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New Chipmunk in Town

Monday
12/21/2015

On Friday I took Gabby down to the Arlington shelter for her spay appointment. For me, nothing epitomizes the turnaround of that shelter more than the quality of its spay/neuter clinic.

We’ve probably taken our fosterlings to be spayed and neutered by seven or eight different clinics, and we’ve never seen the fast recoveries, minimal scarring, and complete lack of infection or complication that the Arlington shelter routinely delivers. Their staff doctor is in a league of her own when it comes to s/n surgery.

So Gabby’s spay was a piece of cake, and the only drama in the villa last week was whether Merlin would get mopey and lethargic now that his three sibs have all gone home.

While his only options were to play by himself or taunt Gabby (who made herself more visible with fewer kittens around), he didn’t seem sad. And we brought out toys to engage him.

But we still wanted to pair him with another kitten.

That happened yesterday, when a Homeward Trails volunteer dropped off a kitten named Alvin, a singleton whose older unrelated buddy the volunteer was planning to adopt. Alvin came from the shelter in Prince Georges County and is probably 4-6 weeks younger (and 1/3 smaller) than Merlin. On arrival he seemed shy and a little weepy. The stress of relocation often causes a flare-up of the pervasive feline herpes virus. He quickly retreated to a safe corner behind the space heater.

Alvin also has a healed break near the end of his tail. Combined with his weepiness, it makes him look like a sad little guy. But he’s also very cute, and he starts purring loudly as soon as we pick him up.

He’s wandering around a little more this morning, and his eyes look a little better. I’ve given him two doses of Viralys to get some L-lysine into him. If we hang out in the villa on the futon, he feels confident enough to eat, even though Merlin has been hissy toward him and Gabby has been curious but not friendly or maternal.

After today’s weigh-in, Alvin investigated the water bowl, which seemed to fascinate him. At one point he planted both front paws in the water (we use a big bowl) and splashed alternately with each, then licked the water off his paws.

I was relieved to see him nibble both canned and dry food, since URIs like his can lead to congestion and worse. So as long as he gets moral support from his peeps, he should hang in there until Merlin and Gabby decide to befriend him. It’s pretty tough for kittens to stay hissy when their natural instincts are to play, explore, and learn.

Oh, and we got more awesome pix from the couple who adopted Morgana and renamed her Twix.

Suffice to say, Santa was very good to Twix!

And her forever home even came with a feline big sister named Riley, who has already become her best friend. Should be a very happy holiday season for our little furball candy-bar!

filed by: TS

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< – – 50K inmates: tale of the scale – – >

kit

lbs

oz

gain

   

Merlin

4

5.2

0.6

 

stuffed clam

Alvin

2

11.2

0.2

 

mussel

 

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