So we are just about done unpacking at our new place. We have a few stray boxes with misc junk in them, some pictures to be hung up and some laundry to do and we should be just about settled.
The girls room is looking nice too. Since its a rental apartment, we can't paint the walls, but I think I've been doing nicely with fabric, rugs, bed linens and such to bring some color to the room. The "surfer girl" theme seems to be coming together - I have a quilt for one of the beds, and I'm working on the second; we have beach towels hung over the end of the beds, sand buckets for trash bins, tie-dyed curtains....we also finally got the second mattress for the bunk beds.
We wanted the girls to share a room since they are used to sleeping in one big room with 8 other kids (or more) and we thought it would not only help with their adjustment, but also to rebuild their sister-bond; they've been seperated for 5 years now and only seen each other once or twice since then.
Getting that mattress home was hilarious. We've had NO rain for weeks now. We have a 9 inch deficit in Georgia. There are wildfires in the south part of the state. We go to get a mattress and plan on carrying it home on the roof of our little car.....it monsoons. Thankfully the guy at the shop had double bagged the mattress and tied it down tight. We drove slow with the hazard lights on and got home fine, but we can only imagine what we must have looked like to the other drivers.
After the mattress fiasco, we were going to go do some work at MedShare. We were stopped at a redlight just blocks from MedShare (not exactly in a good part of town mind you) and Andrew looks over and sees this 6 week old kitten (tiny tiny) splayed out on the sidewalk, panting for dear life, drool and goo oozing from its little mouth. Its not really moving around, but appears awake and alert. Being the chivalrous knight he is, Andrew leaps from the car (thankfully the light had only just turned green, so no cars were moving yet) and runs to the kitten. I put on the hazard lights (boy they are getting a work out!) and pull off onto the curb (there was no where to pull in at, so I just jumped the curb onto the sidewalk a few meters down from the kitten). Andrew brings this poor pathetic looking kitten into the car, its spitting and hissing, but also nuzzling into Andrew's arm. We drive as fast as we can to our vet's office, calling ahead first, stopping only to get some water for the kitten. Andrew tries to get the kitten to drink some water that he poured from the bottle into an empty Altoids can (he rinsed it first), but the kitten just is too dehydrated to even drink.
We get to the vet office and they say we will have to wait for 1 1/2 hours to see a doctor since we are a walk in. The kitten is looking better, and the vet techs give us some fresh water and a feeding syringe and we get the little bugger to drink about 20 ccs of water. On the drive over we decided to name him "Max" (or Maximus as Andrew calls him) as in Mad Max Road Warrior - he was found on the side of the road and he was hissing and spitting.....seems fitting. We finally see the doctor and she takes his temp and check his hydration level, while I tell her the story and then point out that Max isn't really using his back legs. Big Red Flag! to the doctor. Max was probably THROWN out a car window onto the sidewalk and maybe broke his spine or his pelvis! Sometimes I really hate the human species. We obviousely can't afford to pay the medical bills of a stray kitty, so she offers to pay for his treatments out of a "foundation" they have at the clinic. She goes off to call and get the ok to do that, and then comes back and outlines what she is going to do - first feline leukemia test (no sense in treating him is he has this - they would just put him to sleep if he was positive), then xrays and then other regular treatments and tests.
Andrew and I were so sad to leave him there, but we knew that even if they had to euthanize Max, it would be a more humane death than dying of thirst or getting hit by a car. But, I called the vet today and Max is doing fine. Just a broken leg and some dehydration. His little leg is in a splint now and we are going to visit him this afternoon.
