Bringing up Baby

Almost like the movie, except instead of a leopard, we have a Bengal mix kitten. Sure, in my mind Hubby is Cary Grant but me as Kate Hepburn, ah, maybe I’m as crazy as her in the movie. But back to baby.

 on top of the kitchen cupboards   

 in the basket of clean laundry wrapped up in my bras!

 in the mop bucket in the laundry room

Liberty, or Libby for short, came into our lives last Fall when my BFF was coming home from work one night. She lives in a large condo complex and had noticed kittens playing in one of the side yards off the parking lot for several days prior to seeing them up close. She was walking across the parking lot from her car and one of the kittens followed her up the steps and into the building. She felt a pang of motherly guilt and picked up the little ball of striped fur and carried her up the 2 flights of stairs to her condo. Inside, her two kitties hissed and threw a fit when they saw the kitten. BFF immediately moved one of the litter boxes into their tiny bathroom and set her up in there with food and water. Then she sealed her fate and sent me a text pic of Baby.

She said she would keep her for the night but her hubby said 2 cats in their condo was enough and Baby had to find a new home, quick. I told her I would take her and foster her until we could find her a home. We had just successfully done so earlier that summer so I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. BFF brought her over the next morning and I saw this tiny, beautiful but feisty kitten for the first time. She was unique with unusual stripe patterns and huge green/gold eyes.  My cats were used to me doing this from time to time so some of them ignored her and some put up a fuss but ran away from her. I spent the rest of the day making sure she knew where the litter box was and the cat food and water bowl. She was so tiny she used the top of the flip top garbage can in the kitchen to jump up on the kitchen counter where the cat bowls are. The bathroom with the litter boxes has a cat door so I taped the door open so she would have an easier time getting in and out of the bathroom. She seemed fascinated with everything and didn’t seem excited or frightened by our 2 big dogs.  Then Hubby came home.

 He saw her and it was love at first sight. She didn’t want to be held but he scooped her up anyway and gave her the once over. He announced she was beautiful and asked if we had a name for her. I said I was thinking of Liberty since she seemed to be all stars and stripes with her chevrons and broken stripes all over and she was very independent. He said that we should call her Libby for short and since then she’s gained about a dozen other nicknames.

In the meantime, BFF had asked around her condo complex as to the possible owner of the kittens and who was responsible for them. She was told by one of the maintenance people that it seemed every year about that time kittens just sort of appear in the complex. They aren’t certain if someone is letting them in and out of a ground floor window or if someone dumps kittens there hoping they’ll find homes but usually they disappear one at a time and then are absorbed by the complex. It sounded very much like the circumstances of this litter of kittens so BFF and I were satisfied all was done to find out their origins. Libby was definitely an “orphan” of sorts and needed to find a home. BFF said the rest of the kittens had disappeared so all of them had either found homes or landed in other circumstances.

Libby was settling into life in our crazy zoo and letting everyone know “no touchy” of the Libbyss! She was sooo cute, everyone wanted to just pick her up and cuddle her but she was having no part of that! She bonded with our next youngest cat, Spot, who was another foundling, and they would play and romp like crazy all over the house. In the meantime, Hubby was inquiring at work about anyone wanting a kitten and no one replied. She was endearing herself more and more to all of us despite the scratches and marks all over. Hubby was the one person she would let pick her up and try to cuddle her, but usually just for a moment and she was off like a shot. She seemed to be perpetually a kitten, not really growing all that fast and seemed to have boundless energy. At some point, about 3 weeks into her time with us, it was determined she would become a permanent resident in Casa H. About that time Hubby had found someone at work who wanted a kitten but when he told me that, I handed Libby to him and said he could give her away, if he could give her away. That was the final test and she stayed.

We were in the midst of wedding planning and then the holidays so Libby’s medical care kind of got put on the back burner. She hadn’t had any shots or spaying but we figured with her small status that we still had time. Finally, in February, she started getting a small bump on her tummy and we to

ok her into the vet. They determined she was probably developing mammary glands and we should get her in to get spayed ASAP. I took her in for her first shots a week later and by then the “boobies” were growing rapidly and we were urged to get her spayed. Problem was, we had a hard time getting her in to low cost clinic for spaying. Low cost it was over $100 so the premium vets were in the $200 range! Ouch! I got an appointment for one of the low cost places a few days later but by then they didn’t want to deal with her mammary problem. We tried a friend’s vet, supposedly not as expensive as some, and they did a biopsy of her mammary glands to make sure they weren’t something more. When it looked more like inflammation and they put her on antibiotics and the glands (boobies) reduced. By then we talked to another low cost place and they were able to do the spay as soon as they had reduced enough.

Usually, mammary hyperplasia reduces and completely goes away after spaying. Problem is, it didn’t and swelled again after the surgery. They had given her more antibiotics and they continued to reduce some after the surgery but swelled the second she was off the antibiotics.  We took her back to the vet who did the spay for a checkup and she was baffled as to why Libby was swollen again. She recommended we take her back to the vet who did the biopsy to see what could be done. That vet was baffled too but said it did take some time for the hormones to subside so maybe giving her a little more antibiotics and time it would go down again.  Libby’s boobies reduced again after the antibiotics but only as long as she was on them. We had another round of the same antibiotics in the cupboard and decided to give them to her ourselves when the swelling increased after a week off the last round of antibiotics. After this round of antibiotics we thought we were finally getting ahead of the condition and the reduction continued after the antibiotics, after 3 rounds of the meds!

Libby had settled down some, asks for attention, and snuggles nicely! She still plays like a demon but has actually become a “regular” kitten. In the midst of this entire odyssey with vets, one of them pronounced she’s a Bengal cross given her personality and her markings. At 9 months old now she is still only 6 pounds and still just as cute as can be. According to the vet and breed standards, she will always be kitten like in attitude and behavior. Hubby and I will always have our “Baby” that we raised and has truly been a bonding experience for the whole family!

J