The Tale of the Abandoned Kittens

Just look at that smiling face.  Let me just say, this saga contains much more sobbing, cries of despair, and gnashing of teeth then bright smiling faces and happiness.  Here's how it went down:

Back at the end of March, Lucy was outside rollerblading with her neighbor friend, Adrianna.  It had been a crazy day....Thursday.  Thursdays are Jason's long day at school when he doesn't get home until after 8:00 pm.  I was still sick (pregnancy post still to come) and was attempting to get Graham and Benny bathed after they rolled around in the dirt at a softball game we attended.  Both boys were in the shower when Lucy comes in frantically yelling, "We found kittens!  They are in the sprinklers!"  

Let me pause here and remind my readers that I don't like animals.  Let me rephrase or attempt to explain.  I like animals, but do not like them in my house, or in my hands/arms, or too close to me.  

Back to the story.  Lucy was trying to explain to me what she and Adrianna had found, but it was hard to understand her as I was rinsing the shampoo out of Ben's hair.  I told her she was just going to have to wait until I was done.  

I situate the boys and then head down to the alleged "sprinkler kittens".  Lucy is there with her friend looking at this pack of 5 kittens huddled together, soaking wet.  All I originally see is disease, filth, and scariness.  I yell for her not to touch them and back away.  Before I can even make it down to where they stand, Lucy is already begging to keep all or at least one of them.  

Pause again.  Really?  Not sure who Lucy thought she was dealing with at this point.  Apparently, not the "we will never be getting a dog or cat" mother that has raised her these past nine years.

Back to story.  She has, of course, anticipated my answer and is already going into tirades about how mean I am and how my hate for animals is so horrifying, etc., etc.  All the while I am trying to figure out what we should do.  Yes, I don't like animals, but I'm also human and knew that I couldn't leave the abandoned kittens there.  No mama cat in sight.  

I restate my forceful demand to not touch them and go home to look up a shelter or animal rescue place to call.  It's now 6:00 pm.  No one is open.  I finally get a hold of an emergency vet clinic who asks all kinds of questions about their size and where I found them.  She then tells me who to get a hold of in the morning and where I can take them.  

Pause.  In the morning!  That means I have to take care of them....until the morning!  

Back to story.  I told the nice vet clinic lady that I have absolutely no idea how to care for 5 tiny kittens.  She kindly explains where I can get a little bottle and kitten formula to feed them until I take them to the Humane Society the next morning.  Yes.....kitten formula.  Me.  Maggie.  Supposed to go buy kitten formula and feed these kittens.  

So, I found a box and some old towels.  I walked back to the scene where Lucy is now talking to another neighbor who was curious and stopped to see what was going on.  The sprinklers had turned back on, so he helped them move them to a safer spot (yes...she touched them).  

After asking again if we could keep them and getting a very irritated and stern, "Absolutey Not!"  Lucy started another episode of "My Mother is the Meanest Animal Hating Mother in the Universe" as we picked them up and put them in the box.  All the while I'm wondering, "Where is Adrianna's mom?  Why did this happen while Jason was gone?  He would have thought this was kinda fun."  

We get the kittens to the house and Lucy is still going strong with the begging and the pleading.  My patience ran out about the time I finished shampooing my youngest child.  I explained/yelled to her over and over again that I am already WAY outside my comfort zone here and that I needed her to drop it.  This is where the gnashing of teeth began.  Complete meltdown.

I get the boys in their jammies, load them up all up in the car, send Lucy back inside the house to wait because there is no way I'm going to listen to her sobs all the way to and from Pet Smart (we have to get the bottle and formula, remember?).

We go to the store, get the gear, and then make our way back home.  Lucy is still crying, although, the ranting has subsided.  She met me in the garage and says, "Mom!  We HAVE to keep them.  They're brother and sisters and they'll get split up if we don't."  I don't remember how I answered that one, but we eventually made it into the house.  I got the formula in the bottle and attempted to feed one of the kittens.  No go.  Lucy was getting so upset as she watched the expression on my face as I was trying.  I told her, for the tenth time, that I was doing my best and to back off.  I decided this was a job that could wait for my sweetheart who would be returning in less than an hour.  I put a Digourno pizza in the oven (we hadn't had dinner yet) and waited as the kids watched the critters crawl around.  They hadn't moved much until they were dry and warm in the house.  They looked far less diseased and actually kinda cute by this point (still not cute enough to keep, mind you).

Jason finally made it home and was completely amazed that we had the kittens.  By this point, Lucy had stopped begging and was telling me sorry and that she understood that this was hard for me.  We had a couple more talks about how it's okay that I don't love animals as much as she does, but that I love that quality about her.  She was still very, very sad when we talked about taking them to the Humane Society the next day.

Jason was a little bit more successful in trying to feed them, but they still didn't get more than a couple drops each.  They were pretty wiped out from their sprinkler experience.  We finished our Digourno, got the kids to bed and just sat and relaxed.  Jason was in awe of the situation and just as I had predicted, thought it was kinda fun having them for a little bit.  He set his alarm and tried to feed them two other times during the night with very little success.

By morning they were crawling all over each other and seemed much more lively.  Lucy shed a tear or two as she said goodbye before school.  She held each one and spent a little extra time with the orange and white one she name, DJ.  As I'm writing this, I sense some cat lover will read this and think I'm a monster for not letting her keep one.  Let me remind you of the upcoming move to Italy.  Don't judge me.

Jason fed them one more time and they were much more lively and ate a bit more.  I snapped a few more pictures before he left to drive them to Scottsdale to the Humane Society.

It was a stressful event, but one that I won't soon forget.  Even if her incessant begging and crying made my blood boil at times, I love Lucy's tender heart and the fact that she so desperately wanted to help the kittens.  She'll probably have a houseful of dogs and cats when she's older and I'll visit her and pretend not to mind them jumping and crawling all over me.  Hopefully I will have done a good job teaching her how to keep a house clean!!  Although yesterday she informed me that she is going to have a maid.  I asked her how she will teach her kids to work and clean and she said she'd give the maid one day off a week and make her kids clean that day.  Good plan, Lucy.  Good plan.