Kittens

Harland and I have never Blessed with children, but God sees fit to send us kittens on what seems to be a regular basis. I like to think of them as infertility consolation prizes.

October 27, 2007:  We found Kitty on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river near Hannibal, Missouri. She was less than a year old.

November 15, 2007

November 27, 2014:  We found Muffin in the middle of the road near Bynumville, Missouri. He was about two months old.

November 30, 2014

July 30, 2015: We found two crying kittens – this time in our own driveway!  (God is getting a little lax in providing exotic locations to unload kittens upon us.) They are about a month old.

(These 2 pics were taken the day after we found them:)

July 31, 2015

July 31, 2015

They were dirty, very frightened, and very very hungry.

Their mother, one of our barncats, hadn’t been seen for a couple days.

Hitler, as we called her, had been with us for well over 10 years. She never became tame, but she was dependable, always around. Other barncats came and went, but there she was year in, year out. But now she’s gone.

In fact, ALL of our barncats are gone. We’re not sure what happened, but we had heard several hunting dogs barking in the cornfield across the road last week and suspect they’re to blame. We have coyotes around, but they don’t go in for wholesale slaughter like hunting dogs do. We’ve never been without barncats. It’s sad to go up to the barn and see their feedpans waiting for them.

Anyway, back to the kittens. On Thursday evening, we were closing everything up for the night when I heard kittens crying. Harland and I walked up the driveway toward the barn and found them in the driveway, crying and crying. It wasn’t hard to catch them, weak as they were. Holding them and feeling their little bones sticking out beneath their skins and seeing their dirty faces, we knew Hitler would never have ignored her babies like that. She was always a good mama.

So we put them in a box in our garden shed (a good tight, dogproof building), and fed them some warm milk. With a little encouragement, they quickly learned to lap it up. Once their tummies were full, we headed in for the night.

Next day I bought them some kitten formula at the vet and got some advice too. He said they needed to be fed 6 times a day. Oy. The kittens and I spent a lot of quality time over the weekend, and got to know each other. I watched them eat, and gave them little sponge baths to get their fur all clean and fluffy.

They’re both feeling much better now. They’ve become very active, are using a litter box (most of the time) and yesterday we started them on dry kitten food soaked in formula which they both ate very well. It stays with them better and they’re not getting so hungry between feedings.

Last night, Harland took some pics of the little tikes, not an easy task since they’re so wiggley.

Tuxedo is a fighter, always squirming, never still, very vocal, but a piddler when it comes to eating. Can’t seem to concentrate and takes him/her forever to clean up his/her dish.

August 5, 2015

Stripey is more timid and quiet, but eats like a wolf, putting his/her head down into the bowl and not coming up again until it’s clean.

August 5, 2015

August 5, 2015

Over the weekend I took care of all the feedings, and then when I went back to work on Monday, Harland took over several feedings during the day. They’re both timid around us and are very squirmy when held. In time they’ll settle down. We hold them close and hug them after feedings, and they’re both finally starting to purr.

In a few weeks, when they’re more used to people, and using their litter box consistently, they’ll be ready for adoption.

Kittens anyone?

Seriously, how can you resist this?

Yes I know, that’s not the proper way to hold a baby, but just look at that adorable fat tummy and those little short legs.

All together now:   Awwwww……..

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoo