Do No Harm

We have had kittens at my office.  Three gold and one grey and black striped.  The mom kitty is the daughter of the matriarch here; she refused to move on after her siblings left.  She's lost two other litters to my boss's enthusiasm for making the office cat haters happy.  After the second litter was taken away from her when they were four days old, I strongly suggested that he let me handle the kitty situation.

I always come by the office on weekends to feed them and interact with them.  On Sunday, I wasn't able to find the black and gray baby.  My mom helped me look for him, but s/he was nowhere to be found.  We have a tenant in the unused building and I hoped that he had adopted the baby; he's told me a couple of times how much he liked that kitten's spirit.

My boss called me on Sunday afternoon to tell me that our tenant reported two pit bulls in our back patio area on Saturday night.  That cleared up the question of what happened to the black and gray kitten.  It was obvious that we needed to rescue them, just in case our neighbor's dogs came for another snack.  The kittens are about 5 weeks old now, so I didn't feel uneasy about taking them from their mother.

I went to the office, plucked the babies up and put them in my kitty carrier.  Then my boss told me he wanted to catch their mother.  Their mother has never let me touch her.  She's lived here for at five years now and, lately, she's gotten within about a foot of me.  I wasn't enthusiastic about the prospect of catching her, because every time my boss gets involved in these things, I'm the one who ends up getting hurt.

He suggested that we try to trap the mom in the break room by moving the babies in the kitty carrier to that room and leaving the door open.  I asked him what we were going to do when that happened.  He did not have a plan.  Great.

He was right.  After a few minutes, she had to go in and make sure they were okay.  I went in after her and made sure the door was shut.  That door is one of those standard glass office doors and, not understanding the concept of glass, she kept trying to leap out.  Finally she was tired and was still for a few moments.  I approached her, talking softly.  Then, I reached out and touched her.  No reaction.  I petted her.  No reaction.  I petted her again and she turned to look at me with that "If you touch me again, bitch, I'm going to have to really hurt you" look.  I removed my hand immediately.  I waited a couple of seconds and gave it another shot.  She was fine.  

After I petted her for several seconds, I reached down and grabbed the scruff of her neck.  She didn't struggle, so I asked my boss to get the kitty carrier and bring it over.  "Do you want me to hold it up with the door open?"  I told him to put it on the floor and keep the door open so I could just gently push her in.  It actually worked.  Miracle.

I took mom and babies to the vet yesterday.  The babies will be given to loving homes and mom will come back to live with us after she's been spayed.  She's too feral to give away. 

I hope this will be the final proof for my boss that I'm the one who should be dealing with taking our feral cats to the vet.  When I do it, no one gets hurt.  That's why they trust me.  With animals or humans, my goal is always to do no harm. 

America held hostage day 1643