Friday cat blogging

I have been pretty light on blogging this past week because my wife took the week off so that we could spend a lot of time house hunting. Yesterday, we went out to see a small estate under construction. Typically, they at least roughly finish one house quickly to give buyers an idea, but the place is still pretty much a construction site. After we finished looking around the show house, we stepped out the front door and heard this loud crying sound. It was a very small kitten, trying to climb up on the curb from the dirt. A young construction worker walked over, told us the mother had disappeared (probably hit by a car), and wondered if we would take the kitten, because he lived with his parents and couldn’t, and didn’t really know what else to do. So we took the kitten to our vet, who said he (or she, couldn’t tell yet) was about ten days old, two weeks tops, and without a mother would need to be nursed on a bottle, plus a lot of other stuff. We can’t take him to the pound, where they would just put him down, and although the excellent Irish Animal Care Society has a good cat shelter, where they would take care of him until he got an owner, they aren’t really equiped to handle a ten day old abandoned kitten. Fortunately, the dog is being pretty well behaved, but we have kept them apart because the dog could inadvertently hurt the kitten. The first time we let the dog near, she started licking the kitten, so we’re hopeful the dog will be maternal about the kitten. A good friend came over to stay with us and help feed him (every two hours, day and night). She said she would do the first shift, and instead stayed up most of the night and let us take over in the early morning. She said every kitten deserves a good Jewish mama. Since the vet said we caught him on the edge of starvation (he would died by the next day), and he weighs only seven ounces, our friend suggested we name the kitten Mazal, which is Hebrew for lucky.

So, world, this is Mazal. Say hello to the world, Mazal.