Southern Pines Diaries: Kuru

Monday, August 5, 2013

Kuru

KURU

A Tale(Tail) of Growth and Development

Day 1 – Aug 3rd

Awakened at 4:45 a.m. to a tiny black mass of fur screaming to the top of it’s lungs – Eris (my roommate) had discovered a screaming kitten outside his room at 3:00 am and brought her inside and placed in a cage with water and a towel. AFTER fixing my coffee, I investigated the situation. A black furry little ball cowered in the corner hissing, howling and mewing as I reached for her.
After a few focused piercings, she began to settle down and start nuzzling for food –

After sending a hastily typed message to Amanda Paris at Southern Pines, I left this screaming mass of fur in her cage – When told I could bring her in at ANY time, I packed her up in a duffle bag and off I went! OOPS – Not realizing it wasn’t quite 8:00 am, It seems I beat Amanda to work - LOL – After Amanda evaluated her and I took a few photos, she received flea treatment, worming, and initial shots. I paid the surrender fee and thought I was off scott free… OOPS – she’s much too young and still needed to be in foster, as she weighed about 1 lb. – SO, I packed her back up with some kitty litter and food and headed back home! I wasn’t going to leave this black beauty for someone else to foster. She was given the name KURU, which means black in Japanese.

Back at home she screamed and hollered most of the day – any attempts to have her eat gruel, canned food and other variations resulted in a very messy kitten and me with puncture wounds! She would quiet down when I covered the cage, but if she heard footsteps, the howling began. After a day of she and I getting messy trying to get her to eat, at about 9 pm I heard her eating softened Science Diet food thanks to a gentle reminder from Aunt Dorothy, the Cat Lady. Time for bed for me!

Day 2 – Aug 4th

The day started bright with a howling kitten still cowering – As I fixed breakfast for her and coffee for me, I took her out of her cage for play time. She eventually tolerated petting and stroking – After cleaning her up, I managed to get her face into the food and she licked it off. After trying this a couple of more times, she entered her cage and hid once again. Oh well – we’ll see what happens!

Each time I call her name, she begins to call out mews and I play with her and stroke her – she is settling in beautifully, and when I put her back in the cage, she roams about, no longer cowering or hiding.

Kuru, my one month old foster kitten is finally eating, peeing and pooping! I call her name when I enter the house or the room she's in and she starts crying for me - I open her cage and she runs out to be held and snuggled with - she purrs when I hold her under my chin - she loves my beard! I guess her birthday will be July 4, 2013!

Late in the afternoon after cleaning her again, we went to the bed and I let her explore – she would venture out, but run quickly back to safety under my arms or under my chin – OMG – I discovered her purring of contentment – what an exciting moment. After a good meal, and a comfy bed, we both collapsed -

Day 3 – Aug 5

She slept through the night! After fixing her breakfast and my coffee, I let Eris play with her while I cleaned the cage - Her personality is really developing - this morning she loved jumping over the bars on my coffee table and running back for approval LOL - I'm gonna have to hire her as a maid, as she loves to dust under the sofa and chairs - after her play time this a.m. she dove into her food! I'm pleased with her progress. She’s dozing after devouring most of the food placed in front of her – her litter box had small stools and clumps of urine, so I think we are finally moving forward!

I’m taking this quiet time to start this diary of her development – I can’t wait to get more pictures! After a brief nap, she wanted attention! She began chasing a “bird” on a stick during play time – she began purring each time she rubbed against me. I think she’s bonding! The mews and cries are driving my dogs crazy! She looks like an appetizer to them! She thankfully was wary and ran back to me to stay away from those loud and boisterous animals! So peaceful when she’s sleeping!

Took her out for photos – she’s a mess again with her food all over her – I didn’t notice until I saw the pictures – I guess it’s time for a bath with a warm washrag!

Stay tuned to Southern Pines Diaries for more on Kuru. A big thanks to Gus and other foster parents like him who are willing to take a hopeless little creature in and nurture them until they are more confident, stronger, and ready to be adopted out (or sent on the wonderful Rescue Waggin' transport). Fostering is hard work, but there is nothing in the world as rewarding. Please consider opening your home to one of our babies in need! Contact Southern Pines Animal Shelter at (601) 544-6632 for more information on fostering and other volunteer opportunities.

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Introducing…Southern Pines Diaries

If you are interested in contributing a series of diary entries, please read the information below and e-mail spasvettech@yahoo.com or call 601-954-0789 to work out the details.

Some things to keep in mind if you are interested in contributing to the blog:

Our hope is that each contributor will write a series of entries for each animal, so please make sure you are willing to commit the small amount of time it will take to do their story justice. It doesn’t take a lot because the entries can be as long or as short as you want them to be.

The entries can be written from your perspective or from the perspective of the animal. Feel free to check out what other people have done on the blog and put your own spin on it. You can check out examples from other sites as well, for example (from Friends of Fulton County Animal Services Facebook Page):

“Goodmorning! Maid service just dropped us our breakfast. They will be back around to clean our room soon. They make us leave while they do it, and when we get back in it's fresh and clean. So they finally came and got some better photos of me and my buddies. Mac has been here for 9 days. He came in with his brother. He got excited because he saw his person. But his person only came and got his brother and left him here. He knows now that he isn't getting out unless he finds a new person. I try to help him, we all stand up front and wave our tails and smile but everyone seems to walk right past. Zack is on Day 6. He knows no one is coming for him. He said the last thing he remembers was hanging out in the living room and then the police came. The police came in and had trouble walking because there were feces all on the floor. He was so embarrassed he wanted to use the bathroom outside but his people wouldn't let him. He wanted to tell them he was a good dog, and he didn't want to do that. They took his owner away and then some one else came and got him. That's how he got here. So many dogs here. We heard it is still raining out there. So glad we stay nice and dry in here. My lady is still here. I think I am going to ask her to be my valentine later. I hope she says yes.”

Remember, this is just an example! This format makes it possible to tackle some pretty heavy subject matter without getting bogged down in an emotional quagmire.