something goopy
November 10, 2001

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Reading:
The Gilgit Game by John Keay, Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome

This Year's Reading:
2001 Book List

Photos

Grecoe

Lady

Reebok

Rose Red (Snow White's Sister)

That cute round-faced Ringo is still in the sick room, along with about a million other cats suffering from Upper Respiratory Infection. OK, so 16 is not a million, but it's definitely not a good thing. The main room is pretty empty. Well, empty of cats. It's actually crowded with adopters. There are so many people in here adopting kittens and cats that I can hardly move to take pictures of the new cats and Reebok, a returnee.

No word on why Reebok got returned. He's a huge cuddly boy who is totally deaf and does not like other cats at all. You can pick him up and cradle him in your arms like a baby and he doesn't mind one bit. Sweet guy.

The conventional wisdom, or old wives tale, says that white cats with one blue eye and one green eye are always deaf. Both Reebok's eyes are blue and he's definitely deaf. Rose Red, who just came in is gorgeously white with one blue eye and one green eye. She doesn't seem deaf, but I decide to check it out. I clap my hands really loudly to see if she startles. She does. So do Fiona, and Opal, and all the cats nearby. They all calm down and Rose Red curls up to sleep in her litter box (luckily clean).

I start neatening up around the sink, trying to make the place look as respectable as it normally does when it's open for adoptions. For some reason, much laundry is in places where laundry doesn't belong. I pick up some dirty towels and find a stack of Navy Times under them. Bob and Roy must still be trading back issues on Wednesday mornings. Either that or Sandy stashes them there because they remind him of Roy and donuts. Anyway, I put the dirty towels in the laundry room, the litter scoops in the closet, the dirty dishes in the sink with a little detergent and bleach, and stack the Navy Times neatly at the end of the counter.

A man and woman who came to drop off some donated stuff found a scrawny black kitten in the parking lot. Someone must have dropped it off. I didn't see it there when I came in, but it could have been behind the shed. It's got something goopy in its eye. That could be from an URI or it could be some kind of eye infection or who knows what. Yuck.

Anne gives the kitten some baby food and it gobbles it up like it's starving. It's so emaciated it must have been without food quite some time. I suggest giving it some water but it won't drink it. Diluting the baby food with some water does seem to get some fluids into the poor kitten, so we stick with that strategy.

I suggest calling Leslie immediately to find a kitten foster home that has room for Goopy Eye Kitten as we can't keep it here, especially with URI going around. For a kitten already in a weakened state, a plain old kitty cold can be fatal. And I'm none too sure that goopy eye is non-contagious either. We definitely don't want an outbreak of goopy eye, whatever its actual cause may be. Fortunately, Anne and Leslie find a foster home on the first try while I'm busy explaining to the guy who found Goopy Eye Kitten that he, the guy, can't catch feline upper respiratory infection.

It's a madhouse even with Goopy Eye taken care of. I take off for a veggie sub (at Angelina's) and a cup of coffee (at Fowle's) before heading down to South Station (a loooonng drive from Newburyport) to pick up Nancy at the bus.

Please spay/neuter your pet.