miracle or abomination

“that is a good question.

the other night I picked up a mother and 5 new born kittes. I took the to the shelter and started to put them into the cage. I picked up the smallest one and was blow away by what I had seen. The sweet little thing had the body of one cat but it had two full faces. yes two faces, two sets of eyes nose mouth. I informed medical and all hell broke loose.
I got my boss on the phone and he said that this could turn into an international event. he said that cats like this only live for a few hours but can live up to 7 days. well my little one was already 72 hours old.

at this point i noticed the mother cat wanted nothing to do with her. funny how animals know there is something wrong. so i volunteered to take her home and nurse her for the night. she got up every ten mins. I was told to bring her in the morning so the vet could look at her and the press conference could be set up.
after her check up and the conference set for 1:00 pm I took care of her. feeding her was a trip. when one side ate the other side would either meow or suck. very very cool.
but by 12:30 pm I went to check on her and she had just died. after I had a real good crie with my boss I relized that she gave it her all. she had a good death. I mean it was peacefull. quit and warm. of course I am second quessing myself as to what I could have done different, but I know it was not meant to be. i have seen it on tv and newspapper, but to hold this little creature in my hands deeply affected me.

so that was my day at work


”

“Wow! That's wild.”

“Looks like a nasty wound on the chest.

You did what you could and probably made its final hours a bit more comfortable. You have a good heart Mapes. Sometimes it's not in our hands.”

“interesting. Was the abdomen malformed also, or was the pic from an autopsy of some sort? It looks like the kitten is split open.”

“Maple, darling, I would never have imagined this if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. Nature packs some amazing surprises into its bag of tricks. You did whatever you could, baby! Your dedication is one of the amazing things about you and one of many reasons I love you so much. Don't second guess yourself any longer. It's ok to think like that on a limited basis. But, at this point, you're smart enough to know that this was not meant to be. We were all pulling for the little girl. But, it didn't pan out. RIP. little one!”

“Two heads are not always better than one.

Sorry about your loss mapleleaf.”

“There was still an umbilical cord curled up there. It's not an open gash. There was a bunch of dried blood on the fur there, if you look kinda close. Made it look worse than it was. I saw that when she brought it home. It threw me at first, too...
last edited: 5/19/06 8:22:20 AM”

“And to get up every 10 minutes through the night! What dedication. I won’t even get up every 10 minutes for diarrhea.”

“You did a lot more than most people would have. You should feel proud.”

“I am so sorry Mapes.”

“Sorry Mapes.”

“i'm sorry maple.”

“mapes, im gonna start a blog just on the continuing adventers of maple.....


You did good mapes, it just wasnt ment to be.”

“Ahh Mapes. Some might say you care too much. I think maybe you care enough.

Sorry for your loss.”

“Good for you...at least the lil one got some love”

“Sorry Mapes. Very cool!”

“WOW, your job gets more and more amazing everyday...not everyone could handle it like you do...good job”

“Mapes, you did good, as always.”

“Wow-- how amazing to have had a chance to see one of nature's strange creations in person.

So sad to hear that it died, but it sounds like you did the best you could!

What are they going to do with the little guy now? Did they decide to preserve it for scientific study?

Did you get a chance to video tape the kitten?
last edited: 5/19/06 10:11:55 AM”

“There was a photo circulating on the web recently of a cat just like that and I also saw one like it on Animal Planet.Female cats generally mate with several males to get one litter of kittens so these things will happen once in awhile. Back in the seventies we had a cat with 7 toes on each front paw and everybody made a fuss about it,but we took it to a vet and found that it was really pretty common.”

“That is insane! Poor little thing...well at least its last moments were peaceful.”

“Yup, last litter one of our cats had, it had several kittens with the extra toes. But normal.

Cool that you were able to experience that mapleleaf.”

“Conjoined kittens is not exactly unheard of:

http://messybeast.com/freak-conjoined.htm”

“Geo, when I mentioned the word, "conjoined," Maple said that this was not exactly the same thing, according to what the vets told her. The kitty had two faces, much like the variation on polycephaly in the wikiopedia description you posted. It's similar in concept to "conjoined twins", but not the same.”

“Why you diprosopusic polecat ...”

“The vet I take my dogs to has a cat who's front legs are about 2" shorter than her back legs. She gets around just fine, and is a couple years old now. They named her hotrod, cause she is all hopped up in the back like she has drag slicks or something. LOL! Nothing compared to this though. Fascinating, and also quite sad.”

“man, i know ive worked a lot of overtime lately and im really tired, but i coulda sworn that kitty had two freakin heads. im going to take a nap”

“Did she only have two ears mapleleaf?”

“What are they going to do with the little guy now? Did they decide to preserve it for scientific study?

Did you get a chance to video tape the kitten?
last edited: 5/19/06 11:11:55 AM”
pinkbubelz
11:10:37 AM
5/19/06

she was sent to cornell for study.

yes my boss did take video tape of me feeding her. I have to wait till he comes back at the end of the month. he left to have his third baby. babstard forgot about the tape! what nerve! LOL



meangreen, yes she had one set of ears which was very wild. but they were pretty closed which meant she was deaf or near it.”