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All of my bridesmaids (for the luncheon I also invited my mother and his mother to be friendly) and the mothers were oohing and ahhhing at all of the adorable and constantly meowing kittens, when I spotted the cutest kitten on the planet. The owners of the store called him Griswald for no particular reason, but I found out the teeny, long haired, orange marmalade kitten was only about 6-7 weeks old and was not ready to be adopted yet. His mother was run over by a car, but all of his brothers and sisters survived and were brought there. I was so taken with this kitten that had the "just electrified" look about his fur, I couldn't help but start asking questions about their adoption policy. Mr. Wonderful and I adopted August through a PetSmart and it cost about $110, but that included the spay, the vaccinations, etc. and August was in perfect health. The owner informed me it would only be $100 for the kitten and that would include his future neutering and his vaccinations. I was getting too excited. Of course, I knew that $100 wouldn't be all we'd spend on a new kitten, there was the second set of food supplies, medical visits, toys, cleaning products, especially brushes & shampoos for a long hair cat, but he was just so darn adorable.
I took a quick photo of the kitten with my phone, sent it to Mr. Wonderful, and made a call to him to get his opinion. He, of course, felt the same way I did. We finally decided that however much we wanted this cutie pie as soon as possible, with only two weeks until the wedding and the week-long honeymoon we'd be going on, getting a kitten that day would be a bad decision. Makes sense, right? Instead we'd put down a deposit for the kitten and wait to pick him up when we can back for the honeymoon; it seemed like a great plan! The Kitten Palace would take care of the kitten until we were able to bring him home and we would have the guarantee that he would be adopted by someone else. I filled out the paperwork that day, and was so excited for our new addition to the family. I went home with my receipt and the hope for that day when he'd really be ours.
Three weeks went by really fast with the wedding & the honeymoon (that story is for another day). We came back from Disney World on a Saturday and decided to pick up the kitten on the following Monday. With that time to think, we decided to change his name from Griswald to Julius aka Jules or Joules. Julius for the month we really got to take him home & since we already had August, it just seemed appropriate. I had also made a vet appointment for 30 minutes after we were to pick him up, I wanted to make sure Jules was healthy before we took him home to meet his older sister so we didn't infect August with anything bad. Thankfully (or so I thought) Jules checked out with only diarrhea but clean fecal matter & everything else so we went home to introduce the two cats. That didn't go as planned since August turns out to be a bit of a scared princess. There was a lot of hissing and batting, but over the week, August had learned to tolerate Jules. Julius was the absolute cutest kitten ever and we were a new happy family. We had even bought the outlined Disney Family stickers for the back of our cars, a man, a woman, and two cats with Mickey ears on all.
Sadly, by Friday of that same week, Jules was still producing soft serve feces and we were concerned, so Mr. Wonderful took him to the vet to get checked. A different doctor than our original one decided the diarrhea was caused by stress in changing environments & foods and gave us medicine to calm his digestive tract. The different vet also discovered a horrible infestation of ear mites and gave us meds for both cats since we had already let them meet each other, August was most likely infected too. Oh yes, and there was a scratch on his head. I was not happy at all! First, with Kitten Palace for not informing us of the ear mites or scratch and second, with the vet doctor for not discovering this infestation in the first visit. More money out the wallet for medical visits and meds, but we wanted to get the little one healthy and happy so we paid the bills and took him home.
The following week, I decided to give Jules his first bath. This is something I'd never done before with August since she is a short hair cat and can easily groom herself, but I was up for the challenge with a 2 lb kitten. He hated the water of course, something about the sound. (During our first vet visit, the doc couldn't get his heartbeat because he purred too much, so they showed him rushing water to make his purring stop.) But this is when I first noticed strange areas on his skin that were flaky/crusty. I would brush his fur daily and come up with some dandruff, but I figured this was normal. However, these patches were anything but normal. I decided to just try and brush better and keep an eye on how it progressed. By Sunday of that week, the scratch on his head was not healing, but getting bigger, he had lost hair on his back toe and the flaky areas were even bigger. I had also discovered that what I thought was a mosquito bite on my leg was getting larger without me touching it, and it was starting to resemble a ring. I began Googling his symptoms on the internet and what I found made me furious and anxious for my baby kitten. I made ANOTHER appointment for Monday morning with a different Vet doctor to figure out what the heck was going on with this poor kitten. Two minutes into explaining what I had noticed with the scratch and other patches on his skin, the doc told me she was pretty sure it was ringworm. Then I showed her the new red ring on my lower leg and that confirmed it. She didn't even plan on taking a culture from Jules, because I was her proof. The doctor then proceeded to explain the process to rid Jules and our apartment of the ringworm fungus. Because it is not actually a worm, but a fungus, it thrives in warm moist areas and can live for a long time in hiding, waiting to reinfect. This is why Jules must live in isolation in a kennel for two months while receiving treatment. They had to shave his beautiful long fur very close to his body because ever hair that touched the many spots of ringworm on his body (large spot on his bottom left side, medium spot on his head, medium on back of his neck, and spots behind both his ears), had the potential to reinfect him with ringworm. He will receive oral medication every day for the next few months, even after isolation (more money) and he and August will need sulfur & lime baths 2x a week during that same time. We don't believe August is not infected yet, but the bath is to prevent spread of the infection. This poor, incredibly active kitten is now confined to a 2ft x 3ft kennel in our bedroom for the next 2 months, meanwhile we must torture him with sulfur baths and meds?! I was livid and horrified at the same time. I couldn't believe I hadn't researched that adoption center more, or taken the time to figure out illness that could be common to newly adopted kittens to prepare for them. I learned my lesson. I also cried for a good hour before going shopping for our supplies to quarantine our baby. I just felt so bad for Julius. He'd been with us a mere two weeks when we found out we had to lock him up for 2 or more months.
A very long story short (sorry!) We've spent the past 2 days bleaching all of our bedding, towels, floors, clothes, etc. and cleanin our furniture to try and rid ourselves of spores. We don't recieve the meds until tomorrow (they had to be specially made for him since he's so young and small), but we've tried to make the best of a bad situation for the little one. We decided the bedroom was the best room option (2 bedroom apartment doesn't leave many choices) since it has hardwood floors and would be easiest for daily cleaning of spores, etc. and that's where his small kennel sits. There's just enough room in there for a small litter box (he used to share the large automatic LitterMaid with August), his combined water/food bowl and a small but comfy pet bed. We hung his favorite chirping mouse toy on a string from the top of the cage and decided AMA to give him an hour of playtime each day in the bedroom. We have to cover our bed in old sheets, wear old scrubs to cover our body/clothes, wear gloves in order to touch Jules, and we'll have to steam mop the floors daily, but we've gotten into a routine. Jules cried the most the first day. I cried too. I know he's just a cat but I fell in love the first day I saw him. I know he doesn't understand why he's being confined by himself, or why he can't play with August anymore, or why we can't hold him anymore. Mr. Wonderful held me and giggled a bit, saying "you'll be such a great mom". But I think it's getting better. He gets 30 min of playtime in the morning and 30 min at night. Mr. Wonderful is going to the store tomorrow to get supplies to make a 2nd story in that kennel so he'll have more to play with and more space to utilize, but as I write this, his cries of attention affect me more than I want to admit. No animal should have to go through something like this and we know for a fact it came from the darn Kitten Palace. Ringworm takes 2 weeks to fully show up and since August isn't infected, and his infection is so bad, it had to come from them.
I'm sure you're wondering if I gave the place a piece of my mind. Well, no. When we found out the problem, I made a conscious decision to wait to call them until I calmed down. Nothing will be accomplished with angry words. I gave them a call later on that night and didn't receive a call until halfway through this post. I again, decided not to pick up and talk to them since I had reignited my frustrations. But after listening to the honestly, sweet and extremely apologetic owner of Kitten Palace, I calmed down and realized we didn't want to cause trouble but we would appreciate help in the medical bills since it occurred while he was in their care. I figured that wouldn't be too much to ask? I will call back tomorrow with my requests and I guess we will talk, but hopefully I can keep my composure. I hate this situation we were put in, and the emotional and financial stress it is putting on Julius and our family, but even though I learned my lesson on rash decisions (again) I wouldn't give him up for a million dollars. Maybe a billion . . . just kidding! I'll try and keep you updated on his progress over the next two months, and hopefully it'll be filled with good news. Keep our little family in your thoughts.
Three weeks went by really fast with the wedding & the honeymoon (that story is for another day). We came back from Disney World on a Saturday and decided to pick up the kitten on the following Monday. With that time to think, we decided to change his name from Griswald to Julius aka Jules or Joules. Julius for the month we really got to take him home & since we already had August, it just seemed appropriate. I had also made a vet appointment for 30 minutes after we were to pick him up, I wanted to make sure Jules was healthy before we took him home to meet his older sister so we didn't infect August with anything bad. Thankfully (or so I thought) Jules checked out with only diarrhea but clean fecal matter & everything else so we went home to introduce the two cats. That didn't go as planned since August turns out to be a bit of a scared princess. There was a lot of hissing and batting, but over the week, August had learned to tolerate Jules. Julius was the absolute cutest kitten ever and we were a new happy family. We had even bought the outlined Disney Family stickers for the back of our cars, a man, a woman, and two cats with Mickey ears on all.
Sadly, by Friday of that same week, Jules was still producing soft serve feces and we were concerned, so Mr. Wonderful took him to the vet to get checked. A different doctor than our original one decided the diarrhea was caused by stress in changing environments & foods and gave us medicine to calm his digestive tract. The different vet also discovered a horrible infestation of ear mites and gave us meds for both cats since we had already let them meet each other, August was most likely infected too. Oh yes, and there was a scratch on his head. I was not happy at all! First, with Kitten Palace for not informing us of the ear mites or scratch and second, with the vet doctor for not discovering this infestation in the first visit. More money out the wallet for medical visits and meds, but we wanted to get the little one healthy and happy so we paid the bills and took him home.
The following week, I decided to give Jules his first bath. This is something I'd never done before with August since she is a short hair cat and can easily groom herself, but I was up for the challenge with a 2 lb kitten. He hated the water of course, something about the sound. (During our first vet visit, the doc couldn't get his heartbeat because he purred too much, so they showed him rushing water to make his purring stop.) But this is when I first noticed strange areas on his skin that were flaky/crusty. I would brush his fur daily and come up with some dandruff, but I figured this was normal. However, these patches were anything but normal. I decided to just try and brush better and keep an eye on how it progressed. By Sunday of that week, the scratch on his head was not healing, but getting bigger, he had lost hair on his back toe and the flaky areas were even bigger. I had also discovered that what I thought was a mosquito bite on my leg was getting larger without me touching it, and it was starting to resemble a ring. I began Googling his symptoms on the internet and what I found made me furious and anxious for my baby kitten. I made ANOTHER appointment for Monday morning with a different Vet doctor to figure out what the heck was going on with this poor kitten. Two minutes into explaining what I had noticed with the scratch and other patches on his skin, the doc told me she was pretty sure it was ringworm. Then I showed her the new red ring on my lower leg and that confirmed it. She didn't even plan on taking a culture from Jules, because I was her proof. The doctor then proceeded to explain the process to rid Jules and our apartment of the ringworm fungus. Because it is not actually a worm, but a fungus, it thrives in warm moist areas and can live for a long time in hiding, waiting to reinfect. This is why Jules must live in isolation in a kennel for two months while receiving treatment. They had to shave his beautiful long fur very close to his body because ever hair that touched the many spots of ringworm on his body (large spot on his bottom left side, medium spot on his head, medium on back of his neck, and spots behind both his ears), had the potential to reinfect him with ringworm. He will receive oral medication every day for the next few months, even after isolation (more money) and he and August will need sulfur & lime baths 2x a week during that same time. We don't believe August is not infected yet, but the bath is to prevent spread of the infection. This poor, incredibly active kitten is now confined to a 2ft x 3ft kennel in our bedroom for the next 2 months, meanwhile we must torture him with sulfur baths and meds?! I was livid and horrified at the same time. I couldn't believe I hadn't researched that adoption center more, or taken the time to figure out illness that could be common to newly adopted kittens to prepare for them. I learned my lesson. I also cried for a good hour before going shopping for our supplies to quarantine our baby. I just felt so bad for Julius. He'd been with us a mere two weeks when we found out we had to lock him up for 2 or more months.
A very long story short (sorry!) We've spent the past 2 days bleaching all of our bedding, towels, floors, clothes, etc. and cleanin our furniture to try and rid ourselves of spores. We don't recieve the meds until tomorrow (they had to be specially made for him since he's so young and small), but we've tried to make the best of a bad situation for the little one. We decided the bedroom was the best room option (2 bedroom apartment doesn't leave many choices) since it has hardwood floors and would be easiest for daily cleaning of spores, etc. and that's where his small kennel sits. There's just enough room in there for a small litter box (he used to share the large automatic LitterMaid with August), his combined water/food bowl and a small but comfy pet bed. We hung his favorite chirping mouse toy on a string from the top of the cage and decided AMA to give him an hour of playtime each day in the bedroom. We have to cover our bed in old sheets, wear old scrubs to cover our body/clothes, wear gloves in order to touch Jules, and we'll have to steam mop the floors daily, but we've gotten into a routine. Jules cried the most the first day. I cried too. I know he's just a cat but I fell in love the first day I saw him. I know he doesn't understand why he's being confined by himself, or why he can't play with August anymore, or why we can't hold him anymore. Mr. Wonderful held me and giggled a bit, saying "you'll be such a great mom". But I think it's getting better. He gets 30 min of playtime in the morning and 30 min at night. Mr. Wonderful is going to the store tomorrow to get supplies to make a 2nd story in that kennel so he'll have more to play with and more space to utilize, but as I write this, his cries of attention affect me more than I want to admit. No animal should have to go through something like this and we know for a fact it came from the darn Kitten Palace. Ringworm takes 2 weeks to fully show up and since August isn't infected, and his infection is so bad, it had to come from them.
I'm sure you're wondering if I gave the place a piece of my mind. Well, no. When we found out the problem, I made a conscious decision to wait to call them until I calmed down. Nothing will be accomplished with angry words. I gave them a call later on that night and didn't receive a call until halfway through this post. I again, decided not to pick up and talk to them since I had reignited my frustrations. But after listening to the honestly, sweet and extremely apologetic owner of Kitten Palace, I calmed down and realized we didn't want to cause trouble but we would appreciate help in the medical bills since it occurred while he was in their care. I figured that wouldn't be too much to ask? I will call back tomorrow with my requests and I guess we will talk, but hopefully I can keep my composure. I hate this situation we were put in, and the emotional and financial stress it is putting on Julius and our family, but even though I learned my lesson on rash decisions (again) I wouldn't give him up for a million dollars. Maybe a billion . . . just kidding! I'll try and keep you updated on his progress over the next two months, and hopefully it'll be filled with good news. Keep our little family in your thoughts.
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