Gretel's Story and Pictures |
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Guestbook Gretel's story:I work for county government in new jersey and, except for the first cat I ever adopted, all the cats I have have come from the county's shelter. After I bought my home about 7 years ago I would, on occasion, taken kittens out of the shelter, provide a foster home for a while and then place them. Last year the shelter's population began to grow at an alarming rate because the number of municipalities that sent stray animals to it increased. The shelter regularly took in over 500 animals a month; like most shelters, animals not adopted fairly quickly are euthanized. Wanting to make a little difference, I started to provide foster care to some kittens and then, in July, determined to rescue two cats that staff suspected were pregnant. In fact, both were pregnant and within a month I had two litters of kittens, for a total of seven babies. One of the cats, named Kyra, had three kittens and one stillborn. I, of course, regularly took a look at how the kittens were doing. Kyra was not the most attentive of mothers and I was a little concerned about the kittens' wellbeing -- particularly because their development lagged behind the other litter of kittens that were only two weeks older. Kyra's kittens began to grow slowly, however, so I didn't attempt to bottle feed any of them. At some point I noticed that Gretel didn't move as well as her sisters, even though she was the largest of the litter. As they got older and started navigating I noticed that she didn't do as well as her sisters. Over the summer I had seen a program on the Animal Planet station about a ranch with a number of cats, including ones that walked off balance. At some point, probably after Gretel finished her vaccination series, I took her in to the vet to see if, in fact, there was something wrong with her. The vet told me that she believes that Gretel has CH. Gretel's two sisters found homes at about six months of age. While Gretel's growth, like that of her sisters, has been below the norm, she has continued to grow and develop. In most ways she is no different from a "normal" cat. She runs kind of crooked and is not as sure on her paws as an unimpaired cat, but she can go up and down stairs, purrs, eats canned and dry food, drinks, grooms herself and uses a litter box. Her head trembles -- more when she's excited -- but there are times that it is still as well. While the weather was still good I took Gretel outside to my back yard and she had just as much fun out there as her sisters. She took advantage of the open spaces to run in little spurts and play with fallen leaves. Since the vet told me that many ch kittens don't make it to six months of age I am glad that Gretel has exceeded that. She's still not as big as I'd like, but her development seems to be steady. Carole Pictures of Gretel 
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