I brought Maxi’s kittens home last night and put them in Maddy’s room. I got them settled in (Inigo kept walking around making a questioning chirping sound. Apparently he was disturbed by the change in scenery.) and when I walked out the door, all the cats in the house were gathered around staring at the door.
Maddy, especially, wanted to know what was going on. I believe if she had the power of speech she would have said “WTF, lady? That’s MY room!”
When Fred got home from the house, we went upstairs and gave them all their medication (they saw tapeworms coming out of Princess Buttercup at the vet and said that most likely all the kittens have tapeworms, so we gave each of them a dose of Drontal for that, metronidazole for the giardia, and Albon for the coccydia). The boys were ultra friendly, crawling around on us, playing, letting us pick them up and pet them, purring very loudly. Princess Buttercup is very shy, but even she came out of hiding a few times to let Fred pet her.
We came back downstairs to watch TV, and decided to go to bed early so we could stop and play with the kittens for a little while on our way to bed. I went upstairs and Fred said “I just stepped in a pile of puke inside the door! While I go downstairs and turn the computer room light off, why don’t you clean it up?”
This, for the record, goes against the “He who spies it cleans it up. Complaining is allowed.” rule, but I was game. I took the baby wipe he handed me and went to our bedroom door to clean up the puke.
“Where is it?” I yelled down to him.
“Right inside the doorway.”
I looked and looked, and didn’t see a single pile of puke anywhere.
“I don’t see it!” I yelled.
“You can’t miss it!” he called back as he came up the stairs.
“Apparently I can!” I said.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Looking for the pile of puke!”
“It’s inside the cat room,” he said, looking at me like I was an IDIOT. Which I am.
“Oh. Well, here, you clean it up. I have to go to the bathroom.”
He called me a bad word and went into the cat room to clean it up.
As I came out of the bathroom, I heard him make an exclamation of serious disgust.
“What?” I said.
“I thought this was a rubber band,” he said, and flipped on the overhead light. He held out the baby wipe, which was wrapped around half-digested cat food. “But it’s a TAPEWORM!”
Fred went back into the cat room and ended up finding another two piles of vomit, and the last one he found was NOTHING but worms. I’d never seen a tapeworm up close and personal before, but there was no doubt it was a tapeworm – it was flat and wide and very very long. Also, it had segments. There was a long, skinny worm (or worms) mixed in there as well.
I freaked OUT, because I had NO IDEA that a cat could ever vomit up worms. I know they come out the other end, but as far as being vomited up? I’d never heard of such a thing.
“I’m going to call Susan,” I said, and did. In fact, I left her one message, and when Fred found the pile of nothin’ but worms, I called again to let her know that Princess Buttercup was vomiting up a LOT of worms. I could have called her on her cell phone, but I didn’t think it was an emergency, so I figured if I didn’t hear from her, I’d call her in the morning.
We went back into the cat room and played with the boys and kept an eye on PB, who looked like she wasn’t feeling well at all, but then she came out of the carrier (where she’d been sleeping) and started playing like she felt just fine.
Susan called me back about an hour later and asked if I was sure they were tapeworms PB had been vomiting up (I was), and we discussed what I should do (give the kittens Revolution today, because it will kill some of the worms, then wait a few days and give her another Drontal (did I mention that Fred dug through the piles of cat vomit until he found a half-digested Drontal pill? Now THAT, my friends, is a man.)), and at one point she said “You’ve just got all KINDS of parasites going on, don’t you?” and laughed.
INDEED.
This morning, PB seems to be acting just fine, if skittish (which is normal for her). The first thing I did when I walked into the room was give them Metronidazole which they hate because it tastes nasty, but they forgave me, and soon Fezzik and Inigo were flopping all over me, wanting to be petted, and purring their little butts off.
These kittens are just so sweet. I’d love it if they all got adopted together (not going to hold my breath, though), but I’d be happy if they got adopted in two sets of two, too.
“Stop looking at me, or I’ll barf up a tapeworm in your lap.”
***********************
Someone asked in yesterday’s comments if my mother was adopting Maddy. That’s a no, though she did say a few times “If this one didn’t already have someone adopting her, I’d bring her home with me!” Which I don’t believe, because when they were here last year she and my father absolutely fell in love with Jodie and Rambo, and they didn’t adopt them. I just don’t think they’re that interested in having their own cat, though they love visiting and loving on ours.
Maddy’s going to her new home this weekend. I’m going to miss the little brat, for sure. I can’t believe she’s the same kitten we got when she was three weeks old (hard to believe it’s been almost 7 weeks!), she’s such a little spitfire that I could sit and watch her crazy antics for hours.
Maddy snoozes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2005: Craaaazy eyes!