Mother's Day 2010

I have a brand new respect for mothers.
Which is saying a lot as I have always wanted to be a mother and think a lot of people who choose to be moms.
I love my mom and the example she was to me. She has never expressed regret she had nine children, that she missed something by being with us, that she needed a vacation from us. If she thought those things she never let us know it. She is always proud to be our mom, she is always happy to see us and shares in our joys and and our heartbreaks. It's never too late to call her, she's never too busy to help us out and she has lived a life that makes me want to emulate her.
I have learned a little of what it's like to be a mom these last few days. Not that having two kittens is the same as having a kid, but I begin to comprehend the effort and involvement required to care for another helpless living thing. Getting up in the middle of the night, every night. To be invested in their welfare and the hopelessness you feel when you can't fix what is making them cry. Also the panic when you have to take them to the doctor and the relief when the antibiotics actually work and you can't hear them struggling to breathe all the way across the house. That relief, of course, comes after the first moments of alarm when you can't hear them breathe after being able to do so for three days.
Yes, despite Tarzan's bemusement, we took poor little Spike to the kitty hospital last night because she was having a hard time breathing. Terrible rasping and sometimes she would stop breathing for a few seconds and then start suddenly with a really heart wrenching cry. Poor thing was in a bad way. Tarzan put a limit on how much we could spend to save a four day old kitten, the veterinarians wanted an x-ray and were preparing us for lots of horrible things, including euthanasia. Turns out she aspirated some milk and was in the early stages of pneumonia. They gave us some antibiotics and fortunately, she seems to be doing much better.
Chubbs - we named the second kitten Chubbs - has not had any adverse effects of being orphaned. Here's to some less dramatic days in the future.

This is me and I thank my mom for the example, even I am spending it on kittens.