I named her Faye.
It was April Fool’s Day and windier than the space between my ears. A feral cat was raped a few months earlier and then gave birth to a litter of Snows in my abandoned dog house. When I found her bastards, the mom panicked and started moving the nest.
My goal was to find the mom’s new nest, feed the family until I gain their trust, and then catnap everyone for a good ‘ole fashioned spay/neutering. The kittens were so young that I felt it was better for them to stay with their mom for a couple more weeks, despite her possible psychological fragility from the earlier sexual assault. Sadly for everyone, I couldn’t find where she relocated to. There was one baby left by the time the sun started setting. I waited for hours and the weather kept getting worse as the last kitten kept getting cuter. So, I decided to adopt.
Have you ever bottle-fed a kitten before? It’s like cuddling a cute and fully stocked needle cushion. Faye would drink milk until her belly bloated bigger than her head. It freaked me out, so I took her to the vet for a wellness check. She turned out to be okay. But, I found out kittens can’t poop on their own. It was now my job to molest her genitals with a moist cotton swab until she cleared the plumbing. I was not fond of the daily doody duty.
Kittens are dirty. They are messy eaters and can’t preen themselves well. Faye particularly likes to spill milk all over her front half, and smear poo all over her back half. When a wipe down with a damp cloth wasn’t clean enough, it was bath time.
It’s cute when animals are wet. I think it’s the transformation of going from a fluffy fatty to a soggy skinny. Some cats even enjoy being in water. I’ve seen videos of cats playfully pawing around during warm baths. Faye is not one of those cats.
One important fact I’ve learned is that very young kittens can’t regulate their own body temperature. They need help keeping warm. Usually, kittens snuggle up against their mom and siblings for warmth. Since Faye’s a lone orphan, she’d settle for my lap, my dog, a nice blanket, or…
I’ve got other really fun pictures and stuff of Faye. I’ll share some of it in another post later. =)