Just like most civilized people I dislike bugs. Actually I really hate them! Just thinking about them gets me all itchy and uncomfortable, and yet one summer evening I would find myself sticking my hands right into their dark slimy lair. I swear God has a weird sense of humor at times. But I guess he knew me well enough to know that I hate dead kittens more than those nasty creepy crawly slimy BUGS! This is my story about the night I became a life saver and was able to overcome my fear of creepy nasty bugs…. at least for a few minutes.
So before the bugs, my night started off pretty normal, I would even say relaxing. I was at home hanging out with my friend Betty. We were watching whatever was playing on TV back in 2000. After watching what was most likely 90210 I turned off the TV to go outside for a smoke. It was a nice California night and Betty decided to join me outside too. As we sat outside in my backyard on my porch steps I heard what sounded like a cats meowing. Betty heard it too but said it was probably some nasty alley cats getting their freak on, so to just go ahead and ignore it.
I of course being the curious Aries I am decided to investigate. As I walked around in my backyard, I was able to pinpoint an area where the noise was coming from. It was defiantly in my backyard. By then the noise started to sound like multiple cats meowing, perhaps even kittens. I asked Betty to help me move some sheets of ply wood that were leaning against the house, to which she sighed and seemed reluctant to help. Once we got the sheets of ply wood out of the way we saw there were still some more layers of broken up wood and drywall debris we couldn’t move to clearly see where the kittens were.
We could hear the kittens meowing in a very distressful manner but couldn’t see exactly where they were amongst all that clutter. It was pretty dark outside and we were on the side of my house that didn’t have any lighting. So I said I would go back inside and get a flash light so we could see what was going on. I guess Betty was not in the same curious state of mind to see why the kittens were meowing because she suggested we forget the whole thing and for us to just go back inside. I thought that was pretty cruel of her to suggest we just ignore the meowing and go about our night.
Sorry Betty, not gonna happen. I’ll admit I don’t like cats. I’m actually a dog person. I’m also against any harm to animals too. So I ignored her suggestion went to inside to find a flashlight and came right back out. What I saw once I shinned the light onto the meowing kittens, simply horrified me! I gasped and quickly took a step back. Then I went back for a second look and saw what looked like slimy, bloody, meat sacks squirming around and meowing. I know…. it sounds disgusting but that’s what animal birthing sacks looks like.
I forgot to also mention the meowing sacks also had hundreds of bugs crawling all over them! Pincher bugs, spiders, beetles, centipedes, ants, cockroaches, etc….. If it had more than 6 legs it was there. They were all feasting on these poor helpless newborn kittens. I passed the flashlight to Betty and told her to take a look and once she did, she had the same expression of disgust and panic as I did. I knew we had to react fast in order to save them and there was not time to move all that clutter blocking our direct access to them.
The only way we were going to reach and save these kittens was if we stuck our arm into a small dark opening directly above them and grab them one at a time. Betty thought I was crazy to think about or even attempt to save these kittens. She basically opted out of helping me. I thought to myself… “What a Bitch! ” (Ok I’ll admit there was a second of hesitation on my part too….. I thought “Why couldn’t these be puppies? I love puppies! “)… But I had no time to argue with her and I knew I had to act quickly if I were to save them.
So I went for it….. Well after a few seconds and a few quick reassuring “I CAN DO THIS! ” breaths I reached into my nightmare. I closed my eyes, held my breath and stuck my arm in as far as I could go until I felt one of those slimy little suckers. I also felt everything else start crawling up my arm as I pulled the first one out. I screamed and went back in for the second, third fourth and finally the fifth kitten. ” EEE EEEEWWWWWWW! ” is all I could think. Thankfully they were all out but my nightmare wasn’t over yet. They were still covered in bugs and still in that slimy sack.
So the next step to my nasty rescues was to grab all 5 of the slimy kittens and take them inside where I had light and could actually see what I was doing. Betty of course was still in her role as a worthless spectator. Once inside, I placed the kittens in the sink and proceeded to rip and remove the bugs infested birthing sacks and quickly rinse the kittens off. I looked over next to the sink where I had placed the kittens on a towel and felt a sense of relief to see them all moving around and still alive. After all that excitement I realized I now had 5 new born kittens that I couldn’t possibly care for.
All the animal shelters were closed for the night. But then I remembered there was a 24-hr emergency vet clinic that I passed daily on my way to work so I figured I’d start there. Once I got there I walked in with a cardboard box with 5 tiny kittens in it. The lady at the counter gave me this judgmental stare like I was one of “THOSE” kinds of people that would leave their loyal pet companions abandoned at a shelter, but once she heard my story she took them in. Yeay! I saved the kittens. And now I was once again cat free…. and of course | hated bugs even MORE now!
