of the 21 cats i had last week, 7 of them are now dead. the second batch of fosters i got turned out to have parvo (sort of leukemia for kittens) and they all died. one died while we had them and then i took them all back to ARF. it was awful and i started crying in their exam room and had to be given kleenex. my first batch of kittens are still in quarantine at ARF to make sure they didn’t get parvo too. they’ve got another week to go. i don’t like to think of any of them dying so i’m trying hard to convince myself they’ll be fine.
theoretically all my own cats are fine since they’ve been vaccinated but i’m still keeping an eye on them for another week. parvo has a 14 day incubation period.
the mom of all the kitten who died is still alive but also still in quarantine.
in order to eradicate parvo bacteria my mom and i had to clean our entire house with bleach. bleach. and i kept forgetting to put on gloves. admittedly our house is now very, very clean. and admittedly also i managed to bleach spots in my carpet and my sheets. my mom was convinced the white powdery residue was never going to come off the hardwood floors but after several layers of oil polish, i can’t see it anymore. i can still smell it though.
of the kittens that died, i can still see ivan (the terrible’s) little face.
he was always so excited when i came in the guest bedroom to see them. he would run to the edge of the bed (it’s been bleached) and sit there waiting for me to pick him up. he had enormous eyes and an absurdly messy fluff of fur. they were all so cute, friendly, and affectionate. i’m so sad that they didn’t get a chance to grow up in homes of their own and be loved more.