How?

When our friends brought me Gabriel, we weren't sure how the little guy was still alive. The young lady who is going to take him back had spent all night with him, giving him fluids by mouth, and somehow he survived.

The next day, he was at death's door again, when i took him to the vet. Fluids, an antibiotic/steroid/B12 shot, a heating pad, and lots of sugar water, and he pulled through. In fact, for almost 5 days he lived on little more than fluids and sugar water. He seemed to be out of the woods, although still scrawny and easily dehydrated, needing fluids only about once a day.

Then, Mother's Day morning, i woke up to him laid out and dying. He was spasming when touched, which usually means they are not long for this world. He got more subcue fluids than a kitten his size should have, went back on the heating pad, and lots of sugar water, in tiny sips every 5 minutes for a couple of hours. My plan was to do this until we had to leave for Mother's Day dinner, and hope for the best while we had to be gone.

When he seemed a bit more alert, i put him down on the floor on the pad, next to the other kittens. I started feeding them, and felt something pawing my foot. He was standing there crying for food, and he cleared a bottle. How he manages to go from death's door to eating like a champ in such a short time not just once but 3 times i do not understand.

The second day after he arrived here, #1 Son asked me how Gabriel was still alive. At the time i told him i had no idea except for the mercy of the Lord, and that is still my answer.

Please, just don't let him go back downhill like that again, Lord. It's very fraying to the nerves.


Today is

Blessed Father Damien of Moloka'i's Day (patron of lepers)

Clean up Your Room Day -- one of those holidays that no one knows how it got started, but it's a good idea, especially if your house is decorated by teens in "Recently Ransacked" style!

Constitution Day -- Federated States of Micronesia

Golden Spike Day

Human Kindness Day

Lupus Awareness Day -- International

Mother's Day -- El Salvador; Guatemala; Mexico

National Shrimp Day

National Tourist Appreciation Day

St. Cathal's Day (patron against drought, storms, and hernias)

St. Isidore's Day

St. Job's Day (patron against depression and ulcers)

Sunning of the Buddha -- Tibet (many temples take their Buddha statues out for a day in the sun)

Trust Your Intuition Day -- practice, and you'll get better at it

Vesak -- Buddhist (birthday of Lord Buddha)



Birthdays Today:

Kenan Thompson, 1978
Amanda Borden, 1977
Paul "Bono" Hewson, 1960
Phil and Steve Mahre, 1957
Donovan, 1946
Judith Jamison, 1943
Gary Owens, 1936
Pat Summerall, 1930
Nancy Walker, 1922
David O. Selznick, 1902
Fred Astaire, 1899
Max Steiner, 1888
Emperor Fushimi of Japan, 1265
Emperor Claudius, 213


Today in History:

The Roman armies under Titus open a full scale assault on Jerusalem, 70
Vienna's church orders all Jews to wear a distinctive garb, 1267
Scottish nobles recognize authority of English king Edward I, 1291
Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves on a voyage to the New World, 1497
Christopher Columbus "discovers" the Cayman Islands, 1503
Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland, 1534
Scottish Protestants under John Knox rise up against queen-mother Mary, 1559
England forcefully annexes Jamaica from Spain, 1655
Benjamin Franklin first tests the lightning rod, 1752
Louis XVI becomes King of France, 1774
The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America, 1801
New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels, 1837
In India, the first war of Independence begins, 1857
The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike, 1869
Romania declares itself independent from Turkey, 1877
The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883, 1893
The first Mother's Day is observed, 1908
J. Edgar Hoover is appointed Director of the FBI, 1924
First successful launch of a V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground, 1946
Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts, 1954
The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth, 1960
The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing, 1979
François Mitterrand becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French 5th republic, 1981
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president, 1994
Deadliest day on the mountain: a rogue storm on Everest claims 8 lives, including experienced climbers, 1996