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Scampering Campers

Tuesday
9/7/2010

Given their fat and sassy demeanors today, it's hard to believe the Campers were losing weight and suffering from diarrhea and vomiting less than a week ago. Led by Metronidazole, the meds have done the trick, as they usually do. The poop in the box is still a bit soft, but Scottie's perpetually slick butt is a distant memory now, and all five kits are chowing heartily on canned food and kitten chow. Check out those weight gains!

Like the FIFAs before them, the Campers are a posse of peep-loving purr-bunnies. When we enter the room, they drop everything and immediately cluster around our legs, mewing to be picked up. If we sit on futon or the floor, they're climbing on top of us within seconds.

After they've crawled on and around us for a few minutes, they shift into climbing-jumping-chasing-wrestling mode while we sit back and enjoy the cheap entertainment. And now Scottie is right in the middle of the action – and really for the first time, he looks and acts like a normal kitten!

His biggest issue is keeping clean, since he's so enthusiastic about meals that he can't resist wading into the canned food dish with his front legs. I often stand over him while the gang eats and block him as he tries (15 or 20 times) to climb into the food.

We still find an occasional flea when we comb the Campers, but that problem is subsiding rapidly. So as far as we can tell, it looks like fair skies and smooth sailing ahead in the villa.

Then why did the end of Labor Day weekend seem so reminiscent of Memorial Day weekend, when the five pneumonia-kittens we called Les Miserables were dying one by one in the nursery?

Because we picked up two very sick kittens (one gray, one orange and white) at 11am on Labor Day, after the couple who found them brought them to the Homeward Trails office. Their eyes were glued shut, their breathing was audible from six feet away, and their gums and paw-pads were white, from flea-based anemia and lack of oxygenation.

They shared those traits with Les Miz. But they were also starving to death. We think they're about the same age as the Campers, but they weigh half as much.

We've been syringe-feeding them a few ccs of milk every 2-3 hours since then, and 30 hours later they're still alive – barely. But we've seen this movie a few times recently, and it usually doesn't end well. The next few days should tell the tale.

filed by: TS

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