My Family Moves to India

Several friends have asked about Boo, the last survivor of our most recent attempt to adopt some kittens from the Blue Cross (SPCA).

Sadly, Boo died in my arms Friday morning. She was so weak from loss of blood that she could not even lift her head.

All three of the kittens died of feline distemper, a virus which is difficult to eradicate from an environment once it is introduced. It is nearly always fatal to kittens under 8 weeks of age (over 8 weeks of age, they can be vaccinated). (All this I had to find out the hard way, researching after the fact.)

The kittens did not die peaceful deaths. J and I cried together for about 4 hours when the first one, Bindhi, died; by the time Boo passed away, I was praying that her death would be quick.

So my plea is this: please don't take any kittens to the Blue Cross. They could not possibly disinfect the giant kitten cage that they use to any effectiveness. I'm sorry to say it, but statistically, those kittens are doomed. IMHO, it would be more humane to euthanise them yourself. Don't be a wimp and let them suffer.

So. We are done with adopting kittens out of an animal shelter in India. Not enough sanitation measures, and not enough proper veterinary care. We may adopt an older kitten that someone has rescued off the street later, but even after disinfecting the cattery, I'm nervous about another cat catching the virus off of us. So the kitten has to be old enough to be properly vaccinated.

After Boo died, J mounted an all-out campaign to adopt a puppy that friends have rescued off of the street. They are looking for a home for it, and the puppy is very sweet. It is just your average street dog - brown, short-haired, nondescript - which is aggravating to some family members, but we held a family meeting about it last night and the vote was in favor of the dog.

Unfortunately, since I am allergic to dogs, it has to live outside, but that won't be much of a hardship in this warm weather. The kids practically live outside also, so they will have plenty of time to interact with it. I am just sad that we can't have an inside pet - a member of the family, so to speak. Maybe in a few months.

Yep, in a fit of insanity the other day, I went back to the Blue Cross (animal shelter) and got three more kittens.

Their kitten supply is sadly depleted due to illness. (We have an acquaintance who volunteers there who clued me in to this fact.) There were still several dozen kittens to choose from though.

This time we tried to play it safer and chose three from the older kitten group. I suppose this group is about 6-8 weeks old versus the 4-5 week old ones that we got the last time. We got a calico "Halloween" cat, and two white cats. I sacrificed personality for beauty, so one of the white kittens is pretty shy. So far we haven't seen her at all unless I send the kids off to track her down. (Side bonus: hunting kitties in the house keeps them occupied for hours! )

The new names are "Boo", "Snowball" (for the scaredy cat - personally I think she should be called "Ghost", since we never see her), and "Princess Bindhi" (which I believe will change to "Prince Bindhi" when I check the sexes more carefully.) So far, the two white ones are pretty healthy, but Boo is coughing. Fingers crossed.

I would post pictures of our beauties, but the server on opera.com isn't letting me post pictures lately. Hopefully soon....

Some people have such interesting blogs, all about their travel adventures around Asia and India. I'm afraid that mine is more prosaic, since it is mainly aimed at those who are moving to Chennai with their families. It's other purpose is to keep our families caught up on what we are doing. I apologize for the dullness, but I hope that some find it useful. There was such a paucity of information about what daily life was really like when we moved here, that I wanted to try and fill the gap.

I promise, someday we will get out of Chennai and there will be more interesting posts. Also, someday, I'll get to a high-speed internet cafe and post the pictures that I have for everyone to see.

We have planned a couple of trips to local sights here in India, but unfortunately, every time, Shawn gets sick. I'm hoping that we can end that streak this weekend and see Mammalapuram, a world heritage site that's only 45 minutes from our house.

Meanwhile, another of the kitties has passed away. Snowball died last night; from her labored breathing, I think she caught pneumonia. Two out of three dead within a week. I feel like India is winning. (I know that sounds odd but remember, I'm on the down side of culture shock; it feels personal. In the US, I would have to sign a bunch of papers, pay a bunch of money, and certify that I'm not a crackpot, but I would get a healthy, weaned kitten. Here, I do none of the above, and I get none of the above.)

Marmalade is still alive but she's hanging on by a thread. At least I found kitten nursers; I found the "big" (I use that term loosely) pet store at Spencer's and they actually had kitten bottles. INCREDIBLE!! They had a lot of pet stuff, including wire crates. The store is called "Kennel Mart". Marmalade nurses easier than Snowball did, so maybe she has a chance. I don't know.

I'm torn now between rushing right out to get more kittens (fighting back) or taking the prudent track and waiting to see if Marmalade lives or not. On the one hand, if Marmalade dies, I could clean and disinfect before we got new kittens. On the other hand, since the kittens were sick when they came, I can't imagine that they have anything that the ones still waiting to be adopted don't have. I guess we'll just see how I feel. Sometimes spontaneous is nice.

On a different track, tomorrow is the first day of school. Yesterday we met J's teacher, Ms. B. Since I am room mother this year, J and I went over and helped her set up her classroom. Ms. B has taught in two other Asian countries, has 3 grown children (but sure doesn't look it!), and brought her long-haired Chichihuahua puppy to the school for the day. All in all, a winning combination. We enjoyed helping out and getting to know her. That brave woman has only been in Chennai a little over a week - barely over jet lag - and is starting teaching tomorrow! That's something I'd never try.

L of course is just excited to be going back to Ms. P. He is getting very bored at home. I'm excited too. I'm working on getting him in to the audiologist for a detailed hearing exam - one in which we can find out if he has trouble with auditory processing or not.

So....onward and upward. Last week I had an enjoyable time with some new friends - L and her daughter M (the girls hit it off immediately - they were holding hands within an hour!) and son I; and our friend neighbor, A and her baby P. I really want to try and get out more and enjoy the friendships that can be formed.

Last week we did some preventative maintenance on the water pump. Apparently it was on the verge of complete collapse. I am very thankful for staff (the two drivers) who notice these things and point them out to us. This is a great blessing, because if I had to go out and check all of the dozen or so machines and outbuildings every day (or even once a week), it would take a lot of my time. Not to mention the fact that I don't have a clue what to look for, unless the thing has actuall fallen apart. So, with Mr. Fixit and Mr. Engineer (S) working together, we got the thing patched up until we leave on our next trip in October. Then the landlord is going to replace the entire unit. He wanted to replace it immediately, but my driver, bless his heart, sorted the whole mess out and we didn't have to leave the house for three days while they did so. Whew. Another household crisis averted.

We also discovered why the electric was off for two days straight last weekend. (This length of time is unusual. Generally it's only an hour or two each week. It's not a problem as long as you have a driver who can run back and forth for petrol for the generator constantly.) While taking a walk with L, I noticed a large singed patch of earth and a pile of black feathers underneath our transformer down the road. It appears that a crow shorted the thing out. Either that, or someone had bird BBQ underneath the transformer. I'm betting on the former.

Well, I'd beter finish preparing for my primary time today. The teacher is out of town so I have the lesson as well as the music....still no idea what I'm doing musically but at least we are getting the kids to pay attention better. Today there is no AC at all in our building (we are switching buildings and they are supposed to be installing the AC units from the old one in the new one), so I'm taking a break and only attending primary. I don't think I can take the full 3 hours in the heat. It is still in the upper 90's here; much better than before, but easy to dehydrate your body.

Maybe next week we will be in our new building and we'll have both AC and classroom space..... Here's hoping!

Literally. Half the household, if you include the cats, is vomiting. J has had a fever and vomited once (but she made it to the toilet, yay!); all the kittens are vomiting; and I don't feel too great myself. So, it's been a sloooooooow day. We were supposed to go get the kid's physicals done, but we had to postpone it.

J is a lot better tonight though, and two of the three kittens were drinking water when I went to check on them, so looks like things are on the upswing. One kitten still looks very ill, so I tried to get it to a vet - to no avail. I called the closest vet and he said he would call me back when he opened his private practice - after normal business hours; a lot of physicians and professionals do that here - but he never called back. I'm guessing that means that he doesn't think that he can do anything for my poor kitties. Since his first comment was "Oh My God!" when I told him that they were vomiting and had diarrhea, I think that's a good guess.

Seeing the doctor, dentist, and other professionals after hours is very common here. They work in one place - like a government hospital - during the day and then have their own practice at night. It takes a bit of getting used to after you live in the US, where doctors and other professionals keep strict daylight hours.

I'm hitting the downside of culture shock and feeling discouraged about ever getting the house fixed up and interacting successfully with the local tradespeople. (By "successfully" I mean without losing money). I just got my first set of curtains up - only took 4 months - but when I got the bill, my eyes just about popped out! It was $200 above what they quoted me in the store. So, now I have to go back and argue (re: bargain) it down. sigh. Takes too much energy.

Ah well. The good thing is that my driver is still Mr. Fixit - today he mounted the fire alarms that we brought from the US. No small feat, considering that he had never seen one before. Haven't seen any here, so bringing your own is a good idea. Yes, the homes are made of plaster and concrete, so a large house fire is unlikely; but electrical fires are common. I put one in each bedroom and bravely mounted one over the stove. He objected to the one over the stove, but I told him that we'd try it for 2-3 days and then he could move it if it was going off all the time.

So we're all safe from fire here, and going off to bed - here's to a night of no vomiting.....