Sampson

I heard that someone had kittens to give away as they couldn't care for them and I had an urge to get one. So I met up with her. When she handed me this little yellow fur ball, I fell in love.

He was adorable, but the minute he was put into my hands, I knew he was in serious danger. He was covered in fleas. I could see the fleas crawling through his thick fur. I instantly became very angry. That many fleas is not only painful, but dangerous. I loaded the little flea ridden fur ball into a pet taxi and stopped by a pet shop on my way home. I found tons of flea shampoos for cats and kittens older than 12 weeks, but I knew he must be young as he was tiny. I didn't know what to do.

I called the local vet to see what she thought I should do, but they weren't in. I hop online and started to dig through the piles of results from Google. I read that you could bath the animal in dawn dish liquid and use a flea comb to get fleas off of a young kitten. So I decided that was what I needed to do. I ran some luke warm water and put Sampson in. As soon as I wet his fur,  I knew the gravity of the situation. He had hundreds of fleas on him. There was not a single inch of him that was not covered in fleas. I broke down. I totally lost it. I didn't know what on earth to do or how I could help him. I had never seen an animal with so many fleas. I yelled for Michael to come in the bathroom. When I showed him, he was furious. We knew at that point that the dish liquid wasn't going to take care of all of those fleas. It was either let the kitten suffer or use the flea shampoo and hope for the best. I knew I had to use the shampoo. I cried and prayed that I wouldn't kill him as I put the treatment on the little innocent critter.

A lot of the fleas died or came off into the water, but the kitten was scared and tired, so we decided to give him a little rest and try again that afternoon.

September 2010

As I was drying him off, I noticed he didn't want his ears touched. I looked inside and the inside of his ears were caked with black stuff. I didn't know if it was dirt or what. So once again.. Google was my friend. I found pictures that looked exactly like his ears. He had ear mites. It was back to the pet shop for us. We purchased drops for the kittens ears, came home, wrapped him in a towel and put them in. He went crazy. Poor little guy. It must of set his ears on fire as they were raw. Once again I cried like a little baby. It was either treat him or let him suffer.

A few days passed. Bath after bath, flea combing after flea combing, ear mite treatment after treatment, he was looking healthier. Yet, he still needed to see the vet. As soon as they were open, I took him. She gave him several meds and shots. We had a long chat about what kind of condition I found him in and what I had done to get him to where he was when I brought him in. She said I saved his life. However he was younger than I assumed and he had been taken from his Mom sooner than he should have been. Which explained why he was trying to nurse from our Shih Tzu Sophie.

We started giving him replacement formula along with his food and a few visits to the vet later he was given a clean bill of health. He is the most loving cat you could ever ask for. I am so thankful that I decided to take a kitten and was able to save him from certain death.

Summer 2011

Today he is doing great. Isn't he gorgeous?