Ooh That Smell

It was 2006 and I had just lost my love, Boris.  He was a 17 year old black and white tuxedo cat.  The love of my life.  A total mama's boy.  His sister, Natasha (naturally) had passed away 2 years earlier.  Boris held on even though he was the sickly one.  But after having him boarded at our vets office while we were on vacation, he wasn't the same.  He was old, and not well and having his Mama away from him for a week was more than he could take and we lost him a week later.

Sick Boris

I wanted to wait awhile before getting any new kitties.  I just wasn't ready to do it again.  Losing my boy was very hard.  But my vet was kind of relentless.  He had 3 kittens, littermates, that he was taking care of and he wanted them to go to a good home.  Mine.  But I couldn't. It was July and we were planning on being kitty free until at least the next year.  The more time that went by the more we hated walking into an empty house.  No kitty greeting.  No kitty on my lap in the evenings.  No kitty love at all.  It sucked!   So six weeks after losing Boris, my vet called again still having all three kittens and wondered if we might be ready.  We were and decided to take all three.

Armed with one large cat carrier we headed to our vets main office which is about an hour from where we live.  When we got there, we were able to go into one of the exam rooms and play with them a little and see if we really wanted all three.  We did.  They were now four months old and had all their shots already.  So off we went, heading home with our new family.

After about 20 minutes on the road a very strong and very vile smell started to permeate the car.  The kitties were crying their little hearts out, confused about what was happening to them.  And the smell, the smell!!!   It was horrible.  All we could figure was that one, two or all of them had pooped in the carrier.  We still had about 40 minutes of our drive to go and seriously, I can't stress this enough, the smell was horrendous!   I was sticking my head out the window while I was driving just trying to get some fresh air.  Nothing worked.  The plan was to pull over, go in the back seat with the carrier, open the door and pull out the padding in the bottom and just discard it. Hopefully getting rid of the poop in the process.  What I saw when I got back there and opened the carrier were three sad little kittens covered in poop.  Removing the pad wasn't going to do a damn thing help the situation.

Think, think... what can we do?   Getting them home and cleaned them up was going to be difficult.  My house does not have a washtub and we'd have to clean them up in the bathtub.  Ew.  Plus I don't think I could have handled the stench for much longer.  Then I remembered that our vet's other office, the one we normally go to, was on our way home.  Maybe, just maybe, someone was there and they could help us.  So we headed there at lightning speed.  And when we arrived we were happy to see that our vets wife was in fact there.

But the bad news was, she was leaving to attend a wedding and no one else was there.  What now?   She called the veterinary assistant who lived only a few blocks away to see if she could come and help us out.  And thankfully she was available and came right away.  When she came in that door, she took complete charge.  She put the carrier in the big washtub they have in the back and one by one she took out a kitty and hosed them down and cleaned them up, holding them all by the scruff of the neck so they wouldn't squirm too much.  As each was cleaned, she handed them off to us and we towel dried them then put them in one of the cages.   Then she completely washed out our carrier.  She saved us!

Wet kitties

With profuse thanks, we gathered up our new family and got ready to head home when our savior mentions that she had wanted one of the kittens and was disappointed to learn that we had taken all three.  The decision was pretty easy.  If she wanted one, she should have one.  She came out of her way to help us, did all the work and asked for nothing in return (although in hindsight, maybe she was asking for one of the kittens but it didn't seem like it at the time).  She wanted the one we had named Rudy, with the white spots.  The other two are mostly gray.   So we gave her Rudy and headed home with Murphy and Jett.

Murphy and Jett have been nothing but pure joy.   They fit into our household perfectly and seamlessly.  But we were psyched up for three and couldn't get our minds off getting one more.  Our wonderful vet said he would be on the lookout for another one for us and hopefully this time we would get an orange one (he remembered that I had originally wanted an orange kitty).   

A few months later, we got the call.  He had more kittens and one was orange.  They actually were from the same mommy kitty of Murphy and Jett, so he would be their step brother!  He asked me if I still wanted him and I told him if I came there to see him, I'd be taking him home.  He knew.  And I went.  And I came home with six week old Bowie.  And life has never been the same!   Bowie took over this house from the minute he set his paws in it!   And he's still in charge, 5 years later =)

Little Bowie