Bad, horrible, awful day

I debated about even posting this, because some of you will say, well so what, we all have bad days, but I needed to vent.

I have had strep throat/upper resperatory infection for a week, my medication cost over $50, I have missed 3 days of work so far,and my work is giving me crap about it, they say they need me there, like they don't care if I am sick or not, I feel like crap...(excuse the whining, Donna ) and then I come home today from yet another visit to the doctor, and Merlin is starting a fight with Dolly, he picks on her constantly, and there is no reason for it, she does nothing to him, and he doesn't pick on any of the other cats, put I hear this horrible growling and hissing, and there he is, attacking her....she got so scared she pooped all over, and I had to clean it up,and I broke up the fight, then I am finally ready to get some rest, and I hear a pathetic mewing coming from the barn, and I go down there...and there are 5 abondoned kittens about a day or 2 old, and I knew they were abondened because when I felt them they were stone cold, and they looked like they were minutes away from death. My first impulse was to say, I have enough problems right now, I don't need this, but I could not walk away....I ended up bringing them in the house, put them on the heating pad, and have been bottle feeding all 5 of them every hour since I found them. I don't hold much hopes that they will make it, they are too young, and too weak, but at least I can say I tried.

I just needed to vent.

Deb,

I'm glad you brought the kittens inside, although you are right not to hold out much hope. They are much to young to survive. But I'll keep my fingers crossed. Don't forget to make sure they "eliminate" if you know what I mean. Take a soft cloth and massage their bottoms till they pee and poop after every bottle feeding. Also, be careful with a heating pad as it can get too hot. Keep it on low and make a tent out of an old towel using the heating pad for the bottom.

As far as Merlin picking a fight with Dolly, believe me, it's normal. I have 7 cats and everytime one of my two males goes after my girls, they automatically get "kitty jail" (another word for the bathroom) until they calm down. It only takes about 5 or 10 minutes in there. Even though both males are fixed, they seem to think they can still "mount" the females, which they CAN, but it won't do any good. Kitty timeouts are great for intervening in what could be a battle. So is a squirt bottle.

Hope you feel better.

Donna

Debby- it sounds like a very bad day - but I feel that God directed you to the barn for a reason. You may not be able to save the little ones, but at least they will have had love and attention and will have known the warmth of you heart! I will pary for you and the little ones tonight. You are an angel for being so kind-hearted.

I feel for you Debby It sucks when it seems everything that can go wrong has, ans yet new bad things still pop up. I've been there. It will get better. What a sweetheart you are to take in those kittens. You may not be able to save them, but they will at least know warmth and love in their lives. Good luck with them I hope they pull through. Kitty timeout sounds like a good idea. I have to physically seperate my two kittens when Missy gets too rough and hurts Gypsy(Missy's used to playing with a bigger tougher kitty-Loco)I will keep you in my thoughts and hope things begin to look up for you

Awwww Debby..... I am so sorry you have had such a bad day. Or should I say bad several days! Poor little kittens, I hope they make it and I thinks its great that you are trying to help them. Well hopefully tomorrow will be better for you. Hope you get well soon!!!

Meme

Debby, I am so sorry you had such an awful day. And its good you vented, that usually helps! Just look for tomorrow to be better, and hopefully it will be!
Chin UP girl!!

Debby - I'm sorry to hear you're having a hard time. I had strep throat the week of Sept 11, and that has to be one of the worse illnesses to get. Feels like you're going to die. I can't believe your work is giving you problems. Tell them that if you come in, they'll all get strep too. Serve em right!

Good luck with the baby kitties. Poor things.

Make sure you get some rest yourself so you can get better!

Debby, you should see if the humane society there has a mother with a litter, and maybe she could adopt your kittens. It's hard to beat the real thing.

Fireshoes, What a good idea!

Debby, I'm sorry you are having such a bad day. I hope you feel better soon. BTW the best thing for a sore throat is Ramin noodle soup. It is salty and you eat it hot....the hot salty liquid works wonders for soothing a sore throat.

Get better!!!

Naah, go with chicken soup! (Unless you're a vegetarian). Lots of salt, plus the protein and veggies . . . even the fat is probably okay if you aren't up to eating, you need the energy to get better! At least, everyone I know swears by chicken soup. Best if you can get some homemade by a grandma. The extra love is nice too!

Hope you're feeling better soon.

And good luck with the babies. They really need you.

About the baby kittens that were found I commend you on not turning your back on them I would have done the same thing ..... About your cats fighting ....I had a girl friend that had that same problem . She had two persians Breezy and Buster and Breezy the female would chase and fight him until finally he lived in the bathroom under the sink for the longest time it was aweful and I finally got sick of seeing it and my friend didnt know what to do so this is what I did ..... I took the violent one of the two ( Breezy the aggresor) and wrapped her in a towel until only her head was out and she had no way to attack him or me and I sat at the bottom of the wash basin and I held her in my lap right next to him ... she hissed and sputtered and everytime she did I would say in a short loud voice NO ! Eventually after doing this a good 15-20 mins for about three days in a row my friend called me and said OMG they are in the livingroom together and she has not attacked him . It just got better after that. I don't know if it will work for your cats but just a suggestion !

Thank you all very much for the kind words, and suggestions.
I spent most of yesterday on the phone, calling over and over and over again into our corperate (sp?) office in Indiana to talk to the Human Resources Manager there, who is in charge of either excusing an absense or not excusing it, and even though my doctor had signed a paper saying I was sick and needed to be off work, they were saying he didn't fill the papers out right, and since he was angry at having to fill out a bunch of paperwork,,,,(angry at them, not me) to have my absence excused, he had written a rather testy note at the bottom, and this upset them, but I was going to be the one who suffered, not him, if they didn't excuse it...so he was only hurting me, although I know he didn't mean to.
I was told by the office of my work that the paperwork had been sent to the corperate office in Indiana for them to decide if they should excuse it or not. If they didn't excuse it, since I missed a total of 4 days (although approved by my Dr.) I would be in danger of losing my job, because they only allow you so many penalties against you, and 4 days gone would be 3 penalties, and I already had 3 from previous months before.(they only allow a certain number in a given year) So that would have been the end of my job basically. I have been there 12 years, and I really didn't want to lose my job. I have too many bills to pay. So I sat there and called Indiana for 3 hours straight, waiting for that woman to get back to her office, so I could plead my case.
I just kept getting her machine and I was in tears.
I finally got throught to her, and she said she knew it wasn't my fault, but because of the Dr.'s attitude about the whole thing, they didn't know if they should excuse it or not. So she said she would call my Dr, here in Iowa, and see what he had to say about it.
She couldn't get ahold of him, so she called me back, and said she was going to go ahead and excuse it, so I wouldn't worry about it all weekend, but that on Monday she would be calling him and giving her a peice of her mind about the way he filled out his forms.
So I am releived.

Fireshoes, that is a great idea, except the nearest humane society is 70 miles from me, and I don't drive in big cities (Des Moines) but we do have what is called a pound a few miles away, so I will call and see if they happen to have a mother nursing, but the problem is, that will greatly reduce that mothers chance of getting out of there, as it will be harder to place a cat with kittens, and this is not a no kill shelter. So maybe they would be better off taking their chances with me. I just don't know what to do.

Sunlion, my husbands mom brought me homemade chicken & noodles a couple days ago...and it was wonderful!!!

Lona, your idea sounds great except that Merlin (the aggressor) is not the one that would suffer if I did that. Dolly would. (the innocent) let me explain...
I got Dolly this spring, she was a full grown cat, and was ready to be killed by the man who takes care of the strays in the nearby town, he heard I was rescuing another stray from town, who was hanging around a store there, and I had fallen in love with, so he put this one (Dolly) in a cage in the back of my husbands truck when he (hubby) was in town and sent it home to me. I really didn't want another one, but couldn't say no and have her be killed.
The problem is....she hates cats. All cats. Any cats. She is terrified to death of them. She is fine with my two dogs, but let one cat get within a foot of her, and she is growling and hissing. She doesn't attack them, or even strike out at them, she just growls and backs off.
She is fine with people, and would sit on my lap for hours if I let her, but anyway, the other cats just leave her alone....which is all she wants....to be left alone. She is not trying to start any fights, she just wants to be left alone. Poor thing.
But Merlin has decided that this is totally fascinating. He has no problem with any of the other cats. But he thinks it is fascinating the way she will growl and sputter if he gets close to her, so he toys with her. I have watched him. He will approach her, she will hiss and growl and start to slink off, and he will come even closer, and bat his paws at her....she will growl and hiss louder and back further away.....he will keep coming, and get right next to her which terrifies her...she acts like she is being attacked, poops all over, takes off running, with Merlin in hot pursuit, and all she wants is to be left alone. I have scolded him, but with no avail.
So see, if I tried the thing you suggested, Dolly would have a fit, and be terrified, and Merlin would just think it was funny.

Anyway, thanks for the advice guys, and letting me vent. Catarina, I hope have better luck with your fighting cats.

Oh I forgot to say that one of the little babies died right away, it was really small and weak, but the other 4 (all males, thank God) are doing fine, and eating well, (I should say drinking well) but I am still not getting my hopes up yet, because that one time I had 2 babies I was bottle feeding, and they lived for 2 weeks and were doing well, then suddenly died. So only time will tell I guess.

Thank you Cat, you are too good to me.

love from lil' sis.

Hmmmmmmm well debby I guess that would be diffrent . I also had a cat like that . I rescued her from the river last year ... solid white long haired green eyed little girl cat. It took us three days to catch her . It was two solid white cats and two tiger striped younger cats . There was a feral colony down there and we knew it wouldn't be long and they would be down there shooting them all so we decided to get them. She is totally just like your cat in all ways except for she doesnt poop . What I have done with her is given her a quite room to float around in. I do try and socialize her but when it gets too much she goes back ....It is actually the back porch and it is enclosed all in wood it has 1 window and she likes to sit in the sill and sun herself . She is getting more social the older she gets but when ppl or any other cats around she exits the room and back to her area. I hope you can find a solution .

Merlin sounds like a real handful! Are you sure he is teasing Dolly? I mean, if he decided he wanted to be friendly with her, rather than ignoring her, would his behavior be different?

Is it possible to send Dolly to a situation where she is an only cat? I would hate to give one up myself, but if she is completely miserable . . . Other than that, does she have a safe hidey hole to get away from everyone? My cats like the cartons from a 24-pack of soda. One hides and sooner or later the other one loses interest and leaves him alone. So maybe just a smallish box with a smallish hole in it would be nice for her.

How awful to just start feeling better and have work come down on you! I don't think I could work at the same place for 12 years, but even if I could I don't think loyalty like that is rewarded any more. That's pretty impressive. Maybe next time the nurse could fill out the form? She might not be happy about it, but she's less likely to have a tantrum on paper (not that they didn't deserve it, but it does sound like both sides are aggravated now).

Just curious, you say that the other 4 kittens are all males "thank God". Is that just a personal preference or an adoption preference, or is there a health / survival reason for that? Also, could they go to a nursing cat at the shelter with the understanding that you would be taking them back later? How about checking with your local vet? Maybe several people who have litters would be willing to take one or two rather than trying to put all 4 in one place. Not that I know much about it, just kind of thinking out loud.

Hope you are feeling better.