Four Lucky Kittens

I need to stop reading the listings on Craigslist. I've become one of those manic anonymous screamers that blast people who want to rehome their cats for stupid reasons. Today was a little different...

There was a post this morning from an outraged citizen who went into a petstore in the north end of the city and found kittens who were being neglected. No food...no water....zip. She even posted the name and address of the place and begged somebody to help them. C'mon. Let SPCA do something. Don't call me.

But I was bothered by the post. I sipped my coffee this morning and kept reading the post over and over. I "mapquested" the address of the place and realized it was only 40 minutes from me. But it was raining....no - it was *pouring* this morning. It was dark outside and my coffee was tasting SO good. I had planned on staying home and doing administrative crap for the rescue. I sent the link to D- and asked for her thoughts. I should've known better. I've known D- long enough to know she'd say to go get the babies.

I threw on some old clothes, put my coffee in the travel mug, and put a cat crate in my car and drove to the north end of the city. Geez...it was a nasty area. When I got to the pet store, a Himalayan cat with a collar greeted me. I made kissy noises at him and reached down to give him a pat. He tried to look up at me, but had pus seeping from his swollen eyes. God. What did I get myself into? I asked the store owner if he had any kittens, and he pointed towards the back of the store. I'll never forget what I saw...

There were 4 kittens sitting in a gerbil cage. They had NO food. NO water. NO litterbox and were sitting in their own feces and urine. They were very very thin. There were two tabbies, a little orange guy, and a fluffy grey kitten. I'm guessing they were 4 weeks old at best. Who took these sweet angels away from their Mom? Is it so hard to give them food and water?

It can be argued that I should have called SPCA immediately. My fear was that they wouldn't come out on time to save these kittens. So I took pictures with my cell phone camera and prayed that there was enough evidence with the Himalayan, guinea pigs and birds to get some action from the SPCA.

The owner told me the kittens were $39.99 per kitten. I told him that I would take all 4 kittens. He didn't even look that surprised. He didn't ask me if I would love the kittens forever. He didn't ask me if I would declaw them, or let them outside. He just rang up the bill and grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and put them in my carrier. Yes, I *bought* the kittens. I asked to buy the Himalayan too, but he wouldn't let me take him.

I took them to the vets where the vet proclaimed them to be underweight, (no surprise there) but in OK condition. D- is going to foster them (again - no surprise there!) and give them lots of TLC and good nutrition. They'll look like happy, wonderful babies in no time at all.

I'm sitting here tonight knowing that because I took these kittens, there may not have been enough evidence when the SPCA did show up. I'm hoping that the pictures I took will help the case against him. Maybe I won this battle, but I'm scared to death I lost the war.

Wait until David gets the VISA bill for the kittens...(*wince*)