This Week in Education

Yeah I Know It's Summer Vacation

Victim of uncaring

It was the 4th of July, and I got an education.  No not anything about the holiday and the spirit that we celebrate.  I learned that there are extremely cruel and uncaring people in the world.  People that have no compassion for living things.  Luckily, there are some who do feel for the creatures that share the Earth with us.  We traditionally have a family day to mark the holiday.  You know games and family during the day, and fireworks after dark. Of course, mass qualities of food.  We live in a part of Northern California that gets quite warm.  I have been the designated bar-b-quer, which means that I am standing over the hot Weber Kettle.  My daughter invited her friends, who she went through school with, to enjoy the festivities with us.  They too are twins.  Here is the educational part.  Before they left their home they found an abandoned kitten.  Some cruel (I don't want to say what I really think of them) person literally threw this young life away.  


They rescued her and brought her to the home of my sister-in-law's hoping we could find a place for it.  Being a holiday it was difficult.  They couldn't keep it they have four dogs.  My sister-in-law though she has dogs is allergic to cats.  Other cat people we knew were unable to take another cat in at this time.  We found a veterinarian who was open and took the kitten.  They told us that it was about two but not more than three weeks old, and there was nothing they could really do for us.  So that person who thought the kitten's life was worthless was becoming correct.  The vet gave us a small bottle and some kitten formula.  My wife and I have gone through this before.  We knew the kitten hadn't eaten and was near death.  She had to be fed every three hours or so.

Sweet and young

So it was decided, we would take the kitten home to care for it.  On the way home, we threw names about for the kitten.  Sammy, Firecracker, and Independence was thrown about.  But, upon arriving home, the name Liberty was settled on.  So now we had a kitten to care for.  My daughter went over to Pet Smart and bought more formula.  The kitten would not suckle.  We had to force feed her.  The formula was not working.  

In a new home

You know we live in a different world today.  You have access to all the information in the world.  However, what did we do in the past.  There were these "old wives Tales".  Folk remedies used by people passed along word of mouth.  Back thirty years ago a similar thing happened to my wife and I.  We were living in San Francisco and a friend stopped at a liquor store to buy some wine as a house gift.  An evilly intentioned person threw a young kitten into his car window while he was in the store.  We called an "old wife" for information.  We were told get an eye dropper, pablum, canned milk, and Karo Syrup.  Mix a slurry and force feed the kitten until you can get it to eat.  That is what we did, and we were rewarded with the best cat we ever had, Beauregard.  


So we stopped with the Internet and vet expertise and went with the tried and true "old wives remedies."  Liberty made it through the night.  She started to eat it off a spoon.  And has already graduated to eating off a plate today.  

Finally eating

We are even recognizing what cries means she is going to go to the bathroom.  We still have to place her into the box, but she is getting the hang of it.

A new friend

So to that low life that thought you had control over a helpless creatures life, I hope Karma bites you on your butt.  I learned that the power of people who care is stronger.  Faith in the teachings passed along from generation to generation is in this case better that expert advice. We have a kitten now and my wife and I taught a valuable lesson to our children.  Soon, we'll be blogging again about collection, travel, and Disney.