Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Trouble with Kittens

This morning we woke up to an aptly rainy rest day. Our plan was to rent scooters and explore the island and we decided to not let the rain deter us. After a strange, but delicious breakfast, we rented some scooters from Sakis and I decided to go make sure the kittens were not still where we left them to put my mind at ease. We pulled up beside the abandoned building where we had thought we saw the momma cat and Kenneth went to check where we had left him (if it was gory, he promised to spare me the details). He came back from around the corner with a long face. They’re dead? Not sure, but they’re still there.

Again, what to do? It was raining and still a little windy. I went to look and they were in a pile soaking wet and breathing quickly. With a long sigh, I picked up each one, dried them off, and put them in my camera case determined not to leave these kittens again until I knew they would not suffer unnecessarily. We rode the scooters back into Massouri where we stopped at Antonis Grocery to see if he knew of a local vet. He knew of one and showed us a general direction on a map- we knew it was somewhere behind the stadium several villages away. Amazingly (with the help of several helpful English-speaking Kalymnians), we found the vet and they were actually there at 1:00pm on a Saturday. While they couldn’t help with the kittens, they gave us several numbers for animal welfare group liasons in the area.

After hours of stress and scooter scavenger hunts, we have found a woman who takes in baby kittens and can take them in the morning. In the meanwhile, the vet kindly gave us a syringe and we found some baby formula that we have been heating & doing our best to dropper feed every three hours to these very troublesome (and loud- we are sneaking them in and out of our studio) kittens. If you are ever in Kalymnos, give your business to the Climber’s Nest at the upper edge of Massouri. The owner, Birgit, is a friend to all animals in need and is an angel on this island! Not much rest in this rest day, but the kittens are hopefully going to be okay.


Returning to check on the kittens, realizing we were in over our heads
Outside the vet office in Pothia, trying to reach the animal welfare representatives on our cell
(all three kittens were in the camera case)
(trying to convince Trouble to eat)

James' best scooter helmet pose
Laurel
Little did they know the kitten drama that was about to ensue

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