(The Petfinder page moved more slowly than usual today, but there was a valid excuse. I was searching for one of the less common types of cat. The site was programmed to push in my face that a cat who fit the description was looking for adoption near me. But, while I was scrolling through pages of cat pictures from the big cities, that cat was adopted! Cheers!)
Dora is Pastel's daughter. Like Pastel, she's a pale calico cat, basically a white animal with light gray and buff spots. She is seven weeks old so it goes without saying that she's adorable.
She has had a hard time. Pastel has spent most of her life looking bleary-eyed from reactions to glyphosate vapor drift. "New Roundup," which seems (going by our various symptoms) to be what was sprayed around the fire hydrant in my neighborhood last week, is a hell-brew of at least six toxic chemicals (the familiar, grassy "Roundup" scent is not officially recognized as being toxic, but to humans it is). All the cats and humans I've observed have shown unpleasant reactions. The one I've noticed most has been the blurred vision. I'm the one who gets asked to read the fine print, and yesterday I had trouble reading 12-point print--larger than a normal newspaper story...
Dora was the first kitten in her litter to be named. She was Dora the Explorer. The smallest in her litter, she was still big and precocious relative to normal kittens--I think Pastel was able to delay the birth for several days longer than the normal gestation period, to avoid losing "premature" kittens as her relatives have often done. Her brother Diego really is a giant freak for his age, though all that means is that he's a handsome, healthy, lively kitten who looks two weeks older than he is. Dora paced herself to keep up with Diego.
Then they were exposed to "New Roundup." Instantly all the kittens went from bouncy and healthy to whiny and bleary-eyed. Even their mothers became grumpy and quarrelled with one another. For Dora the experience seemed especially traumatic. The kittens were just starting to nibble at kibble. The three male kittens now eat dry food in preference to what Pastel has left in the way of milk, but Dora, after one attempt, has rejected dry kibble altogether. She ate only milk, most days, and as there wasn't much of it and she was still competing with three big brothers for what there was, she stopped growing. She became listless and clingy, toddling around with a usually full stomach and tiny feeble toothpick legs. "You should try to eat and play so you can grow bigger and stronger, like the others," but Dora seemed to want to stay a baby kitten, to curl up, trying to get milk out of an empty cat teat if possible, and doze her life away.
Shades of Traveller, Dora's grandmother's adoptive brother. Traveller eventually started eating kibble, and grew, but in the two years he lived Traveller never seemed to mature or to be able to keep up with Serena, and then during a glyphosate poisoing episode he just went down cellar and died. Dora seemed even more severely affected than Traveller. I wondered whether she'd make it to being two months old.
It takes more days and more rain to wash "New Roundup" vapors out of the air than it did when "Roundup" was advertised as being almost pure glyphosate, apart from the scent. Nevertheless, there were days when life energy seemed renewed even for Dora. She does eat cooked fish or chicken. I've been, much against all four kittens' wills, separating them at night and allowing Dora extra time with Pastel, to get as much milk as possible. I've given Dora pumpkinseed meal soaked in fish oil, in case she had any internal parasites. Sometimes, though no longer keeping up with Diego, she still gallops about and explores.
Diego is a social cat; he seems to miss Dora's being his buddy. Sometimes he even tries to slow down to her enfeebled pace and play gently with her. The other two brothers, Drudge and Dilbert, are color-matched, which often seems to generate a special bond in kittens, and seem closer to each other. (They are "blue" gray kittens. Dilbert has a white collar, Drudge has a blue one. At this age they are sweet, friendly, cuddly pets too. All three have extra-soft coats. Knowing where and when Drudge and Dilbert will be going, and that Diego will be adopted when Dora dies, makes their snuggling behavior less of an emotional experience for me. They are other people's purry pets.)
This morning as I sent Dora out, ahead of her brothers, to spend quality time with Pastel, I noticed that she's gained some weight. Her legs aren't toothpicks any more. Her eyes looked almost back to normal this morning. Until the next spray poisoning episode, she can live and grow.
We need a ban on spraying any chemical other than plain water outdoors. We need to recognize that spraying poison into the air is not a "right" but a violent attack on people and animals.
In a world that enforces a ban on the "-cides," Dora (who is a sweet, lovable, cuddly, trusting kitten, who tries not to let me walk past her without soliciting a snuggle) might have a normal life. In this world, I'm afraid, Dora didn't come here to stay. She'll be loved for the short time she has. She probably won't grow up. She probably won't need to be spayed to ensure that she doesn't have to have kittens, which she probably won't be able to rear.
Here, in honor of Dora, are some of the Eastern States' most photogenic adoptable pale calico cats and kittens. They seem less vulnerable than Dora is. Don't spray poison into the air they breathe, and they should have normal lives. Unlike the half-pound of heartbreak my three social cats and I have been given, to love, and to lose.
Zipcode 10101: Agave and Pepsi from East Orange
Their web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/agave-and-pepsi-71262316/nj/east-orange/miss-pats-cats-nj849/
Agave, the pale calico, is a fairly young social cat who reared her kittens to be her lifelong friends and allies in this world. Her "rescuers" separated her from the rest of them anyway. She cries if Pepsi, the last kitten left with her, gets out of her sight. Pepsi is wary of humans/ Social cats mind very much when humans separate them. When they're together Agave and Pepsi are friendly with humans.
Zipcode 20202: Joy from Ellicott City
Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/joy-71989819/md/ellicott-city/small-miracles-cat-and-dog-rescue-md257/
Not much information is available about Joy, except that she was the smallest kitten in a litter, the last one to be adopted for that reason, and she's expected to be a small cat. She is friendly and likes to play/
Zipcode 30303: Willow from Marietta
Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/willow-71990932/ga/marietta/friends-of-shelter-animals-for-cobb-county-ga50/
Willow's human gave her up. Shelter staff think she might be able to trust another human. She seems mild-mannered.
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