CH Kitty Club

20100819 Darkdazeys (Twitch) Deceased
My husband and I have wanted a cat for a while. In fact, we went to the humane society three years ago determined to bring one home with us. We got my dog, Houdini, instead (Our third dog, btw). My sister-in-law got her kitty from her fiance's parent's farm, and we asked her to try to catch one for us as well. What's better than a free kitty? 

My sister-in-law, Tina, lives in Torrington, WY with her fiance about 5 miles away from his parent's farm. The farm is chalk full of animals- tiny frogs, feral cats, and the usual farm animals- pigs, chickens, cows, horses, etc. The cats reside in the barn, are afraid of any human contact, and have babies like bunnies. One litter wasn't very fortunate (or was, depending on how you look at it)- they were born July 11th and we believe that mom went off and died right after giving birth because she wasn't looking too hot when she was pregnant. Tina's soon-to-be mother-in-law found the kittens around some pipe that they have outside of the barn, and they were still gooey. She called Tina and her fiance, Dustin, went out to the farm to take them home with him. One kitten was already dead, a second one died that night, and the last two had a slight chance of making it.

Tina drove 30 minutes into Nebraska the next day, where the closest Walmart is, to buy some kitten formula and some bottles. She was determined to make these two survive. Two weeks later, they were flourishing. One, named Eli, was beginning to use the litter box. He had a very good grasp on the concept of the box, but didn't have very good aim. He would stand with his front legs inside the box, while his hind legs were outside, and he would potty on his blankies instead of in the box. It was very cute to watch...

Tina told me to pick which kitten I wanted. And, after meeting them both, I soon fell in love with Eli. I got to bottle feed him and just chill with him. He sat on my chest, stared at my face, and just meowed for 10 minutes straight, all the while trying to kill my hand. I could tell, we were going to be inseparable once he came to live with us. :)

Since they were both still too young, not using the litter box completely on their own, and still drank out of their bottles, Tina took them back up to good ol' Wyo with her. 

A week later, she noticed something odd about Eli. He wasn't keeping up with his sister very well, he was very wobbly, and he looked as if he was having muscle spasms. Tina tried a few things to try to make the tremors subside- she fed him more, fed him less, gave him pedialyte with his milk, gave him vitamins, and a whole bunch of other things I don't even know about.

She called me a few days later and told me that Eli's not looking too good and that it's plain sad to watch him tremor. And she asked me what I wanted to do with him. Of course, I hate watching any animal suffer, but I didn't want to be selfish. (I don't think I have ever sobbed so hard for an animal that wasn't completely mine yet as I did after I got that call.) Furthermore, the vet didn't really know what to do with him. He highly suggest euthanasia. Personally, I think the vet was full of it, and just didn't want to bother with our kitty. 

Anyway, Tina decided to bring him down last Friday to have us look at him and make our decision as to euthanize him or keep him. He was absolutely adorable. He could eat and potty on his own (of course I had to hold him up) and he was just a joy to have in the house. So, we decided to keep him and give him a very good life. Because of his wobbles, we decided to rename him Twitch. We think it suits him a hell of a lot better than Eli. And, after doing a bunch of research, watching videos on Youtube of kittens with CH, and finding this site, I'm very confident that we will be able to give him a long and happy life. :)
Don't wanna get up.
So sleepy...
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