On Thanksgiving Day, 2013, one of my two cats died suddenly at the still young age of 8 years old from what we’ve come to believe was an undiagnosed cardiomyopathy. In some breeds it’s a known problem, but with Charlie, there wasn’t any previous indication or any reason to believe he had such a problem. After Charlie died, I took his remains to the nearby Blue Pearl emergency veterinary clinic — I’d been by earlier to ask about after-care and see if they could examine him to see if there was an obvious answer as to why. Unfortunately there wasn’t, but the doctor on-call told me that it was likely his heart gave out. Not long thereafter is when I learned about feline cardiomyopathy.
For the better part of 2014, my wife and I have been talking about adopting another cat, preferably an adult since Charlie’s surviving brother is now 9 years old, and a kitten has the potential to be problematic.
Especially a young kitten, say around 6 weeks old…
As I write this, my wife and I had found a home for a 6 week-old kitten that we accepted from a pair of girls who were trying to find a new home for her around our apartment complex. My wife and I had just gotten into our SUV and were about to leave when they approached us, and, after glancing at my wife, I said to the girls that we’d see what we could do for her.
Truthfully we wouldn’t keep her. Thankfully finding someone who could didn’t take longer than a trip to the local emergency veterinary hospital. We drove straight to the Blue Pearl hospital instead of going to Wal-Mart first. Then I filled out the paperwork accepting responsibility for any charges and left my wife there so I could grab her prescription before the pharmacy closed. Before leaving for the pharmacy, I already knew there were two vet techs at Blue Pearl who were looking to adopt, one specifically who was looking for a kitten.
Ultimately we knew that caring for a 6 week-old kitten would’ve been problematic. If she was 6 months-old, it’d be a different story and we’d probably be figuring out accommodations right now and I’d be writing this later this evening or tomorrow morning with a much different story to tell. Instead the kitten will be living with a veterinary technician, which is better for her anyway given how young she is, and better for us since we can’t really accommodate that young of a kitten right now.
