Meow!

This story was passed onto me from Barbara to post.

Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow
Ok, Ok so I'll tell everyone the story about you.
One night I hopped the van to Pipa. I still don't own a car so I use public transportation. There are vans that travel the road from Goininha to Pipa and back, about 20 miles in total. Now these are vans mostly used for the nativos to get back and forth from work. I suspect I am the first American to use this form of transport especially on a daily basis.
But anyway, while imbibing in a Skol bem gelado at my local hang out, a guy came in with a box of kittens. Now I'm not much of a cat person so I felt safe to have a look inside the box. To my horror I saw the runt of the litter. She was nothing but bones and fur. Her brothers and sisters were twice her size and quite active. She just barely was breathing. Her eyes were all infected and they all were covered in fleas. My heart just sank for this little critter. I had to pick her up. I was so astounded at how light she was and her bones were so fragile. When I put her to my heart I knew I was not going to be able to let her go. Her brothers and sister were adopted immediately and I saw the man walking away. Wait!! What about this one? It pains me to tell you this but he said, "Just leave her in the street, she won't live till tomorrow. I don't want her and the mother cat has abandoned her. I knew from holding her that he was probably right. But there was just no way I could put her down. The consensus of Chino's bar was death would be soon.
I ran to the house of Alex, the cat expert, for advice clutching her to my chest. The verdict was the same . But he had some left over medicine, a shoe box and suggested to try to feed her with a syringe. But he wasn't very hopeful either. Well I thought if she only has a short time left at least I want her to be in a loving home. So shoebox and I boarded the last van back to Tibau.
When I got home I prepared the syringe with the medicine and watered down milk. She couldn't even hold her head up. No way did she want anything to eat. She was getting ready to die. Drop by drop it took me most of the night to get 2cc's into her mouth. I was covered with fleas and so was Espresso. I immediately treated Espresso to an early dose of Frontline to protect him. Esso was so concerned for this little tyke that he stood on his hind legs and tried to clean her. We both cried when we finally put her down in her shoe box to get some sleep.
Alas the next day she was still breathing but so frail. Her eyes, the biggest part of her were so sad and hopeless. Being abandoned by her mother had taken is toll on her will to live. She just didn't want to eat or live any more. So drop by drop I forced into her. She was so cold that I wrapped her up in a towel. I cuddled her I talked to her I sang to her I just couldn't let her go. I did physical therapy on her legs. I wrapped a scarf around me like a sling and put her in it to keep her close to my heart. All the time Espresso looked on with concern. Every time I put her down, Esso cleaned her up. Now you know how much I love my dog and think he's the coolest dude on the planet. But he is so compassionate. I wish more people in the world had half of his compassion then maybe we wouldn't always be at war and the divorce rate wouldn't be so high.
If only we can get her thru the day and I can get some more food into her just maybe and that was the mantra for the next three days. But still she was resistant to life. She used what little strength she had to combat me from feeding her. Every two hours I started anew drop by drop. Although I never raised children I have always had an appreciation for mothers and the intense work that it takes to raise the young. But MOMS you are too cool. Just getting up every two hours to feed your child puts you in the All Star Hall of Fame. And then they become teenagers with a driver's license!!!
Now I would like to take credit for saving this little fur balls life but it was not I who gave her a will to live. Espresso deserves all the applause. He cuddled with her to keep her warm, he washed her, but when he let her suck on his tits - that was the turning point. Of course he didn't have milk for her but she had felt the love of a parent. The funny thing is that all instincts that keep dogs and cats from li king each other melted away. Weeks have past and I don't get up during the night to feed her anymore. She now can feed herself. And what food does she eat? Espresso's and he obligingly eats hers. She sleeps cuddled up to him every night and runs him raged all the days biting his feet and punching him. When she wanders too far he is on her butt pushing her back closer to home. When I am gardening, they are always close at hand.
So what is her name? Chinchilla She is as soft as the fur of my own mother's jacket. It is one of my early memories as a child, my face buried in the collar of her new chinchilla jacket as she got ready to go out with my dad. So in honor of Mothers Here's to you MOM.

Ciao for now,
Nancy