gebo chose to leave the shelter when she was pregnant. she would regally survey the variety of 'nesting' areas, and put out a haughty "what a dump" bette davis vibe unimpressed by any of them. she wanted to have her kittens elsewhere. i waited to see if her attitude might change as her due date came closer. instead, she played the scene repeatedly, and then started pacing at the door toward the time my shift would end, as if anxiously awaiting a taxi. it took a few days before i 'got' it. so i brought her out with me and took her home.
she was happy with the long narrow shoe closet in the bedroom, cleared out and laid with linens. much like a tiny railroad car apartment house, 4 levels, all cozy. the shoes then went into the tool trunk in the hallway. the tools went into the anteroom closet in a turquoise plastic bin. the things in the bin were sorted and reorganized or thrown out. every move has a consequence. but gebo was ready and she was relaxed.
born april 27 to gebo (l/h tiger tabby/torty mix), 4 kittens, 1 did not survive(male silver tabby). in for the count: three littermates, all female, tia: shorthaired pale torty, tilly: silver tabby, and pepper lee: dark striped tabby/torty with a mix of splotch and tiny cream colored toes. gebo immediately shows herself to be a perfect attentive loving mother. her kittens are healthy and thriving and she is devoted, never removing her watchful eye except for food/water/litter and then only when they are sleeping. if a tiny cry emerges from the nest, she stops whatever she is doing and dashes back to them, leaving a dish uneaten, or a poop unburied or a string toy left dangling. the kittens always come first with gebo*
the first 6 weeks are wonderful and joyful, sweet and inspiring. the kittens grow from little round balls to writhing four-legged creatures struggling to open their eyes and hurrying to get to mamas underbelly. and young kittens, you know, have completely undeveloped muscular ability to eliminate waste. i was surprised when i first learned that. as a foster parent you never need to clean up after them, their mother does it fastidiously. thank god for small favors ha ha unless perchance there is no mother, then you have to simulate her actions. warm wet washcloths are often used 4 times a day. it is hard for a human being to tell when they are going to do anything, even when they are in the middle of doing something. these creatures are barely 4 inches long. you'd need a microscope.
the way it works is, the queen will stimulate them by cleaning the area, enough to elicit the desired result, which she licks up and cleans away, eliminating any scent left from baby droppings that might attract a predator. yes the mother eats the droppings but mind you they are really tiny at first. because of that, in a healthy situation you can not smell new born kittens. it also gives the queen time management options and control over regulatory functions, allowing complex layered measures of safety for the brood. and of course a queen in the wild will eliminate herself after 3-5 days post-delivery, in a spot distant from her nest, a foil for boogeymen, but also a risk in leaving them untended. gebo quickly adapted to a big litterbox filled with cedar chips outside the closet.
when the kittens grow past 6 weeks or so they begin be able to do it for themselves. i observe all going well in their pre-litterbox training, while noticing a faint scent begin to emerge. i figure, now that gebo no longer "covers" for their scent and they are going on their own, it must be due to the increase in pit stops, since before that, it was just gebo who had to be scooped after. so i sifted more frequently during this stage. i started to notice, however, that occasional tiny dark marbles were found scattered on the floor here and there.
now, this needs more than just a pick-up. requiring soap and water mop-wash, followed by spray of clorox and then steamcleaning, one of those steam-mop sticks a friend gave me. it was a bedroom after all. then a drying and spraying with this eucalyptus flower essence spray called 'purification' the same friend gave me. everything was back to freshness. until the next time
an occasional mishap with kittens is to be expected. but this began to happen consecutively and frequently, and was getting worse as the kittens got bigger. i started finding spots on the bedspread, the lower edge of the wall, the bookcase, the seat of the chair, even on the windowsill. laundry costs went up. cleaning hours extended. then began a never ending search for spots as i tried to gather advice from some experts.
after putting it all together, i covered everything in plastic flannel backed tablecloths and shower curtain liners (thank you xmas tree shops) and decided to give it a little more time and see if i could isolate the source(s) for further study and behavioral work. and i started sleeping in the studio or on the living room couch. the kittens all seemed healthy and happy however, seemingly unaware of the problem.
until the day i walked by the closed door of the nuevo-nursery room, hearing a high-pitched pitiable plea-cry. upon entering i discovered pepper lee, at my feet, plaintively looking up, wailing and walking around in a circle. she repeated the action, louder each time. the others were stationed at triangle points in the room, out in the open, watching intently as pepper lee danced at my feet.
an occasional mishap with kittens is to be expected. but this began to happen consecutively and frequently, and was getting worse as the kittens got bigger. i started finding spots on the bedspread, the lower edge of the wall, the bookcase, the seat of the chair, even on the windowsill. laundry costs went up. cleaning hours extended. then began a never ending search for spots as i tried to gather advice from some experts.
after putting it all together, i covered everything in plastic flannel backed tablecloths and shower curtain liners (thank you xmas tree shops) and decided to give it a little more time and see if i could isolate the source(s) for further study and behavioral work. and i started sleeping in the studio or on the living room couch. the kittens all seemed healthy and happy however, seemingly unaware of the problem.
until the day i walked by the closed door of the nuevo-nursery room, hearing a high-pitched pitiable plea-cry. upon entering i discovered pepper lee, at my feet, plaintively looking up, wailing and walking around in a circle. she repeated the action, louder each time. the others were stationed at triangle points in the room, out in the open, watching intently as pepper lee danced at my feet.
i reached down to pick her up, and suddenly realized something was wrong with pepper lees tail. it was rigid and stiff and oddly bent. turned out it was caked with dried poop, so much so that she could no longer move it. shocked at how i could have missed this development, i brought her to the laundry room where the utility tubs are, and gave her a bath which she accepted gladly, dried her, fluffed her up, kissed her and put her back with the others. then spent a halfhour resanitizing.
ok at least i knew who it was now. and perhaps it was a fluke, i thought, or maybe something was wrong with her tail. whatever it was, i thought it might be behaviorally fixable. if it was a physical issue with her tail, the vets would know what measures to take to trick the problem away. i decided to start working with her that evening, and to call them the next day. pepper lee was happy and relieved after her bath and ate and drank merrily with her sisters. i relaxed a bit, perhaps it was an unusual accident and wouldnt happen again....
pepper lee was the special beloved of gebo who made no bones about her favoritism, and tia and tilly adored her too. i started staying longer to observe her box behavior, and all seemed normal - one time she stuck her rear too far over the edge and it fell just outside the plastic rim. i'd seen that before, no big deal, that is easily fixable. pick up, take cat, position in middle of box. put poop in box. cover it. cat jumps out. place her back in, and so on. usually a few sessions like that will do the trick.
pepper lee was the special beloved of gebo who made no bones about her favoritism, and tia and tilly adored her too. i started staying longer to observe her box behavior, and all seemed normal - one time she stuck her rear too far over the edge and it fell just outside the plastic rim. i'd seen that before, no big deal, that is easily fixable. pick up, take cat, position in middle of box. put poop in box. cover it. cat jumps out. place her back in, and so on. usually a few sessions like that will do the trick.
however, i noticed a day later her tail again on the tip looked like a dried paintbrush, i called the vets and brought her to the clinic with the evidence intact.
'she is a pretty little thing' dr. jolie said. then her blue eyes got big after she turned the baby over to examine her underside.
'i have never seen anything quite like this' she said and turned and looked at me.
'what do you mean' i said
'come here' she said
'i have never seen anything quite like this' she said and turned and looked at me.
'what do you mean' i said
'come here' she said
and i saw something was not right in the alignment of rectum to tail. it was as if her anal opening was in the tail itself and nowhere near the genitalia. in fact there didnt seem to be any genitalia. i had never examined pepper lee for gender since her partial tabby/torty fur is a clear marker of a female. usually. anyway she seemed female too, in demeanor. plus i am way too busy and it didnt really matter. tilly, being a silver tabby, was the only kitten who was sexed, her coloring is a standard, shared by both sexes alike. pepper lee was about 80% tabby, but had enough of the torty patches, especially on her legs and feet, to disqualify maleness
'she has a genetic abnormality. a birth defect. i am very surprised the mother didnt reject her early on'
'reject her? no way, she was actually favored by the mother' i said
'that is very odd. she just must be a really good mother'
(2012 changes in consciousness as predicted by mayan whateveritis means changes across the board in all species i thought or maybe shes just a good mother)
it was certainly a teaching to me. pepper lee was not made to fit this tidy world. nor the untidy wild world either.
'no one could take care of her in a home and she would draw scent in the wild and be taken down by a coyote in no time flat. plus any colony would reject her' dr. jolie said.
'there's nothing you can do surgically? i asked 'the s fund would pay for it' i hinted.
'i'm afraid not' she said, 'she would have to be kept caged, she would continue to suffer this problem and maybe more serious ones down the line, and she would always be smelly and uncomfortable, which cats do not like. she needs to get to heaven, we need to send her there' she said.
i have never had this happen before with any baby foster kitten. had seen many cats live and die, but never until now had to make that decsion on a little one. i had grown to love pepper lee, pooperly as she was and all. a highly unusual creature, and quite beautiful as you can see from the picture, she had the most strikingly amber eyes.
i have never had this happen before with any baby foster kitten. had seen many cats live and die, but never until now had to make that decsion on a little one. i had grown to love pepper lee, pooperly as she was and all. a highly unusual creature, and quite beautiful as you can see from the picture, she had the most strikingly amber eyes.
i held her tiny body and she slipped away. salty tears falling on my lips. her silky soft fur settles still. the light goes out, the sparkles in her eyes dance away. the magician cries and the wind blows fairy dust. i suddenly see her tinyness, it fills my eyes, every detail shining, it becomes larger than a fullscreen theatre projection
she lived exactly three months from april 27, to july 27, 2010. i buried her in a section of the back yard recently cleared of weeds and vines along the fence, a flower bed awaiting planting. i found a large granite stone to mark the spot and then covered the entire area with new soil and compost and planted perennial wildflowers in every color of the rainbow. pepper lee. pepper lee. pepper lee
*from the mythological characters of the norse runes, "gebo" means "gift"
*from the mythological characters of the norse runes, "gebo" means "gift"
