The Van Kitten

A lady called me, and told me she'd been seeing a kitten, under her cars, crawling up into the under belly of her cars, and of her neighbors cars.  And the kitten cried constantly.

This had gone on I think a couple of days.  I told her to come get a trap but it was the next evening before she was free to come and borrow a kitten trap.

In the meantime she got a KATA volunteer to come help, so she didn't set the trap til late last night b because before that, they tried everything, to chase her down, net her, grab her.

She's not very big, just a tiny thing, but with all those cars to run under and get up into the underneath and engines, she was good at not getting caught. 

But those plaintive hoarse load cries were so horrid, the lady said.

So this morning early, having had her on my mind, thinking about such a kitten, although I'd not been over there myself, I threw a trap and my net in the car, stopped and got a cup of coffee and headed over.  I like to work early or late at night and alone.  I do my best that way.  It was 6:00 a.m.

I'd spent yesterday in miserable pain from too much work with arms overhead, on the cat yard.  This causes facial and neck nerve inflammation on my left side.  Even the inside of my mouth hurt on the left side.

I should not have been out to net kittens.

Common sense is not my strong point.

I saw the kitten immediately and spent an hour or two trying to coax the kitten into a trap.   The woman came out of her place and tried to help by bringing one of her cats out because the kitten had tried to follow a stray male, so desperate was she for help.  And she wanted her mommy.

But the lady's cat spooked and took off, in catastrophic fashion, awkwardly, finally, being overweight, getting over a fence back into his own yard.  In terror.  Then she tried her other cat.   Who took one look at the kitten and ran the other way.

The lady went back inside and I watched the kitten who finally ran under the lady's van.  And climbed up onto the drive line.  I texted the lady to come back out.  She did.  I was by then on my back with my net, but could not get under the low riding van.   The kitten walked the drive line to the transmission and oil pan, which was leaking oil.  We blocked all exits with towels and I stuck my net up over the only way out.  And we waited.  And waited.  We poked at him with a broken plant stake.  Made noises against the oil pan.  And finally, after about 40 minutes, the kitten dropped out backwards into the net and was caught! 

My one arm was covered in black oil but we were happy.

I brought her home and discovered how bad off she really is.  Very dehydrated and skinny.   Almost nothing to her in fact.   How she got to those two driveways and why she only would go up into cars is a mystery.  She may have ridden in to the area under a car somewhere.

I gave her fluids and put her on a heating Frisbee nestled into a soft blankee and syringe fed her KMR mixed into wet cat food and hoped for the best.  Finally by this evening, she'd gotten enough sub cu fluids to poop.  Hurrah!  And Meow Village agreed to take her.   I rushed her up so relieved and happy they could help her out and me out, too.  I wanted to hug Kathi, who also sent me home with some chicken salad she'd made today and a piece of pita bread to wrap it in.

The little van girl, nothing to her really.  Now all she wants to do is cuddle.

Good luck little girl!  Love you!