ROLLING UP THE SLEEVES

Our new guest is here, arriving last night after a trip from the West end. Turns out that this little girl (who we've decided to name Caramel), was found abandoned in an empty apartment.

I've always wondered about how one does this exactly? Packs up the contents of an entire home and looks back to see the cat, who is very likely staring right back at you, as if to say; "I'm ready too", and then you open the door, have one last look around, and walk through to the other side - except you decided long ago that your cat wasn't joining you on this move. You pick up your entire life, the things you deem as valuable when infact you've left behind the one piece most valuable of all.............your little friend. The one that has depended upon you and trusted you, and you just walk away. How do you sleep at night, how do you think upon that time, in that place and not remember the animal you abandoned there? Or do you, and you just don't care?

I could truly rant about this type of blatant disregard for animal welfare until the cows come home, but of course I know that here I'm preaching to the choir. Besides, the most important part of this entry is our dear kitty in the story - our Caramel.

Approximately 4 years of age, with large, expressive green eyes and a beautiful torti coat, I couldn't help think of my Miss Remy when I saw her. She's been good as gold so far, but unfortunately we're having abit of trouble in the eating department as it appears she's begun to battle a URI. So, out comes the antibiotics, out comes the 5 different types of food to try and entice eating, and out comes the force feeding kit.

I'd love to write that force feeding was a breeze, but Caramel was not appreciative of our trying to shove food down her throat, and who can blame her? We've known her less than 48 hours, and here we are, two total strangers holding her down, prying open her mouth, stuffing in a syringe filled with yucky wet mess, and asking her not to fight! Well fight she did and we've been doing this long enough to know definitivly that this (if it has to continue), will be a battle the whole way.

So tonight, she's resting and has an a la carte menu of different foods to try in her guest room. Here's praying that I awake tomorrow morning to find the drugs are already working, and the grumbling of her tummy could no longer be ignored. Because honestly............I don't relish the thought of Round #2 @ 5:00am!