It's been a hard couple of weeks

Yes, we've had fantastic adoptions, but we've had some losses as well.  And those are always hard - it doesn't matter if we've had the cats 2 minutes or 2 months, it really still hurts all the same and it rips a little piece of your heart out everytime. 

Not quite two weeks ago, we took in a mama and her three 4-week old babies.  Right away it was apparent that one of the babies was definitely not thriving and something was wrong with him, so the priority was vet care.  Upon examination, some of the one kitten's internal organs were not where they should be and at four weeks old, he was about the size of a 1.5 week old kitten.  I hoped he could be "fixed" with surgery but he was so little and in such bad shape that surgery was not an option, so we had to make the hard decision to have him put to sleep. 

Late this past Sunday, we took in an itty bitty orphaned orange kitten (about 3-days old) from animal control.  We had a nursing mom so it was good for the kitten.  The kitten went to the vet early yesterday and stayed the night (well, Jennifer, the goddess of vet techs at Harmony, took him home and took care of him overnight).  As of last night, he was going to have part of his foot/leg amputated today, even though he was tiny, it had to be done.  But as of mid-morning today, he was not doing well at all and appeared to have other serious health issues, and it was decided it was in his best interest to end his suffering.  We were prepared to do whatever needed to be done medically and surgically (that's why we fundraise, I don't ever want to not be able to take a cat solely because we can't afford extended medical care), but it just wasn't an option anymore.  Little boy was with us such a short time he didn't even have a name.  That makes me want to cry even harder.  But at least we were able to help end his suffering and he's not in pain anymore.  

We'd like to thank the absolutely wonderful Dr. Jodi Reed for her incredible care of our rescue kitties and also for letting us know when we need to make the decision.  And thank you to all the staff at Harmony Animal Hospital for your loving care of the babies. 

It's a sad day today, but sometimes knowing it's time to "let them go" is the best thing for the cats.  But it sure doesn't really make it any easier when they are gone.