Furry Friday: never give up Hope
2010-Nov-19, Friday 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerWhen this stray kitten first came to the Saint Paul shelter, she was nearly dead. I'm just a computer technician, but I happened to be there at the receiving desk while working on a problem at their pc. A worried woman came in and handed me a cardboard box. The kitten in that box had a cold body, barely open eyes, terrible sounding voice, and she was laying flat on her very skinny side. On a 9-point scale for body condition, she was given a score of 2.
Much later, I got to speak with one of the vet techs who treated her that day. They considered euthanizing her because she was so far gone already. One of them said, "Never give up hope," so they continued working on her. From that sentiment, they immediately knew what name to give her. Hope survived the night. After she stabilized, Hope came to stay with me for a few weeks in foster care while I gave her medications and food from the shelter. I adopted her permanently when she finally reached that stage in her journey through the Animal Humane Society.
One of my landlords (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
foeclan ) drove me out to the Saint Paul shelter to pick her up last Saturday. After her foster experience here, she was away for only 2 days during her spay surgery and recovery. She immediately recognized the territory when we got back home. She ran downstairs to the basement to her familiar location for food, water, and litterbox. She's so comfortable here that after only a few more days, she was already sleeping in the living room on top of my other landlord (joshuwain ). You can still see her bare belly and the tattoo ink at the incision for her spay surgery.
She's a big fan of technology. In her first 15 minutes in my bedroom, she managed to shred my earbuds while I wasn't looking. I was distracted dealing with network outages at two of our work locations during the heavy snow fall and power outages that Saturday. Later, I discovered that she enjoys the graphics effects in one of my pc games. Here she is watching me play Torchlight. She tried to help me stomp out zombies at one point. Fun times; we destroyed the undead horde together.
Hope likes watching the ripples in the water fountain. She spends many minutes each day watching them roll across the surface.
Hope likes playing with dry cat food and clay litter. She thinks it's great fun to paw at them and drag them out of their terrible confinement, spreading them around the floor to enjoy their freedom. I'm hoping she gives up that interest soon.
I'm also hoping that T'Reese (the resident cat of 13 years) adjusts sooner rather than later to this family addition. Hope is too playful and wants to pounce everyone all the time. T'Reese is no player and gets very hissy instead. My sleep is interrupted every 30-90 minutes as they get into another tiff. It's beginning to wear down my energy level. T'Reese is voluntarily sleeping on the bed with me again, as far away from the kitten as possible. It's been a whole week now, and there have been no serious incidents, so I think the worst is probably past.
Hope is gaining health steadily. She's still too skinny, but she's definitely growing up very quickly. She's small enough to crawl underneath my bedroom door, but I think that adventure may end in another week or two when she's finally too big to fit.
Thank you to the children who found Hope outside a neighbor's house, and they didn't just walk away from responsibility. Thank you to the mother who tried to feed Hope, and she brought the stray kitten to the Saint Paul shelter when she wouldn't eat or drink. Thank you to the receiving staff who knew what to do with the dangerously ill kitten, since I certainly wasn't equipped to handle the dire situation that day. Thank you to the vet techs who decided to give her every fighting chance to survive, and they warmed her cold body and force fed fluids and sustenance.
She's an energetic little ball of fluff who befriends everyone that she meets. She's a shoulder cat, and she's a lap cat with a prominent purr. She's an adventurer whose curiosity never withers under the hissy retorts of the resident cat. She's a little warrior who pounces my head to wake me up at 7am (even though I usually sleep until 10am). She's a vocal communicator with a very pretty trill.
Never give up Hope.
Much later, I got to speak with one of the vet techs who treated her that day. They considered euthanizing her because she was so far gone already. One of them said, "Never give up hope," so they continued working on her. From that sentiment, they immediately knew what name to give her. Hope survived the night. After she stabilized, Hope came to stay with me for a few weeks in foster care while I gave her medications and food from the shelter. I adopted her permanently when she finally reached that stage in her journey through the Animal Humane Society.
One of my landlords (foeclan ) drove me out to the Saint Paul shelter to pick her up last Saturday. After her foster experience here, she was away for only 2 days during her spay surgery and recovery. She immediately recognized the territory when we got back home. She ran downstairs to the basement to her familiar location for food, water, and litterbox. She's so comfortable here that after only a few more days, she was already sleeping in the living room on top of my other landlord (joshuwain ). You can still see her bare belly and the tattoo ink at the incision for her spay surgery.She's a big fan of technology. In her first 15 minutes in my bedroom, she managed to shred my earbuds while I wasn't looking. I was distracted dealing with network outages at two of our work locations during the heavy snow fall and power outages that Saturday. Later, I discovered that she enjoys the graphics effects in one of my pc games. Here she is watching me play Torchlight. She tried to help me stomp out zombies at one point. Fun times; we destroyed the undead horde together.
Hope likes watching the ripples in the water fountain. She spends many minutes each day watching them roll across the surface.Hope likes playing with dry cat food and clay litter. She thinks it's great fun to paw at them and drag them out of their terrible confinement, spreading them around the floor to enjoy their freedom. I'm hoping she gives up that interest soon.
I'm also hoping that T'Reese (the resident cat of 13 years) adjusts sooner rather than later to this family addition. Hope is too playful and wants to pounce everyone all the time. T'Reese is no player and gets very hissy instead. My sleep is interrupted every 30-90 minutes as they get into another tiff. It's beginning to wear down my energy level. T'Reese is voluntarily sleeping on the bed with me again, as far away from the kitten as possible. It's been a whole week now, and there have been no serious incidents, so I think the worst is probably past.
Hope is gaining health steadily. She's still too skinny, but she's definitely growing up very quickly. She's small enough to crawl underneath my bedroom door, but I think that adventure may end in another week or two when she's finally too big to fit.Thank you to the children who found Hope outside a neighbor's house, and they didn't just walk away from responsibility. Thank you to the mother who tried to feed Hope, and she brought the stray kitten to the Saint Paul shelter when she wouldn't eat or drink. Thank you to the receiving staff who knew what to do with the dangerously ill kitten, since I certainly wasn't equipped to handle the dire situation that day. Thank you to the vet techs who decided to give her every fighting chance to survive, and they warmed her cold body and force fed fluids and sustenance.
She's an energetic little ball of fluff who befriends everyone that she meets. She's a shoulder cat, and she's a lap cat with a prominent purr. She's an adventurer whose curiosity never withers under the hissy retorts of the resident cat. She's a little warrior who pounces my head to wake me up at 7am (even though I usually sleep until 10am). She's a vocal communicator with a very pretty trill.
Never give up Hope.
Wonderful!
Date: 2010-Nov-19, Friday 04:26 pm (UTC)-K
no subject
Date: 2010-Nov-19, Friday 09:32 pm (UTC)but what caption?
silly human, doors can't stop me
no subject
Date: 2010-Nov-22, Monday 04:34 am (UTC)