Guess What?

This is just a teaser post. In the next post, I will tell the story about how he learned to drink water.

Night Shade

As usual, my cats do not like a new cat on the premises. With other foster cats, I have had to keep everyone separated. But since this little guy has no mom and no siblings, he gets to hang out with me quite a bit.

Angel is curious about him but keeps his distance. Baby is indifferent and keeps her distance. Little Man despises him and hisses at him or in his general direction at every possible opportunity.

But Friday; Friday seems to like him. Could it be that they are the same color? It's an interesting theory.

The kitten, of course, likes ALL the cats. He would LOVE for one of them to be his mom. As much as he likes the kitten formula, you can tell he would love to nurse.
I would love to invent some sort of substitute cat belly, equipped with nipples (that work) for feeding abandoned kittens.

One thing I did when we first brought him home was find a stuffed animal that he could rest on while I fed him. I also put the stuffed animal in bed with him. Not sure if this has any benefits, but it seems like a good thing to do. (It's a black and white cow.)

Abbie named him Night Shade. She loves the "Warriors" book series and says she remembers the name from one of those books. I've been calling him Shade for short. Sometimes, I call him Shadow. Not sure which name will stick.
Notice in the picture above, Friday is reaching for the kitten's tail. Do you think he likes him or thinks he is prey?

Found A New Kitten

Around the first of August, I found this little guy.

I had been watching him for several days. At one point, he had a mom and one other brother/sister. He was a plump little guy and seemed well fed and cared for even though his mom was wild.

Every few days I checked on him.

One day, I found him in the grass in a very despondent state. At first I thought he was dead. He wasn't in a normal sleeping position.

Luckily, he was alive but quite scrawny. I wasn't sure if something had happened to his mom (hit by a car, killed by a wild animal), and I couldn't find his brother/sister. Since I knew I wouldn't be back to this location for weeks (the place he was at was 45 minutes from my house), I decided to take him home.

But first, I stopped at a store to get bottles and kitten milk. He was very hungry!

In the first picture above, he is actually drinking from the bottle, but that only happened on two occasions. I had two kinds of kitten bottles with two kinds of nipples, and he didn't like either one.

In the second picture he is drinking from a child's medicine dropper. He liked that a lot!

After a little research, I estimate that he is about 4 weeks old. He has a few teeth. I feed him every 3-4 hours with kitten formula.

Just like with real babies, you soon learn which of his actions show that he is hungry and which of his mews mean he is hungry. In no time, you start structuring your day around the feedings. Our family was going to go out of town for the day before school started, but I soon vetoed that idea when I realized that I could not leave him that long without a feeding.

He's such a joy!

Our Ears Finally Grew

Lily finally has some ears. She is expecially lovable and likes to be the first to greet me each day.

This is Lily and Poppy's first time in the den. They enjoyed smelling the carpet.

Hello, Miss Darling. I need to find a first name for you.

"Hey, I don't like the flash." says Cosmo.

Hawthorn says, "I smell another cat."

Did I mention that Miss Darling is a great mom? The foster kittens are lucky to have her. She likes to get in my lap and knead her paws and get undivided attention while her babies are scampering around.

What's In A Name

I like a theme. This batch of foster kittens are going to be named for flowers. This little lady is Poppy. Not long after she was born, her eyes started getting matted together. She is the only one who had this problem. I started getting worried about her. Every day, twice a day, I took warm, wet cotton balls and cleaned her eyes. Poppy is all better now!

The two boys are named Cosmo and Hawthorn. I pretend to know which is which.

This is Poppy before her eyes got better. The other little lady (the gray one) is Lilly.

I still need to come up with a few more names.

These foster kittens have especially beautiful eyes. Right now, their eyes are blue. Hopefully, they will stay that way.

Foster Kitten Pictures

Since the foster kittens are so small, they sleep a lot and spend most of their time inside the crate. Abbie decided to join them!

Maybe I just have a bad memory, but this set of foster kittens have seemed to do everything earlier than the last batch of foster kittens. The Darlings have opened their eyes already.

6 foster kittens = 5 orange kittens, 1 gray kitten, 4 girl kittens, 2 boy kittens

"We're identical!"

The Darlings

Until we come up with names, I've been calling her Miss Mama. I've been so lucky to get such sweet mama cats. She is very tame and lovable. After her meal, she starts purring loudly to let me know that she is ready to be petted.

Look at those little ear nubbins! This is the only foster kitten that is this color - similar to the mom's coloring but yet a little lighter with more orange.

There are 5 orange kittens - I cannot tell them apart! This is my pretty niece who is going to help us name the foster kittens.

TA - DA!

We've given the foster kittens a last name - Darling.