Scary Small

"Hi, aren't you one of the people who does bottle feeding kittens?"

That's the risk i take, coming to the pet store to drop kittens for an adoption event, that my reputation will precede me.

Yes, i answered. What's up?

"Well, I'm with NH, but a friend of mine with The Purr has a friend who needs someone to take some kittens."

If The Purr will be responsible for the medical and getting them fixed, i'll do it. Want them to call me, or should i call them?

"Oh, I'll give you here number. It's Ellen, and I'm Helen, by the way."

Okay, thank you Helen, and i'll give Ellen a call when i get home.

So, call to Ellen, turned out that it wasn't her, it was a friend whose daughter needed help. After several calls, i finally got to talk to Becca, who had the kittens.

"They are from one of the ferals that hang out here by our barn. She's very smart and has eluded every trap. This time she had babies in the neighbor's shed, and he moved them, so now she walks right past them for her food and ignores them. The Purr will help get them fixed, and we will take them back."

Okay, where are you, and how do you want me to get them?

"Well, we live out in S---, but I'm coming into town to get formula for them, so I'll drop them to you."

About an hour later, i was peering into a box at two newborns. It had been four, but since they have not been fed, two died that morning. Still will the umbilical cords attached, it's an orange tabby male and a tortie female, beautiful and scary small. We can feel every rib.

Within a half hour they had been pottied, fed -- although the tiny female didn't want to eat much -- given warmed up subcue fluids, and were sleeping on a heating pad. We've had to change our usual keep them on the floor in the kitchen pattern because of the Hazelnut. They would make a perfect puppy size snack, and she's too small to realize they aren't toys.

Truly i'm not sure how much hope to hold out for these two. The only babies i've ever seen that were smaller were from a very sick mama they C-sectioned a week early.


Today is

Assumption of Mary -- Eastern Orthodox Churches
Public Holiday -- Georgia; Republic of Macedonia; Serbia

Crackers Over the Keyboard Day -- internet generated: are we supposed to go crackers over our keyboard, or tempt fate by eating crackers over our keyboard?

Festival for Luna -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Ises Solar World Congress -- Kassel, Germany (through Sept. 2; the largest scientific congress on solar energy)

National Cheese Sacrifice Day (Now you know why you purchased the cheese for the sacrifice! To let it age properly before the actual sacrifice. Still doesn't answer why we sacrifice it, anyway, or to whom.)

National Cherry Turnover Day

National Heroes Day -- Philippines

Notting Hill Carnival -- Notting Hill, London, UK (through tomorrow, the 2nd largest street festival in the world)

Pony Express Festival -- Hollenberg Pony Express Station, Hanver, KS, US (reenacting life in the 1860's, including a real Pony Express ride)

Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day -- to pep yourself up as you wait for things to come up on the screen

Runic Half Month Rad begins (motion)

Sacrifice Our Wants for Others’ Needs Sunday -- part of Be Kind to Humankind Week

St. Augustine of Hippo's Day (patron Saint of brewers and printers)

St. Hermes' Day


Birthdays Today

LeAnn Rimes, 1982
Jack Black, 1969
Jason Priestley, 1969
Shania Twain, 1965
Scott Hamilton, 1958
Ben Gazzara, 1930
Charles Boyer, 1899
Leo Tolstoy, 1828
Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774
Johann von Goethe, 1749


Today in History

The Third Crusade begins with the siege of Acre, 1189
6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz, accused of being the cause of the plague, 1349
St. Augustine, FL, founded, making it the oldest continuously occupied European city and port in the US, 1565
Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay, 1609
William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn, 1789
The first steam locomotive in the US, the "Tom Thumb", runs from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mill, 1830
The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published, 1845
The United States takes possession of the, at this point unoccupied, Midway Atoll, 1867
Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola", 1898
James E. Casey begins the United Parcel Service in Seattle, WA, 1907
WEAF in NYC airs the very first radio commercial, for Queensboro Realty, at a cost of $100 for ten minutes, 1922
Toyota Motors becomes an independent company, 1937
Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first tv show and ad, 1953
Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes, 1961
Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech; Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan flat, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights, 1963
The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men; these will soon be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS, 1981
Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province, 1990
Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales divorce, 1996
An electric blackout leaves 500,000 + without power and shuts down 60% of London's Underground, 2003
Hurricane Katrina begins to make landfall on the Gulf of Mexico, 2005