Deathcab for Kitten

We got a new kitten. She is sweet and friendly and social and happy and the reason we got her is because she was full of parasites and her previous owner wanted to euthanize her. At 14 weeks old. For bugs.

Bugs don't bother me, and I happen to work in a vet clinic, so we had her release the kitten to us there. Then the kitten had a little stay in our contagious ward while she completed her treatment for the giardia parasites that her little gut was full of. I wanted to bring her home so badly. Every single day I hummed and hawed over whether I should bring her home yet. I worried that she may infect Simon, and then we would have double diarrhea on our hands. So I waited.

She was home for 3 days, and the loveliest of kittens ever. She ran around and played fetch with the cat toys Simon has been ignoring for....his whole life. She snuggled. She didn't hiss at Simon, nor at Tess. Simon didn't hiss at her. Things were going great.

Then on the third day she was home I came home and found a vomit in the bathroom where she spent the day while we weren't around. And she hadn't eaten anything. Not eating is alarm bell agent zero one hundred percent serious get thee to the vet post haste sign number one. I tried to coax her into eating all evening, and when we went to bed I said "if she hasn't eaten in the morning she is going back to work with me." To which SB replied "this kitten is going to die."

Turns out she almost did, but not quite. Little kitten now has Panleukopenia which she most likely caught while she was staying in our contagious ward because I didn't want to deal with the small chance of a little extra diarrhea at our house.

She had a fair day Friday, a really terrible, on death's doorstep day yesterday, and things are looking brighter today. I'm hoping the outlook is good. The team at my clinic is being overwhelmingly generous with their time and knowledge - I am finding it extremely frustrating how little I can take part, and had a very hard time trusting them enough to leave her there on Friday. But I see the looks on their faces when they see her doing well, and I know they are taking as much joy from her rallying as I am. I know they are invested in her outcome too.

She doesn't have a name yet. I have been calling her Little Lemon Kitten for the last three days. I think that's a pretty sour name for such a sweet little being, so I'm trying to think of something better for her to come home from the hospital with.