Just a little baby

While we were getting ready for bed on Wednesday night, I heard a little squeaky, raspy sound out front.

I told Eric, "It sounds like a kitten." He agreed.

He went outside with a flashlight, wandered around the front yard for about 10 minutes and found nothing.

We heard the little thing all night long. And he went outside at least four or five more times, looking for it.

As soon as he got to the end of the yard, the noise would stop. Every time.

While we were in the house getting ready for work, we could hear it. It was sounding pretty hoarse. We could tell that whatever it was had no reserves left. It sounded so weak. And helpless. So after it got light out and it was time to go to work, we both went out again, seeing if we could see anything.

Nothing. As soon as we got to the end of the yard, the noises stopped.

Nothing else we could do. Neither one of us slept worth a damn during the night and we'd tried. Got into our respective vehicles and drove off in the usual opposite directions.

When I walked into work, my business phone was ringing.

Eric.

"Mental Daycare Inc."

"Well, I found it."

"You did?? What? Where?"

"It's a kitten. It was in the engine of my truck."

"Oh no. Oh my god, is it dead?"

"Nope. Just has a little oil on it. I got out of my truck to get coffee and could hear it under the hood."

So we figured that he'd take the baby back home and hand it off to our daughter to take care of until the animal shelter opened.

I came home after my shift and checked up on it. Tiny little thing, about the size of a beanie baby.

After Lyssa looked it up on the internet we figured it was about three weeks old.

Lyssa said it had hissed and scratched and been fearful when she first tried to handle it, but that it had calmed down.

This is what the little thing looked like.

When Eric handed it off to her, it was lethargic and not doing very well, I'm sure that had something to do with the stress of losing its mom (we don't know what happened to the mother or how the little one was abandoned) and then crying all night long and getting no response. Oh, and taking a ten minute ride inside the engine compartment of a Ford F-150 after all of that.

One more little stress factor... Eric had put it in the cab of the truck to bring it back home, it was freaked out and hid up behind the glove box. It crawled into some sort of hole back there and Eric had to tear off some of the stuff inside the truck to get to it.

So it was panicky and shaking and at the end of its endurance when he brought it home.

It wasn't even weaned yet, had no idea what to do with food or milk until Lyssa got a dropper to feed it. Then it knew what to do.

Here's the thing. Sometimes, particularly when he's running a little late like he was on Thursday morning, he doesn't stop for coffee. If he hadn't, he would have driven the 30+ minutes to work and that little baby would have died from the heat in the engine compartment. Either that or it would have fallen out and been crushed on the highway.

So we couldn't keep it.
We don't want a cat, there are allergies in the family, and having no pets is working very well for us right now.

I called the animal shelter from the parking lot OF the animal shelter about 8 on Thursday. It's on my way home from work. But I got their answering service, because get this... they don't even open until noon! There were cars all over the parking lot, animal control trucks leaving the lot, dogs barking. But the person on the other end of the phone said that unless it was an emergency, they don't open until noon.

What the hell are my tax dollars being spent on? They charge a ridiculous amount just for the privilege of owning a pet in this county, too. Gah.

So after stopping here at home for a few minutes to check in with Lyssa and the baby,  I went to the monthly site director meeting on the other damn side of town.

When I came home, Lyssa had zipped the little critter into her sweatshirt and they were both napping.

It stayed in her sweatshirt while we drove to the animal shelter and snuggled up with her until she handed it off to the person there.

We learned while waiting that it will be fostered until it's ready to be adopted. There was a lady there with a pet carrier full of kittens. She's a kitty foster parent. The kittens she had looked very much like the one we brought in, only quite a bit bigger and more mature. She said they were about ready to be adopted.

I know that kittens are easy to find homes for. And one advantage of getting a cat from a shelter, you're required to have it spayed/neutered. So you don't end up with abandoned babies in truck engines.

So I am pretty sure the story will have a happy ending. I'm glad the little thing wasn't eaten by a raccoon or some other animal while it cried outside our house all night, and glad Lyssa was home to try to take care of it. Although if she hadn't been home, I would have had to miss the site director meeting to take care of things, so there's that.

I didn't understand when I was younger why it was important to spay and neuter pets.

I posted a photo of the little thing on FB with a small amount of the story and a hope that people will take care of that little operation with their adopted critters.

I'm not a cat person.
But it was awfully hard to see Lyssa hand that baby off to the lady at the shelter.