Tag: kittens

Margerumalia – Tabitha, Part 2

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – September 26, 2025

In the picture above, Tabitha waits patiently outside the trap.

“I can wait here all day,” she seems to say. “How about you?”

“Just go in, Tabby, so the vet can help you.” 

It was a game of chess that could only continue if she made the next move. 

As I wrote last week in “Fear of the Unknown,” Tabby had what looked like a piece of raw meat hanging out from under her tail. If we ignored it and it got infected she’d probably die, as would the three-week old kittens she had nested somewhere in the woods.

On the phone, I asked the vet how often three-week old kittens needed to feed. The answer: “They need to nurse every few hours.”

We had replaced the food holder in the cage with something much smaller. Something that would require her to step on the metal plate and trigger the door to shut. 

“Nice fresh canned food, Tabitha,” we murmured from indoors.

After forty-five minutes of waiting, she entered the cage. She stepped on the plate and the door slammed shut. It was GO time! 

My wife and I had prepared for this moment. An old towel to cover the cage and another one under it. We didn’t know if Tabby would scared-pee or, as the expression goes, get pissed off. No problem with that, thankfully.

We got her to the Emergency Vet Care at Purdue University where she refused to cooperate. She’d never been touched by a human being! They had to put her under just to examine at her. 

I’ve heard of a prolapsed uterus after childbirth, but I’d never heard of a prolapsed colon. Apparently it’s not uncommon with outdoor cats who have worms. Inside the cat’s guts things can get so backed-up that a cat will strain enough to push out part of the colon. That was the “raw meat” we saw under Tabby’s tail. 

While Tabitha was asleep, they restored the colon and used sutures to hold it in place. Non-dissolving sutures that encircled the “tube” of the colon. She would need to eat food with stool softener to have successful poops. They told us to bring her back in two weeks to have the sutures removed.

I’ve found that being a pet owner, a home owner, a car owner, and a parent, comes with a lot of choices and responsibilities. Not to mention a thorough education in how things work.

If we took Tabby back home and let her go, would she ever trust us again? Would she return to eat the medicated food? If we kept her in captivity we could make sure she did. But if we didn’t let her go, the newborn kittens would starve to death.

We decided to trust her to trust us. 

Before releasing her, we fed her medicated food inside the cage and then we opened it up to let her go.

Next Week: Part Three

TTFN

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – Spring Has Sprung

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – May 2, 2025

Yes, spring has sprung in the Midwest and the multitudes are multiplying aplenty. 

I was washing dishes at the kitchen sink when this baby bunny appeared in our front garden, calmly chewing away at the greenery and helpfully eating the head off a dandelion. He was just so darn cute that I had to pull out my iPhone and capture the moment. I love the way the sun gave him backlighting that produced a halo effect around his head and shone through his perky pink ears. 

I had a toy bunny sticking out of my Christmas stocking when I was four and he still sits on my desk shelf today. I petted him bare in a couple places over the years, and I can’t help but think how much the bunny in the garden reminds me of that treasured friend.

On the other side of the house, Rocki Raccoon is usually at our back door in the morning, peering in to see if I might bring her a nice bowl of cat kibble. The other raccoons who stop by are like pigs, literarily snorting and grunting while they use their butts to shove their siblings aside and dive their greedy forepaws into the bowl, spilling kibble all over the back deck. 

Rocki is very polite and appears to be praying at the window beside the door as if to say, like Oliver Twist, “Please, sir, may I have some more?” 

And when I bring out the food she takes the food delicately and chews for a bit before kissing my hand in thanks. Okay, she might be wiping her nose on my fingers but I like to think of it as kissing my hand.

I’ve read that dog food is better to feed a raccoon, but try telling a raccoon only to eat the dog food when you’re also putting out rich, odorous kibble for the cat. Not gonna happen!

Besides, Rocki is clearly pregnant and she’ll be needing all the nutrients she can get. I think we’ll get to greet her babies before the end of May. 

Speaking of pregnant animals, Tabitha is also pregnant. I hoped I had successfully chased off a Tomcat who was assaulting her in February, but I guess it was only a short reprieve. Considering where he was trying to poke her, I wonder if he’s even the father!

Soon we’ll be capturing kittens again, hoping to find them homes. We learned a lot about the process last year with Tabitha’s other kittens. We just never figured out how to capture Tabby herself and take her in to get spayed. She’s a wily cat who runs away at the slightest noise, but swats at our hands if we put her food bowl down too slowly. She’s a survivor.

Writing about these animals is something like creating character sketches for a novel or short story. Each of them has their unique personality traits, just like you and I. 

Enjoy the spring weather wherever you may be.

TTFN

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KITTEN UPDATE: Two days after writing the Margerumalia above, Tabitha arrived at our back door looking much slimmer than the day before. We have no idea where she goes at night but somewhere out there a litter of kittens is eagerly waiting their mama’s return. 

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Margerumalia – Homing The Last Two Kittens

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – November 22, 2024

This is a photo of the last two kittens the day before we captured them off the back deck. They are Trisha (calico) and the OOC (Other Orange Cat). The temperatures fell, as did the rain, just after their rescue and we’re pleased they’re living together in a warm, dry home with a man who really cares about them. 

We used a humane trap this time and the only scratches I suffered were the result of transferring Trish from one cat carrier to the other. She was scared to death and escaped my grip like a cat outta hell, running around our little downstairs bathroom, spraying food, water, and cat litter everywhere. I already had my tetanus shot from the previous rescue and hadn’t completed my prescription of antibiotics so I was safe, if somewhat bruised and bloodied…again. 

The capture of the kittens was a bit of a comedy of errors. Trish got trapped right away. We knew when we heard her scream in fright, but the OOC was a different story. The humane cages, if you’re not familiar with them, have a spring loaded door that snaps shut when the animal steps on the metal plate at the end where the food is. First the OOC walked around to investigate the food from the outside, trying to reach it with his paw. We watched from the window quietly urging him to enter the cage from the other side. When he finally did walk in to eat, he accidentally wedged the little food bowl under the metal plate preventing it from triggering the door. He ate his fill as we despaired of capturing him at all. Suddenly the bowl moved and the door slammed shut. We did it!

They huddled together in our cat carrier while I texted my friend about coming to get them. He rushed out to buy supplies and arrived in a couple of hours.

Today, the report from their adoptive human is that they’re slowly warming up to him and the OOC is letting himself be petted. Trish is more standoffish just as she was on our back deck. I’ve heard the psychology of animals and humans says that adaptive behavior can be learned even by watching another’s progress. I expect she’ll come around.

Unless we capture their mother, Tabitha, I won’t be sharing more wild cat stories. She really needs to be spayed to prevent more pregnancies. Tabby won’t thank us for the experience, but it’s what she needs. We’ll also need to find a larger cage! The humane trap we have is too small for her.

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Margerumalia – A Happy Day in PA

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – October 25, 2024

Gmail and Yahoo recently updated their security systems. Please take a moment to add my email address [eric@ericmargerum.com] to your contacts or safe senders list to prevent my newsletters from landing in your Junk or Spam box.

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I’m going to draw the curtain on the Marcie Saga with this photo from Pennsylvania. Her forever Mama sent it to me a day after taking her home and it’s endearing to see Marcie thriving in her new home alongside the toy bell mouse we bought for her. A toy she chased enthusiastically all over the basement! We feared Marcie’s reaction to the long car ride, but she settled into the trip very nicely. 

I now have a taste of what foster parents might feel when a child moves out of their home. That was always the plan and there’s great joy in knowing the child is happy and healthy. I learned that a caring foster parent can’t help but feel the empty space left behind, longing for reassurances that the child is doing well. We’ve gone through that. 

A few days ago I opened the back door to give food to Tabitha (Marcie’s birth mama) and one of the orange kittens. He let me pet him about seven or eight times while he gobbled his food and quickly broke into a satisfied purr just like Marcie’s. Tabby watched with interest but kept her distance—she’s a survivor.

By the way, a couple of newsletters ago I set up a vote to find out your favorite image of Marcie for a children’s picture book. At the the time I joked that it was good preparation for the national elections. THAT was well prophesied! It was a dead heat between A, B, and C at 30% each with the original photo capturing the last 10%. Haha!

I hope you exercise your right to vote if you haven’t already. I did. 

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I need to go create a poster for the high school play I’m directing, so I’m making this short. The cast of Elsewhere will perform on November 1st & 2nd and would appreciate your positive vibes for a successful run. 

TTFN!

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.