It Ain't Summer 'Til There's Kittens to Foster

[kriadydragon]

My aunt lives out in the country on a farm. As such there are feral cats. Because there are feral cats there are kittens, some who lose their mothers, others who get abandoned. And when that happens, it's time to break out the bottles and formula.

But at least this time it's only two kittens a couple of weeks old rather than brand-spanking-new, and fairly close to making the transition to dry food. But one of them was born with a deformity - both its legs are folded inward (if anyone knows Lil' Bub from Youtube, it's like with her legs). So of course that one we may keep, and of course I'm going to worry endlessly about him/her (can't quite tell, yet, which it is) since he/she's acting rather lethargic (but that could be because getting around tires him/her out faster). The other kitten is your typical few-weeks-old kitten all roly-poly and thinking he/she's tougher than he/she is and looking at you with those big eyes in that little face. It's so brain-exploding adorable I can hardly stand it.

Gah! Why is life destined to make me such a cat lady! *sobs!*

Comments

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

Cute little guys. We wound up with two kittens who needed to be bottle fed a while back. We kept them until they grew old and passed. Good luck with the little ones!

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thanks :D

We once took care of a whole litter of newborns, which was... interesting (the little poop factories). I kept one of them but, sadly, she ended up disappearing. It was after that I refused to have anymore outdoor cats.

[timespirt.livejournal.com]

All our cats were indoor cats. My sister started feeding a stray that was crying at our door at night. Then we started letting it in at night. Then it was sharing potato chips with my dad at night. Then one day we couldn't find her and called the vet, he told us to look in a closet or dark place. Sure enough we found her in a closet in a laundry basket of towels with 2 kittens. We still continued to let her come and go as she wanted but after she didn't come back to feed the kittens one day we went looking for her and found her dead under a bush. we didn't know why she died. We kept both kittens and bottle fed them until they were weened. They both (1 male and 1 female) lived to 18 years and were very pretty.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Well, cat lady is better than crazy cat lady ;) I've got a Laurel Burch cat tote and god help me, I want more of them. Next it will be cats again. So far, no cats in the offing as we're trying to get rid of stuff in the house first...

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Heh, true ;) Although I've got a cat purse, several cat T-shirts and a few cat figurines. Plus the cats, of course ;)

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

We have huge feral communities in various areas of the Portland metro area and each time I hear of the mobile van that moves about taking care of them, I think of when we lived in Hawaii.
Sandy and I were little girls. We lived in a Quonset hut aboard an air station.......living beneath our home was
a mother cat and her kittens, not sure how many there were as we never saw them all.
Dad showed Sandy and I how to coax some of them out
with a bit of food etc.
We were of course thrilled. I think to this day how wonderful that was that he took the time. He surprised me from time to time with this sort of thing.
We managed two which turned out to be wonderful...one was orange and white and the other a sort of tabby cat
striping...
Their mother remained with the rest of her kittens and we continued to leave water and food for them.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

We got quite a few ferals in our neighborhood, two of which are - in a way - mine (I feed them and they let me pet them). We got them fixed so we don't have to worry about any kittens, but between them, my four cats, and now these two little ones... yeah, it's getting to be cat central around here ;)

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

((((((NODS)))))) mobile units here in Portland metro do
spaying and neutering and treat cat AIDs.
They put out traps and then pick up and do above.
My friend Linda, an RN, regularly volunteers for the mobile
units.
They are very prevalent on the east side in particular and every once in awhile I see them in the Moreland area and it is kind of odd...as there are so many sitting and laying around.


"between them, my four cats, and now these two little ones... yeah, it's getting to be cat central around here ;)"

ROFL

[afleur-de-lis.livejournal.com]

I grew up on a farm, so I know about feral cats. However our feral cats (with the exception of one we call Grumpy) are rather shy, nice creatures.

If the one kitten was born with a deformity, you might have to put her down. We had a kitten that was born with the same deformity and years later when she grew up, she couldn't walk which meant that the vet had to put her down. We also had a kitten that fell off of a hay bale (goodness knows how he got up there!) and he pinched a few nerves in his legs. He couldn't use his back legs and had to pull himself along because of it. The vet for our horses came in one day and saw the poor little guy and told us that we must put him to sleep.

One thing about being on a farm is that even when you are falling short of some kitties, new ones always make it onto your property. One of the pet peeves of my father was waking up to finding a box of kittens thrown haphazardly in the driveway. The poor little creatures took a long time to get out of said box they were so scared! Though that was nothing compared to mama cat. It was clear that she came from a good home and everything. She took off and we never saw her again- so we had to come out to the barn to feed baby kittens as well as our horses each morning ;)

And I am rambling.

Well anyway, I hope that you have fun with your new kittens. They are so cute and fluffy when they are young but they get so lazy when they get older.

*gazes fondly at Baby*

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yikes, I hope the deformed one doesn't have to be put down :/ But I've seen quite a few vids of deformed, crippled and even amputated cats getting around just fine (and I'm starting to think that maybe it is just one leg that's deformed, and the other leg is slightly less deformed) so here's hoping it won't come to that.

[afleur-de-lis.livejournal.com]

I've seen many kitties in apple country who were deformed and they did fine. They acted like normal cats and everything. Were quite affectionate to the people they knew and would limp or run away from the ones they didn't, so they led normal lives.

My family are big on their horses. We had to worry about Grumpy or a group of naïve kittens getting run down by an enraged mare if they got too close to her foal. Though with the kittens, their mothers would intervene.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Cat lady is fine just don't get 40 of them and appear on Animal Hoarders :)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

You know, I actually used to worry about such things (especially when I started volunteering at the shelter) but I've come to realize that I'm both too lazy and enjoy a clean house too much to have a crap-load of cats. Despite the absolute cuteness of our current kittens I actually have no real desire to keep them (the deformed cat we may keep, unless I can find someone who knows how to take care of a special needs cat). So I may be a cat lady, but at least I'm a cat lady with limits.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

So you'd freak at the mess in a crazy cat lady house.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I'd probably drop dead from all the ammonia, first :/

[parisindy.livejournal.com]

i think i was destined to be the dog lady .. man i so understand.. though i also have two cats and there is one at the humane society i am desperate to adopt lol

i have thought of fostering dogs.. but i just couldn't because i wouldn't trust other people to take care of my dog right and i would then own 50 dogs

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

i have thought of fostering dogs.. but i just couldn't because i wouldn't trust other people to take care of my dog right and i would then own 50 dogs

OMG yes to this! I would have the hardest time trusting anyone to adopt anything I foster, because people can be so incredibly quick and naive about adopting pets. We sold my sister's horse to some people who promised to take care of him, only to find out the horse had been exchanging quite a few hands because no one could take care of him, and the people didn't even tell us they were getting rid of him (which they were supposed to so we could take him back if need be. Luckily, I believe he ended up on this one guy's ranch for his grandkids to ride or something). So, yeah, it's tough trusting people to take care of the animals you put so much time and energy and love into.