The Cyberactivist

Yes, someone was a sorry lowdown S.O.B. and dumped a litter of kittens in the woods. As we were heading down the road to the riverbank to do our vigil for Cindy Sheehan and to honor and remember the fallen, we noticed a little orange kitty face peeking out of the weeds at us and mewing. And, of course, we immediately went over to pick that baby up to bring it home. Laura scooped that baby right up and cuddled it, petting and comforting the scared and confused little furry baby face.

Then we saw others. More shy than the first that were not as easily caught. Laura was able to catch another one and handed it off to be carried home like the first as she desperately tried to catch the third. We had no idea of how many of them there were, but all we saw was three. All orange striped babies. Just weaned.

It took us several days to get the last one, and by that time one of the first ones had already died. They were absolutely covered in seed ticks that were draining them dry. We were trying desperately to keep up their strength, giving them that kitten formula for orphaned kittens and getting the ticks off, but that one was just so covered in them that we just could not save it, despite the fact that there were three of us working in shifts to try and help.

We had been waiting for some kind of a sign that Princess was still hanging around, and we like to think that this was her way of showing us that she is - sending us babies and taking one back for herself to mother and love. Some might think that sounds crazy, but if you had ever known Princess the way that we did, you wouldn't brush off that possibility so quickly.

Some of you have probably noticed that we have not really done much of anything for the past few days except for answering the personal emails from some of you who wrote us to say kind words about our loss of Princess. This has been extremely hard on Laura, and she is still grieving over her.

So, when we found these babies, the first thing we thought of was that Princess had sent them to us to care for because Laura loves babies as much as Princess does. As terrible as it is for someone to dump helpless babies in the woods, at least they had Princess to guide them to us to be helped and loved. And the one who died was held in loving arms as that little spirit finally went away and the heartbeat stopped. At least that baby didn't die alone in the woods.

Here are the babies:


They are now realizing that we mean them no harm and actually come to us to be loved and petted. The ticks are almost gone off of them, so they are both doing well.

These we won't try to find homes for, but will keep them, especially since we believe that Princess sent them to us. There is one more interesting part to this story. within an hour of the one baby passing on, the remaining one that we hadn't been able to catch was guided into our yard, past all of the dogs, and seen right off in the yard of Laura's mother's porch. We were quite relieved for both of them, as we did not want the surviving baby to be all alone anymore than we wanted to have the one left in the woods to be eaten by coyotes, owls, or other predatory animals. So, we further believe that Princess guided that baby over to us and to safety.

Whether or not you believe any of that is up to you. We do. And we can just picture the bright smiling face of Princess watching over that baby and those she guided to safety.

Thank you, Princess. We still miss you terribly, though.