A little over nine weeks ago, one of the stray cats that we took care of decided to have her litter on the back patio. It was a difficult birth, one that actually required the last kitten to be pulled out by hand.
The poor little girl, whom we named “Squiggy,” was already very ill and only made it a day longer before passing away, leaving behind her five babies. When the realization of her death sunk in, resolve and panic did the tango in my head. We scooped up the furry little sausages and brought them inside.
The good Lord above, my brilliant mother, and the internet came to the rescue. My eyeballs took in as much information as my mind would allow, and off I went, driving above the speed limit (only slightly!) to the pet store to get supplies: feeding bottles, powdered formula, gloves, baby wipes, etc.. We put together a humble bed for them. At first, it was just a cardboard box with an old towel covering a heating pad. Next was going through the adorable—yet stressful—learning curve on how to feed and burp a neonatal kitten who is fresh out of the oven. I can tell you that I never found burping so cute in my life.
We went from relieving one end to the other. Kittens are unable to void or have bowel movements on their own until they are around four weeks old, so guess who has the lovely job of stimulating them when the mommy is not around to do so? Now, you know why I bought the gloves and baby wipes. Truthfully though, it was not that bad.
I take that back, there was a time when it was horrible. It was when we briefly switched their formula. I would have never imagined that much diarrhea coming out of such a small form. When we switched back to the original formula, however, they had trouble with constipation. It felt like it took forever to get the right combination there. We finally did though, and it was glorious.
Overall, the Lord blessed us with very easy babies to raise. Honestly, the most stressful part was weaning them. The reason why is that there was no more control. When doing everything for them, I could organize them.
Set up a plan.
Put them on my schedule.
When it came to weaning, I was on their schedule. No amount of smearing canned food on their faces could coerce them into eating it. I was stuck feeding them a formula/canned food milkshake—which was tedious to make—and sticking plates of food in their faces until something finally clicked, and they ate just the “big kitty” meals. Two of them required the isolation method before they finally caved. We had to leave them in a pen alone—while they were hungry—with a plate of food until they couldn’t resist anymore and went to town on it. Now, everyone is going on ten weeks old, and they all eat not only canned food but those crunchy, delicious kibbles that I am convinced are made of nothing more than flavored newspaper, no matter what brand it is.
Out of our five babies, two of them have homes at this point. One went to a gentleman whom I met on this site, actually! I love the pictures that he sends me. The other went to a friend of someone who works for the vet we have been taking them to. She is a lovely woman.
Just three more to go! Any takers? 😉
I am vacillating on whether or not to keep one myself. It just seems right, considering how much work went into raising them. Please do not see this as a complaint. There were some very taxing times, yes, but I am so glad that God blessed me with the opportunity to do this. What an interesting experience. I cannot even imagine how parents of miniature humans feel. When you are living in the moment, you do not really notice, but when you take a few minutes to sit back and really think about what the Lord enabled you to do, there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. For me, it was like growing a garden of vegetables—fuzzy little vegetables that run around, scratch the heck out of us, knock over every trashcan they are able to, cuddle with us, and rub their tiny little faces against ours. Best garden ever.
The last thing that I will say is that the good Lord above and my mother are the MVPs in all this. She worked tirelessly on making sure they were taken care of, and God guided us every step of the way, protecting them from any major disaster that could have befallen them—which would have most likely been caused by me somehow. Much praise to them both.
I received a couple requests to see the babies. Apologies for the wait. Here, we have Screech, Luna, Motor, Squiggy, and Smokey. Please enjoy the fuzzy, overwhelming cuteness:
