August 18th, 2006 Update

In late June, I was trying to concentrate 100% of my energies on helping our tongueless cat, Ballou.  Unfortunately, I still had to go to work and this is where my distractions began. 

I had to fly into Atlanta on the 25th to spend the night in a hotel so I could work an early trip to Mexico on the 26th. At 6:30 on the 26th  I heard a pitiful sound outside of my second floor room.  I opened the door and a nine week old tortoiseshell kitten ran in.  She was desperate to get in out of a terrible storm and sat in my lap, purring while I put my makeup on.  Although I would strangle anyone who called me that early, I tried two of my friends that live in Atlanta to see if they could help out.  One answered, but she was in Florida on vacation.  The other didn't answer.  I went down to get her some milk from the breakfast area and found out from reception that she'd been abandoned by a family two days prior.  I brought her down with me when I checked out and was told, "No pets are allowed."  Since they had already told me she'd been abandoned there a couple of days before, it seemed silly to explain that she was not my pet, but theirs, but that I was willing to take responsibility for her if they could just keep her safe until I did my two day Mexico City trip followed by a day of standby duty. 

They looked at her like she was a cockroach that they wanted out of their lobby immediately.  I asked them to at least point me in the direction of the safest place to put her out.  I had to walk outside in a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning, pry each of her tiny paws off of me, set her down and walk away while she screamed and I sobbed.  The shuttle driver, a wonderful woman named Patricia, saw that I was very upset.  I explained why and she promised to try to keep an eye on her if she could find her when she got off work at 3:00 that afternoon.  I did my Mexico City trip and grieved the entire time knowing that I'd left a nine week old kitten who'd turned to me for help outside in horrible weather with people who despised her to probably die. 

Well, Patricia came through for us!  As soon as our plane touched down back in Atlanta the second day, I checked my messages.  The important one said, "I've got the kitty.  Do you still want the kitty?''  God, did I want the kitty!  The following morning, I bought a soft sided carrier at the post office in the airport.  Then Patricia dropped the kitten, now known as Georgia, off to me curbside.  We spent the day in the Delta flight attendant crew lounge in a very nice supervisor's office.  She set us up with a litter box filled with paper from the shredder, food and water.  She also gave me a special letter allowing me to travel home on the flight attendant jumpseat with a rescued animal. 

We got home late on the 28th.  I took her directly to the shelter where Cindy had a cage all set up for her.  Unfortunately, the mouth that I'd been trying not to see caught Cindy's attention as soon as she saw her the next day.  She took her straight to the vet where we found out that she had a fractured jaw, a tooth broken off at the root, and split gums.  Sometime between me putting her outside and Patricia getting to her, she'd been kicked in the mouth!  Well, despite her first nine pretty sucky weeks of life, she spent only ten days at the shelter before her new mom, Susan, fell madly and deeply in love with her and promised her that no one would ever hurt again.  With a few more trips like that one, I'm going to need to retire early because a person can only take so much!   
And so...my attentions turned back to Ballou...Click here to read his story.