Send good thoughts out to Gimpy.
Back in 1998, Robyn adopted/saved a little black cat from out in my back alley here. At the time we were not living together, as we had just broken up after that whole infidelity thing of hers from back then. She took the cat home to her basement apartment in East Van, and named her maddasin after the porn star, due to her black hair and the fact that she was such a little tramp in her obviously young age.
Well a few weeks later, Robyn ends up staying at my apartment for the weekend and while shes there she tells me how fat Maddasin is getting, how I should really see her! So at the end of that weekend, I drive her back to East Van, and she invites me in to see her little overweight hairy black football.
I come into the suite and she picks Maddasin up.
Oh my god! she says, Shes all skinny now!
She hands her to me, and I instantly notice how her nipples are all bare and sticking out all prominent like. The cat's I mean!
Uh, I think just she had kittens. I say.
We instantly start combing the apartment for the litter.
After about 10 frantic minutes of searching, I finally find them. Maddasin gave birth to them in a bunched up mass of mosquito netting that Robyn had laying beside her bed. They were completely entangled in the netting, and obviously a couple of them wouldnt have been able to have fed. It took us about 10 minutes to unravel all 5 of them, and to our horror they were absolutely crawling with fleas.
They may have been a few days old already, but they were totally weak.
A single flea only sucks a tiny amount of blood, but there must have been at least 50 on each kitten. These kittens would be dead in a day or two from anemia if we didnt get them out of there.
We got some safers soap, Robyn turned the oven on broil and put a cardboard box in there full of towels. (we heard we couldnt bathe the kittens because if they got cold they would die). We filled the sink with warm water, and proceeded to dunk each kitten in the water, then lather them up with safers soap. We made sure to put a ring of suds around their neck, because as we kept their head out of the water, the fleas would try to all run up to the head. About 10 or 15 fleas made it past the toxic necklace on each kitten, and Robyn stood there with a pair of tweezers trying to squish them as they ran around in the fleecy kitten hair. Um, yuck.
We finally got all 5 kittens defleaed and we dried each one of them in the oven while rubbing them with towels. (no we didnt PUT them in the oven, we just used it for a source of heat) We were both covered in sweat, it must have been 90 degrees in there.
We had to get the kittens outta there, and the only place to take them was to my bachelor apartment downtown where I was already living with Morgan and Nemo, my cat. I soon found myself home with a great dane, 2 cats and 5 kittens.
Well, over the next couple of weeks, 4 out of the 5 kittens did quite well, they were up and driving me crazy everymorning by doing things like launching and then hanging off my calves as I walked around trying to get my coffee on.
The fifth kitten though, not so good. He was only half the size of the other 4, and he still hadnt come out of the little nest in the closet yet. I made sure Maddasin was still feeding him, and she was, so that was good, but his head was always all wobbly, and I thought for sure he was going to die. Maybe he was tied up in the netting too long, or lost too much blood from the fleas.
We waited.
Robyn wanted to give them all away when they were old enough, but the little gimpy one was still barely walking. He did try more and more often, hed come out and sort of wander around but it was like he didnt have control of his back end. It went one way, his front end went the other.
Well, the time finally came when the other 4 were old enough and healthy enough to find their new homes. It was kinda sad when they went, but still, a bit of a relief. We held the gimpy one behind, as there was no way we wanted to give somebody a kitten that was just going to die.
Well, die he didnt. No, he got stronger and stronger, and became quite a little monkey in his own right. We still referred to him as the gimpy one, as we didnt want to actually name him in case he did die. But he just wasnt looking like he was going to die, and we decided to actually start trying to come up with a name for him. Man it was hard, we didnt want to call him Gimpy, but he was gimpy for months already
Eventually our friends were like uh, his names Gimpy, isnt it.
Fuck!, I said. I guess it is.
Robyn and I moved back in together, and brought all the cats together again. I really grew to love Gimpy. That cat is more like a dog. I was able to train him to give high fives on command.
I say him because when he hit about 9 months old, he went into heat.
What, Im supposed to know how to sex a kitten? I thought it was a penis.
Well, I got email from Robyn yesterday morning. It was very short:
Gimpy has become extremely ill. Unfortunately I won't be able to have Morgan over for a visit until she recovers. I will let you know as soon as I can have Morgan over again.
I responded immediately with Oh my God! Whats wrong with Gimpy? What do you mean extremely ill?
She wrote back saying that she was going into the 24 hour hospital with her, that she doesnt have feline AIDS nor feline Leukemia, her blood counts were way out of whack, and thats all she said.
I responded with one of the hardest emails Ive had to write:
Oh man. Im so sorry to hear this.
Man I hope shes going to be ok. Really. I wish there was more I could do. I wish I could see her, give her a little bedside high five.
Ok, that just made me really sad.
You said same thing as Maddasin does as though its present tense. Is she sick as well?
or are you referring to that jaundice thing from 3 or 4 years ago?
I am sure this is hard on you in more ways than just financially, and I am truly sorry for that as well. I honestly dont know what I can say, this is so awkward, I know exactly what I want to say, but I dont know whats appropriate, but I am sincerely distraught over this and.. well, I just am Ill leave it at that.
Let gimpatoony know that Im sending some healthy loving thoughts where ever that hospital is ok? And please keep me updated with any new information regarding her.
I believe your visa should be down to about 200 now. I have been putting money on it every month.
Take care.
Shaun
That was yesterday afternoon at 4:30, and I havent received a response. I am going to be really upset if something happens to Gimpy and I didnt get a chance to see her. Well, Im going to be really upset if something happens to Gimpy no matter what, but ..
You know what I mean.
Back in 1998, Robyn adopted/saved a little black cat from out in my back alley here. At the time we were not living together, as we had just broken up after that whole infidelity thing of hers from back then. She took the cat home to her basement apartment in East Van, and named her maddasin after the porn star, due to her black hair and the fact that she was such a little tramp in her obviously young age.
Well a few weeks later, Robyn ends up staying at my apartment for the weekend and while shes there she tells me how fat Maddasin is getting, how I should really see her! So at the end of that weekend, I drive her back to East Van, and she invites me in to see her little overweight hairy black football.
I come into the suite and she picks Maddasin up.
Oh my god! she says, Shes all skinny now!
She hands her to me, and I instantly notice how her nipples are all bare and sticking out all prominent like. The cat's I mean!
Uh, I think just she had kittens. I say.
We instantly start combing the apartment for the litter.
After about 10 frantic minutes of searching, I finally find them. Maddasin gave birth to them in a bunched up mass of mosquito netting that Robyn had laying beside her bed. They were completely entangled in the netting, and obviously a couple of them wouldnt have been able to have fed. It took us about 10 minutes to unravel all 5 of them, and to our horror they were absolutely crawling with fleas.
They may have been a few days old already, but they were totally weak.
A single flea only sucks a tiny amount of blood, but there must have been at least 50 on each kitten. These kittens would be dead in a day or two from anemia if we didnt get them out of there.
We got some safers soap, Robyn turned the oven on broil and put a cardboard box in there full of towels. (we heard we couldnt bathe the kittens because if they got cold they would die). We filled the sink with warm water, and proceeded to dunk each kitten in the water, then lather them up with safers soap. We made sure to put a ring of suds around their neck, because as we kept their head out of the water, the fleas would try to all run up to the head. About 10 or 15 fleas made it past the toxic necklace on each kitten, and Robyn stood there with a pair of tweezers trying to squish them as they ran around in the fleecy kitten hair. Um, yuck.
We finally got all 5 kittens defleaed and we dried each one of them in the oven while rubbing them with towels. (no we didnt PUT them in the oven, we just used it for a source of heat) We were both covered in sweat, it must have been 90 degrees in there.
We had to get the kittens outta there, and the only place to take them was to my bachelor apartment downtown where I was already living with Morgan and Nemo, my cat. I soon found myself home with a great dane, 2 cats and 5 kittens.
Well, over the next couple of weeks, 4 out of the 5 kittens did quite well, they were up and driving me crazy everymorning by doing things like launching and then hanging off my calves as I walked around trying to get my coffee on.
The fifth kitten though, not so good. He was only half the size of the other 4, and he still hadnt come out of the little nest in the closet yet. I made sure Maddasin was still feeding him, and she was, so that was good, but his head was always all wobbly, and I thought for sure he was going to die. Maybe he was tied up in the netting too long, or lost too much blood from the fleas.
We waited.
Robyn wanted to give them all away when they were old enough, but the little gimpy one was still barely walking. He did try more and more often, hed come out and sort of wander around but it was like he didnt have control of his back end. It went one way, his front end went the other.
Well, the time finally came when the other 4 were old enough and healthy enough to find their new homes. It was kinda sad when they went, but still, a bit of a relief. We held the gimpy one behind, as there was no way we wanted to give somebody a kitten that was just going to die.
Well, die he didnt. No, he got stronger and stronger, and became quite a little monkey in his own right. We still referred to him as the gimpy one, as we didnt want to actually name him in case he did die. But he just wasnt looking like he was going to die, and we decided to actually start trying to come up with a name for him. Man it was hard, we didnt want to call him Gimpy, but he was gimpy for months already
Eventually our friends were like uh, his names Gimpy, isnt it.
Fuck!, I said. I guess it is.
Robyn and I moved back in together, and brought all the cats together again. I really grew to love Gimpy. That cat is more like a dog. I was able to train him to give high fives on command.
I say him because when he hit about 9 months old, he went into heat.
What, Im supposed to know how to sex a kitten? I thought it was a penis.
Well, I got email from Robyn yesterday morning. It was very short:
Gimpy has become extremely ill. Unfortunately I won't be able to have Morgan over for a visit until she recovers. I will let you know as soon as I can have Morgan over again.
I responded immediately with Oh my God! Whats wrong with Gimpy? What do you mean extremely ill?
She wrote back saying that she was going into the 24 hour hospital with her, that she doesnt have feline AIDS nor feline Leukemia, her blood counts were way out of whack, and thats all she said.
I responded with one of the hardest emails Ive had to write:
Oh man. Im so sorry to hear this.
Man I hope shes going to be ok. Really. I wish there was more I could do. I wish I could see her, give her a little bedside high five.
Ok, that just made me really sad.
You said same thing as Maddasin does as though its present tense. Is she sick as well?
or are you referring to that jaundice thing from 3 or 4 years ago?
I am sure this is hard on you in more ways than just financially, and I am truly sorry for that as well. I honestly dont know what I can say, this is so awkward, I know exactly what I want to say, but I dont know whats appropriate, but I am sincerely distraught over this and.. well, I just am Ill leave it at that.
Let gimpatoony know that Im sending some healthy loving thoughts where ever that hospital is ok? And please keep me updated with any new information regarding her.
I believe your visa should be down to about 200 now. I have been putting money on it every month.
Take care.
Shaun
That was yesterday afternoon at 4:30, and I havent received a response. I am going to be really upset if something happens to Gimpy and I didnt get a chance to see her. Well, Im going to be really upset if something happens to Gimpy no matter what, but ..
You know what I mean.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
That would be a really selfish thing to do on her part.
Does this maybe come down to $ in her eyes?