ALL MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE, we have a teeny tiny baby foster kitten! I'm calling her a foster kitten because she's an orphan so we're raising her, but spoiler alert: my parents are keeping her forever! So much has happened with him in the week she's been a member of the family, so I wanted to post some updates so I can remember everything!
When I say "we" are raising her, my parents are *technically* the ones raising her, but I spend all my free time over at their house with the kitten and I feel like I provided them with all of the essential care information, so I feel justified in saying "WE," ha!
Let me start at the beginning: last Tuesday, my dad was taking our dog on his evening walk and heard what he thought was a bird calling, but turned out to be a little tiny kitten. She crawled out of a bush and into the alleyway my dad was walking through and was crying and crying. My dad put her back in the bush but she kept running out toward him, and my dad couldn't find any other kittens or a mother cat around, so he brought her home.
My mom called me to let me know what was going on and I could hear the kitten crying on the phone! I rushed over to their house to see her and it was just so sad! It was around 7:00 at that point and we knew the kitten was probably starving, so my dad ran out and found some kitten formula, and when he brought it back he and fed some to her in an eye dropper. She wasn't even as big as the can of formula!
She ate it right up and was SO much happier after she ate, she fell asleep and even purred! I didn't even know kittens that little could purr! It sounded like shuffling a tiny deck of cards, haha! Speaking of how little she is, I estimated her age to be around two weeks old when we found her based on this resource from Kitten Lady.
If Kenny and I didn't have our kitty Roxy, I would've been happy to bring the kitten back to our house to care for her myself, but I didn't want to expose Roxy to any of the myriad of potential diseases or infections that stray kittens are prone to. Luckily, my mom was up to the task of caring for her since she's a teacher and off for the summer, which is a blessing! Also a blessing: the kitten seems to be quite healthy despite having been left alone for an unknown amount of time. She was definitely hungry and crusty when my dad found her, but that seems to have been the worst of her issues (knock on wood)! We gave her a good bath that night (and have continued to daily as he learns to groom himself), trimmed a few burrs out of her fur, and she's been fluffy and clean ever since.
I feel like I know more than the average person about orphaned kitten care because I follow a bunch of orphan kitten and kitten fostering accounts on Instagram. The most informative one I follow is Kitten Lady (whose website I referenced above); she (Hannah Shaw) has a TON of resources and videos on how to care for young kittens, including how to recognize and treat certain health issues. If you have an orphaned kitten or any young kittens you need help with, I highly recommend referencing her site because it has a ton of helpful information.
Because of Kitten Lady's Instagram, I luckily already knew that kittens need "stimulation" in order to use the bathroom in their first few weeks of life. Their mom usually does it for them, but when they're orphaned they need help! I also knew that bottle-fed kittens need burping like a human baby, which is just the cutest thing.
Obviously my phone is packed with about 20,000 photos of her since last week, at first it was so hard to photograph her because she's such a wiggle worm!
I didn't want to give the kitten a name at first because I was already getting attached, and realistically I didn't know if my parents would be willing to continue caring for him until she was old enough to introduce to Roxy, and I knew I'd be even more devastated if they ended up moving her to a shelter or a foster mama cat if we gave her a name. My dad was waiting until our local cat shelter would be open a couple of days after he found the kitten so he could call them and ask if they knew a place that the kitten could live. A few days in, though, my dad started insisting that we pick a name for her, which surprised me because he was the one who was trying the hardest to find a new living situation for her! He had been calling "him" Larry, but we knew that couldn't stay. 😂
So what did we name this little guy?? WELL, we started out thinking that she was a boy, but we're now leaning more toward her being a girl (although we're still not 100% sure). So my mom and I really wanted to name "him" Figaro after the cat from Pinocchio because they're both tuxedo cats and I thought it would just be so cute! My dad, however, insisted we name him Monty after the street where he found him, which is also pretty dang cute, and I figured if my dad was attached enough to him to INSIST on a particular name, then we'd better give it to him. 😂 I still think Monty would be a cute name for a girl too, but my dad thinks that we should call him "Alley" if he turns out to be a girl because he was technically found in an alley... a true alley cat! I think that Monty has stuck, though! If anything, we'll update the spelling to Montie.
The first night with the kitten, we fixed up a box with soft towels and a stuffed pig for her to snuggle with. Kittens that young need to be fed about every three hours, so I was grateful that my mom agreed to look after her and feed her when she got hungry. To our surprise, she slept through the whole night (and has every night since)! She's pretty hungry when she wakes up in the morning, but is still eating the expected amount for a kitten her age, so that's all we're worried about! She's also gaining the expected amount of weight (we've been weighing her every day on a postal scale), and she's just over 11 ounces as of when I'm writing this!
The first day or two, we got into a routine with Monty feeding her, taking her to the bathroom, and putting her to sleep on approximately a three-hour cycle. We upgraded her from her eye dropper to a real bottle, which has been much better. We've also been brushing her with an infant toothbrush which is supposed to mimic the feeling of the mama cat grooming her, and she loves it!
I filled up a wool sock with rice that we can heat up in the microwave and let her snuggle with. Cats' body temperatures are higher than humans', about 102-104 degrees Fahrenheit, so we have to keep her warmer than room temperature since she doesn't have a mom or siblings to snuggle with. My mom thought she was okay without a heat source, but as soon as she saw how much she LOVES the warm rice sock, she said she can never go without it for the rest of her life!
She's approaching the age where she'll start using the litter box, so we've begun trying to familiarize her with it in anticipation of litter training her. The other day, she PEED on my dad after he fed her, which was hilarious despite being gross. 😂
She's such a beautiful little tuxedo girl, and I'm hoping that she's a long-haired kitty! Longhairs are so beautiful, and my mom has a soft spot for them, so that would be so fun. She's pretty dang fuzzy and she has some extra long hairs on her front legs, so that's what makes me think that she could be a longhair. I wish I knew what her parents and siblings looked like! My dad has walked by where he found the kitten pretty much every day since looking to see if he can spot a mama cat or any other babies, but there hasn't been any sign of either.
Monty has been on her fair share of adventures in the last week! My mom and I wanted to go to some farmer's markets last weekend, so we put her to sleep in her box with his sock and brought her with us and she slept the whole time! My parents also took her out one other time, and I brought her along on a walk with us wrapped up in a towel burrito, although she did poop on my mom while we were out, hahaha. My dad and I also brought her on a trip to the pet store and the grocery store (also wrapped up in a cloth) and she made so many friends! One lady at the pet store said that she looked like her cat, who is named... Figaro!
It's crazy how much she has progressed in just over a week. She's much more alert now, and she runs around and explores after eating rather than going right to sleep, and she seems interested in making friends with my parents' old dog (although she did puff up and hiss at him once the other night 😂). Today in particular, I feel like she really seems like she's growing up! Her claws are starting to retract which happens around four weeks of age, and her purr is getting deeper and more cat-like! She's also faster at running than ever, and she sits up and looks around a lot more than she did even a few days ago. We have been weighing her every day and today she is just over 11 ounces - the first time we weighed her about five days ago he was less than 8 ounces!
Having Monty around has just been such a delight, and I'm SO glad that my parents quickly got attached enough to want to keep her! My mom's still playing the role that she's "stuck" caring for her (even though she puts her in the bed with her every morning to snuggle), but my dad is all in and loves her so much, which is SO cute! I'm sure I'll have more Monty updates to come, but I'll leave you with what may be my favorite photo of her below:
HOW FREAKING TINY IS SHE?? I just die. Okay, I'm done! I hope you have a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon!
xoxx, Laura
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