The Wild Bunch

So! The shelter called yesterday afternoon - they had found another foster home for Gigantic Farting Cat, which meant I could bring her back to the shelter and pick up the kittens.

After work, I loaded up Gigantic Farting Cat, put all her stuff (litterbox, dishes, toys, etc.) out on the porch, as it will all have to be disinfected, and headed for the shelter. We transferred GFC to another carrier for her trip to her new foster home, and the shelter worker turned to me.

"There may be a problem with some of the kittens", she said.

My heart sank. All I could think was that they had picked up some damn shelter disease and had either been euthanized or were very ill.

"Two of the kittens are fine .................", she continued.

THE RUNT!!! I'm thinking. PLEASE let The Runt be okay!

"............. and the other two ..............."

By this time, I'm practically on the floor. I can handle it, I told myself. Whatever it is, I can handle it.

"................. and the other two are so feral, we think they're unadoptable."

Whhhaaaaaaaatttt???? Feral? Unadoptable? I'd taken care of those guys for the last two months, and while their Momma was certainly feral, the kittens were all cute and adorable. While I had fallen hard for The Runt and Little Girl, the other two were also fab. Not a one of them ever hissed or spit or clawed or objected to being picked up. I had treated The Runt's ear mites with mineral oil and Q-tips (he was too young for ear mite meds) and he sat right there and let me work on him.

"So," the shelter worker continued, "If the two you've picked out to keep are the feral ones, you can certainly change your mind. Or, if you decide to take them anyway, we'll give them to you for free, since we won't be able to adopt them out."

And I'm thinking, what the hell happens to unadoptable kittens? Are they euthanized? Are they sent out to be farm cats?

So of course, THEN I'm thinking, oh, I hope it's The Runt and Little Girl who are the "feral" ones. I'll take them! I love them! They're not feral, damn it!

So we headed to the kitten room, to see which ones had been determined to be feral, and which ones were adoptable.


Oooops! I've gotta go get some work done. I'll be back later to finish this up.