A Series of Unfortunate Events
Last Saturday morning found Mr Chiots and I standing in our local veterinary hospital with a small black kitten with a nasty wound on it’s neck. We weren’t sure what news we’d hear after a series of unfortunate events that started the previous Saturday morning. We’d had “the talk” the night before, and had decided on the monetary limit for this visit. We love cats and are always willing to help any out when find their way to Chiot’s Run, but setting a limit is necessary when dealing with animals, especially outdoor ones that don’t have a long life expectancy because of the environment they live in.
It all started a month ago, when mama moved four tiny kittens into our garage. We were happy to have them and were planning on fixing them and finding them homes if they survived. A few days after moving in, we got up one Saturday morning to discover the mama and the kittens gone. There was long orange fur all over the garage and male cat urine everywhere! Since male cats often kill kittens that aren’t their own, we figured a big orange male cat we’d seen roaming around occasionally was after these little furries. We didn’t find any dead kittens, but we weren’t sure if they’d survived. After this happened I did some research and found out that feral mama cats move their kittens around often to keep them safe, especially from male cats. (this is another good reason to neuter your male outdoor cats, they’re less aggressive)
Mama kept coming around so we knew eventually she’d bring them back if they had survived. Sure enough, a week and a half later, last Wednesday morning, we spotted her and three little furries on our back porch. She brought her babies back and proudly called them out of the garage every time we went outside to show them to us. We were happy to have them back, and sad that one of the little gray ones hadn’t made it, most likely it perished in the male cat attack a week and a half earlier. The kittens spent their days entertaining us playing around in the driveway and running in and out of the garage. We made sure to check under the cars every time we went somewhere so we didn’t accidentally find a kitty pancake upon our return.
Last Saturday morning, I was headed to the farmer’s market and went out and checked under the car as usual. We’d seen the kittens playing around outside earlier that morning, so we knew they were still around. On my way home from the market, a mile or two from home, I noticed a dead kitten in the road that looked just like one ours. At first I didn’t think anything of it, here in rural Ohio it’s a common sight. Later that afternoon, I realized I hadn’t seen the kittens since that morning. I knew then that the one I had seen was ours. We looked and looked and sadly couldn’t find any kittens in the garage. We figured the kittens had crawled up into the car and had all perished. Of course this was on Saturday afternoon and we were headed to a Fourth of July celebration, only we were no longer in any kind of mood for celebrating. This is the very reason I had never gotten a garage cat. I knew that their life expectancy was short and the risk of coming to a sad end by car was very likely. I love cats, so I prefer to keep mine indoors where there are no cars, dogs, foxes, coyotes and other dangers.
After shedding of a few tears and a few days of sadness, I was feeling better. I was glad that mama was still around, following me around the gardens and rubbing on my legs trying to get some attention whenever she could. I made plans to take her to get her fixed since there were no longer any nursing kittens. I was glad that she had a healthy fear of things like cars and the garage door and seemed to be a very smart outdoor cat.
Late Tuesday evening, around eleven thirty, I was looking out our back door and noticed a tiny black streak running across our porch. At first it didn’t register. Then it hit me – it was one of our kittens. Amazingly it had survived the ride under the car, the fall or jump out of the car, the car itself, a three and a half day journey, and had somehow found it’s way back home. This is quite an amazing feat considering that the kitten is only about 7 weeks old, was still nursing when it disappeared, and had to travel through woods and very busy roads to get back here (and it was 4th of July weekend which is especially busy here in our lake community). We went outside to find it so we could reunite it with it’s mama. At first we couldn’t locate it, little black kittens can hide very well in the dark, but finally Lucy sniffed it out for us. We called mama cat (she is now sleeping in our garage at night) and she came. As soon as the kitten heard her meow, it started crying and came running out of the bushes to her. It rubbed back and forth on it’s mama, clearly very happy to see her. The entire next day the little black kitten did not leave mama’s side. Wherever she went, it was right behind her. By the second day it started feeling more comfortable and would spend time alone sleeping in the garage.
I noticed the kitten had a small wound on it’s neck, but I could never get close enough to see it. The kitten is still very wary of humans. On Friday I took my camera out to get a photo of the wound, I figured that would be my best option to get a good look. It wasn’t pretty, so Mr Chiots and I decided it was time to catch the the kitten to put some Neem Protect Spray on it. (we love this brand of neem spray, it works wonderfully for any pet skin problem we’ve had and helps keep fleas away naturally, I’d highly recommend this product!). Upon inspection, the wound looked pretty bad, so I ran inside to call the vet. We’d hoped to get in yet that evening, but early the next morning would have to do. We placed the kitten in a pet carrier with some food and water. This way we wouldn’t have to catch it the next morning, since it had taken us a few tries and quite a while to catch it that afternoon.
Saturday morning found us up early and off to the vet, wondering what news we’d hear about this little kitten and what kind of a decision we’d have to make. Luckily, the wound wasn’t life-threatening (although it had a huge fly larvae in it, gross, but nature’s way of cleaning up wounds). We came home with a kitten in a crate and of smiles on our faces. The kitten will be spending the next couple days in the crate, we want to keep it contained to make it easy to administer it’s twice daily antibiotic treatment. I think this will work in our favor as it’s taming the kitten quite nicely. She even purred and rubbed on my finger later on Saturday. She’s getting more active and her appetite is coming back, and she’s really enjoying her diet of raw organic whole milk mixed with egg yolks and fermented cod liver oil.
I may still take mama in this week to get her fixed, and we talked to the vet already about when we could get this little kitten fixed as well. We’ll also be trying to trap the orange male, we don’t see him very often so that may prove difficult. If all continues to go well for this little softie, it looks like after all these unfortunate events, we’ll still have two garage cats here at Chiot’s Run. I think this little black kitten has already used up a few of her nine lives.
Have you ever had to deal with the harsh realities of outdoor animals?
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Quote of the Day: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued,
is always just beyond your grasp, but which,
if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
Yesterday afternoon when I went out to the compost pile I noticed a butterfly on my raised bed. I looked closely and realized that it had just emerged because it’s wings were still slightly crumpled. I quickly went inside to get my camera and happily took a few photos while it waited for it’s wings to get stiff enough to fly. What a beautiful stroke of luck! I believe this is a Spicebush Swallowtail.
This past week I’ve been noticing more and more butterflies in the garden, I don’t know if it’s the type of flowers blooming or if they’re all emerging with the heat, probably both. I’ll have to spend some time in the garden this week trying to get a few more photos of the various kinds of butterflies that visit the many beneficial flowers here at Chiot’s Run.
What butterfly is most common in your garden?
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Quote of the Day: William Carlos Williams
“In summer, the song sings itself.”
~ William Carlos Williams
The other evening I was out trying to capture the beauty of a summer evening. I planted a ton of chamomile this year, so I would have a great harvest for teas. I’m disappointed that the plants are tall and leggy, and not looking too nice in the location I have them. However the other night the light was just right and they were definitely singing the song of summer. I think this captured the mood that evening beautifully.
What’s singing to you in your garden right now?
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Happy 4th of July and a Winner
Happy 4th of July from Chiot’s Run. Hope you enjoy a beautiful holiday weekend filled with cookouts, fireworks, gardening, family parties and other fun things.
For the 4th of July I decided to pick the winner of Stay by Allie Larkin. The radom number generator picked Sta. Congrats.
Hope you all have a wonderful day whether you live here in the US or abroad.
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Quote of the Day: Howard Zinn
It can get overwhelming when you start listening to the news. You hear stories of corruption and greed. Stories of the involvement of corporations in politics, about judges and politicians favoring companies that donate large amounts of money to their campaigns. It seems everyone is taking advantage of others, lying, stealing, and trying to get something for nothing. You can easily feel overwhelmed by it all. But remember, you can make a difference. Focus on the the small scale, even if it’s only a small seemingly meaningless thing. Talk to the people you meet throughout the day, smile at someone, be kind, find a charity to be involved in, or send some money to help someone less fortunate than yourself. Perhaps you can take some time to teach someone how to garden, or grow their own food. Take some time to do something nice today, be a voice of compassion in our corrupt world. You’ll be amazed at how it will foster hopefulness in you and those around you!
Do you ever feel overwhelmed when you hear about all the corruption in the world?
