Kitten Update
This weekend I took my mother on a road trip to San Antonio which I'll write about in a separate entry.
When I got back home, as I was approaching my house I saw Bengal on the road. She had been hit by a car and was dead. The buzzards were already after her so my first thing to do was to dig her a grave and bury her. I cried. I had such hopes for re-establishing the barn kitty population. But that is obviously not to be.
The kittens were still in their little nest. So I got them and put them in a box and took them to the garage. They had just opened their little eyes. I went to the feed store and got some kitten formula and a little bottle to feed them with. They would NOT take the nipple until the next morning when Christie was able to get them to eat.
So on Monday morning I stayed home from work and called all the animal shelters in the vicinity including Austin. BTW for the record Austin is NOT a no-kill shelter.
I was fortunate or rather the kittens were fortunate that at the Bastrop County shelter, they had a lactating queen. The lady there at the shelter, Sandy, took the kittens and put them with her and she immediately adopted them. The little mother has 8 kittens now. She's being well fed and should have no trouble nursing all these babies. Sandy could not guarantee anything but told me that there was a good chance that all the kittens would be adopted. She also promised me that when they got to adoptable age that she would call me if no one else adopted them and we would let them take their chances at my barn rather than just killing them.
I gave the shelter a donation of money and a big bag of cat food I had bought for Bengal. I have a very high regard for Sandy at the shelter who could have just blown me off and didn't.
This was the most viable option for the kittens that I found. Christie and I do not have time to hand raise 3 kittens. The vet hospital in Elgin wouldn't even do kitten day care for me. They claimed they were too short handed.
Its not the perfect outcome yet but it has the potential to be. I've done the best I can do by these guys.
When I got back home, as I was approaching my house I saw Bengal on the road. She had been hit by a car and was dead. The buzzards were already after her so my first thing to do was to dig her a grave and bury her. I cried. I had such hopes for re-establishing the barn kitty population. But that is obviously not to be.
The kittens were still in their little nest. So I got them and put them in a box and took them to the garage. They had just opened their little eyes. I went to the feed store and got some kitten formula and a little bottle to feed them with. They would NOT take the nipple until the next morning when Christie was able to get them to eat.
So on Monday morning I stayed home from work and called all the animal shelters in the vicinity including Austin. BTW for the record Austin is NOT a no-kill shelter.
I was fortunate or rather the kittens were fortunate that at the Bastrop County shelter, they had a lactating queen. The lady there at the shelter, Sandy, took the kittens and put them with her and she immediately adopted them. The little mother has 8 kittens now. She's being well fed and should have no trouble nursing all these babies. Sandy could not guarantee anything but told me that there was a good chance that all the kittens would be adopted. She also promised me that when they got to adoptable age that she would call me if no one else adopted them and we would let them take their chances at my barn rather than just killing them.
I gave the shelter a donation of money and a big bag of cat food I had bought for Bengal. I have a very high regard for Sandy at the shelter who could have just blown me off and didn't.
This was the most viable option for the kittens that I found. Christie and I do not have time to hand raise 3 kittens. The vet hospital in Elgin wouldn't even do kitten day care for me. They claimed they were too short handed.
Its not the perfect outcome yet but it has the potential to be. I've done the best I can do by these guys.