Our Furry Family

Well, things in our "furry family" have been changing quite a bit. About a week and a half ago my good friend Stephanie helped me do a very difficult thing. We took our big dog, Posum, and let her go to sleep. Easy had Posum before we started dating. I always joked and said that she was "just part of the package." And even thought she drove me bonkers with her barking and digging and her "oh-my-goodness" stinky smell, it was really hard. The plan was to just drop her off at our vet clinic and not stay. That's not what happened though. One our Easy's cousins is a vet and Karla saw on the log that I was bringing Posum in. She called and told me to bring her out to Aunt Pat's and that she would do it herself. In some ways this is good because it saved us some $, but it feels wrong to think about $. Anyway, I wound up sitting in the back of Stephanie's truck holding her as she got her sleepy shot. I lost it. The good new is though, she doesn't hurt any more. Paris took the news as well as could be expected. We're still praying for Posum at night, but last night was the first time she acknowledge in prayer that Posum was dead. Easy has been OK. He had one cry. I think he was just releived that he didn't have to do any of it himself. She was, afterall, his dog. And there is something special between men and their dogs.

On another furry note, I am becoming an expert at birthing kittens! Our garage cat Rufus went into labor. This morning when I went to load the kids in the burb I found what I thought was a kitten that didn't make it in the middle of our driveway! I went and checked on Rufus - she was obviously still in labor so I just loaded up the kids and took them to school. I came back home ready to get Rufus some clean water and food, a box with a towel in it and to "take care" of the kitten in the driveway. When I got home she was having #2 in one of our old strollers. Thank goodnes it's one we don't use and weren't planning to pass on because it's so worn out! I got started preparing things for her and when she heard me get the food she just got up and came looking for me - with a kitten hanging out! As she was walking around she finished birthing it and it just fell on the floor and she walked away. She never even looked at it! So, I grabbed another towel, picked up the poor little thing, rubbed it down with the towel, put it in the box and put Rufus in their with it trying to get her to be a mommy. She would stay until I walked off and then she just got up and left it. I got her back in the box and went out to the driveway to tend to the other kitten only to discover that it was mewing and crawling around! So, I sccoped it up and rubbed it off and brought it in to the box - which Rufus had abandoned again. I put her back in and made her lay down and tried to get the kittens close enought they could latch on and ran for the phone. Yea! Cousin Karla was available at the clinic and told me what I needed to do. I have now removed the placenta from both kittens (that's right folks - I REMOVED THE PLACENTAS!) and brought them all into the utility room. I had to sit there and make Rufus stay in the box until they latched on. I took a while, but she is now staying in the box by herself and letting them nurse. Praise God! I was not interested in tube feeding kittens! I have no idea if there are any more coming or not. She's a very young cat so she just may have the two. I'm currently calling them driveway and stroller. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.....................

A quick update, Rufus had #3 a little while ago, I'm calling it Quilt because she got out of the box and on my quilt that was waiting to be washed to have it. She did better with this one, washing the kitten itself, but I still had to do the removal of the placenta. She wouldn't stay in the box with the kittens until I had done that. I guess she thinks it's gross....I know I do!

Let's add one more, I'm calling it Last. Let's pray that it is.