Sorry to share bad news :(

Although I like to think my blog is a source of motivation and entertainment, it’s also a great outlet for my current thoughts and feelings.  I like to keep it real here, and share my struggles as well as my achievements with everyone, because that’s life.  Highs and lows.   Well this past weekend we had pretty bad low.

As you may know, we have been fostering kittens from the Humane Society for the past few years.  We’ve had several litters of kittens already this year and I actually thought we were done already this year – until I saw that the Humane Society had a bunch of kittens they needed homes for.  We were going to get a litter of 5 kittens, but then we were asked to watch over a partial litter of 3 kittens.  These kittens had already been in a foster home with their siblings and their mama, but were too little still to be adoptable.  Kittens have to reach a certain weight to be able to have their spay/neutering surgery, which is why they go into foster care until they reach that weight.  We were told they still needed another 2 or 3 weeks in foster care.

The foster director mentioned that these three kittens didn’t seem to be eating much.   Maybe they were depressed?  She thought it would help to have them in a home where they could get more attention and that might help them.  Depressed kittens??  awwwwww.  That just tugged at my heart.

I picked up the three little kittens on Thursday.  They are adorable little black kittens!   And yes, one was particularly lighter than the other two.  They are also well behaved kittens.  But was the little one being bullied, and maybe that’s why it’s not eating enough?  I didn’t see it happening.  They were playful, but not too mischievous.  I can leave the screen door open and not worry about any of them climbing up to the top of it.  Excellent!

“no, I am not your mommy”

The kittens have been known to make us fall asleep with their cuddling behavior.  (don’t mind the “fancy” furnishings… want to make sure our couch stays clean with little pets around!)

They make excellent beards too!

Saturday night we decided to go out to dinner.  Before we left for dinner, I had just finished offering different types of food to the kittens – but the little one still only took one taste of it, and then walked away from it.  You’d think the little guy would be hungry at some point, but never seems to be.

We had a good dinner out with some friends, and when we came home, we were greeted by two kittens – but the third, small one remained laying on the couch.  I started to panic when we checked on him but it was almost like he was in a deep sleep – still breathing, not very responsive.

Thankfully I got in touch with the foster director very quickly.  After discussing the situation with the foster director, we ended up taking the kitten to the emergency hospital.  He was curled up in a tiny ball on Sydney’s lap, being comforted by her during the entire trip.  Sadly, by the time we had reached the hospital, the kitten had passed away.  We cried so much on the trip home. 🙁  How in the world did this happen so quickly??  That kitten was just walking around our kitchen hours before, with no visible issues.  The best I can think of is that he had a birth defect that wasn’t able to be detected yet.  Something kept him from wanting to eat.  🙁

I’m so sorry to share this sad story with you. Such a terrible thing to go through.  The other kittens are still doing pretty good, but I’m still watching their weights like a hawk, as you can imagine.  Our hearts were broken to lose this little guy.  I’m still shocked by it all, and very saddened – as I’m sure all of you know that feeling from losing a dear pet.  He will be missed terribly.  I hope we never have to experience anything like this again.  I did a Google search and came up with something called Fading Kitten Syndrome, but not sure if that is for kittens younger than these or not.

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That’s all I have today.  🙁  Please share some good news, I’d love to hear some!!