Zoey

It's been a long time since I last posted and although I am not going to go into everything right at this moment, I do want to write about how annoyingly frustrating this whole adopt-a-new-kitten thing has been. We adopted a"6-month" old kitten from Animal control and after having her for just one week, she got a really bad upper respiratory infection so we went for treatment and found out she is pregnant. So we got her meds etc and went on our merry way...except she stopped eating on her own and dropped most of her weight. So back to the animal hospital we went. She was pretty much on death's door when we brought her in and I was pretty convinced we would have to euthanize her that very night (this was two weekends ago). But Andrew never gave up hope and we brought her home with some syringes, a high calorie diet and some sub-q fluids we were to give her everyday.

She is doing much better now. She has gained all of her weight back and then some, weighing in at 5.2 lbs as of yesterday. She has begun to waddle a little and has two "saddlebags". She is super cute.

So here is the annoyingly frustrating part - we were supposed to drop her off for a spay today but when I called Animal control to cancel, they said that by not spaying her, I am breaking contract and can be fined, held up in court (of which I must pay attorney fees) and they can still take her back. So I went back to the contract and yes, it says all these things. Let me pause for a minute and point out that we adopted her four weeks ago and upon the news her per pregnancy (~1 week after we got her), it was determined she was give-or-take 2-3 weeks along. So they adopted out a pregnant cat - something they are not supposed to do. Then she got really sick (which is normal coming from a shelter - it happens all the time) so we postponed having the surgery.

Although she is better, eating by herself etc, she still has some upper respiratory infection signs like sneezing. We are in the opinion that if we were to spay her (and I've done a ton of research on this) that we would a. knock her back on her butt and b. cause her separation anxiety for the rest of her life.  I am estimating (in my limited knowledge but thorough research) that she is in her 5th week of pregnancy or has just started her 6th week. Surgery on pregnant cats about to enter or well into their third trimester is NOT recommended. (Cat gestation is normally 65-68 days for those of you who were wondering).

So the only way out of this is to provide a letter from a veterinarian stating the medical reasons for a delay in the spay procedure. So I called up Diamond Animal Hospital to see if they would write one. They said no based off of the information they have up until when we brought her there for being super sick and on death's door. What they don't know is that she is pretty much better. They still think she's sickly. I suppose I should have called and updated them, but for right now, as far as I'm concerned, I don't think they deserve to know anything.

So then a vet tech from animal control talked to me and my only option as far as her end is to uphold my contract. But first I need to see if she is healthy enough to even undergo surgery, let alone give birth.

Anyways, to end this long frustration, the woman we have been talking with from an area rescue is meeting us over at a different animal hospital tomorrow evening for a second opinion and a hope that they will write the letter to delay her spay until after the kittens are born. And if not, we will be 'surrendering' her to the rescue with the tale of her backsliding and getting really sick again so that this woman can 'nurse her back to health and deliver her kittens safely'.