Family, pets, Uncategorized

Second Chances

27 Comments

Today’s post comes from Crystalbay.

I can’t recall if I shared that my new Ragdoll kitten tragically died of cardiac arrest during a routine neutering a month ago. I read that one out of every 1100 kittens have a fatal reaction to anesthetic. “Trouble” drew the unlucky number. My vet was so devastated that he said he wanted to pay for half of the $850 cost for another Ragdoll. I searched everywhere for a kitten my remaining kitten’s age (they were littermates) and found one just two weeks older. This poor, young vet was so distraught by losing an adorable healthy young kitten that he’s called several times to see how I was doing. It’s been pretty clear that he’s the one who most needs consoling.  The breeder drove the replacement kitten here, and when she let him emerge from the carrier, I was stunned by the large size of him.  He weighs three times what my female Ragdoll does. She then said that his mom is 20 pounds and his dad 26 pounds. My expectations of replacing Trouble with another small kitten were immediately dashed!

I wrestled for two weeks deciding whether or not to keep him, and ultimately decided I would make the 15-year commitment. I landed on the perfect name for my giant kitten: Buddha. He sits around like Buddha on his throne. 

Today, I had to take him in for his pre-op exam. Tomorrow he’s being neutered and laser declawed (he’s already torn up some upholstery). First, I tried putting him in the carrier. He splayed his back legs and I couldn’t get him in. He’s so large that he can only be put in a carrier head first. A couple of tries and I gave up. My next ploy was to put him in a pillowcase – something that’s worked with 18 previous cats. He squirmed and he rolled and he fought to escape in the car, so I ended up literally trying to hold the opening shut with one hand while driving with the other. He succeeded in pushing his head up through my grip anyway, and commenced to yowl and crawl around.

Here I thought getting him to the vet would only be a problem when he’s full grown, but it appears that there may be no way to corral him for future vet visits in the future! I ended up leaving him at the clinic instead of bringing him back in the morning for his surgery. The staff said they’ll help me shove him into the carrier to come home.

This photo was taken the first time he laid on my lap a week ago. All two feet of him. I’ll also post a picture of my little girl, Sweetie.

Tell about some of your second chances.

27 thoughts on “Second Chances”

  1. i had an ok from my significant other to go get a dog
    my choice of dogs
    i picked a basset and after a short time together realized she was a wonderful soul but not what i had i mind i got a wolf dog to go with the bassetvand they were the perfect mutt and jeff team
    the wolfe dog died of heart worm at 7 years old and the basset a year later
    heartbroken we looked for another and wound up with a brother sister team of rescue mutts that are yin and yang again
    vinny and nala are brother and sister but as someone pointed out just because they are from the same litter and same mother doesn’t mean they have the father
    vinny a big slow lab shepard mix and nala the skittish coyote shepard mix are wonderful family members who we really enjoy

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  3. What an interesting time you will have with this cat!

    I have had lots of second chances in life, mostly related to what I can only see as divine intervention to get my graduate work completed.

    I advise parents struggling with effective discipline “no reminders, no second chances” when giving their children directives for chores and behavior. Second chances in this case only lead to putting things off and waiting until parents are really steamed before children do as they are told.

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  4. I feel like I had a second (and third and fourth) chance at a career after getting out of teaching. Bookselling was a different kind of education (“Here it is – come and get it”); office management was fun because of whose office it was; organizing/downsizing for other people was… meh.

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  7. I”m wondering whether I have a second chance to try to sell my photo cards in a shop (or more than one shop). Last November I was going to not only sell the cards but hang framed prints in a coffeeshop but the coffeeshop closed before I could do that. That first chance kind of fell into my lap. The second chance will take a lot more work.

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    1. It would be great if we could contrive a formula for a sure-fire question but sometimes, when a question is so specific to a personal experience that it seems unlikely that anyone will have a response, it triggers an oblique reaction that doesn’t answer the question but sets off another conversation.
      So who knows?

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      1. Yes, and even a “perfect question” can go nowhere if it’s a day of “low attendance” – there are an awful lot of variables at play here.

        OT: I’ll be on sketchily for the next few days, as Toddler and her dad and nana have arrived. Will get on when I can.

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  11. Sorry I wasn’t around today – too too busy at work.

    Kitty is adorable – but how does the little girl feel about the new situation? I went back through posts and I don’t think you ever told us her name. And I’m assuming Izzy isn’t pleased at all?

    I’ve always felt that adopting gave me a second chance at life. Not that my life prior to that was bad, but the experience changed almost every aspect of my day to day life to the point that it felt like a second chance!

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