Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

14 Jul 08 Monday

Little Kitty died yesterday, July 13, 2008, Sunday, around 4:15 in the afternoon. I recall we found Kitty under a tree also on a Sunday, exactly two weeks ago, and we brought her into our apartment at around the same time in the afternoon - also after a brief downpour, just after typhoon Frank’s visit.

We buried little Kitty by 5 o’clock in the afternoon, between the roots of the big tree where we first found her - visible from our window. It was also just after a brief downpour, a signal of the arrival of a new typhoon, Helen.

We placed a big old hollow block on Kitty’s grave, which we can see from our window. We buried her wrapped in the purple and gold thread silky blouse that she loved so much to nestle in whenever we go out with her in her small carry basket.

It is raining now. A very sad day - the rain reminds me of little Kitty’s meowing outside, under that big tree. Trevor told me that he could almost hear her crying when it rained.

I have been crying almost all day Saturday over sick Kitty, crying again almost all Sunday afternoon and evening when Kitty died - cried to sleep and cried to wake up again.

Sometimes in bed I think she is still beside me. I’ve cleared up some of little Kitty’s things in our bedroom, and the little towels she used that I washed and hung up inside the house to dry. I am reminded if how much we have let Kitty take over the whole house, over our lives.

That is why losing Kitty - surely one of so many others out there - have such a powerful impact on our lives. We’ve started building our life and time and work around her - bottle feeding her, keeping her warm, pooing and peeing her, playing with her, worrying about her whenever we went out, taking her along with us if we would be out for a long time, buying her food and other kitten things. We were also worrying and planning who would take care of her when we leave a week for Singapore, and when we visit Bohol again in August. We were getting ready to re-shape our whole life around her.

Now Kitty’s gone, it is like there is this big hole in our life - the apartment is absent the little meowing. She may have been a pain in the ass, waking us up every hour at night to cuddle and feed her - but losing her makes us feel a strange melancholy pain. Trevor told me that losing Kitty reminded him of the time when I left, which was extremely difficult for him too.

Sunday evening, Trevor and I went out for a walk, to talk about everything and to comfort each other over Kitty’s death. Along the way, we saw a cat walking over a pile of rocks and behind her followed two young kittens - one white like the mother and the other gray like the father (we assumed a larger gray cat walking ahead of them was the father).

The kittens slowly followed the mother, struggling through the rubble, climbing and jumping. They were probably 2 or 3 months old, old enough to run around and climb small heights, but still young enough to want to be with their mother. Trevor and I thought mom was taking her kids out for some adventure, some survival training in the urban jungle.

It is extremely depressing to think that Kitty never will grow up to be a big strong cat, and have kittens for her to look after.

We visited my mom today - I bought all of Kitty’s leftover food for George and Fortun. Unfortunately, George wasn’t around - probably because there was housework going on, someone was repainting the interior of the house, and George often disliked visitors and racket. Fortun was there, though, sleeping on the chair under the dining table. I put some cat food in a bowl and he woke up immediately when the aroma reached him. Fortun quickly followed me to the open court where he devoured the food.

I was so happy to see Fortun - who was very sick twice this year, everyone thought he was going to die - but he pulled through. He looked so big and healthy now, his coat so thick and beautiful. Alwin told me that Fortun has 7 more lives left.

When our cats get very sick, they usually “go away”, some kind of “taking leave” - they go to the back of the house or the back garden and stay away from us as much as possible. They only go back into the house to drink water - an indication that they are going to survive.

Kitty “went away” too. After the midnight visit to the vet, we placed her next to our bed, on some towels over a hot water bottle to keep her warm. usually, she’d get up and walk towards the bed to be with us, but that time, she weakly walked away from the bed. Trevor noticed that and found it strange and indeed sad because it was a sign that Kitty was saying goodbye.

During her dying moment, I placed Kitty in her favorite shiny purple “blanket” and put that on a shiny blue pillow an all that on our bed. At that time Trevor was out to get us some dinner, groceries and oil for Kitty’s tummy. I lay beside little Kitty and watched her face, her eyes open and mouth slightly open, tiny sounds coming out from it. I fixed my eyes on her eyes, I knew that she could see me. They were sad, dry eyes, no longer glowing, dying eyes.

I cried so much, like how I cried when my father died, how I cried when Trevor and I were separated. It’s just a kitten, I know, but the bond was already there.

On the way home today, Trevor and I briefly talked about the work I need to do for the summit and conference in Singapore next week. All that work won’t bring Kitty back, I said. Trevor asked if I’d give up the work to have Kitty back - I said yes. In fact, I was contemplating on canceling the trip if we had to look after Kitty at home.

Kitty - in less than two weeks - brought so much joy to our life - simple immense joy that I never really got from work or career.

Kitty inside her little yellow carrying basket on the table with me and Trevor at the gender advocacy meeting in Isis. Thanks to Pretchie for the photo. Also for the photo below.

15 July 08 Tuesday

When I woke up this morning I took a quick look outside to see Kitty’s “grave marker” under the tree. I always half expect to see a tiny kitten there. My expectation was nearly realized - I saw a black and white thing moving near Kitty’s grave marker - it was a female cat, a stray, her belly sagging - from numerous kitten-births perhaps. She passed Kitty’s tree, then towards the tree beside it, then out through the gap on the wire fence to the streets.

Last night, Trevor and I talked about the lessons learned from Kitty’s short visit to our home, the joys of having Kitty into our life even if for just a short time. Trevor seemed most fascinated about how I was able to take care of another living thing.Yes, perhaps given the opportunity and the responsibility, I can be very involved in the process of caring. It was good to be re-acquainted with death again too, so as to experience the preciousness of life.

Goodbye, Kitty, thank you for coming to our life.

Kitty died today, around 4:15 in the afternoon.

We took her to the vet past midnight, and then again around 1:00 in the afternoon.

We buried her under the tree outside our window where we first found her. I wrapped her in the soft purple with gold thread blouse that she liked so much to nestle in when we go out.

Kitty’s short visit has had a powerful effect on us. Hopefully later I can try to write about it, when the depression has ceased a bit.

Kitty is in critical condition now. She suddenly looks extremely dehydrated and thin. It seems that she has not eaten enough and has not gained the strength that she needs. She was feeding alright but I do remember that at her age (2 weeks) she should be feeding more.

It is very sad, although I’ve read that caring for an orphan kitten is very difficult and many orphans do die - and that is very sad and foster parents tend to take the loss very heavily on themselves.

Kitty is on my notebook computer keyboard now, which keeps her warm. I really hope that she pulls through…

Here is a photo of Kitty just woken up, wrapped around with the blanket, with Edward looking on.

She really likes to nestle inside a donut shaped blanket.

This afternoon, Trevor went out for a swim and we took Kitty along, of course. There weren’t too many people at the pool. There were some 5 kids with their father, a young couple, and four teenagers. The father told me that his little daughter was celebrating her birthday so decided to go out for a swim - initially at the pool in the next barangay which was closed, unfortunately, because the barangay councilor rented the place for the whole afternoon.

Anyway, it was good that Trevor got some exercise and Kitty got some fresh air.

Actually, this morning, Kitty got some exercise too. I was about to get the mail from the postman and Kitty jumped out of my hand and landed on the floor near the garbage bin. I was so shocked and afraid that Kitty hurt herself - fortunately, she’s okay. She just shook her head a bit when I picked her up.

Kitty is eating better, and pooing better too. It seems that she’s very excited about eating solid food but couldn’t do so yet. I’ve already tried weaning her by putting some moistened tuna bits in my hand to feed her. Kitty should be eating solid food very soon.

We’ve also been able to introduce Kitty to some of the folks around the area - our landlady’s mother, the maintenance lady, the young girl and her lady boss at the bakeshop. The lady boss at the bakeshop even bragged about their own cat - a marmalade cat with a short crooked tail.

A very good day yesterday at Isis, the food, the presentations, the discussions on gender advocacy and networking. While we didn’t get enough sleep last night, it was lucky that we arrived early so Trevor could have a nap, which was a truly good idea so he felt much better when the forum started.

The presentations by Heike (Germany) and Anita (Bangalore) were truly impressive. Trevor and I hope to be in touch with them more.

And of course, Kitty got a lot of attention during the forum, and some people were quite surprised to see that she was really tiny. She’s probably just a little over 2 weeks old and was certainly undernourished when we found her.

Below is a photo of our little kitty with her eyes wide open. I took this photo yesterday.

Little kitty has been pooing very regularly now which is really good, and I noticed this morning that she has started feeding much more. We also put a little bit of kitten food (tuna) in the milk so that she gets added nutrition.

Isis had a big white cat called Bianca. Quite impressive, I thought, with her thick coat and fat stubby tail. I didn’t show her our little kitty since we’ve read plenty of advise on the Internet that little kittens shouldn’t be in contact with other pets otherwise they (the little kittens) could pick up nasty diseases.

Anyway, I hope to be able to write something about the forum shortly - if I ever get to finish my presentation for ASEF in time!!

Our little kitten seems to be making progress. She has been peeing and pooing properly, and has been feeding quite well. However, beginning yesterday, she has been grabbing and pushing away the nursing bottle. I thought perhaps she wasn’t hungry, or that she has to pee. Anyway, at the moment she is sleeping and will check later if she’ll feed properly.

Below is a photo of our little kitten.

Her eyes opened the other day - one eye first and then the other a day later.

She is quite a spoiled kitty, sleeping in our bed at night and not in a separate box. She likes to sleep under the pillow, sometimes under the blankets.

Below is a photo of kitty under the pillow (and Edward on top of it with my crochet).

I also have another folded mattress in the computer room where she likes to slip into the fold and sleep when Trevor and I are working.

Yesterday, little kitty traveled (in a small plastic basket for CDs that I lined with soft cloth) all the way to Binangonan, Rizal to attend our friend’s wedding reception. Some kitten experts there confirmed that tres colores cats are always female. On the way back home, little kitty was also able to go inside the shopping mall for some dinner. Good thing the security guards didn’t bother to look what was inside our little basket.

Tomorrow, we might need to bring little kitty out with us again - this time to a forum on gender networking and advocacy. The forum will take the whole day so we will have to bring little kitty with us …

When the typhoon subsided Sunday last week, we started hearing a kitten meowing. Trevor and I talked about it and wondered whether anyone would - or we - should rescue it.

A few days later we started hearing two kittens. The following day, Trevor finally saw them, under a tree just outside our window. There was a tiny tri-color kitten and a bit larger black and white kitten. We figured they might be able to survive on their own. It was quite sad, though, hearing them cry whenever the rains started …

Then three days ago, it started raining again and we saw that the black and white kitten was gone, and the tiny tri-colored kitten alone - it looked dead, but I saw it move a bit so I thought there must still be hope. Trevor asked if I wanted to rescue it then perhaps later give it to my mom. Company for George and Fortun, I thought.

So we went down and took the little kitten into a towel and brought it to the apartment. It was wet and cold and really tiny, its eyes still closed.

I have no idea how old it is, but it’s incredible how it has survived almost a week outside in the rain with no food… when I picked it up, it fought back, it was a real fighter.

I placed the kitten on a towel over a warm water bottle. First we tried feeding it some milk (powdered milk mixed with water) using a teaspoon then later, Trevor and I went out to get it a tiny feeding bottle.

The little kitten seemed much better but it was nursing very little and Trevor said that it needs to pee and poo. I used a soft brush to massage its underside to help it and it worked - it quickly peed. It also ate very little so I thought that it might have problems pooing. So I took it to the sink and massaged its bum with my fingers ad it worked - out came a big hard poo!

Since then it has been feeding more often and didn’t cry too much anymore. I still use the brush to massage its body and undersides. The just a few hours ago it let out three large pieces of poo!

I’ve also placed Maria in its warm bottle bed to cuddle. Below is a photo of Maria and the kitten.

I truly hope this fighter makes it through - that it survives… I’ve always wanted a tri-color cat (George is gray and Fortun is yellow), and my dad told me along time ago that tri-color cats were supposed to be lucky cats.

I truly hope so!