I: My Sweet Dee

For my very first blog, I was going to write about something like the whole Swine Flu issue, or something frightning to me like that, However, I feel it nessissary to brag about my beautiful little new born, Sweet Dee, instead!!!


Isn't she just the cutest? We were blessed with a pair of undeniably adorable kittens recently. My wife, Christa, called me one morning at work with a strange, but curious sound to her voice. "Hey sweetie," she says. "Are you in a good mood today?" She asks with a noticable smile in the sound of her voice. Not sure how I should answer, so I reply "Yeah I am in a pretty good mood today, why do you ask?" At this point I knew I was probably getting myself into something crazy, but I didn't mind.


Christa then began to tell me that her aunt awoke one morning to the sounds of two kitties underneath her recliner! One of the neighborhood friendly wild kitties appearently thought it was a much safer place to hide her little ones. The problem was, was that she wasn't really around, and we could only assume that she didn't want to take care of them.


I didn't take much to convince me to let them stay at our house and take care of them. Upon arriving, I bore witness to two of the most prescious creatures I have ever seen. A beautiful silver/grey coloured kitten, and an adorable orange kitten. Christa claimed that we didn't have to keep them if I didn't want to. There was even talk that if we wanted to, we could keep one and give the other to her aunt down the road, after they had grown up. However, none of these claims seemed nessissary to me, as I wanted to keep them both. ^.^


Taking care of them was going to be no easy feat though, and I knew that from the start. Fortunately, this was not Christa's first time bottle feeding, and taking care of a newborn kitty. She had done it once before, with a kitty that currently lives with her mother. That healthy kitty, by the name of LaFonda, gave birth to several kitties, which created the family of kitties that her mother now has at her house. In addition to Dee, we have 2 other adult cats as well, Pooh, and Sam. Pooh, also came from one of LaFonda's litters.


As you probably could have imagined, the little tikes were a handfull. Waking up every 2 hours to feed them and make sure they went to the bathroom, while trying to maintain a healthy sleep pattern is pretty difficult. I more or less thought of this experience as a "Fatherhood for Dummies". Though I know a Kitten and a Infant Child are 2 COMPLETELY different beings, the fundamentals are the same. For someone who has had little, to no experience in raising anything young, this was a pretty big step for me, and a great experience for me and Christa to communicate and work together to take care of them.


Taking care of them had been very stressful, but at the same time rewarding. We had kept up with vet check-ups with them, made sure they were eating right and using the restroom constantly. All seemed to be going very well for the brother and sister couple... untill we began running into complications with Charlie. His stomach was very tight and he always ate alot. This to us, wasn't a bad thing, with the exception of a tight, swollen stomach. Within the next couple of days, he began throwing up a lot of formula that he had been drinking. Since it was a weekend, we decided to take him to the Emergency Animal Hospital in Gilbert, with the hopes that maybe, dispite his young age, there would be something that could be done for him. They suggested that we change formulas, and they gave him fluids since he looked a bit dehydrated.


The following day he was doing so much better. Eating more, no vomit, no complications other than a slightly swollen stomach. We had hopes again, as it seemed that he was back on track to growing up. The following morning, he threw up again, and continued throughout the day. At this point we knew there probably wasn't much hope for him... but took him to the vet again for one final checkup. They said that there appears to be a stomach defect in his tummy, but without $1000 doller diagnotics fee, we wouldnt know for sure. He was going to the restroom just fine in both area's, but the stomach was not digesting the food quick enough, thus causing him to throw up most excess formula he consumed. The doctors also told us that he had fluid in his lungs, obviously from the constant vomitting. We had to make the difficult dicision of putting him down. He went quietly and peacefully... rest in peace little Charlie. We love you little buddy, and miss you terribly.


That was a very difficult day, and we burried him in our backyard, and said our goodbyes. But alas, we still have one more, strong, healthy, and adorable baby. The other 2 cats, Sam and Pooh, are still getting used to her, and probably see her more as a treat, but I am sure in time they will play fine soon enough! She is growing stronger everyday, and is becoming more and more or a pain in the ass! She plays with us, and loves to bat at Christa's hair. She absolutely LOVES her pink little belly rubbed, and loves to lay down all sprawled out, much similar to our kitty Sam, who we think was cross-bred with a racoon. I just got word that she has little teeth out now! Can't wait till she's all grown up!