On Saturday, July 15, we took in a pregnant black female cat and on Wednesday, July 19, she had four baby kittens or so we thought. Sometime later that day she delivered two more kittens for a total of six.
Unfortunately there was one that she refused to clean or take care. By the time I arrived back at the sanctuary the kitten was cold and still very wet but he was still alive. A newborn kittens survival rate without mom is very slim. We had just taken in another mom with five kittens that were 10 days old. There was no time to lose, so we put the little newborn in with Jazz and she immediately started cleaning the kitten as if it were her own.
Once she had cleaned the kitten, we placed the kitten on a heating pad to get his body temp back up. The kitten was still pretty unresponsive once we gave it back to its foster mom. We couldn’t get it to nurse, so we gently gave it some milk replacer kitten formula and put it back with Jazz. Keep in mind this tiny little kitten isn’t even half the size of Jazz’s kittens. We sat back and waited.
At around 8 p.m., I loaded Jazz and her five kittens and the little newborn into a crate and took them home with me. Every hour I would check and he still wasn’t nursing so I would give him 1 ml. of kitten formula.
At around 3 a.m. when I checked the little kitten had started nursing and when I picked him up I found out that he has a great set of vocal cords, he cried so loud it made me cry but they were happy tears. I put him back with his foster mom and he settled in and started nursing again.
Peanut, a small black kitten that was abandoned by his mother, nurses with his “foster mom” Jazz at the Ark Animal Sanctuary.
(Contributed)
The next day it was like he was just a part of her already large litter. Jazz is now nursing six kittens and doing a great job. When you look at him it looks funny because he is so tiny and his littermates are more than twice his size. He doesn’t let them push him around, though and gets right in there so he can nurse. There is no way he is going to give up his spot. What a little trooper he is one special and very lucky kitty to have such a wonderful foster mom. I am not sure why his birth mom, Ebony, didn’t want him perhaps it was because she was so tiny and young. Ebony and her 5 nursing babies are all doing well.
As for our little peanut, he is one amazing kitten. There is no stopping him now. His foster mom is incredible. She is such a happy and loving mom. This story had a happy ending, but there are so many unwanted kittens and cats out there. Right now the sanctuary is home to 20 kittens and 35 adult cats. Jazz came to us because the owner couldn’t afford to spay her and Jazz had already had seven litters. That is just crazy. Out of the five kittens that Jazz had, four were females and we also took a another kitten of hers that was now about 5 months old that was female. If these cats had remained where they were how many unwanted kittens do you think would have been brought into this world?
Spaying and neutering your pets is the only answer if you can’t afford that do not get a pet.
If you would like to help us care for the 55 cats and kittens we have in our care we are accepting purina kitten chow, purina cat chow, canned pate and scoopable litter. Supplies can be dropped off at the Hollywood Pet Salon (70 Main St, Houlton) or directly at the sanctuary at the end of the Old Woodstock Road.
Thank you for your continued support and as alway thank you for reading our column.
