It was 10:00 pm on a Thursday night I went out my back door
to turn the water off on my flowers and heard a bunch of baby kittens meowing
very loudly. I went back into the house
and asked my husband, “Did you know we had baby kittens?” He replied, “Well, I knew our grandma cat was
pregnant but didn't know where they were.
He came outside with flashlights to find them in the corner
under the deck which is about 8 feet deep.
Finding a long handled fish net drug them out from under the deck. There were five baby kittens just old enough
to have their eyes open. He said he
would go look for the grandma cat while I figured out what to do.
I hurried to warm some milk, find a syringe and try to feed
them. They were starving and so I
proceeded to force the milk down them.
After getting them fed I found a large plastic bowl and put an old towel
in the bottom of it. A little more milk
and they settled down falling asleep.
My husband came back with the bad news that the mother cat
had been killed out on the road in front of our farm. I thought, “This won’t be too bad as they are
about two weeks old already and it won’t be long before they are eating
food.” Little did I know about how much
work a mother cat goes through!
During the night I got up several times to see if they were
hungry again, only to find them still sleeping so I thought, “Hum…This isn't
going to be too bad as they had slept all night.”
Friday morning I changed the towel, fed them some more milk
and got ready for work. Then I realized
I was going to have to take them to work with me as I couldn't leave them home
all day. It is a good thing I own my own
business and have an extra bathroom.
Well, I tried to quietly put them in the front seat on the passenger
side, but they immediately woke up and meowed loudly wanting more food. Well,
I didn't have time to feed them again so they cried all the way to work.
My usual morning stop
at the bank drive through was a little embarrassing as the teller heard the
loud meowing and asked if that was kittens she heard. I explained I was taking care of them and
she wished me good luck. Can you imagine
what she thought!
I went to work and hauled everything in I would need for the
day, extra towels, milk, my computer, day planner, etc. I hurried to get the kittens milk warmed up
in my microwave, fed them and they went to sleep. However, every time they heard my voice they
woke up so I had to put them in the far corner of my store and put a towel over
them. They slept until late afternoon.
The customers were very patient with me if they came in
during feeding time. One farmer said to
his son, “This is something your mother would do!” Others enjoyed showing their children the
tiny baby kittens. There was a Blackie,
(black & grey); Spots, (black & white); Pewee, (the smallest black
& white); Pebbles, (white and tan) and Bam Bam, (yellow and white).
My sister and her daughter stopped by Friday night and told
me cow’s milk will constipate the kittens and that I should use evaporated milk
diluted with water so I changed their formula.
I had wondered why there wasn't any ‘poop’.
On Monday my friend Alice came to my store and found my
dilemma so she went to a nearby grocery store and bought a bottle made for
small animals and a can of kitten milk. I was really grateful for her help as I hadn’t
had any time to go shopping until I read the directions on the can of how I
needed to stimulate their genitals to get them to go ‘poop’. I read the directions again, in shock,
thinking “No wonder they hadn’t pooped”!
Was I really up to the task? Why
did their mother have to die? Do mother
cats really lick their genitals? What am
I going to do?
The diarrhea became an everyday occurrence so the towel had
to be changed often but was I going to just throw the poopy towels away? I couldn't put them in my washing
machine. Yuck! However, I remembered I use to wash dirty
diapers in my washing machine as our first two children were born before
disposable diapers. So I came up with a
plan of hanging them on the clothesline and letting the sprinklers wash
them. This was a very good idea as by
the time I got home from work they were clean and dry, so that became the daily
task.
The next dilemma was deciding how to clean them. Does the mother cat really do all this
work? So I decided the only thing to do
was to bathe them under the warm water faucet.
They didn't like the water at first but after a couple of times they got
use to the water and actually enjoyed getting all the crusty, dirty Yuk
off. Bathing became part of our
routine morning and night. The weather
was hot so they dried quickly and settled down to sleep after their bath and feeding
time.
We were just settling into a schedule for a few days and
then my brother Kyle needed a ride to Boise to a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday
and there were no other family members available to take him. I was going to close my store for the parade
as it was fair week anyway, so I decided I would just have to take the kittens
and my brother on a road trip to Boise.
Have you ever stopped at a rest area and seen some strange woman feeding
5 baby kittens on the lawn? Most people
just glared at us as they walked by and others stopped to visit.
Trying not to be late to the doctor appointment, traffic and
trying to keep the baby kittens from crawling out of their container made the
trip a little stressful. We arrived at
the doctor’s office and when the vehicle doors opened the kittens woke up and
immediately starting crying. I had to
hurry and feed them and since it was hot I put them under a tree on the lawn by
my pickup and we went in to the appointment.
My thought was “I hope they are
still here when I get back”!
I stayed with Kyle during the first part of his appointment
which was about 45 minutes and then hurried to check on “my babies.” Finding them all asleep and doing great was a
huge relief. I sat under the tree until
my brother called to tell me he was done.
I went back to the doctor’s office for the final (I thought) diagnosis
only to find out he needed to take another test which would last 2 to 3 hours
and we would have to make another appointment. After explaining we lived 2 hours away I
persuaded them to try working him in the next day. They looked at the schedule and said the
computer was available at 9:00 a.m. the next morning. Thanking them we left the office. Now what?
No clothes, no overnight bag and not enough kitten milk to stay
overnight but luckily we had family in Boise.
I called my daughter-in-law, Shauna to explain our dilemma
and ask, “Can I spend the night with you, and bring my brother and 5 kittens
and will you take me to a pet store to get milk for my kittens?” Luckily she said, “Sure, come on over.” Our two little grandsons loved the kittens
and so again the kittens had a change in formula. The least I could do was pay for dinner so we
left the kittens in the back of the
pickup sleeping while we were in the restaurant. After a delicious dinner we retired for the
evening.
The next morning we arrived at the doctor’s office and while
Kyle was taking his test I put the kittens under the tree, fed them again and
decided I would make some important phone calls while I was waiting. Remembering I needed to gas up the pickup, I
quietly moved the kittens to the pickup discovering I had left the key on in
the ignition and ran the battery down.
Only if I had paid attention and turned the key off after opening all
the windows!
I sent a text to my son Shawn asking if he was too busy to
help me start the pickup. He replied,
“Can’t come, in a meeting, be there after.”
I was so happy to see him and really grateful he had jumper cables!
Kyle finished his test, Shawn started my pickup, we stopped
for gas and started our journey home.
The kittens didn’t sleep too well and kept climbing out of the plastic
tub. They also still had dysentery and I
only had brought one extra towel but survived the trip home with only a couple
of stops to feed them.
Our son Ty who lives in Grantsville, Utah brought his family
to visit for the weekend. We were
planning to take them to ‘Kid’s night at the rodeo”. Getting home late from work I met them at the
door as they were leaving. I told them I
would feed the kittens and come as soon as I could. The rodeo was great!
The grand kids loved the kittens and were excited to help
bottle feed them. I took the kittens
to work with me on Friday, had a busy day.
The kittens are now crawling out of their large plastic bowl so I put
them in the bathroom at work with kitty litter in one corner and a clean towel
in another corner and their food in another corner. Well, they aren’t old enough to use the kitty
litter, yet.
My girlfriend Pam stopped by my store and seeing my dilemma
said, “Why didn't you call me? I have a
mother cat that is just weaning her kittens and I’ll bet she will take
them!” She scooped them up and took them
home.
I didn’t hear from her Friday night so I was thinking
everything was going well and what a relief!
Early Saturday morning Pam called, “My mother cat rejected the kittens
and I've ran out of milk. You need to
come and get them and take them to the vet as they have dysentery really
bad.” I’m thinking…”I think I know why
a mother cat doesn't want more kittens after she has weaned hers!”
My household was a little chaotic with family there, so I
opened the phone book and made an appointment at the Animal Medical
Clinic. My two granddaughters wanted to
go so I drove to Pam’s house, warmed up some milk and hurried to feed them so I
could take them to the vet. Arriving at
the Veterinary Clinic I usually go to the receptionist said, “You don’t have an
appointment and the doctor is out of town.”
I asked where the Animal Medical Clinic was and they said, “It’s on the
way to Rupert.” We drove to that Animal
Medical Clinic and were surprised when they said, “You don’t have an
appointment here and the doctor is out of town!
This is the Rupert Animal Medical Clinic.” I asked, “Where is the Animal Medical
Clinic?” They said, “It is on the
highway going to Paul.” I looked at the
clock on their wall realizing I was going to be late. The receptionist said she would call them and
tell them I’m on my way.
Arriving at the correct Animal Medical Clinic I found the
place was packed. Everyone commented on
my cute kittens. The vet was awesome and
treated them for an intestinal virus, gave them worming medicine and sent me
home with Amoxicillin to give them twice daily.
My grand kids were amazed that it smelled just like the medicine they
have taken before. OK, now there is
hope. The dysentery should improve
within 24 hours. I could hardly
wait. How was I to know kittens don’t
have diarrhea when they are young.
The rest of the week-end was fun. We took the kids to the fair on Saturday,
went to church on Sunday and as our family left to go home Sunday afternoon
they wished me good luck with the kittens!
I cleaned up and prepared for the work week. This had been quite an eventful week and the
kittens are getting older so it should get easier. However, Spots and Blacking were losing their
baby hair and going bald. What was I
doing wrong? I looked on the internet
and read that kittens under stress lose their hair and it will grow back. I would laugh at Spots and say, “It’s a good
thing I named you spots because I can see all the spots on your skin. Blackie turned out to have grey and black
spots. She wasn't black at all.
Now the kittens don’t sleep as much, run all over the place,
poop everywhere and still need to be bottle fed. It was time for food! A trip
to Wal-mart proved to be successful after a half hour of reading labels and
finding food that was for kittens, not adult cats. They weren't old enough for dry food as it
would break off their baby teeth so I purchased some canned cat food. I also purchased scoop able kitty litter as
I was determined to potty train them.
After all, they are about 3 ½ weeks old.
I learned quickly that they will not eat any food until they
are ready and they do not potty train until they are old enough. They slept in the kitty litter, pooped on the
floor and refused to eat the canned food.
By Thursday morning I was so frustrated I drove them to the animal
shelter on the way to work thinking, “I can’t do this anymore!” The nice lady at the shelter informed me
that they don’t take kittens until they are 8 weeks old. Disappointed, I left the shelter and thought,
“Gee, I wonder why! Will I ever do this again?
I’m not sure, but then would I have been able to let the kittens die?”
“Okay, I can do this,” I told myself as I’m driving to
work. “It’s a good thing I own my own
business.” I kept feeding them, bathing
them, giving them medicine, cleaning up after them, washing towels and trying
desperately to get them to eat the kitten food. At 4 weeks old they started nibbling on the
dry kitty food and I was excited. I
decided they were finally old enough to stay home during the day while I was at
work. The bottle feeding was done
morning and night. They nibbled on the
dry food and were drinking a little water now.
Things were getting better and I felt like I was going to
survive, until we had a really bad storm.
By the time I got home they were drenched. I guess they weren't old enough to find
shelter. I opened the garage door and
rescued them from the storm. Spots was lying
out in the middle of the patio, lifeless.
Thinking he was dead I took care of all the others, getting them dry and
fed. The rain was really coming down so
I was planning to go get Spot when the rain quit. About an hour later my husband turned on the
porch light to see if the storm was letting up.
He called me saying, “Brenda, I think Spot is still alive! I saw his paw move.”
At 5 weeks old they started eating the canned kitty food and
weaned themselves off the milk. The mail
kittens lost their baby whiskers and are growing stiff sharp whiskers. They also started using the kitty litter
box. I survived raising 5 baby kittens
and more than ever appreciate all the work a mother cat does to take care of a
litter of kittens.
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