[Ashley V]

Please nobody start bashing me for this... I've been crying since it happened and feel awful enough... I don't need the extra stress.

Some of you may know, we adopted a 7 week old kitten. She was perfectly fine until about 8:30 tonight when she started being really limp. The second we would put her down, she would try to walk and fall over on her back. She ran over to her food and tried to eat like she never had food before. She seemed like she suddenly lost a ton of weight and just didn't look good. I was about to run to the store and get emergency formula and I tried to feed her water through an eye dropper so she wouldn't dehydrated but her muscles were spasming and I couldn't get the water in her. My mom took one look at her and we both said at the same time she needed to go the vet right then. My cousin wrapped her in a couple towels and my cousin, Adam, and I took her to the ER vet. They, of course, took her right back and started working on her. Her glucose level dropped deathly low and her temperature dropped to 94 degrees. For a cat it should be between 100 and 103. On the way to the vet she was meowing loudly for about 3/4 the trip, but she just stopped. My cousin kept blowing on her to make sure she was still alive. Anyways, the vet bill was going to be over $1,300. Between all of us, there was no way we could have paid for that. Unfortunately, the ER was basically saying, pay up or give us the cat. We had no choice. The vet actually adopted her on the spot and is taking her for her own. They are still not sure whether she is going to make it, depending on her diagnoses. They are going to test her for everything and if it's AIDS or leukemia, they are going to have to put her down. If it's something curable, they're going to do whatever they can to save her. They said that she was basically dead when we brought her in. When we went to say good bye, she was at least sitting up meowing at us.

Now, for the part that made us mad....

The tech said that we should call the "rescue" lady because sometimes they will help out with the cost. Well, my cousin called and they were very snippy with him. They blamed all of it on him, because "her sisters are fine". They were practically screaming at him on the phone. My cousin did NOTHING wrong. In fact this is what happened. After he got off the phone with her, the lady called the office and was screaming at them. Thankfully the tech had enough sense to give it back to them. The tech told us what was said. The woman LIED about Lexi's age. She was actually 6 weeks, not 7, so that makes her 7 weeks now. She also was rescued from a very bad environment that was in a completely different climate and they only had her for a week and never gave her little body time to adjust. They only tested one kitten in the litter for AIDS/leukemia and none of the others and if it's in the genetics, only one of the babies could get it, not all. In fact, the lady told my cousin "I don't have time for this, I have to go to bed and get up for work in the morning." He had also signed at contract saying that if he couldn't care for her, that he would give her back to them. She told him to do whatever he wanted with her. Such a caring person she is, isn't she? Tomorrow I'm going to research and try to report her to the humane society. I have her name and address. Oh yeah, the lady also told the vet tech that Lexi was the weakest one of the litter. She told us just to feed her extra wet food to help her gain weight and she'd be fine, but she had diaheria from day one... of course we aren't vets and don't any better. Also, this is what got me. There were 3 kittens in the litter. When we went to see the kittens, there were only two. It was Lexi and her sister. The sister was already spoken for... but why was she still there? Why did she stay for awhile longer, while Lexi had to go right away. I think she was let go so soon because they knew she was sick and didn't have the means or heart to take care of her, so they let her go to people completely unsuspecting that saw only a precious face.

Please pray for her. She really meant the world to us. Please also give your babies, no matter what species and extra hug. One second they could be completely fine and the next they won't. When we got home, we did our rounds through all the animals and gave them love. Chippy's birthday has been postponed to tomorrow afternoon because of all of this. No one was really in the "mood" and my aunt is in pain because she thinks she broke a rib. Chip and Smokey are also completely worn out from todays events and I think it's too late for them to eat that stuff. If Chip understood what was going on, I know he wouldn't mind.