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Kudos! We’re almost out of the doldrums—YAY! Soon, people will be returning from vacation, will foster and adopt kitties, will begin donating again, and the sanctuary will empty a little.
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Uschi and her kittens who were born on July 30th.
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Uschi and Her Kittens
WARNING: This is another difficult story in that it involves the unavoidable deaths of kittens.
Uschi was rescued by a lady by that name and we named her rescued cat after her. Uschi the cat was very pregnant. VERY pregnant! We didn’t know if she would make it to the sanctuary. Turns out she wasn’t as far along as we thought: she had eight kittens in her! Mother cats usually give birth to four, but we consider six a large litter.
On Thursday, July 29, she began crying almost non-stop. We took her to the vet and they could find nothing wrong. We brought her home where she continued crying. If someone went to stand outside her cage and talk to her, she was silent. On Friday one of our staff members spent about 30 minutes telling her a story. After that she quieted down for about six hours before she became vocal again.
She screamed with the first delivery. We figured this was her first pregnancy—Thundering Paws Home for Teenage Pregnancy strikes again. Everyone came running but saw nothing amiss in the glop of black fur. Uschi is a mostly black tuxedo and there were two black and two tuxedo kittens in her cage by that time, all nursing. She delivered four more and we left her alone for the night after feeding her and telling her what a good job she was doing. There was no more crying.
Saturday morning, we began sorting, identifying, and weighing kittens. It was quickly discovered that there were four kittens entangled in the umbilical cord of one of them! We tried to separate them, but we couldn’t so we rushed them to the vet. Unfortunately, two of the kittens died due to this entangling, and we are sorry that one more baby died of what is called Fading Kitten Syndrome. The Kitten Lady has a protocol for this emergency and, while we followed it, he couldn’t be saved.
Why did the kittens become entangled? We don’t know. It happened en utero, and delivering the four together made her scream, poor girl. Her crying for 48 hours before delivery was telling us, I think, that something was wrong. I so wish they could speak! Or that I could interpret them accurately.
Clyde, Ronnie, Harold, Beau Two, and Beau Three are doing well, gaining weight and growing.
 You all have seen pictures of our inside/outside cat named Beauregard, Beau, who is a TNVR (Trap/Neuter/Vaccinate/Return) cat. We thought he was feral—heck, HE thought he was feral—until he was neutered and had his entropion corrected. Entropion is a condition in which the eyelid is positioned inward so that the eyelashes rub on the eyeball. It’s an easy surgical correction, and once he was out of pain, he became the sweetest kitty ever. Here’s a refresher picture.
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Here’s Beau Two. We think he has a perfect Beau face, but as baby kittens grow, their markings increase. He may or may not turn out to look as Beau-like as we think.
Here’s Beau Three. He doesn’t have the white lower face of our sweet Beauregard, or Beau One, but the black face with the white chin reminds us of him.
We know Beaus Two and Three will turn out to be as precious and dear as Beau One. As will Ronnie, Clyde, and Harold, the black kittens. All are distinguished by small white markings.
Just so you know: we won’t hold a kitten or consider adopting one out until they’re totally vetted. Check back around November 1 for these babies.
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October 23, 2021—Get Ready to Strut!
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It’s time to join the Thundering Paws Strut Your Mutt 2021 team, and raise much-needed funds for our kitties. You can walk your dog or your cat since it’s virtual this year! If you’re not up for joining the team, please send this link, or post it on FB, to friends who might be interested. The more the merrier!
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We will soon have a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) page on our website. One of our board members is the DEI Coordinator at her workplace and is helping us to develop this document.
But a document without action is useless. We will be compiling a manual and putting in place an internship program to introduce wannabe rescuers to the joys and pitfalls of cat rescue. The program will be aimed at the next generation, however, the point is to be inclusive of everyone.
We have a staff, all of whom I have hired. If a potential staff member walks in the door and immediately introduces themself to me, they might as well just turn around and leave. If on the other hand, they walk in the door and exclaim, “AWWW! KITTIES!” they’re well on their way to getting hired. That will be part of the test for the interns, of course.
Stay tuned for details as we figure out this program.
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Thank you for everything you do for us, and for animals.
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