The Things A Mother Does

Meet Oscar

This little beast is the cause of much worrying. As you see he is a little on the tiny side. This little guy is the most adorable little guy you'll ever meet. Except for two things.

A) He has fleas. I freaking HATE fleas. I get itchy thinking about them.

2) He has roundworm. Which is why he is sooooo skinny but has a pot belly. These fuckers would have killed him, had my mom not seen him and went teary eyed at his woes and footed the bill (which I thank her for everytime I look at him.)

As his primary caregiver, I have certain responsibilities for him and my darling Kiwi. I feed them and change the litter box and buy them all sorts of toys..... 

Today Oscar has diarrhea. And this is normal. He had his wormer shot and he can puke, poo, or both either in a normal manner or projectily, which he did today. His body is ridding itself of the worms. Which is great, except he mucked poo (the projectile diarrhea kind) all over the litterbox, himself, and any surface unfortunate enough in his way (floors, couch, etc)

Being the mom I am (which is my mother, essentially) I gag, dry heave and almost lose my lunch at the site, but still I pick up the little furball and make the Fiance hold him by the scruff of the neck while I get out a washcloth and soap and make sure the water is a little on the warm side, but not hot. Then I clean his paws, his butt, his ...junk...his stomach and he doesn't fidget much. I completely stuff his lower half under the steady stream of water and make sure to rinse out the soap well then I get a towel and dry him off and set him down. 

Next is the fun bits. I have to now clean and disinfect the litterbox. While the worms are mostly dead, or dead, whatever, and the cats share a litter box, I HAVE to keep it clean. Why bother deworming one when you'd have to turn around and do the other?

So despite my small gags and the bile rising in my throat (it smelled awful. Imagine the time you had the stomach flu or food poisoning or anything of that nature and had diarrhea. Remember how YOU smelt?)  I managed to clean the litterbox and dispose of the litter ('Here, hun, run this down to the dumpster') 

I had to move all the dishes out of the side with the garbage disposal. Our Butler (aka Fiance's brother) had neglected to clean it since oh.... Tuesday.... and there were bits of food that had soaked in water, grease, whathaveyou for several days and I nearly lost my lunch this time. 

I hattttttte the smell of rotten food. Hate it. I hate cold, dirty dishwater even more. I hhhhhaaaateeeee it. I'd rather clean shit for the rest of my life.

But I managed to clean the litterbox and now I look at the thing--doing his kitten like activities--and I am disgusted. I can't get the smell of ammonia off my hands, save for bleaching them.... and you NEVER mix bleach and ammonia. 

Sigh. Back to reading. Fiance gets round 2.