Tremendously Stupid or, as I say, The Beginning to Something Great - June 21st, 2013

June 21st, 2013

Today Hannah and I took another kitten to the veterinarian. This was not a kitten we discovered on the street, however, it was discovered by the daughter of our family we are staying with, Anh. The story goes:

Anh was driving with her cousin when they saw a man throw a kitten into a trash bucket and then throw it into the garbage pile in the street. Anh, who has always had a care for animals...of which included a few incidences of stopping quickly to lecture grown Vietnamese adults on how to properly treat a pet... urged her  cousin to stop and pick up the kitten. When they got to the kitten, they discovered the kitten was cut very badly in three different spots, two of which ran from the top of the back all the way down toward the belly...probably averaging around 2 and a half inches each on either side of the kitten. The kitten was bleeding badly. When they showed Huong, the mother, she instantly said they need to bring her to the vet. The vet did stitch up the kittens' cuts, but was not very helpful in the long run because when they treated the kitten, they kept the kitten behind closed doors so the family couldn't see it. This Animal Hospital is known for being very careless along with not treating the animals correctly. The hospital told the family that the kitten was given two shots...but the name of the shots were not given and the receipt Anh showed me later that day only had two Vietnamese words on it, both of which I would find out later what they said. Anh had been given vague instructions to stay away from solid foods and to only feed the kitten water, milk, or very soft, rice soup.

Hannah and I got to the house around 2:30 p.m. when Anh showed us the kitten, half worried and half excited. Hai, the son, said that we could take the kitten if we would like, since he knew we were looking for a second kitten as a playmate and both the mother and the daughter are fairly scared of cats. Hannah and I did feel the urge to help the kitten, but I was rather weary of just taking the kitten in as our own. To bring a kitten with 3 large cuts back to health takes a level of care we knew we were not at yet. Also, we had been told a story about abusive humans to this kitten. I was not sure if there would be any learned, violent behavior from the humans. My first goal is to raise the kitten we have now. Hannah and I went upstairs and when Anh knocked on the door to ask for a box to put the kitten into, we ended up hanging out a bit and talking about what might happen to the kitten. I watched the kitten as it was really scared and tremendously weak. We called our Vet and told him the whole story. He said it is good for the kitten to eat or it will have no energy at all. He also expressed a deep concern to see the kitten since we were not sure what shots were given and how much. He said it was very common for vets in Vietnam to give improper dosages of any medicine to animals. That was it. We decided to bring the kitten to him.

So there we were again headed to the vet with another kitten in less than a months time. The doctor ended up taking a look at the kitten. Surprisingly, it didn't have fleas. Another male. The doctor said it was extremely weak from extreme lack of blood. When I showed him the receipt from the other hospital, he shook his head and told me it said, 'diagnosis and treatment' (a typical vague generality common in Vietnam). He decided whether we were planning on taking the kitten or not, it still needed to stay in his care for some time, and so we left the kitten with him to give it some fluid and a close watch.

6/23/2013

We have seen the kitten twice since we left him with Dr. Nghai. Each time we have seen him, he has looked much stronger. Today we met with a woman who runs an organization called ARC named Sawano. ARC is a program that is dedicated to rescuing strays, bringing them to stable health and finding a home for them. This is an extremely large challenge in Vietnam since a majority of the population still has the common belief that animals such as cats or dogs are only flea infested, disease ridden creatures that do much more harm than good if touched, let alone taken care of.

Just to give two slight examples, on our way home from meeting with Sawano, Hannah and I stopped off at a Juice stand to order 10 freshly squeezed orange juices...for the family, Phong (our old neighbor who we hadn't seen in over 7 months which is a damned shame because him, his wife Huong are the nicest two one could have a chance to meet in HCMC), and ourselves. While we were waiting I was holding Cargo and blowing on his belly because it calms him down and he was starting to claw and bite on anything he could get his paws on. An older woman selling lottery tickets (an extremely common job for the elderly to make a living) was walking by when she saw me doing this to our kitten. She stopped and stared with an extremely disgusted look on her face. She told me in Vietnamese she didn't like what I was doing and that I should stop. Hannah just smiled and said, 'you don't like cats?'. The old woman said, 'No, I don't.' Hannah then smiled and said, 'We love cats...we are from America." The woman walked away slowly in disgust. Also, the man who was carefully and peacefully making our orange juice asked right before we went to leave if our cat was from America. Hannah happily told him Cargo was a Vietnamese kitten. The man seemed shocked as we drove away. He, like many others, are fooled about the looks and attitude of the kitten, since I'm sure they've never ran into a kitten that has been taken care of in Vietnam. They imagine only a kitten that great could come from America. I'm not bragging on the looks of our kitten for he's a pretty normal looking cat, it's just that he is clean, well fed and calm because he is treated with care...and this is what is extremely shocking to most Vietnamese people.

Sawano had another kitten for us to look at to see if we wanted to adopt him as a playmate for Cargo. I was expecting a kitten around the same age since I had heard straight from her that it was important to find a kitten close to the same age. The other cat's name was Thyme and was about twice the size of Cargo and about 2 months older also. The other kitten was a little protective, consistently swatting at Cargo, which in combination with Cargo's complete lackadaisical composure, turned into a very sort meeting between those two. Unfortunately, I felt quickly that this was not the right kitten to adopt. On the other hand, when we saw the other kitten with the 3 cuts today, we both had a much better feeling about taking it home and seeing if she can live a normal life with us and Cargo. She was much more energetic than Cargo, but still not aggressive like the other cat. I believe it is just a little younger than Cargo.

Dr. Nghai said he wanted to keep the kitten for just a bit longer which is good since the kittens can't really get in contact with each other because Cargo doesn't have a vaccination yet. He was treated for ear mites a week ago. It will take to next Saturday to totally clear the ear mites and during that time we cannot get the vaccination for him. Dr. Nghai did say we can take off his stitches this week though!

The sink fell to the floor and shattered - June 18th, 2013

6/18/2013

The day was going tremendously well. We each had a Bento Box at a Japanese Cafe called MOF. We joked around a lot and enjoyed the time together. We decided it would be great to quickly go home to feed Cargo and then bring him to the park. We got the food out and set it in the bathroom next to the sink where we always put it. She dug in as usual.

I noticed as I was walking around in the bathroom that my foot got wet and was leaving dirt spots everywhere so I went to hop up and wash my feet in the sink. Well I slipped and fell. While I went down my left leg caught the sink and sent it crashing on the tile floor. I was a little shaken up, but got up quickly. Hannah came over and pointed out the blood dots she saw on the floor. I checked all over and didn't see any cuts on my body. I started to get scared thinking that maybe it was in the back of my head, when it came to me as I was following the blood trail. It was headed into the other room of which I hadn't been in yet. Both Hannah and I realized Cargo was bleeding and looked under the bed where the blood trail directed us. Cargo was sitting next to the backboard of the bed unwilling to come to our calls to get her out from under the bed. Finally, he came to me and we soon discovered the blood was coming from a rather large cut on his head behind his left eye. My instinct was to wash the cut a bit to see how deep the cut was and to try to stop the bleeding, but then Hannah said that maybe something was stuck in the cut and touching the cut would only make it worse. We quickly put her in the cage and drove her to the Vet.

Dr. Nghai took one look at the cut and gave us no reassurances saying that it was a rather large cut. He checked Cargo's sight reactions which were good. With the help of his crew he cleaned the cut with a Q-tip and a cotton ball. Each time he cleaned the cut it became more clear how large the cut really was. Dr. Nghai was very calm about it all as he trimmed the fur around the cut. He said he now needed to take a deeper look at the cut and asked us to step outside.

He came outside with a small particle of broken porcelain. He said he had found a few pieces and needed to give Cargo a tranquilizer to perform a small surgery to take the pieces out. It was an extremely quick process that took maybe a total of ten minutes. The cut was cleaned and stitched up. When we walked back in they had just given him the reverse shot that would counteract the tranquilizer. It was crazy watching him go from unable to move anything, to moving his paws around a bit, to finally jumping up and walking around as if nothing happened in seconds. Dr. Nghai gave him some fluid to replace the lost blood along with a nutrient injection and an antibiotic injection to keep the cut from getting infected.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to brig Cargo to the park to play around. He took it easy for the rest of the week and finally went on his first outing since the accident on Saturday the 22nd of June. We went to the riverfront to take a walk. Though it was very lightly raining, a bit overcast and too cold for Cargo's comfort, he was still staying strong, keeping up with Hannah and I. Cargo did miraculously well the whole time and seems be fully recovered thanks to Dr. Nghai.

Our New Foster Kitten

Our new kitten: This kitten was found in the Alleyways of Chinatown in District 5 of Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, June 1st in the evening around 5:00. I remember the time because we were going out to get some dinner. It was extremely dirty and tremendously scared, constantly meowing and looking terrified. As we approached it, we painfully watched while a small truck, not decelerating in any noticeable way, drove over the kitten. The back, left wheel came about 4 or 5 inches from smashing it completely, ending its life. I stopped in complete disbelief as the people around seemed to start gathering some sort of amusement from the frightened kitten. They just stared at the kitten, lounging in their little plastic chairs and feeling empowerment in themselves by laughing at the kitten's helplessness.

As the motorbike purred in idle, Hannah and I debated on whether we should take the kitten or if we should just leave it. We thought of the diseases the kitten could have, the fact that it just may be temporarily separated from its mother, or that someone may already be taking care of the kitten and therefore our help is unnecessary and maybe even unwanted. Hannah asked one of the lounging women where the kitten's mother was. The woman responded by saying, 'she doesn't have a mother.' That still wasn't enough for us at the time. I believe what pushed us to make the decision was when a younger girl offered in broken English for us to take it. She said she would find a box for us to transport her in if we decided to take her. That was enough for Hannah and I...we said we would take her. She found a Danish cookies box, picked up the constantly meowing kitten and put her in the box.

It only took her a little time to stop meowing. We quickly stopped by a store to run in and buy a small baby bottle and some milk.

Since that moment I have learned an insane amount about taking care of kittens. Let me tell you about a few...

A kitten at her age must be forced to go to the bathroom. Kittens learn to pee and poop from their mothers urging them by licking their genitals. In our case, I wasn't planning on going down there and working it with my tongue so instead we use a makeup remover pad. I happened to somehow have the instinctual talent in me to initiate the bowels. Dipping the pad in warm water, you then proceed to rub the genitals until the kitten starts to pee on the pad. First, she will start to wiggle around and start a fuss, clinging on to your hand with her claws. Then, she will stick her hind legs straight out as if to try to hold the pee in for just a bit longer. She then gives up and relaxes her back legs toward her head and starts to pee. The pad becomes warmer and becomes yellow, but you can not stop there at first or she'll stop peeing! You've got to quickly throw the pad away, soak a new one in warm water and continue the process without skipping two beats.

She didn't poop for two days...it was crazy. We were really worried about her. We took her to the vet anyway on the 5th of June to get a check-up since we were paranoid about flees...we found a few on her when we first gave her a bath. Sometimes they don't go because they are stressed...also she had worms which can effect it also. She got some medicine to kill the worms (which we have to go back for again this week since only (at least) 3 consecutive dosages of the medicine will actually get rid of the worms). Right before we went to the vet though, she went...but it was diarrhea. From then on she has gone diarrhea every single time, though at least she is going. I hope it's partly because of the worm medicine and partly because of the extreme change in food that she is experiencing.

Feeding: We found out right away through a bit of research that kittens should never have cow's milk. Because they are not used to that dairy it will give them diarrhea and may even kill them. It was extremely difficult to feed her through the baby bottle anyway. She has the same natural instinct as humans do though; when you place the nipple on the side of her mouth she instinctually will turn and go for it. That was the only way I got her to accept the bottle, though that didn't do much anyway since one bite from the bottle always sent her into a drowning, coughing fit. We then decided to try out some regular wet cat food. She loves it completely. Sometimes she'll get distracted and just walk away while eating, but if you keep her on track, she'll finish it all.

Warmth: we found out that kittens don't actually have the heart power to keep themselves properly warm. Our kitten will shiver a lot of the time or seek out warm places, for instance, under the bed or up against me in any way she can. She learned to burrow under blankets and under my leg quickly. Hannah and I bought a hot water heating pad for her to sleep with...we don't really use that anymore though since we don't really leave her inside to sleep. Once we got over the guilt of her being alone on the balcony, we realized it's probably a better situation anyway. It is never cold outside, unless it rains...of which she has a lot of roof and plant cover anyway. She does freak out sometimes when we give her a bath. It has to be warm temperature and we have a towel at the ready when we are finished. We wrap her up like a burrito and let her stay in it for a while. She typically goes straight to bed after that.

Motor Movement: She has always had a really odd movement about her. She will wobble back and forth a lot. She doesn't really limp, but it does look as though she favors one side over the other. Her tail is crooked and I suspect this has something to do with her tottering. Sometimes though she goes absolutely crazy and will start pouncing at everything and taking crazy leaps on and off things along with taking short sprints which is extremely difficult for a cat to do on a hard surface. She has already jumped off our bed.

This is what I've got so far...It has been quite a learning experience that has demanded a lot of attention. I'm starting to get some instincts though such as what meow means she is hungry and which means she wants to be let outside in the litter. Hopefully, we'll have everything figured out by the time I start my intensive course. We are trying to figure out if she can be a part of our future. I know it will be difficult to transport her wherever we go. Take for instance today, today we went with the family we live with to Vung Tao (a well known town on the beach). We were gone from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. She hated us for a while to leave her there with no food (I gave her breakfast but she can't eat pellets yet).