Madness!

Ok, so let me try to get this all written down in the minor calm that exists right now.

Where to begin?!

So, maybe Thursday it was, I became *that* person - I lost a cat.

I have a sliding door in my room. There were a few small holes at the top of the screen, but in the three years I've lived here, nobody has ever gotten out. The cats *love* lying against the screen, and that's about it. I put two of the feral kitties and the two grey kitties in the room with me, and while the grey kittens were fine, periodically I would see the feral ones climbing the screen. To err on the side of caution, I closed the door when I was asleep, or not in the room.

Of course, one day I went to the bathroom and forgot to close it. I came back to see the brown Tabby kitten perched 8 feet up, balancing his body on the thin bit of mesh. This was my "oh shit" moment - I knew he was pretty much gone at this point, as his incredibly slow socialization process meant that if I got any closer he'd bolt from me. So, I stood back and watched, and seconds later he was on my roof, followed by my neighbour's roof...

&oh, of course, the joy in this process was two fold. For not only did I have to check the trap Heather loaned me for him every two hours, during this adventure I rediscovered two of Mist's original kittens. That had apparently been dug up. &Half eaten. &Left in maggot infested state for me to discover. That was not a great day.

On the first day, I caught someone else's cat. The weather, knowing my predicament, decided to let loose every time I reset the trap. Which washed away all the food, and made me travel at 11pm in the downpour to my neighbour's yard, to try and eek by a palette of building materials, to reclaim my trap so that if by any chance an animal had been caught, it wouldn't be waiting in the torrential blanket of rain until morning.

Long story short, day 2, 11pm, I found him in the cage and in the midst of four raccoons. I was so pissed off at that little kitten.

I wasn't sure if I was being nuts about Chai not nursing well. Some people told me that she'd be nursing them less often as the kittens aged, and so just because I didn't see it, didn't mean that it wasn't happening.

This is where I got a 24h flu, and was essentially unable to remove myself from my bed. I worried, and called my friend to come and supplement feed the kittens for me, and as the day wore on he still hadn't shown, so I decided I could find it in myself to give them at least something until he arrived.

I found the calico kitten fairly close to death. My mother, whom I hadn't spoken to in almost ten years, had my brother call me to see if there was anything that they could do for me, because apparently they had read on Facebook that I had the flu. I don't even know how to describe how I felt, so I was just like "You know what? You can take my kitten to the emergency veterinary clinic." &that's what happened. With how sick I was, there was just no way I could properly care for her at that point.

So, after 12h of monitoring and feedings, she is back home. Cloud & Chico (my half brother named them) are ready to be put on the site, except I don't have a moment to try and take decent pictures, or write a bio...and my house is an absolute nightmare. 36h of not changing cat litter pans - when you have 6 of them - does not equal a good time. Not to mention that the kittens can now evacuate on their own, and so there is a new tiny poo every time I walk into my bathroom. The calico kitten also came home from the vet covered in feces, so I need to give her a bath too! &oh lordy, then I have to go spend time with Chloe (one of the ferals).

Stress??!!?! :P