Day #238 – Work Update

Gatlinburg TN

It’s going to be a balancing act for a few weeks – juggling our work schedule with the kittens’ eating schedule, and our sleep schedule.

Here’s a summary of what we’ve been doing as work-campers.  That thing about 20 hours per week hasn’t been working very well.

Week ending June 21^st – 27 hours:

• Clean cabins
• Clean pool filter
• Clean camp sites (pick up litter; clean out fire ring; burn leftover wood; rake tent sites)
• Wash linens from cabins
• Deliver wood to campsites
• Clean shower houses (8 toilets; 8 showers; 4 sinks; floors; garbage)

Week ending June 28^th – 20.5 hours

• Clean cabins
• Clean shower houses
• Spray poison ivy

Week ending July 5^th – 33 hours

• Clean campsites
• Clean shower houses
• Deliver wood
• Pick up trash from campers and mash it into the dumpsters
• Shuttle campers to town and back in the campground van

Week ending July 12^th – 29.25 hours

• Clean campsites
• Clean cabins
• Clean shower houses
• Wash linens from cabins
• Deliver wood
• Greet incoming campers and get them settled on their sites
• Organize the supply room

Week ending July 19^th – 14 hours

• Clean campsites
• Clean shower houses
• Deliver wood
• Review all campsites and list tasks that need to be done
• Run errands for the manager
• Install new wiper blades on the shuttle van

We are pretty much “on call” all the time.  Today, the manager asked me to keep an eye on the campground while he and Kelly were out.  Since I was in the middle of feeding the kittens, I told him I could not do that.  It’s the first time I’ve said, “No,” to him.

Kelly usually takes the late night feeding shifts – up to about 2 AM.  I try to go to bed by 10 PM, but it’s usually midnight.  She sets an alarm for me - I get up as early as 4 AM.  She sleeps in, but generally no later than 10:30 AM.  Looking back over my notes, we do about 1/3 of the feedings together.  She handles 1/3 on her own and I handle the other third.  It’s really hard to bathe the kittens without help, but we’ve both done it.  Fran helps when she can.  She’s been great about keeping all the towels and bedding clean.

I generally clean the shower houses in the early morning, between cat feedings.  Kelly generally handles shuttle runs and taking care of errands for the manager.  We clean campsites and cabins together because it’s such hard work.  It’s easier on us physically and the work goes faster when we share the tasks.

Day #237 – Kittens Come Home

Gatlinburg TN

Alicia emailed me a bit after midnight to let me know it wasn’t working.  Kelly started off in the truck to get the kittens and I stayed home to call Alicia.  She had tried so hard, but it just didn’t work.  When MomCat started growling and fighting Alicia off, she knew there was no use trying any more.  Everyone was disappointed.

It poured down rain the whole day, so Kelly was a long time coming home.  The kittens cried the whole way.  We wondered whether they were hungry.  We wondered whether they missed this MomCat.

Kelly and I agreed to not let the kittens go again until they’re quite a bit older.  We agreed that the process was pretty hard on them.  So, we’ll stay at this campground until the kittens are old enough to move to a better foster position, or permanent homes.  We’ll do everything we can to keep them safe.  We know the odds are against them.  We know we’ll be lucky if any survive.  We agree to not name them.  Right.

Day #236 – Possible MomCat

Gatlinburg TN

There’s a woman who goes to the same church as Fran who might be able to help our kittens.  Her name is Alicia and she lives across the mountains in Cherokee.  Alicia has a cat that has kittens a few weeks older than ours.  Since those kittens are in the process of being weaned, we’re hoping that the cat will take our kittens and nurse them.

It was a long drive over to Cherokee today.  We were filled with hope and concern.  We knew the kittens would be better off with a MomCat than they are with us, but we don’t know this woman.  We agreed that if either one of us got the willies, we’d leave with our kittens.

Alicia is a young woman who lives in a double-wide that is precariously perched on the side of a steep hill.  We had to put the truck in 4WD to get into her driveway.  There was a lot of garbage on her porch because she was cleaning out her kitchen.  But, the rest of her home was spotless.  Even though she had three adult cats and a litter of kittens, there was no “cat” smell.

We smeared canned cat food all over the kittens and held our breathes.  MomCat licked the cat food off them and let them try to nurse for a few minutes before she stalked off.  She was very young – a first-time mother.  Alicia admitted that the cat hadn’t been all that thrilled with motherhood the first time around and wasn’t sure how this would go.  She wanted to keep the kittens over night and work with them.

It was an even longer drive home.  I was impressed with her home and how healthy her cats looked.  Kelly was pessimistic that this would work and was worried about Alicia’s ability to feed the cats every two hours.  Since Alicia had bottle-raised kittens before, I kept a good thought.