Thank you all so much for your thoughtful donations to the Ottawa Cat Rescue Network.
You have been incredibly generous and I can't stress enough how much they appreciate your help. Your donations, prayers and good wishes for Molly and her nine kittens gives them such comfort.
Dear Kari - I read your comment and was told that there is no problem with them cashing a U.S. money order. Thank you so much.
I have an email that arrived today with a thorough update on how they are doing.
The president of the Ottawa Cat Rescue Network, Louise Hindel, writes...
Thank you so much, Debby. I went into my internet and saw all these donations and thought "what is going on?" I thought Santa-Claws had come early. I will send individual thank you's but send you the updates. The vet costs and KMR are going to be astronomical for this mother and litter; $2500 if all goes well. If Molly gets mastitis or hypocalcaemia; or a kitten gets sick, well I don't even want to think about that.
Molly delivered them all by herself. Carolyn, the foster, stayed with her, just in case, and assisted the kittens to find the nipples, but Molly delivered them, cleaned them off, licked them until they took their first breath, ate the cord and placenta, and nudged them to her nipples. Carolyn went to bed after 5 had been delivered within 1 hour, figuring it was all over. The next morning she found four more in their little groups.
Molly is smart. She separated them into three groups of two-three- and four. She only has 4 working nipples right now so she is making sure nobody is denied a meal. Carolyn put them all together but Molly regrouped them. Molly is now hiding them under the bed, telling us to 'get lost and not interfere with her feeding plan'. The kittens are not crying and Molly even ventured out into the dining room when the foster was eating chicken and looked at her as if to say "where's mine?".
I set up an account at Critter Jungle, so the Carolyn can pick up more KMR when she is running low. We are supplementing Molly with KMR and kitten food, so she can recycle it to her kittens. When they are 2 to 3 weeks old we can safely try to supplement the kittens directly on a rotating basis to keep some of the pressure off the mother. We can't let her calcium drop or her heart will stop and we will then have a dead mother and nine kittens who most likely won't make it. The next three weeks will be the most critical. We will ween the kittens early, but they will still be fed by Molly too. Molly will ween them completely when she is ready, but at least, if partially weened, Molly will not be depleted too much. The next three weeks are critical; if only we can get them through.
There are 3 tortoiseshells (so females), 2 white harlequins with brown spots, 2 orange, 2 beige.
So, that is the latest on Molly. Hasn't she done amazing for a cat only a little over a year old herself. I'll keep you posted as I hear updates during this crucial next three weeks. Keep her in your thoughts, please and if you care to donate please go to this link .http://www.catrescuenetwork.org/
On to cat-sitting...
This is my darling kitty-client,
Twinkle. Although this is a photo I took of him years back he is still a lovely tabby cat. I'm looking forward to caring for him soon.
Around our home, the first decorations to go up at Christmas is our display of little trees.
I love the
Christmas tree and have collected little trees for the past few years. It's a small collection but well-loved. The white box has three ceramic evergreens that belonged to my mom. They are a treasure to me.
Time to take them out of the boxes and dust them off.
Annie was busy washing up after breakfast while I 'played' for awhile. There is nothing that
Annie misses when it comes to Christmas. I'm sure she'll be in all my decorating photos. She loves it all.
On Friday I will provide you with a list of important things to ask your
'cat-sitter' before you leave on your holidays.
hugs, Deb
