Recovery: Day 1

Well, the kittens are home and they are not happy. Can you blame them?

Apparently Zoe decided that the vet techs didn't know what they were doing and chewed her IV out of her leg before they could bandage things up, so she came home looking sort of scraggly and with some bloodstains on her legs. And of course she's clearly in pain-- you can just tell by the way she's walking and such. I let the kittens out of their carrier, and she went to use the litter box, then went under the bed and stayed there.

Malcolm's surgery was later, so he was more affected by the anesthesia when we first got home. He, too, joined Miss Zoe under the bed. A few hours later (almost three after we got home) I went to check on them. Mr. Mal came out pretty quick, and he seems to be almost back to his normal self. He wanted to be in my lap, sucking on my fingers. If I didn't give him my full attention, he was head-butting and purring.

Miss Zoe eventually came out from under the bed. She let me stroke her back just a little, then she sat (kitty loaf style) just out of reach for a few minutes. Then she wandered off to hide in my closet.

I have pain meds for them, which I will try to give them shortly. But I'm worried that in trying to get meds into them I might traumatize them more (and/or have Zoe pull on her stitches.)

In other news, I have added two pictures to the Beatrice collection on Flickr-- both from the vet visit. She spent most of the trip climbing on her forever-mommy, who kindly let me get a picture of them both.

Great news!

I've been sitting on some good news for a while now. Honestly, it's mostly because I'm nervous that if I talk about it, it'll fall through... Regardless, I have decided that my faithful Project-Cat readers should know....

But first, the more immediate good news: Mal and Zoe are both at the vet right now, and have both come through surgery (spaying/neutering) just fine. I'll pick them up in about 2 hours, once Mal is fully awake. I know that vets spay and neuter every day and (knock on wood) I've never had a pet (or feral!) have trouble from it, but of course I was nervous all day, especially when it took longer than I anticipated to hear from the vet. (Turns out she was literally seconds away from calling me, heh.)

There was some question at first as to whether they'd be willing to spay/neuter them so young, but this vet, the same one who saw all three kittens for their last set of shots, had no problem with it. I wanted to them spayed/neutered before they went to their forever homes, as, even though I completely trust the people to whom they are going to live, it seems the most responsible thing to do. (After all, there wouldn't be a Feral Colony outside my door if not for irresponsible people. The people adopting Mal and Zoe are not in anyway irresponsible, but who knows what might happen down the line-- cats go missing, etc.) Anyway, I digress.

But note that I said "the people who are adopting Mal and Zoe." That's the news I've been sitting on. I posted in the past that it's an almost-sure-thing that Mal has a forever home. (We're all still waiting to hear from the landlord of his parents-to-be for confirmation that it's all right.) The new news is that Zoe also has a forever home!! Hurrah!!!

She is going to be a traveling cat! A friend of mine is adopting Miss Zoe for her daughter, who is a student. Zoe will live with the whole family when the daughter is home, and with the daughter and roommates when she is at school. She will have so much love and companionship!!

So keep your fingers crossed that all goes forward as planned. And I'll update again about how the kittens come out of anesthesia and recover at home.