Spring is already just around the corner.
And on sunny March 8th, as I sat in the kitchen, I was reminded of my CH boys.
That day marks their one year anniversary of life. I remember sitting there a year ago March 7th, waiting for Rosie to pop at any time. When that evening, little Oscar was born. After a very difficult realization that Rosie was not interested in her kitten, we took it upon ourselves to help him out by putting him in a homemade incubator box and getting him a bottle to feed.
The next morning, two more little squirts were born. Wesley and LH (later named L, then Elliott).
We tried to put them all with Rosie, but only L was accepted....
That night, we lost Oscar... and poor Wesley struggled with seizures. At that point we didn't know what was wrong with them. But we did everything we could to save them. As weeks passed, I was able to hand-rear Wesley, while Rosie took care of L.
After three weeks of feedings and cleanings on my holidays, I had to go back to work, so Doug would come home on lunch hours to take care of Wes. We found out that Wes was a very sick little kitten, and food would go straight through him. When CH was diagnosed, our shelter manager suggested putting them down, as their quality of life would be terrible. There was a great deal of argument on this blog, and I was bombarded daily by emails from CH cat owners, and it went huge.
We decided to take it upon ourselves to hold onto them and find an owner for these little guys. After searching through all the CH blogrings, communities in Ontario, and facebook site, we very luckily found a very caring woman four hours south of us willing to add the boys to her CH family. We jumped on the opportunity and decided to drive our boys down, where they would have a fur-ever home.
Both kittens still could not walk, eat, or bathroom on their own, and little Wesley still showed many signs of neurological problems, but she worked from home and had the time and effort to look after them. We could not believe our luck.
And of course, when we got there and met her and her fur-family, we knew they had the perfect home. I was so so so happy.
We got many phone calls and the occasional email (one with pictures) with updates on our boys. They were still struggling, but they were getting by. I posted videos in a previous post of them playing.
When I got sick from my pregnancy in early December, I lost touch with her. And it wasn't until March 8th, on their birthday, a couple of weeks after I gave birth to my own son, did I think to email her to wish them a happy birthday and to see how they were doing.
Days went by and I got no response. Until this past weekend.
She apologized... as she couldn't bring herself to email me... and it took great courage for her to muster up a phonecall... to let me know the news.
A few weeks prior to my email... our little Wesley had passed over to Rainbow Bridge...
He had become so sick, and his seizures had become quite bad. She rhymed off various things that he had been diagnosed with (aside from the CH).... which I only half listened to, as I just sat there in shock and sadness. His little body, even though about 6 lbs, just couldn't handle it. He really was a sick little guy from the beginning, and well, while I'm not terribly surprised with the news... it severely breaks my heart.
I debated on the post here, but I know I had so many people follow the story, I think it only seems fair to tell you, so that he can be remembered... That sweet little face will always be in my heart.
And, I can't help but think that there may be a part of him in our new boy, as around the time that Wesley passed was the exact same time that our Andrew was born. Maybe his spirit passed by Rainbow Bridge right into our boy. I know that he's certainly sweet enough to be.
Good bye sweet Wesley
and Hello sweet Andrew
♥
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~To read about our new babe, click here.
