Kittens, Kittens Everywhere!

I recently added 7 more cats to my household.

Before you think, “woah, she’s crazy”, these are 6 foster kittens and their mama.  I may still be crazy.

Mama was found pregnant in West Virginia by a kind-hearted person who managed to get her to a shelter near where I live with her 3-day old kittens.  This is where I came in.  I had recently offered to take on fostering again with the hope that it would happen before my youngest left for college so I would have help.  Unfortunately, this new family arrived only a few days before he left so I’m sending him lots of pictures.

I have fostered before; in fact, I have written about it here www.persimmonlife.com/foreverlearning/fosterkittens.  But fostering brand new kittens and their mom is a whole new experience. 

Both overwhelming and fantastically rewarding.

We brought the kittens and mama home when they were only a few days old.  Their eyes were still closed and ears folded and they were so, so tiny.  My son named them all after characters in his favorite show – Rowena, Castiel, Crowley, Sam, Dean, Jo, and Garth (Supernatural for those who are unfamiliar).  They are perfect matched pairs – 2 black, 2 orange, and 2 gray tabbies.  Mom is a beautiful, friendly calico.  I naively thought that this would be relatively easy because Mama (Ro) would take care of them and I would just have to keep them clean, warm, and dry.  Little did I know.

Week One

Mama and her little ones

Week one

I was given instructions on how to care for the new family and put together a box lined with blankets for mom that she took to right away.  Ro was nursing her babies on a regular schedule, using the litter box, and wanting affection.  Easy.

Part of my instructions were to weigh the little darlings twice a day to make sure they were gaining weight every day.  This wasn’t too hard when they were tiny and they at first were gaining.

Then I began to notice Sam, one of the gray tabbies and the tiniest of the kittens was not gaining weight.  She (I actually don’t know the sex, but call her a she) was so tiny; she was easily pushed out of the way when nursing and always ended up on the bottom of the pile.  It was time to supplement.

Snuggling to stay warm

This meant supplemental kitten formula fed to Sam on a regular basis with a syringe since she was so tiny.  Regular basis meant every 4 hours or so through the night.  I was back to setting an alarm and getting up at 2:30 am to feed this tiny little one.  It felt a bit like when my boys were infants, that middle of the night nursing was brutal.

Week 2

I noticed that little orange Cass (Castiel) was lagging behind the others, so I added supplemental syringe feeding for him too.

Now while the syringe feeding was a lot of work it was also very rewarding watching these 2 little ones gain weight because of my efforts. 

Week 3

Now 6 kittens are a lot of work for a mama cat and I ended up adding 2 more kittens to the supplemental feeding schedule, thankfully no longer in the middle of the night by the end of the week.   I also switched to a little bottle to feed them which is the cutest thing since they hold on to the bottle or my fingers with their little paws as they drink. They also fight for a turn!

I moved the kittens into my kid’s old pack and play – yes, I did keep it all these years, apparently for this purpose!  They were starting to try to scale the sides of their boxed enclosure.  This way they can move around more and I can add a small litter box.  In case you didn’t know (I did not) mama cat grooms her kittens to include cleaning up their waste, so when they are tiny there is minimal mess.  As they reach 3 weeks though, they need a tiny litter box.  They all took to it fairly quickly thankfully.

Crying for attention in the Pack and Play

Week 4

Mama Ro is doing a great job with these little ones that are now climbing all over her and starting to want to play with her and each other.  The bigger ones are also trying to eat her food, so now they have a small dish for themselves.  The few that are eating solids are growing even faster!

The kittens can also climb out of the pack and play so I am giving them supervised play time in the room.  This results in lots of exploration and climbing on me - their little claws are so sharp (they cannot retract them at this age) They play and then go back in to sleep.

They are of course adorable and are starting to want to sit in my lap and snuggle.  Trust me, there is nothing like kitten therapy after a long day at work to destress.

I will likely have the kittens until they are at least 8 weeks old and I know it will be tough to part with them when the time comes for them to find their forever homes.  This experience has been so positive for me and has even helped me through missing my youngest son who recently left for college. 

There is something about being really needed to sustain life that distracts the mind and gives purpose. And while we definitely are not keeping these little ones, they will be missed.