It Never Rains But it Pours (Dogs and Cats)

Oh my God, you guys.

Good news first: We've found a home for the kitty. A friend of my sister is coming to pick up the kitten this afternoon, and luckily, aside from her eye problem, she's in perfect shape for it. She's a happy, fat little thing, who has taken over the household, scrambling up and down the stairs, playing with Lucy, and snuggling up to everyone and everything she can. She responds to 'kitty' now, but that's hardly my fault, since we had to call her something. But looks like she'll be getting a good home nevertheless.

And the Bad News:
My grandma has a poodle that she deliberately got pregnant. Let me preface this story by saying I did NOT agree with that. I'm a big supporter of PETA and am viciously aware of how many animals don't have homes (witness my cat rescuing), and believe all pets should be spayed or nuetered. When my grandmother and my aunt mated their white minature poodles to have 'just one litter' I complained vehemently. But the deed was already done, and my grandmother is relatively old fashioned and has had litters of puppies before, so she just thought this would be business as usual.

So last night I came home late because I stopped at PETCO to pick up some kitten formula and food for the kitten. Thank God, I did, because I had been home little more than an hour whwen my sister finally told me that J-Lo had her puppies that afternoon. At the time, my Grandmother and my Mom had gone to the store, and no one had checked in on the dogs (my Grandmother has recently moved into the back guest house) all afternoon. The minute my sister said the dog had 'already killed two' I heard warning bells in my head. Immediately, I raced to the backhouse and sure enough, J-Lo was in the corner of her bed, and on the other side, freezing and barely moving, were six puppies. Three were already dead. Two had bite marks on their heads, one bleeding profusely, and only one seemed actively moving around, searching for a nipple that J-Lo refused to let her have, preferred instead to shove her away with her paw. My Grandmother arrived home at that time, and I grabbed her, and we both managed to get the three remaining puppies and brought them to the main house. We had no puppy formula, all we had was the kitten formula I had just bought, and so that's what they had as we vigourously rubbed them like crazy, trying to bring their body tempature up, as they were freezing cold.

Research on the internet gave us a little insight as to what we could do, and so the rest of the night me, my mom and my grandmother spent very long hours trying to save the tiny newborns from certain death. Lucy, the little nurturer that she is, didn't understand what was happening, and spent most of the night sitting next to the heat lamp, whining as the puppies cried, unsure what to do.

Luckily, they survived the night, and my heartbroken Grandma is going to go to Petco to pick up some formula and a heating pad to try and keep them going.

Meanwhile my sister got delegated the task of giving the kitten a bath, which she got through lots of little scratches and a yowling kitty. Who now smells fresh and not of stinkiness.
So our house has become some sort of impromptu animal hospital, with three newborn (two still sick) pups and a bouncy kitty who doesn't quite know what to do with the new arrivals and has even tried to sit with them in an effort to warm them up.

Of course, this could all have been avoided if my grandmother had just spayed J-Lo like we all advised her to do, but lesson learnt, I guess. All we can do now is do what we can to save the little guys.

Odd night for me, but here's hoping at least one of those little guys make it.