Pumpkin, the littlest orange girl out of Aurora’s litter isn’t doing well. After her vet visit yesterday, the thought is she lacks the capacity to digest food efficiently. It wasn’t Aurora’s milk that had soured, it was the lack of enzymes in this little one’s body to do its job and aid in digestion.

It could be a congenital defect, or she might outgrow it. She is the smallest of all of them and although some would separate her from her littermates, I am going to leave her with them. She has some fight left in her and until she shows me otherwise- we will continue to fight with her and for her.

When you pick her up, she feels flaccid in your arms. I have been giving her fluids and she is good to go for 20 minutes then she is flat again. We prayed over her last night, and this morning, I was thrilled to see her poop and not much of the curdled stuff is coming out now. I have her on wet kitten food (purina) I can’t find it locally here- most stores only carry fancy feast kitten- but that has a lot of milk in it and she can’t process it.

She’s such a tiny one- this orangeness that brightens our days. I told her she can’t go on my watch, I won’t allow it!

Jetta and Sunday are recovering nicely from their spay. I was worried about Jetta when I got home because it was almost as if she was hallucinating or something. I know they don’t use ketamine anymore (nasty drug for kittens at least) They use a new drug now. But this morning, she is back to her old self and last night, she curled up under Mike’s beard and went to sleep. They are recovering, but after being presented with the balance of our vet bill- I need to GO into recovery!   I told the girl I would once again pay it off as I can- I just got the darn thing paid down too. I told them I want my own parking spot!

When I go into the kitten room, they must think I am a tree. They all try to climb up my legs to come and see me and get snuggle time. Last night, I was so exhausted, I went in there in my pj’s! Won’t make that mistake again. My legs are full of holes. When I sit on the floor, they jump on my back and shoulders. I need 7 more arms to help me out here. But, they are all (except for Pumpkin) healthy and vibrant. I’m still on alert though because they are that age when anything can happen and often does.

Last night both Jetta and Sunday went into their holding cages to wait for Monday morning and their spay appointment. They both made it very clear that this was not in their program. They hate being in cages and kept me up all night telling me so. Mike even went in front of Jetta’s cage with a flashlight and sang to her- but it didn’t matter- she was not a happy camper. Sunday was no different and I think they were feeding on each other anxiety even though they were both in different locations in the house. Sleep is over-rated anyway!

We have concerns that the smallest orange baby may not make it. She gets so quickly dehydrated- we give her fluids and she bounces back for about 20 minutes then sinks quickly again. I decided to put her back with Aurora. If she has any chance at all, it will be with mom. When I left them, she was nursing and Aurora was welcoming her back.

With so many mackerel tabbies, torties and torbies, it is hard for me to keep track of who has been fed or not. I tried putting them into a large carrier after feeding, but that just caused stress and skirmishes. So- I decided to put tiny pieces of paper tape on the ears of the kittens after they have been hand-fed. Works quite well and eventually, the tape just falls off. They are still so young that they all basically look alike and the fact that all the mackerels are boys doesn’t help us in identifying them. My friend Dee came over earlier to help with the feedings and after we were done, she looked at me and laughed and said “That’s quite a handful!” LOL

We decided to name them after presidents. As they grow, they will change and be easy to identify, but right now, it’s kind of a crap shoot.

I just lost it heavily on the phone a few moments ago. I don’t generally tell people off who call here looking for help with kittens, but this woman pushed all my buttons hard. She had a small kitty walk in her kitchen last night- he stayed the night on some pillows in her laundry room and he was dripping blood out of his rectum and his eyes are discharging. I told her that it sounded like something pretty severe going on and he needed a vet and she screamed at me:

“Do you know how much it costs for a vet visit? I can’t afford that!”

I told her I was sorry, but I couldn’t help her out and she just exploded about how she has called “all you people” and they all tell her the same things- they are full, they can’t help her and why do we even bother saying we rescue when we don’t help people?”

I am ashamed to say that I got a bit testy with her so much so she hung up the phone on me. Her final words were: “Well I don’t know what we are going to do with this kitty- but it won’t be pretty!” GRRRRR

Do I wish I had behaved better? I sure do. I know better and getting mad at her because she is what she is shouldn’t have happened.

Then I went into the bedroom and this was the sight that welcomed me and I knew that yes, I do help people- WHEN I can. And then, I smiled.

It’s  a pile of mackerals

And a few calicos

Contentment plus

Pixie and Glacie saying hello

All the Mackeral tabbies are boys, the torties, torbies and calicos are girls (of course) All were de-wormed, vaccinated and checked over. Other than being very hungry and some still have fleas,  they are all healthy. The vet just looked at me like I was nuts when I presented him with a carrier full of kittens-

So now Aurora has been removed from the room and is on a much-needed vacation from her mothering and the rest of the kittens are scampering about the bedroom tearing up the joint. God help us all! LOL

But this box on the porch- this isn’t what he was expecting!

Enter five more kittens- mackerel tabbies and torbies- probably a month old and starving! They have already ate three cans of kitten food!

At the 2:00 a.m. feeding, I couldn’t find Paris in the room. I looked everywhere for her and just when I was about to give up, I hear this “Thump” and out of the corner of my eye, I see her falling about 7 feet down to the floor! She had somehow gotten up on the supply shelf and crawled inside my mud boots. The boots toppled over and out she came! She landed on her head on the tile floor.

I ran over and scooped her up, she was trembling badly. I tried to cuddle with her but she wouldn’t have anything to do with me. She had a horrible kitty headache I imagine. I watched her on and off in the morning hours. She withdrew from the others, she was shaking and sort of rocking gently back and forth and crying almost non-stop. Once again, off the vet we went. She has a mild kitty concussion but no other noticeable injuries. I am to watch her for a few days and if she shows signs of something else being wrong, I am to bring her in immediately.  I know kitties are resilient, but she fell a long way.

She is a determined mom! The cage we built for her, I was having a hard time containing her at the top. She wanted her kittens and she ate through wood, moved a huge litter pan, slid down through a plastic grate- anything she could do to get back to her kittens, she would do.

Normally, I would just leave her be with her kittens, but she has  “adopted” so many of them since her initial five were born, that she is just plumb tuckered out. In the photo below, you will see the birthing box and the cage system we built for her. At the top, is where ideally at night, I would like her to stay. There is a large hole in the floor of the top cage where she can get through and blocking that hasn’t been very successful.

I needed Mike’s help with this, so yesterday, he came into the bedroom and looked over the situation and came up with a brilliant plan. He told me to screw the litterpan over the hole- so she can’t move it. Worked like a charm!  She slept above the kittens all night, and around 1:00 a.m. when she got really busy trying to dig out, I put Griffin (the runt of the litter) in with mom for some one-on-one time.

They have all zapped her so badly and even though all but three are now eating on their own, the minute she lays down- they all pile onto her milk bar. It also worked because before, she didn’t want anything to do with the three older kittens who just arrived and last night, because they laid with her babies and played with them, the scents have mingled and she doesn’t look like she wants to kill them anymore.

In this photo, the hole is open and she is back with her babies while two more are playing where she slept last night. The whole front of the bottom closes with a hinged screen door so everyone can be contained while I clean up kitty messes in the room! 13 kittens can destroy a master bedroom in 5 seconds! LOL

Shalom and Gibson have been adopted to a wonderful dad and his daughter. They couldn’t decide between the two kitties and decided to take both!  When I left, Gib was hiding but Shalom was out and eating so I am sure they will be fine. Mikal said he will call me in a few days with a progress report and he will be sending photos as well.