Posted to my forum thread for handicapped pets...
Silver, April 3, 2011 - June 15,2011
Sadly, my little boy did not make it. After an emergency trip to the vet last Sunday evening (mom had to take him as I was busting nuts to finish a college final paper due by midnight - I HATED that!) which made him feel better and start eating for a day or so, my little Silver boy passed Wednesday afternoon.
It's not hard to say it was for the best, but I still feel SO responsible for all of it. The vet said it was a birth defect, I disagree. He was just as straight and healthy as his siblings when he got bit, it was after that, that I think his posture and his age - growing, made his little back so crooked. The vet wanted to put him down on Sunday, and I said "no, now is not the time" and I let him give him some B12 (for his appetite), a shot of antibiotics and another shot of which I'm not sure exactly what it was for. He rebounded for a day, but then the same symptoms that took him to the vet on Sunday, returned by Tuesday night. He would not eat, his little tummy swelled and he didn't pee, he poo'd a little, but not much and he just became lethargic and his temp started to drop. Out came the water bottle, and anything, everything that he'd shown an interest in eating, but to no avail. He passed quietly, snuggled in his favorite fuzzy blanket, on a warm hot water bottle and with little complaint. He tried to purr for me, but he was so weak and yet, he still gave me a couple of his signature nose rubs (our favorite thing to do before we went to sleep). I told him it was ok to let go and told him how sorry I was that his tiny little body had been so broken and that if I could have fixed it, I would have. It was only a moment or two after that, that he gave me his final nose rubs. I'd like to think it was his way of letting ME know it was ok... that he was ready to go. It doesn't help the heaviness in my heart, but I hold onto the faith that he will be playing over the Rainbow Bridge, running, jumping, purring and being the healthy, active and mischievious little kitten he was meant to be.
So now my focus goes towards finding a way to get the 8 healthy kittens we still have fixed so that they go to good homes, and do not become breeders like Silver's mom was - an unfixed female who not only bred and birthed these kittens, but orphaned them before she was even a year old. Sad thing is, here, where I am, the vets apparently fear urinary tract infections and won't "fix" kittens until they are at least 5-6 months old!! I can't believe it. You're either supposed to be irresponsible enough to let them go 'unfixed', or hold onto them until they are no longer the cute little adoptable furrballs that need to be in their forever home, bonding with their new family. So now it comes to finding the time and the funds to make a 200 mile drive to Colorado, to a clinic that WILL fix them; Miss Tabs (the mamma who bred at 5 mos, before I could get her into be fixed) and her brood - Duke, Dillon, Miss Daisy, TumTum, Tunia, and Little Joe along with Tuffy (the terribly sick kitten who was being drug around the neighborhood by two little girls 'looking for a mommy cat', claiming they'd found him in the park) and last but not least, Maggie May - the beautiful and elegant, and sole surviving, sibling of Silver.
But I ramble here, and I apologize. I posted to let Eppy's mom know what has happened and to thank her, and all the others that posted here with their encouragement and support. Thank you. Having only been the caretaker of such a special little one for a short time, I can't say I was good at it, at all. But I do know better now, how much time, love and determination it takes to care for a handicapped pet. You are all angels in my book. As are the little angels you caretake. That one little kitten showed me more love, patience and courage than any one person or thing in my life so far. I consider that a blessing.
God bless you all, caretakers and special friends alike. To Silver, who lies under a beautiful tree next to my garden and alongside his two siblings I say "Go run now, and play with the Angels".
