Kittens in the office
You can't take them all home, but you sure do want to.
A few days ago, a boxful of five kittens and their mama spent a morning in our office. Is there anything cuter than a kitten? (OK, puppies are right up there, but I'm showing my bias.) These little guys were 4 weeks old—that age where they're still tottery but able to pounce and play with only an occasional unintentional somersault. Mama was a beautiful tortoiseshell, and her babies were solid-colored, each one a different shade of mom's coat. This cat and her litter had been rescued by an event planner in our office when mama cat was still pregnant.
As you can imagine, a parade of people marched in and out of the spare office where the kittens were being kept all morning. Mama tolerated our intrusion with aplomb, allowing herself to be petted and fussed over in between her rounds of the room to make sure all her offspring were accounted for.
The kittens, meanwhile, explored and played when they weren't being handled by us. Some of them worked in cahoots with each other, some struck out on their own, their little feline personalities already asserting themselves. One kept falling asleep sitting straight up, its tiny body swaying like a feather in the breeze as its eyes drooped shut.
So my first question to you all in the veterinary profession is this: How on earth do you get any work done when you're surrounded by animals all day? I realize you don't always have a whole litter of puppies or kittens in the practice every day of the week, but even so—it took a fierce act of will for me to go back to my desk and work on editing instead of spending the whole morning playing with these little fuzzballs.
Second, how do you not all have 10 pets each? All five of these kittens and their mother need a good home, and I'm sorely tempted to provide that for one or more of them; the only thing stopping me is uncertainty of how it would go over with my own aged—and increasingly crotchety—feline. Again, you all come across many more needy pets than I do (although in this office full of animal lovers we certainly see our share) and undoubtedly you can't personally care for all of them. How do you cope?
If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that you cultivate strong relationships with shelters and rescue organizations, create angel funds to offset some of the expense of caring for rescues and strays, and hit up everyone you know who might be open to welcoming another pet into their lives. But I'm guessing your own personal-pet capacity is maxed out as well. Sometimes a sweet pair of eyes and fuzzy set of paws sneak their way into your heart despite all the practical reasons you should say no. I know wherefore I speak—that tortoiseshell mama cat is working on me.
Kristi Reimer, Editor
