probably leading her to remove Wall-E for her new kittens as Wall-E would still have needed some extra care for a few more weeks due to his underdevelopment. Sushi hasn't exactly built up her rapport with me since she's turned into a complete psycho. She's also attacked Cricket several times, and in the process, on two separate occasions, she's mangled my arm and my youngest sister's leg. So basically: she's murdered Wall-E, attacked my dog, attacked me, and attacked my little sister. I've never disliked an animal so much in my life. I know it's probably her crazy prego hormones and her trying to establish her dominance, but needless to say, I'm not quite pleased with the cat.
I'm just hoping Wall-E is in a better place. I know this whole paragraph is going to sound corny, but I truly believe, and I'm sure most pet lovers and owners will agree with me, that there are some animals you will encounter in life where there is something special about them. They are more than just an animal; you truly bond with them and love them and they love you back. Animals also have spirits and souls; their lives are important too and should be respected. I believe that just like friends and family, they will be there waiting for you on the other side and we'll all be reunited after this life. I know I have a few deceased animal friends that I hope to see again and Wall-E is definitely one of them.
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