Project Lucky

When I have a big project coming up-- say, planting the garden or staging yet another whooha or writing about experts, eugenics and posthumous cleansing-- I often look around and say, "Hey. First, get the house in order, and then proceed with the project." If the house is clean and in order, day-to-day housekeeping chores will require a minimal amount of energy. My remaining energy can be spent on making progress on the project. And, in a perfect world, I'll have some left-over energy to deal successfully with the unexpected two-week old kitten or whathaveyou.

From Lucky's point of view, housekeeping is homeostasis-- tick-toc staying alive: exchanging CO2 for O2, ingesting water and nutrients, breaking down carbohydrates and proteins, and fat, efficiently eliminating the by-products of these processes, maintaining an internal temperature that is optimal for the enzymes that do this work. The project is growth and development-- still tick-toc but far more complex. The unexpected is-- what? A change in formula? In feeding apparatus? The exponential growth of something she picked up from her feral mother?

Unlike me, Lucky can't just pause growth and development and tidy up her little internal house without anything unexpected happening. Lucky's little body-- her systems, organs, tissues, cells, receptors, second messengers, enzymes, promotors, DNA, and let's not forget about hormones-- are trying to do everything all at once, according to a script that, at this stage, allows for very little improvisation.

That Lucky is warm and alive in the guest room with Miss M over a week after being plucked from what was sure to be a nasty brutish and short life is a testament to just how much improv Mother Nature is willing to entertain.

We here at the Farm are an optimistic lot, although pessimism is a guiding influence on our behavior. 

Meanwhile, your thoughts and prayers for Lucky are welcome.

Lucky

I've been reluctant to post photos of Lucky.

Life is tenuous.

If you were an ~2 week old kitten rescued from the Bowels of Hell by Missy, you'd probably want to make sure you were actually rescued and alive before you posed for photos.

We are almost there.

I Don't Care for Potty Talk

but I am pleased to announce that Lucky has pooped twice today! This last time, a nice little kitty turd.

In other non-potty news, Lucky is 

a) clearly still alive; 

b) still being fed from a small syringe-- I knew those remnants from retired biology professors' lab would come in handy one day (crappy old stuff);

c) making suckling motions against everything that's warm. (Janette at our vet told me they have teeny tiny nipples in stock. I'll pick some up tomorrow.);

d) squirming like crazy;

e) controlling her body temperature by moving about her box.

I take these all as good signs with respect to Lucky's prospects for the future. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

However, let's not forget about Lucky's Mother. And (I'd bet, semi-incestuous) Father.* And my T-shirt that says, "DNA is Life. The Rest is Just Details." We are doing the best we can with respect to the details-- the environment. None of us have any control over Lucky's DNA (although we can control its expression by manipulating Lucky's environment). 

Life is complicated. 

* Our neighbor has a boat load of cats. (I understand how one can come to have a boat load of cats so I'm not passing judgment, although someone should.) One of his boatload-- the black cat that wanders around the farm-- is Lucky's mother. And another-- the back and white cat that I'd seen earlier this spring/winter hanging out with the black cat-- I think, is Lucky's father. How distantly related Lucky's parents are is anybody's guess. 

One final thought. 

We feed her-- yeah, sure maybe Lucky is a "he" but I think it's better to err on one side or the other than to be neutral-- every three hours. Yesterday, I offered to take over the 9:30 feeding because Miss M had done the 9:30, 12: 30, 3:30 and 6:30 feedings the night before. Miss M said, "No. You got to be with her all day."

Feelin' Lucky?

After the Birthday Weekend, and Monday at That School Up North, I was looking forward to a routine day. No such luck. 

We began our day in the overgrown pasture. It started to mist as we were making our way back to the gate. I realized something was amiss when neither Missy nor Rocky came a runnin' for a treat. I investigated. Good Lord! Missy had something in her mouth. Again.

I finally got her to drop it-- and it was much more interesting than a treat!-- put their leashes on them and high tailed it back to the house where I grabbed a clean towel and then headed back to the pasture, hoping I could remember where she'd dropped it.

Luckily, I found it. And I did look everywhere for its nest. No such luck. So I took it inside. I mean, what was I to do? It's not like it was a mouse or a baby rat. (I once saw a swarm of fire ants on a small rat and I didn't want that to happen to it.)

Lucky

Fast forward 10 hours or so and you'll find Miss M pulling the two-week-old-kitten-rescue-night-shift in the quarantined guest room surrounded by eye droppers and syringes and baby kitten bottles and kitten rescue formula and towel swatches that are supposed to substitute for mothers' tongues.

As an aside, this may surprise. I have no crappy old books on kitten rescue. But it's amazing how fast news and information travels these days. I sent Miss M that photo (taken on my phone) as soon as I had Lucky settled in her nest on top of my seed germinating heat pad. Within minutes Kat had emailed with a web site on how to care for rescued kittens-- including feral kittens.

Lucky. Lucky to still be alive after having been in Missy's mouth. (Lucky weighs 5 ounces. Missy weighs about 1520 ounces.) Lucky to not be eaten to death by fire ants or picked apart while still alive by buzzards. Lucky to be warm & dry. 

So we'll see what happens. There are good signs-- when stimulated after feeding, Lucky pees! But at this stage of the game-- no matter how well we care for Lucky-- it's luck of the draw. Did Missy pull the runt from the litter or the most robust? Was its mother reasonably healthy and virus free? (I know who its mother is, by the way, but cannot attest to it health.) Can we-- not being mother cats-- balance heat and water? Lucky is at least lucky we understand enzymes. 

I was surprised to see how low the protein content of the kitten rescue formula was. 

Wish Lucky good luck. Or Pray. However you think you control the universe, please ask the universe to be kind to Lucky.