One of my websites www.kitten-rescue.com a labor of love between me and a fellow rescuer who happens to live across the world from me, garners a lot of email, especially during this time of year (kitten season). Some of the emails break my heart, others anger me, taking to me a dark place where I swear if I could I would hang every animal abuser in the world. I don’t like to go there though and thankfully, I don’t often. Others, give me hope. That there are others such as I was so many moons ago, who after finding my website, decide to take the plunge. They sacrifice their life for a long period of time, to bottle feed every few hours round the clock, agonize over every breath a little kitten takes, second-guess themselves trying to figure out if the kitten is going to fade or thrive. Many times, I get follow up emails after I reach out. The kitten has grown, the person has kept the kitten and I get updates from time to time about how much love this kitten is capable of giving someone.
Tonight, I received a sad email. In a town about 75 miles from me, there is litter of kittens. I believe the queen is out the picture (details are still sketchy). Several in the litter have already faded. Four remain, three are thriving, one is not. The person who has found themselves in this situation, is overwhelmed at the responsibility that round-the-clock bottle feeding can cause. They want to surrender the kitten over to me. They DO NOT want to take it to the vet. It sounds to me like the kitten is quite ill, more than likely he/she is the runt of the litter. They do thrive, they just do it later.
I wrote back that I am willing to make the drive to pick up the kitten. But it is going on 11:00 p.m. It is possible that the person didn’t expect a response so quickly. I know from past experience when you contact rescue organizations, you rarely get a quick return. So I wait, and I pray that this kitten has the staying power to hang in one more day until I can get to her/him to see if I can help.