I know, I know….I used to roll my eyes when I heard people
say “I didn’t rescue my animals; they rescued me.” I didn’t understand it. Then I started rescuing animals and suddenly
it all became clear. 2011 and the first
part of 2012 were very frustrating for me.
I was no longer working on campus and had to get a “real job” in
Waco. Unfortunately, finding a job for a
PhD who is a short-timer to boot is not an easy task. I was relegated to temp jobs with lousy pay
that were not at all what I saw myself doing.
To make matters worse, in April of 2011, I had to put my beloved friend,
Sassy, to sleep after her kidneys finally wore out. Then kitten season happened.
Kitten season happens in the spring when rescues, humane
societies, and animal shelters are positively inundated with little balls of
fluff born to stray cats or cats whose owners couldn’t be bothered with spaying
their pets. Dozens, even hundreds, of
kittens that are highly susceptible to all manner of illness and intestinal
parasites are euthanized because they cannot stay healthy in a shelter
environment or, if they are too young, are still reliant on bottle feeding and
require more work that most shelters can provide. It is usually around this time that shelters
and rescues take to Facebook, practically begging anyone who might be
interested to become a foster parent so that some of these kittens might have a
fighting chance at life.
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| Laila (top), Trek (middle), and Chilli (bottom): Night One |
In May, 2011, I gained custody of my first two foster kittens,
named Fiyero and Elphaba. Sadly, Elphaba
was too sickly and did not make it, but Fiyero is doing simply
wonderfully. He became my first foster
failure. The true test, however, came
nearly a year later. The Humane Society
of Central Texas sent out an urgent message on their Facebook page in
late-March, 2012. A family had
surrendered 24 cats to the Humane Society (9 adults and the rest kittens) and
the kittens desperately needed to get out of the shelter. Most of the kittens were between 3-5 weeks old,
barely old enough to survive without mama.
I contacted a nearby cat rescue run by a friend of mine and told her
that I could take a few kittens, not bottle babies and no major health issues. She picked out three kittens for me from the
bunch and told the Humane Society that I would be by to pick them up.
Right off the bat, I noticed that all three kittens (two
girls and a boy) were completely flea ridden.
They were also really thin but with the tell-tale sign of intestinal
parasites. And all three of them had
what is scientifically termed “eye gunk.”
They were not healthy by any stretch of the imagination, but they also
weren’t direly ill…yet. After a thorough
bath, all three started to exhibit their own unique personalities. Trek was my little adventure boy; Laila was a
fighter; and Chilli, well…Chilli was pretty chill. Suddenly, despite working a low-paying job
that I was WAY overqualified for, I had purpose. I had these three little stinkers who, at
only 4 weeks old, still needed a lot of help.
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| Trek with Iba, Day Three....This was the day before Trek's brush with Death |
From the beginning, Trekkie chose me. No parent, foster or otherwise, should play
favorites, but Trek was my favorite. He
loved my lap. So, I was especially sick
with worry when, the first Saturday I had them, I opened my bathroom door to
let the heathens out of their little tile-covered prison. Chilli and Laila tore out of the room like it
was on fire, but Trek just sat on the towel I had put on the bathroom
floor. He was alert but seemingly unable
to move, like his feet were stuck in cement.
He was also incredibly dehydrated.
Of course, it was a Saturday, so only the emergency vets were open and
they are outrageously expensive. I
called the rescue and was told that I should do what I could for Trek over the
weekend and if he made it and still needed to go to the vet on Monday, we could
set that up. 24 hours later, after force
feeding him 4ccs of unflavored Pedialyte every 2 hours, Trek was finally out of
the woods. If he hadn’t chosen me
before, that certainly cemented it.
Even though Trek was out of the woods and he and his sisters
were mostly healthy after that (not counting the Great Canned Pumpkin Debacle
of 2012), they still needed a lot of help to become halfway decent cats. I had a lot of assistance in this regard from
Iba and Fiyero, but the transformation of Trek and Laila and Chilli kept me
occupied. It gave me purpose. It kept me from going crazy in my dead-end,
low-paying job. I rescued these
kittens. I medicated them when necessary
and cleaned up messes and taught them what was and was not acceptable behavior
(though Trek and I are still working on this).
But they rescued me too. Without
them, without their constant need for care and attention and also the constant
amusement they provided, I would have been miserable. So I have embraced the cliché.
Why is this important?
For a couple of reasons, actually.
First of all, kitten season is upon us once again. Throughout this country, humane societies and
animal rescues will be begging for foster parents. In Stillwater, Tiny Paws Kitten Rescue is
kicking things into high gear. The city
has given Tiny Paws a building and renovations are on-going. They still need help, both financial and of
the manual labor variety. They also need
fosters. Holly routinely offers foster
training during kitten season for those who are interested. Check Tiny Paws’ Facebook page for more
details.
In Waco, big things are happening. The Humane Society of Central Texas is
working with local rescue groups to reduce the number of animals that have to
be euthanized. They will all need
volunteers to make it through kitten season.
The Humane Society, MARC, Fuzzy Friends, and Starfish Cat and Kitten Rescue are all great organizations that are looking for help.
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| Trek giving his sister a hug, December 2012 |
The other reason for this blog post is more personal. Trek and Laila, the scrawny, flea ridden
furballs that actually rescued me last spring turned one today. After several trips to the vet, Laila’s
abandonment issues and subsequent imprisonment in a DIFFERENT bathroom, and
several more trips to the vet, these silly, sweet, playful, troublemaking
little creatures are now strong, healthy, silly, sweet, playful, troublemaking big
creatures. Trek climbs on EVERYTHING and
thinks any open door is an invitation.
Laila plays with the tails of Iba and Trek as well as her own and loves
to snuggle on my lap. I have invested a
lot of time, energy, effort, and money into making sure these kittens survived
to see their first birthdays. In return,
they have blessed me in ways that only another animal person can possibly
appreciate.
