Monday, July 11th 2016. First day back to work after a week's time off to get away from the normal stresses in life and spend time with family. Left office late to begin my daily mail deliveries, which turns out to be a really good thing for one little feral kitty the world could care less about. I had just left the Bank after dropping off their mail and was walking back to my mail truck when I noticed a lady walking with her hands cupped kind of crouched over. She disappeared behind my truck and I couldn't see what she was doing till I got over to the driver door side and noticed she had dropped to her knees looking at the ground. Honestly, I thought she was sick and went over to her hoping to help her in any way I could. As I got closer I noticed she was looking down at a little kitten she had laid there in the grass. The kitten was in severe distress, mouth open barely breathing, and the lady told me she had just watched the kitten get hit by not only a car, yet a semi trailer truck. She couldn't bare to leave the kitten in the road so she picked it up and placed it gently in the grass next to the church. The lady was very distraught wanting to get up and walk away saying she couldn't bear to stay and watch the kitten die. I asked her to touch and comfort the kitten then walked back over to my mail truck to grab my phone. I called my Supervisor and told him what had happened and asked if I could use my 1/2 hour lunch to deviate from my route and run the kitten half way across town to the VCA County West Animal Hospital to put the kitten down so it wouldn't suffer. He allowed me the opportunity to do so, so I grabbed a tray that was full of mail, took the mail out and ran over to put the kitten in the tray and rushed the kitty over to the Hospital (they know me very well). As I rushed through the door I told them what happened and if the kitten could be saved and lead a normal quality life to do what they could to save it at any cost and the lady at the desk (her name is Patty) did not waste any time getting the kitten in the back so Dr. B. could size up the situation as I signed papers up front to have it euthanized, if necessary. Patty came back a couple minutes later and said there were no broken bones and they would do an x-ray to verify this assumption and keep me informed to the kittens progress or if they had to put it down, so I left knowing the kitten was in good hands.
Later in the day I got a text message from Dr. B. that said she put her (yes, she was a girl which I did not know till I got the text) on meds for swelling in the brain which is the only trauma the kitten had experienced. By the end of the day she was awake and biting the Dr. as she was being examined and receiving more meds though she was not able to stand or sit but as Dr. said, "We are not out of the woods yet. Thinking that a name would make her stronger I allowed the girls in the office to name her. They chose Xena Warrior Kitten. They aged her at 6 weeks of age and she weighed about 1 lb. The vet tech (Mel) took her home for over night observation and so she could be re-examined again by Dr. B. on Tuesday, which happened to be my regular day off though I had to run up near Chicago, so they kitty sat her and I picked her up when I returned and even though she was in guarded condition there was hope for a full recovery. By this time she was able to stand. sit and take food with a syringe. Unfortunately I had to work on Wednesday the 13th so my daughter kept an eye on her in my absence though I was called at 1pm and told that she was having seizures, so when I got off work we headed back to the Vet and Dr. B. put her on steroids to help ease the swelling in her brain and said she would contact a neurologist friend of hers to ask for more advice since we may have to out her on phenobarbital if the seizures persisted. I am very happy to say that she has not had a seizure since we started her on the steroid and my fingers are crossed that when she is taken off the drug that all will be well for her. She is now eating on her own, using the litter box and playing like nothing had even happened.
Xena on day 1 heavily sedated and day 8 begging me to pick her up and hold her. She still has a bit of road rash on her muzzle but she is healing just fine....
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