This morning I was very happy to be out the door on time, dropped Kirstin off for school *early*, and hit the road for work. It's beautiful out there, and I decided rather than blast the stereo as usual, I would enjoy the quiet, and the sounds of the morning, so I rolled down the window a bit, and let the warm breeze into the car.
About 10 miles down the road, I started hearing a very strange squealing sound under the hood. I was a little alarmed, but my air conditioning belt does that once in a while, and it stopped after a second, so I figured it was okay, and continued.
Soon the noise got louder, and all of the sudden, in the back of my mind, I thought, "Leeloo? What are you doing in the car?"
I was filled with dread, and thought perhaps I had run over a kitten, and was dragging it along the road or something, so I pulled over, turned off the car, and got out to see if I could make the poor thing more comfortable as it died.
But there weren't any guts on the outside of the car at all, and I didn't see anything in the undercarriage.
Matter of fact, the sound seemed to be coming from under the hood. So I steeled myself for a scene of utter gore, and popped the hood.
Sprawled on top of the engine block was a tiny tiger-striped kitten, completely terrified.
Without thinking, I blurted, "Oh, little kitty! What are you doing in there?"
As if it would answer me.
Then I got my brain in order, and pulled the kitten off the engine, held it close and let it stop crying.
"Well," I thought to myself. "So much for being on time for work."
I hopped in the car, and called Forest, filling his sleepy self in on the situation, trying to decide what to do. This would mean that in fall we will have three cats. That's a lot of cattage for one household. He poked fun at me when I suggested that I should take it straight to the vet, then we should try to find its owner, and if we can't, then we should take care of it ourselves.
But then he smilingly told me that he was glad I was the kind of person who takes care of stray little animals, and said he would do the same thing in my place. Whatever I decide, he's got my back.
So, I plunked the little thing on the passenger seat in the minivan and turned around to go straight to the vet. I called Earl at my office, and explained the bizarreness of the morning, and he said he'd expect me in as soon as I could get there. Earl is cool that way.
I wasn't sure if this cat was old enough to be away from its mother yet, plus I wasn't sure I should expose Leeloo, who is still recovering from surgery, to this kitten, who may be infected with who-knows-what, or may have internal injuries from the morning's episode of engine block surfing.
Either way, I know that animals that are hurt, sick, or scared can be unpredictable, and I wanted a vet's opinion before taking the thing home.
My vet's first reaction was to say, "What are you doing with a kitten? Didn't you just get Leeloo spayed?"
I laughed, and explained Der Tragedie of Das Kat to the vet, bringing him no amount of laughter and amazement. He said he figures one in a hundred kittens might survive that trip under the hood of a car.
He examined the cat, and determined that it is a "she", probably just barely old enough to leave its mother, just about 6 weeks old. The kitten, miraculously, is unscathed, except for some burns on the bottoms of her feet. Actually, the burns probably saved the cat's life, since they are apparently what made her howl loudly enough that I heard her.
The vet congratulated me on my new cat, gave me some ear mite drops 'just in case', and declared her healthy. No fleas, no sign of injuries, nothing.
He wormed her and sent us on our way.
Shaking my head in disbelief, I took her home, thinking I would grab some supplies and take her to the office with me for the day. Leeloo is still awfully sore and grumpy, and I didn't think it was a good idea to leave her with the new kitten unsupervised for a whole day.
When I got there, I found that Forest had delayed leaving town, and he got to meet the little thing. I love to see what a sweety Forest is with situations like this. His heart opens right up, and he cares for the little creatures right away. His first instinct was to carefully introduce the kitten to Leeloo, and let them have a first sniff at each other, and see how they did.
The little kitten sniffed tenatively at Leeloo from Forest's extended hand, and stared. Leeloo mewled rather pathetically, and sniffed back. The hairs on her back raised a bit, and she backed away a little, a posture she's exhibited a lot since her surgery. She doesn't feel like being petted or picked up much yet. Forest and I decided to back off a bit, and just sat there for a few minutes, then gave Leeloo a kitty treat to encourage her.
We agreed it wouldn't be a great plan to leave the two cats at home alone together all day, so we put some food and a soft towel in our cat carrier, and I brought her to work with me.
So under my desk, next to the old server and a couple of other nice warm computers, sleeps our new kitten. I'm going to put an ad in our local paper to see if anyone lost her, but I don't have high hopes, since our home is so near the farming community, where cats are so numerous that people don't even keep count of them.
We've named her Eilonwy, after the girl in The Book of Three which we just finished reading.
I'm hoping I can get her to eat kitten chow and drink some water once she wakes up from her nap. In the meantime, I guess I'm skipping lunch to make up for the time lost in transit.
This is what I get for having Leeloo spayed.
The rest of the day will likely be uneventful by comparison. I've got meetings all afternoon, and then after work I'm going to have to go home and bathe our stinky new cat. Should be an adventure.
I saw Lamont last night when he and Jeff picked Kirstin up. Seems he's in a show out at Spotlight theatre that isn't cast completely yet. I guess I'll give the director a call and see what's up. It's flattering that Lamont enjoyed working with me enough to ask me so nicely. He's a lot of fun to be on stage with, too.
Aww. Eilonwy's so cute! I'll have to put up her picture soon.
