Once upon a time, rumor has it, a young little furry creature showed up at Marina Palmira in La Paz Mexico with 5 little baby kittens in tow. No one knew from which land she came, but here she stayed.

At first she was very feral and wouldn't come near the alien people of this strange land. But over time, she came to trust and actually enjoy a few of these strange aliens that seemed to wander aimlessly from their boats to the bathrooms at all times of day and night. Some were even accompanied by various sizes of other furry creatures that made strange barking noises.

These aliens became her friends and actually started feeding, watering and petting her. Wow, she thought, these are pretty cool people! She slowly began to trust them and would share her baby kittens with them while they sat having breakfast at the restaurant near the bushes she had claimed as her new home.

As the years went by, "Mama Kitty," as people would call her, became more and more promiscuous and consequently would always have either a litter of kittens in her belly or kittens by her side. Well, the Marina Palmira cruising community thought, we have to put an end to this endless parade of new kittens several times each year. So . . . time for the sneak attack!

Mama Kitty was tricked into a cage and taken to the local Vet to be fixed once and for all! Or so everyone thought!! Mama Kitty was brought back to "her" Marina and continued to live a carefree life with plenty of food and love from all the cruisers.

Heidi and Terry on the s/v Cetus would be one of her main suppliers while they were in La Paz for the cruising season. When they would leave, a few other people would take over kitty duty and Mama Kitty would continue to thrive.

In the 2013-2014 cruising season, a new couple in the s/v Landover, Chris and Louise, showed up on the scene. Being the suckers they are for any animal that happens to cross their path, Mama Kitty won over their hearts! . . . Of course she did!

As the season ebbed and then flowed, the cruisers would come and go and the Marina was starting to empty out for the year as the weather got hotter and more uncomfortable. Heidi and Terry and their little person Rosie (the cat they rescued from Santa Rosalia many years ago), headed up north into the Sea of Cortez to enjoy the many islands and anchorages. At the same time, Chris and Louise headed to the mainland to visit friends and have many exciting adventures in the Copper Canyon.

After three weeks, Chris and Louise returned to find Mama Kitty, who was healthy and plump when they left, had become skin and bones. She was definitely dying and wouldn't eat or drink anything. They gathered Mama Kitty up into her friend Tiko the Skipper Key's little crate and off to the Vet for only the second time in her little life.

The news was very bad . . . Mama Kitty's x-ray showed a hard-as-rock mass in her abdomen as large as a lemon. Doctor Gabriella would have to do surgery. On the day of surgery, Doctor G called Chris and Louise to ask permission to put Mama Kitty to sleep because the mass inside her was compromising her stomach, spleen and other organs and it didn't look like they could remove the infected areas without it being fatal to Mama.

Louise was devastated! Her heart was heavy with sadness. The next couple of hours she spent accepting that Mama Kitty was gone forever. But then . . . the phone rang a few of hours later . . . Mama Kitty was still alive but very weak! Doctor G and her husband, who is also a Vet, had continued working on Mama and discovered that they were able to remove the infected mass without destroying any of the other organs!

Here's what they found! . . . There were actually three tiny kitten embryos that had been left in her body years ago when she was spayed (she must have still been pregnant at that time). Her body's defense system had encapsulated the "foreign bodies" and over the years had calcified into three rock-hard masses. One of these embryos had broken open and spread infection in her abdomen that her body wasn't able to fight this time. Mama Kitty was very sick.

The surgery appeared to be successful and Mama Kitty was released from the hospital. Chris and Louise brought her back to their boat Landover and set up a new little home for their Mama Kitty. She is still very weak and is on antibiotics and pain killers for the next 10 days. She is eating small amounts of food and is very calm and relaxed like she had never been a feral cat. Time will tell whether she will regain her weight and thrive in her new home.

Her new people, Chris and Louise, will be returning home to California in May 2014 and will take Mama with them. Their boat will stay in La Paz for the hot summer season and the three of them will return in November 2014 to continue their cruising adventures . . . with a new little second mate.

And they all lived happily ever after . . . for now.


Mama Kitty . . . And the Saga Continues . . .

After Mama Kitty was back in her new home for three or four days, her tummy became bright red and swollen. Back to the Doctor she went. She had developed peritonitis (an infection in her body cavity). Apparently a few evil critters had not been cleared out of the tummy during the first surgery! So Doctor G opened up Mama again and flushed out her tummy with a "fire hose." Be gone with ya damned evil critters. Arg! She made it through another successful surgery, and with a drain this time to keep any fluids from accumulating. (Hum, I wonder how many of her nine lives she's used up?)

Then home again Mama Kitty came along with some new baggage (a new plastic carrier AND a larger wire cage for traveling home to Sacramento by car (thanks to Flibbertygibbit and Betts and Jim!) and a pretty green harness and leash (like she will ever allow that to be put on her!)

So back on the boat, the ritual continues; change her full body bandages twice a day (cleanse her incision with iodine, then sterile cotton and gauze pads wrapped around her whole body and taped on--she really loves that . . . NOT!) Next, Chris gives her an injection of antibiotics between her shoulders (The first time, Chris got the LOOK from her and "DON'T TOUCH ME!); then oral antibiotics with a syringe down her throat; the pain pills are gone, so no more stuffing them down her throat; AND THEN we try to get her to eat tuna that we've added Metamucil to (to help her go potty), BUT she's not having any of that!!! She looks at us like "You think I can't smell that crap? I'm a CAT . . . Hello!

Since Mama Kitty has been feral all her life and not used to being handled (just petting), she has turned into an incredibly sweet, full of love, patient little kitty. She allows us to do anything to her with not too much fuss. She has been used to living on the ground in bushes and occasionally up a tree. So far in the boat she has wanted to stay on the floor, BUT . . . for the last two nights she actually hopped up on Louise's bed and slept with her all night long. "Um" she says, "this is really soft stuff to lie on. I think I'll keep my new people around for a while--as long as they keep spoiling me!"

"If all continues smoothly, on April 18th, my stitches will be removed (along with these damned bandages) and I'll be FREE AT LAST!"

Take a look into my Gallery of Photos to see what I've been up to . . .