It's a crazy, crazy time!!

It's been approximately two weeks since I went to the corporate office of work for the paying job on a Monday and came home to 8 new kittens in my house!  Surprise!!!  :-)

The "Eye" Kittens
The first set are the Futurama kittens (Leela, Zapp Brannigan, and Zoidberg) who came from a feral cat situation where there were 11 kittens, 3 of which had extreme eye issues - they are about 8 weeks old.  No other groups wanted them, so we took the 3 with eye issues.  Immediate vet visit and the little girl was immediately scheduled for eye enucleation.  She's now doing great - so happy to be rid of that terrible eye, she's a a sweet little torbie.  The other two are male and black (we love black kitties!); of which one is doing much better and his eyes are completely fine now after the various medications.  The other little boy is just horrific, I've not really seen anything like that before.  He's been to the vet four times and has had consults with Animal Eye Care, he's been on so much medication (steriod eye drops and antibiotic eye drops - alternating every 6 hours, oral steriod, oral antibiotic, oral antiviral).  The eyes get better and then worse.  He is going to Animal Eye Care today - I hope they can save at least one eye.  We're not really set up for a blind cat but we'll make it work if that happens.

The Prison Kittens
So, I'm in Greensboro for work (about 1.5-1.75 hours away from home) and get a call and then text message from a prison guard that a feral mom has brought 5 babies up to the gates and left 2 of them there.  Another guard had grabbed the two kittens.  Fortunately Marie had taken vacation that week so first call was to Marie B so she could call Marie P (the one on vacation but not so great about answering her cell!) and ask her to get the kittens.  She headed to the prison and after a torrential downpour and standing water of more than an inch, she crawled through the water to get 2 more of the kittens that were in the bushes.  Gets them all set up at my house (I did get a call "I hope you at least get to break for lunch.  Where are your towels so I can dry these kittens and where do I put them?").  Later in the day, the guard called the first Marie because they had caught the last kitten.

Now, mama is feral as all get out, but 2 of these kittens were purry little love machines from the second we got them.  The other three hissed and spit and it was so funny because they were only about 3.5 weeks old.  I would syringe feed them and when I washed their faces, they would growl and bite the paper towel!

There are two calicos, two solid gray kittens, and one Siamese mix.  And oh are they ever messy!  They are the "Gunslinger kittens" (Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Butch Cassidy) but really right they they are the "poopslingers"!

Two weeks later, all five are super sweet and loving and purry and adore attention.  Another prison guard is foster the two calico girls and the Siamese mix and may possibly adopt the Siamese mix (Butch Cassidy). I still have Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp at my house - they are the runts of the litter.

And yet another one!!
This past Wednesday, received a call from a vet tech at one of the local emergency vets.  A good samaritan had brought in a kitten with a rotten paw - necrotic tissue half way up the leg.  (WARNING - GROSS coming up).  It was covered in maggots. I knew - ewww, gross.... However, those maggots probably saved this little guy's life because they eat the bad tissue and kept the infection from becoming septic.  The vet said it looked like it had been that way for a while.  So I got him the next day (they tested him and gave him antibiotics and pain meds) and got him into our vet for leg amputation (more affordable at the vet we use).  The little guy had been on his own for a while because he's very thin under his fur and didn't have as much excess skin as most kittens do so his stitches aren't as "smooth" as the vet would have liked.  He's doing well.  Except for using the litter box - sigh....he's not quite grasped the hang of it yet.  He's about 9 weeks old.  I named him Devlin, which is Irish or Gaelic for "fierce courage", after what he's been through, he deserves that name.  However, he will get another name soon if he doesn't start using the litter box!!

Crazy Time
It's hard for me to post lately and I'm way behind on reading blogs and commenting on them as it's just crazy at work.  I finally talked work into interviewing the person that used to work for me at the last company because we need her.  We work so well together and our skills complement the other's skills really well.  *Fingers crossed*.  She can back me up on bids and RFPs but also work on documentation.  My backup on legal contracts is the attorney.  But if we can hire her, I can actually take some time off from work.  Even if I don't go anywhere, I need some time off!