Well, I have been up all night kitty sitting. Everybody got a bath. They all musta smelled so bad from flea stuff that mom wouldn’t get close to them. She will spend some time with them now.
Everybody got a couple of rounds with the bottle. The sick one maybe got a few cc’s, not near enough but the kitten has seemed to perk up. I am going to give that kitten my best go – it just seems to want to survive.
Got some more pics.
Well, one last go at changing of the diapers so to speak, and passed the bottle around. Everyone got a good chug-chug. Sick kitty gave me a good 5 seconds of hard eating. The best effort from that kitten so far.
It’s late. i am tired. Hopefully sister leaves the kittens in the dryer where I put them for the night. I just washed all the kitten bedding, and sister has been scoping the dryer out for weeks. I will leave them in there for the night, and take them out in the morning. It’s a long jump down, don’t need a broken neck when she moves them again.
This would be 2-3 hour old kittens. I Photoshoped the images so you could see the kittens against the dirty red icky nasty towel. Funny, all the girls that saw the original had no problems with it but the guys…
It has been one fight after the other.
Brother had picked up fleas from one of his midnight visitors. Right through the screen. I had been trying some natural remidies – such as dusting the cats with garlic powder. Not sure that worked all that well, but…
Anyway. I got some flea spray over the weekend before Sister had her kittens. This seemed to work pretty well. Well, after wrestling with each of the cats, they quite itching for a few days. Kittens come along. I didn’t think anything of it – but come this weekend, the kittens were just crawling in fleas.
Now what.
Well the flea spray says not to use on kittens under 12 weeks of age. Doesn’t give a reason why – I imagine it’s to horrible to put on the bottles.
Turn to the internet. Bath in dawn. Ok, I can try that. Friday night. Bath in Dawn. Dry kittens off. Man where they pissed. Friday morning. Still fleas. Not so many this time. Another bath in Dawn. Bath water comes out red – so many flea bites that the kittens are bleeding pretty bad.
Went out Friday with a friend from college for the 4th. Come home. Kittens are missing. Search house. Find kittens – on the floor in the kitchen. Ok, Sister, used up all the good hidey-holes?
Friday night. Sister wakes me up several times with a kitten in my bed. I check the kitten. No fleas, to speak of, one or two. The dark orange kitten is really not doing very well at all.
Saturday. Go to walmart to look to see what I can find for kittens, and to do weekly grocery shopping. Find skip-flea shampoo. Not for use in kittens under 12 weeks of age. By this time, desperation is setting in. Notice kitten formula and bottles. So distracted by kitten plight, I leave without getting groceries. Give kittens bath in flea shampoo. Stuff seams to really work. Kittens seam really pissed now. Sister moves kittens again.
Saturday night. Sister brings kitten a couple of times in the middle of the night again. Tough to get sleep with Sister waking me up to tend to baby. Feel helpless – nothing else I can do for it that I know of.
Sunday. Sickly kitten looking really weak. Afraid for it’s life. Walk to walmart to get kitten formula. I raise a blister on my right foot from all the walking I have been doing lately. No bottle. Darn. Limp home. Get in truck. Drive to walmart to get baby bottle. Spend more in gas then in bottle. Get bottle, formula, and new digital camera, as all I can find is my cell phone, and as already discussed, it takes lousy kitten photos.
New camera is a movie camera.
It can take a movie in the dark. Here is Sister and her three kittens. The light orange fluff ball is doing well. The dark kitty is so-so. The dark orange kitten in the way very back is the one that is very sickly.
So. I try to feed kittens. HA! Kittens will have nothing to do with the formula or bottle. Minor flea issue. Another flea bath. Internet says sometimes it take a few tries to get all the fleas. Try bottle agian. Nope. Sister gives bottle a try. She likes it out of the bottle. Leave excess in bowl for her. Won’t touch it out of a bowl.
Bed time. 1 am. Work night. I am tired, my foot hurts because I wore a hole right through the padding in my shoe at the heal. Off to sleep I go.
2:30 am. You ever get woken up by having a cold, wet kitten dropped into the small of your neck? Sick kitty VERY weak. Try to fead it milk. Nothing. Try to feed it water. Nothing. Put it back to bed with the others.
4:30 Kitten is beside me in bed. Try to feed it. Nope – won’t have it.
5:30 Kitten is now in bed with me again. Try to feed it. Can’t even force feed it. Tries to drown itself first. Put kitten back.
5:45 Get kitten again. Ok. New tactic. Kitten is gonna die anyway. BOMB the kitten with flea spray. Spray on TP to wipe it’s face. Found all the fleas. No wonder it doesn’t want anything put it it’s face. It’s all fleas! Work kitten over good with flea spray. Fleas fleaing everywhere. Brother is sleeping it tub. No fleas there.
6:00 Get dark kitty. Hrmm, musta finally did the right thing on real sick kitty, Sister wants me to treat the not-so-sick kitten. Get paper towel, wipe down face with flea spray. Fleas running everywhere. Vengeance is mine fleas! Kittens liable to get cancer or something like that, but you fleas wont get them.
7:30, alarm clock goes off. Sister let me sleep an hour and a half. Tend to shower. Tend to kittens. Still won’t eat. Stubbern things. Sister looks to find new location for kittens. I open pantry closet door, put down towel under folding chairs, and leave for work.
Noon. Come home. Look for kittens. Only one. Huh? Search house. Find sick one in old spot. Looks dead – I guess sister moved kittens away from dead kitten. Pick it up to dispose of it. It moves and fusses. Not dead yet. Try to feed it. Nothing. Look for other kitten. In my closet, between some tubs, under some clothes. Sister couldn’t have gotten in that nook to get it out. I try to feed it. Nope. Put all kittens in current hidey-hole.
6:30 pm. Get home from work. Dead kitten at front door. Scoop down to pick it up. Ice cold. About drop it as it lets out a bellar!
OK, tough little kitten. Give it my best shot at all it’s nine lives. Run tap, get hot water. Fill plastic bag. Towel. Bottle. 1 hour of feeding, 5cc. Probably most of it is in the towel. Kitten finally settle down to comfortable sleep.
Check on health of other kittens. Try to feed the fat one. Nothing. Check for fleas. yep. Do the face trick, rest of body. DIE FLEA SCUM! Check on dark one. Try to feed. It INHALES the half an ounce of watered down formula that’s left in about 10 seconds flat. Hrmm. Hungry kitten. Give flea facial, and flea bath.
Observations. Fleas suck!
I have yet to see sister with her kittens tonight. I am wondering if she has quite nursing? The healthy one is growing, so I don’t think that’s the case. Gonna feed kittens formula anyway.
Did I mention that fleas suck?
Sick kitten sleeping comfortably on hot water baggie. Time to feed myself.
Sister had her kittens this morning. I woke up to quite a surprise!
Let me lay this out for you. I have a bed frame that I put storage tubs under. Monday, I had to access some stuff in one of them, so I had two of them pulled out, one stacked on top of the other. This was next to my bed.
Sister, the breaker of tradition that she is, decided to have her kittens on what is essentially a table top – the top of the tub next to my bed.
So, I wake up to see Brother sitting on the tub, staring at Sister. I was a tad confused until I counted cats. 1 – 2 – 2 and a quarter. Oh, I got a kitten head on the tub. By the time I get up and over to the tub, the kitten is born.
Go Sister!
So now, sister is doing her thing – not to bad for a first time mom. I am coaching her. 1) Like I know what I am talking about. HA! 2) Like she can understand me anyway.
She stands up to great me good morning and gets a little freaked out. There is a kitten attached to her. Sister still hadn’t passed the afterbirth for that kitten, so the kitten was hanging on by the umbilical cord. This quite freaks sister out. She starts running around in circle chasing this little kitten who’s ‘hello’ to the world is to basically get beat up by mom’s knees. I had to stop sister and hold her down for a moment so she could reach around and touch the kitten.
It was quite funny. Guess you had to be there.
So, kitten is going to fall off of large flat surface. I go get the box I had prepped and stashed under the bathroom sink – where I had first thought Sister was going to give birth as she has been letting herself into the cabinet and scoping it out for a few weeks now. I hold the box up next to the tubs and in Sister goes. I scoop up kitten and it it goes too.
I go to take my shower, and do a head count when I am done. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4. You can stop there Sister, really you can. One kitten to chew on the other.
So, I rearrange the room a couple of times trying to get sister, who is now in a large storage tub as the box seemed a bit cramped, a good ways ‘up’, and high enough that Brother can’t get a vantage place to look down on her. As that seemed to make her nervous.
Brother was a good boy this whole time. Quite calm and relaxed. OK, he looked like he was exhausted! Goofy cat. Sister did all the hard work.
So, I get home from work over lunch to check on everybody. Sister meets me at the door like she usually does. ‘Sister, why aren’t you tending to your kittens!’. She runs over to the kittens and checks on them and looks at me like ‘they are there’. I do a quick count. 1 – 2 – 3 little kittens in the tub. So, I fuss over the kittens and Sister and Brother too so he wouldn’t get all jealous. Back to work I go.
I come home from work, and Brother and Sister meet me at the door again, like normal. Sister, are you such a bad mother?
Check on the kittens. Still 3. Good, I only have three cute as a button problems to deal with.
Anybody want a kitten? Cheaper by the quarter dozen!
So I fuss over the cats, and kittens, and go to the kitchen to make supper.
Home made bread – used up the partial bags of different flours I had. I am eating my stir fry i made and turn around when I hear a little ‘mew’. Here sister brought a kitten into the dining room and was looking around for a place to hide it. I ask her what she is doing, and she puts it down it at my feet.
So, I go and fetch her tub with the other 2 kittens, and bring it into the dining room. She picks up her kitten, and in she hops.
So, I got a co-dependent mama cat who doesn’t want to be in a room by herself.
I took some photos. They are terrible. I can’t find my digital camera, so I took them with the cell phone. I also took some videos and uploaded them onto Youtube, but there is no sound. I will need to re-upload the videos at some point soon and see if I can get sound. When I get the photos de-uglified and the videos a wee bit louder, I will post them here.
