O, Kittens!
It started with a dumpster.
A colony of a dozen or so feral cats had taken residence in the parking lot and grassy areas of our apartment complex. The complex manager fed them daily, but they otherwise were out on their own. Unfortunately, he passed away unexpectedly.
A month or two later, we began to notice a big uptick in the amount of cat activity in the parking lot. In particular, the dumpster: they were in it. All day. They spooked if you came near and ran off; I had one jump right on top of my head as I walked by. We realized that the cats were in the dumpster because they were starving. Nobody had continued feeding them, and so they began to waste away as the summer turned to fall.
We had a difficult time nailing down a contact for animal control. In the interim, we obtained some dry kibble and began middle of the night runs to put a pile of kibble outside, away from the dumpster and parking area.
After some time, I got a good contact for Nate Barson, an animal control officer who had recently taken up the boro we live in as part of his territory. After explaining the plight of the cats, he agreed to help. He also made one special notation for us: a litter of kittens had been born some time in late summer. We had seen a small tabby, a fluffy grey kitten, and a white kitten with grey spots.
In particular, the white and grey kitten was the first to approach during the midnight kibble parties. We felt that they could be socialized and adopted out into forever homes if we fostered and cared for them.
Within a few days, Nate called: he had two kittens for us. One was the grey and white; the other was a fluffy tuxedo that we had not seen before. Unfortunately, poor conditions seemed to have gotten the best of the tabby and grey kittens. Nevertheless, we had two kittens who could have happy lives. The adult cats who were ill and/or injured were humanely euthanized, from what we understand. It is sad, but a quick and peaceful end is a better prospect than starving and freezing to death over the winter.
After their spay/neuter/flea treatment/FIV test/vaccination day, Nate dropped the kittens off to our apartment on November 7th. Tabby's Place, a cat sanctuary that Carrie volunteers at, generously allowed us to use a large cage, towels, bowls, toys, and a litter pan.
The grey and white kitten is a female, the tuxedo a male. We decided to call her Mabel and him Narga.
By the end of their first full day with us, we had made a trip to our veterinarian because Mabel had a runny eye. Rather than just working on socializing them, our first week was spent doing twice daily oral antibiotics and twice daily eye drops.
After finishing the medication, we began to work harder at socialization. Play with toys is a huge help, as are treats and wet kitty food! It took about five days to get them to start playing.
On November 17, one of the best things happened: we got Narga to purr. Not only does he purr, he purrs LOUDLY. He loves to be loved; although he still needs some time to really trust us, he will let us pet all over him and scratch him and he will purr forever. We also found that their favorite toy out of all toys ever is the simple plastic jingle ball. No matter what time of day it is, they are jingling.
Shortly before Thanksgiving, we noticed a spot on Mabel's shoulder that was looking like the hair was falling out. A quick purchase of a black light revealed horrible news: she has ringworm. Not only that, but we realized that Narga was growing... and Mabel was not. She also reversed in any progress we'd made with contact and began to pull away when touched as if it were painful!
Back to the vet we went on December 2 where her ringworm infection was officially confirmed. Narga doesn't seem to have any; his immune system seems to be stronger than hers. We also mentioned her small stature and were advised that she might have a parasite, so we began to keep an eye out for that.
Home we went with a topical ointment for Mabel. The first attempt went over poorly, so we called the vet for the oral medication instead. Thankfully, she will eat up the medicine when it's mixed in with wet food! Narga is receiving the medicine as well, just in case.
We quickly fell in to a new routine with the medication. The process of going in to visit with them is straining. The room is contaminated; the towels are contaminated; their bowls are contaminated, etc etc etc. One must wash vigorously after touching the kittens or their bedding. Having the ringworm spread to our apartment and our other cats would be a gigantic disaster! The prescription filled is good for a month and we're praying it works swiftly.
Just when it seemed like we were done with this rocky road, we had one more bump to bear. On December 9, after eating her wet food, Mabel threw it all up into her food bowl. To our immense horror, she had also thrown up round worms. The following day, Harry took a sampling of the worms to the vet to pick up de-wormer medication, which we will administer to both kittens once a week for a month. It makes sense in the saddest way: Mabel has had little progress in socialization, but we can hardly blame her because of how unpleasant her world is right now!
Despite the challenges these kittens have brought us -- it's certainly been a lot more than we anticipated -- we have agreed that we will see it through so that they can be adopted. The costs have incurred from this have been quintuple what we expected, and so we have put together this page if anyone would like to help.
The daily cleaning, feeding, medication, socialization, etc, is our job and we'll continue to do it. Any help with the expenses we've had (and will have) is hugely appreciated!
Stuff we are NOT asking for help with: Spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, FIV test, food, litter, etc. These were all costs we expected to have for them.
The costs we could use help with:
Vet visit 11/8 with antibiotic injection, oral antibiotic, and eye drops - $208.14 - Receipt
Vet visit 12/2 with topical antifungal ointment - $104.87 - Receipt
Prescription 12/5 for oral antifungal - $69.08 - Receipt
Prescription 12/10 for oral de-wormer - $10.70
Prescription 12/20 for oral antifungal - $69.08
Prescription 1/28 for oral antifungal - $69.08
Two rounds of flea medicine @ $131.36/each = $262.73*
Total: $793.68
*We had originally thought NOT to seek help with this, but as the infestation persisted, the costs mounted - as you can see above - that needed to change!
Should we have anything left over, it will be donated to Tabby's Place. Got questions? Ask! And if you read through this, THANK YOU. And if you donated or shared this to others, THANK YOU!!