Tiger Lilly

For weeks my sister noticed a kitten eating from a dumpster where she lives.  After crossing paths with the kitten on numerous occasions it become clear that she was an orphan or a stray.  As a mother or a Good Samaritan my sister began trying to get the kitten to follow her home.  She felt horrible that someone neglected the kitten in the dead of winter.  A week or so passed and the kitten finally followed my sister into her apartment.  She began feeding her and providing her with proper warmth and shelter.  My sister fell in love with the little kitten almost instantly and so did my niece and nephew.  So they decided to adopt her and named her Tiger Lilly.  A couple of weeks later my sister realized that Tiger Lilly was pregnant.  Fortunate or unfortunately she not only rescued a stray but was now faced with the possibility of kittens.  I remember playfully laughing at her and saying something like “WOW you would be lucky enough to rescue a pregnant kitten.”  Again my sister surprises me and decides to take on yet another duty that someone else neglected to be responsible for.  After bringing Tiger Lilly to the vet she learned the she is in fact pregnant with two kittens and that everything looked great and on track.  At this time the office gave Tiger Lilly a rabies vaccine.  When it was time for her to have her babies something wasn’t right.  Tiger Lilly was bleeding and crying and my sister was panicked.  Something clicked in her head that something was terribly wrong.  So she decided to do her own investigation and found that pregnant cats should not be vaccinated.  Discretely enough she called around to other offices to ask if in fact this were true and every place that she called confirmed that they would not vaccinate a pregnant cat.  My sister learned that vaccinating a pregnant cat could lead to mutation and or spontaneous abortion.  We later learned in confidence that it’s not uncommon for some offices to knowingly do this to prevent over population, potential strays, etc.  With that said Tiger Lilly now had to be rushed in for emergency surgery (which was very expensive).  Tiger Lilly did in fact lose her kittens but she was spared and able to go home.  I was completely outraged at the thought of this being a possibility.  If this was as a result to the vaccination they gave her I find it difficult to believe that their motives were not a direct act to terminate her pregnancy.  To me this is very morally wrong and rather upsetting.  Whether Tiger Lilly was a stray or a now adopted kitten didn’t my sister have a say in the matter?  Didn’t Tiger Lilly?  Either way, I’m so proud of my sister for what she did.  She took in a stray kitten and her babies and then had to pay for an unexpected emergency surgery out of love and kindness for the new member of her family.  She’s remarkable in my eyes and never for one second did she want to back out of any of it like someone else had.