Cricket

In late August of 2010, Red Lake Rosie’s took in an unwanted litter of grey kittens. They had a foster home waiting for them in the Twin Cities, so they made the long journey together. The five kittens were about five weeks old. Four of the little cats were underweight but normal-sized for their age. The smallest did not even weigh a pound; her body was so tiny that her head appeared too heavy for her to hold up. This little one was named Simon. The others were Sterling, Sassy, Sabrina and Scarlett, The S’kitten Family.

Tiny Simon seemed to be pretty happy and played hard with his brother and sisters despite being so much smaller than they. When the others went off to be spayed/neutered, though, Simon stayed home. He wasn’t feeling well, had no appetite, not even for the choicest-of-choice treats: tuna. His vet had some interesting news and some bad news that day. First, the interesting news: Simon was really Simone. He had been ‘misassigned’ on intake, which explained why there was no sign of testicles on the kitten. The other news was that the doctor was not sure what was wrong with Simone, but suspected that it was FIP or another serious illness.

Probably because of her difficult start to life, her digestive system wasn’t working properly and she had diarrhea all the time. Her foster mom pondered the right thing to do -- if the kitten had an illness such as FIP, maybe it would be better to spare her an excruciating death later. On the other hand, despite her weakness, Simone still showed a strong spirit, so it was decided to give her fluid therapy and see if she would improve over the next few days.

Once they got home, now as a girl, Simone started eating and drinking and felt much, much better. She had a good growth spurt, although she would never catch up in size to her siblings. Eventually, all the other S’kittens got homes but Simone still had chronic diarrhea so she ended up staying in her foster home for another three months. Many different treatments with drugs and herbal preparations were tried to cure her of her problem. None of them improved her condition, and Simone heartily disliked getting pills and drops. She was still cheerful and willing to let her foster mom give her the medicines, though.

The happy day that Simone finally was rid of her diarrhea, her foster mom crumbled a little on the inside, knowing that now it was time to send the petite, lively and loving grey tabby cat to her forever home.

Simone had a couple of little secrets for her human caretaker that day, though: she was already home, not planning to go anywhere else; AND her real name is not Simone, it is Cricket. No longer Simone and no longer ill, Cricket is an outgoing little cat who follows her mom all over the house and loves running in a pack with her two younger feline brothers, Monty and Marlowe.

C~