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Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live

14 Nov 99 - 10:03 PM (#136130)
Subject: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From:

Mom died today, kittens born yesterday. What should be done?

14 Nov 99 - 10:17 PM (#136134)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Hummingbird

Go to the vet, get a kitten bottle and formula, and don't sleep alot!!!! Unless you know someone who has a female cat who also had kittens recently, then she might adopt them as her own. No to be discouraged, they quite often don't survive without their mothers at such a young age. Hope this helps. Hummer.

14 Nov 99 - 10:37 PM (#136147)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: WyoWoman

I'm very sorry to hear this, and can't offer a lot of hope, unless you have mucho time to stay home and nurse kittens. Do get the kitten formula if you decide to do this, and be sure and stroke the kits with your thumb a lot, especially around the head and face, but all over as well. Part of what mom cats are doing when they lick is stimulating circulation, so this is both comforting and life-giving to the kittens.

Good luck.

WW

14 Nov 99 - 10:50 PM (#136159)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Jeri

Please forgive me for being skeptical, but I believe the recent kittens/elvis/rumplestiltskin posts were planted by someone who is determined to fight BS by creating more of it.

14 Nov 99 - 10:52 PM (#136160)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: WyoWoman

If that's so...

Prick.

ww

14 Nov 99 - 11:29 PM (#136189)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: katlaughing

My first thought,too, Jeri.

15 Nov 99 - 09:53 AM (#136298)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Peter T.

Yes, I am afraid (well, not afraid, it seems perfectly apt) I called gargoyle rumpelstiltskin in an earlier thread, so, to repeat WW's version, what a prick.
yours, Peter T.

15 Nov 99 - 11:33 AM (#136344)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: campfire

IF this is a for-real question, you also have to pay attention to the end opposite the face. Momma cats stimulate more than circulation...a warm washcloth on the nether regions after each feeding is critical.

campfire

15 Nov 99 - 12:53 PM (#136380)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Jon W.

Is this a metaphor for the Mudcat? Is someone telling us to respond to the threat of shutting down the DT by mirroring the site (keeping kittens alive)?

15 Nov 99 - 01:37 PM (#136392)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: katlaughing

I think whoever started it is just being an asshole. I hate seeing that title and would ask everyone to resist the tempatation to continue this thread's life by posting.

15 Nov 99 - 03:31 PM (#136437)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Uilleand

I don't know about that, kat. Just because someone started a thread to annoy other people doesn't mean there isn't someone out there who needs to hear/read this. Are we going to be suspicious of every thread? They're cutting off their nose to spite their face, if that's the case. Anyway, I find this thread interesting, as I have raised kittens this way. To give a Doug Adams metaphor about a means of navigation when lost: I follow a car that looks like it knows where it's going. I rarely end up where I want to be, but always where I need to be.

15 Nov 99 - 04:50 PM (#136475)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Jeri

Well, it doesn't matter if gargoyle or someone else started this (or the other threads) with nasty intentions - I don't think anyone's ever been able to control where a thread goes in this place. Ask Art about that, unless you are Art, in which case you knew what you were getting into.

And if it was simply an attempt to prove we'll talk about anything...

......duh!

Got any more topics you'd like discussed, oh Grand High Poobah of BS?

15 Nov 99 - 06:39 PM (#136517)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Art Thieme

No, I didn't start ANY of these threads!!! Someone else did. But before you go out and get a doll baby bottle & formula, please bury mom!! Then sit down & sing "The Death Of Queen Jane". It's always a great way to make the old traditional ballads relavant---tie them in to a similar recent news item. Also a grand way to have even those not into trad songs give them a serious listen and maybe like them in spite of themselves.

Can anyone think of any other ballds about birthing babies??? I'm serious. When we get lemons, let's strive to make lemonade. THIS SILLY THREAD IS NOW A MUSIC THREAD.

Art

15 Nov 99 - 06:44 PM (#136520)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Peter T.

Does every Christmas carol count? (Another good question: are there any Christmas songs about Mary actually giving birth, without God or glitter?).....yours, Peter T.

15 Nov 99 - 07:21 PM (#136538)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Lonesome EJ

Ah don' know nuthin bout birthin' no babies

15 Nov 99 - 08:09 PM (#136567)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BODY IN THE BAG (Charles Hegarty)
From: McGrath of Harlow

Our old cat died last night
Me wife says bury him out of sight
But we haven't got a garden;
'cos we're livin' in a flat
So what was I to do with the body of a cat,
Then a big brown paper bag I spied
so I stuffs the body of the cat inside.
And off I went with the body in the bag,
The body in the bag, ta ra ra ra.

I went into a public house and had a whisky neat
And stealthily I shoves me moggie underneath the seat.
Then I crawls out on my hands and knees;
But halfway up the town,
Here comes that bloody barman,
`Here's your parcel Mr. Brown,''
So I had to thank the silly sod
And give him half a crown
For returning me a body in the bag.

I throws it in the old canal,
but the hero of the play,
he throws himself in after it,
Oh,Hip hip hip, hooray!
Then he crawls out on the bank
And he stands dripping in a pool.
He said, ``I'm feeling rather wet
And very very cool.''
So I had to take me trousers off
And give 'em to the fool
For rescuing a body in the bag.

Well, I crept off down the street as quiet as a mouse
An' I laid me tragic bundle on the doorstep of a house,
But then the door it opened wide,
And there's this lady dressed in blue
says ``Excusez-moi monsieur,
But do you want to parlez-vous?''
"Oh God no missus, not tonight
-I've got something else to do!''
And I legged it with the body in the bag.

I climbs in the allotments, I am trying, to be brave,
I takes out me little shovel, and I digs a shallow grave,
But then there's someone pokes me in the back,
and a voice behind me said,
``You're digging my potatoes mate,
and I'm going to kill you dead!''
But I swings up with me pussy cat,
and I bashed him on the head,
And skedaddles with the body in the bag.

The all at once from inside the bag
I hears a plaintive meow
It's pussy trying to tell me something,
saying "I'm not dead now."
Now I've often heard it said, you know,
that cat's have got nine lives,
and it turns out Tommy's not a tom at all,
but one of Tommy's wives.
And cats you know have kittens,
in threes and fours and fives
- and there were seven little bodies in the bag.

Sop home I comes in triumph,
with the bodies in the bag,
the bodies in a bag, ta-ra-ra-ra.

Now that's in the Digital Tradition already, and was written by Charles Hegarty (and I'd like to know something about him too.)
But the way I sing it is a bit different from the DT version, so here it is.

And don't anyone go taking it I think dead cats a trivial laughing matter. If the person posting the original message was genuine, cats dying and leaving kittens is a desperately sad thing, and I hope the kittens pull through.

And if was some cynical bastard having a bit of fun, he or she isn't worth the effort of insulting. But even if that case it happens all too often, and there's been some good advice in here.

As for songs babies being born - there's always the Cruel Mother in its various versions. But I'm finding it hard to think of any songs about birth which aren't tragic, apart from Christmas carols. (Lots of songs ending up with a "nine-months -later" verse, but that's not really what I think Art was fishing for.)

15 Nov 99 - 08:30 PM (#136582)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Jeri

Art, I couldn't think of anything appropriate (I somehow don't think The Cruel Mother, Well Below the Valley and Babes in the Wood fit this occasion. There's a serious lack of optomistic traditional songs.) But I had a nice trip around the database. I doubt I could find one better than Queen Jane, anyway.

I didn't think it was likely that you that posted the message, especially after the condom thing. And I know (now that I stopped to actually think about it) you wouldn't trivialize a pet dying. I apologize for even considering the possibility.

15 Nov 99 - 08:39 PM (#136586)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: katlaughing

THANK YOU, *FINE* ART! AND, MCGRATH FOR THE FOLLOWUP.

TOO BAD WE CAN'T CHANGE THE TITLE OF THE THREAD!

katwhoiswearingthecurmudgeonhattoday!

16 Nov 99 - 12:32 AM (#136688)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From:

One kit dead and buried with mother ramaining kits still alive, me and little girls next door have been using formula and corner of washcloth thanks for help but don't understand most of it using heating pad on low

16 Nov 99 - 12:44 AM (#136692)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Liz the Squeak

Birthing songs: There is a nice one about a lady who gets 'done wrong' by a bloke who comes back a year later, and she sells him a basket of ?eggs? which is really his baby... Can't remember the tune, can't remember the words, useless really aren't I.

Hope the kitties are doing well, they might like a nice warm closeweave blanket to snuggle to, or a floppy soft toy like a bear or something. Don't give them anything with long pile or loops as they will catch their claws in it, whilst paddling, and as they are still quite soft, may rip the claws out.

LTS

16 Nov 99 - 09:47 AM (#136775)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: jeffp

Something that might make the little ones feel more secure is an old-fashioned wind-up clock wrapped in a soft blanket. Sounds like a mother's heartbeat. Try to tape over the alarm arming lever if you can. We did this with a puppy when I was growing up and the alarm went off in the middle of the night. You can imagine what fun that was for all concerned. Good luck with the kitties. Jeff

16 Nov 99 - 12:20 PM (#136848)
Subject: Lyr Add: CHERRY TREE CAROL
From: Art Thieme

CHERRY TREE CAROL

When Joseph was an old man--an old man was he,
He married the virgin, Mary,
Virgin, Mary, of Gallilee,
repeat last line.

And Mary spoke to Joseph so meek and so mild,
Joseph, gather me some cherries for I am with child.(repeat last line)

And Joseph, he flew in anger---in anger flew he,
"Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee." (Repeat last line)

Then Jesus spoke a few words---from within his mother's womb,
"Bow down you cherry tree and let my mother have some.
(Repeat last line)

And the cherry tryy bowed low down---bowed down to the ground,
And Mary, she gathered cherries fom the ground all around,
And Mary she gathered cherries while Joseph stood around.

And God spoke to Mary, "You now have a son,
And his birthday shall be on Christmas---a joyous day for everyone.
And his birtday shall be on Christmas---a joyous day for everyone.

(This is how I used to sing it--- Art)

16 Nov 99 - 01:20 PM (#136861)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Pete peterson

Dont forget Circle of the Sun (sally Rogers/ I thhink so!) I only learned it it time to welcome my youngest daughter. Kitten-forster-parent; good luck and i wish i knew enough to advise you

16 Nov 99 - 02:02 PM (#136885)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Uilleand

When the kitties start getting weak, force feed them a sugar water mixture. They will keep throwing it up, but keep doing it anyway. This was advice I received from a vet. I saved two of my little kittens that way.

17 Nov 99 - 03:10 AM (#137248)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From:

last kitten died this morning.

17 Nov 99 - 03:20 AM (#137253)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: alison

sorry to hear about your cat and kittens....... I'm also sorry that people haven't given you much support here.. we're usually much more friendly... unfortunately mudcat is going through one of it's paranoid "all threads must be hoaxes" phases.... if you had been a regular poster you would have got better treatment, (not an excuse, simply a statement of fact.. and not one that I'm proud of at the moment)

I think you were genuine, and I hope you will return to Mudcat.....

slainte

alison

17 Nov 99 - 05:30 AM (#137276)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: Jon Freeman

I must admit that I have been wondering whether we have been witnessing an outbreak of paranoia or not. My own feeling is that the original poster was genuine in which case, I am sorry to hear about the cat and the kittens.

I think that when, as there is now, a bit of concern about BS theads and hoaxes, posting anonymously doesn't help matters. I know that posting under a name doesn't necessarily identify the poster but I do feel that when people have a name to relate to, it does reduce the risk of suspicion regarding a post.

17 Nov 99 - 11:20 PM (#137739)
Subject: RE: Mother Cat Dead - Kittens Live
From: _gargoyle

Not much of an up lifting note - but apropos to the thread OUR BABY DIED LAST NIGHT