Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@xinjinmeng there's a fantasy world out there where crows randomly wake up afflicted delusions of professional obligations...

...and here we are stuck with fuckin' Westeros and the MCU -___-

One last dose of cat stress! Just before we left to get Peg a DESPERATELY NEEDED meal, we heard Sad Cat Noises from next door and couldn't find Artie.

I've heard those noises before and they generally turned out to just be more like Bored Cat Noises -- and Peg was faltering bad and we still haven't restocked our kitchen since the #$!##% hurricane. So I agreed to keep going, but of course fretted the whole walk out and back.

Long story short: we got back and Artie was fine. All cats are accounted for and safe, and the three we had to consign to the fates have the luckiest fates we could secure for them.

I'm just so fucking proud of my wife today.

@balinares peg deserves all the credit, i had been ready to give up. i think it was a moral decision because i did not think i had it in me to save them, and had not even begun to understand peg APPARENTLY DID. it took so much out of her though and now its my turn to step up and play supporting roles until shes recovered.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

foundlings last seen alive, squeaky, and eagerly nursing proper kitten formula from a cat expert

good luck kids, its still gonna be dodgy but even though i'm probably never going to see you again, aunt tigress and dragon love you very much

home stretch

almost at petsmart

meeting in 5 mins

babies squeaky and at least one is def still alive there

@Hartmannn @anthracite hopefully we will be back to the more cheerful kind soon -- the two four-week-olds in the next room are doing great so far!

@xinjinmeng hopefully we'll be able to get back to more cheerful stuff soon -- while we've been busy with the foundlings, sugarfoot's kittens have been upgraded from cute to supercute

it is entirely worth the constant threat to my ankles

60 minutes until meeting

so close now

come on little guys

fwiw, and it's worth a lot, sugarfoot's month-old kittens (tentatively Olivia and Snowshoe) are doing great

biggest stress source there is anklescratching and that's just freakin adorable

well, that and we have to figure out how to wean them over the next week and PRAY sugarfoot toilet trains them properly, but how much stress could that possibly be? ^______^

haha i haven't eaten in about 40 hours

that's a first

i need coffee, too

latest:

the good news: someone can take them and at least have a look at them

the bad news: ...in four hours.

Not looking good. Turns out all the rescue opportunities we were looking at are either kill shelters or full up after all. We have ONE last-ditch effort, and then we're gonna let the SPCA take them and put them out of their misery.

Peggy is devastated. Please be extra kind to her. I'm still trying not to be angry at the people who picked at her decisions without knowing the full context.

i'm so exhausted

@Djinnanigans@dragon.style Thank you so much, darlin'. I have a horrible pessimistic feeling that we're just prolonging everybody's discomfort this way, but... we couldn't not try, especially once we found a shelter that might actually be able to help.

@raye @anthracite sadly it is the only option available for a carless couple at 10:30 pm in mid-city new orleans. :( we are going by the advice of a kitten rescue site which is saying, basically, it's better than nothing. at this point they basically just need to get enough food to survive the night.

also anthracite knows not a damn thing about cooking and got evaporated milk confused with condensed in her stress :) we have evaporated milk.

We now have a syringe. Peg is trying to feed with mixed success. They're cold but I've got the heat cranked way up in the front room.

Meanwhile Sugarfoot has been understandably SUPER stressed and hissy, so I've chilling out with her in the next room with some Internet birdsong that is protecting her from the absolutely heartbreaking kitten noises coming from the next room.

Whatever happens, I am so fucking proud of my dragon.

We might have gotten a few droplets of evaporated milk into them, not much more. Peg is biking to CVS, in the rain, to try to get a syringe.

They are noisy. It's heartbreaking but it's also encouraging me to hope that they're not ready to give up yet.

Just hang in there another 10 hours, little critters. If you can do that for us, maybe there's some hope.

They're not taking anything. Peg is now attempting milk-soaked paper towel squares.

We have gone into heroic measures. The best thing we could find for feeding at 10 pm with no car is condensed milk, and we're feeding them with a series of improvised attempt at nipples, ranging from plastic gloves to ball point pens.

Nobody can tell us we didn't try. I know cow's milk isn't ideal for them, but it at least gives them a chance to get through the night.

THE GOOD NEWS: WE FOUND AN SPCA OFFICE WITH ROOM

THE BAD NEWS: they can't be here until 9 am.

We looked up emergency kitten formula and don't have any of the ingredients.