My Newest Foster Furkids

Well, on this past Saturday, I got my new furkid, and her 3 baby kits.

I've named the mummy Virgo, since her kits were born under this star sign. 

To be specific, they were born around 5pm 9th September '11.

Her kits, I've named: 

Lucy  

Jasper:

& Sylvester:

Hasn't entirely been easy from the start.

Day One, Saturday, 10th September

1pm

Virgo was extremely upset.  Apparently she was very roughly handled at Renbury farm, they used a net to transfer her to the cage, something they didn't need to do as she's not feral.  
A couple days before, a friend told me that someone roughly picked her up by the tail (and she was still pregnant at the time.. poor girl).
Then once she was finally in the cage, they shook the cage so the babies would roll to the front.
The poor mummy was so freaked out about this, then she had to deal with a long car ride with about 5 other cats before arriving to my place where there were no doubt smells of dog and cat everywhere since I have my own 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 rats.
By this time she was so on edge, I would not have blamed her if she wanted to scratch and bite me as well as hiss and growl.

Settling In

Settling the new family in was fun.  Virgo was in the back of her cage, and hiding 2 of her 3 kits.  The first kit, at the time dubbed Squeaky, now named Sylvester, was easy to retrieve, he had been at the front of the cage since they shook the cage nearly an hour earlier.  Problem with this was, this poor boy was ice cold.  It took me a good 15 minutes of breathing on him and gently rubbing him between my two palms to get his body temperature up to almost normal.

Place Sylvester on the bed I'd made of a thick warm towel and blanket inside the bathtub.  Now to retrieve kits 2 & 3.  After making a couple of attempts with my bare hand, and failing due to Virgo's constant hissing and threats to scratch, I decided to try another tactic.  So grabbed my back scratcher and ever so gently rolled the babies to the front of the cage 1 at a time to collect them.

Growly, now named Lucy was the next one I was able to retrieve, her body temp normal, so placed her on the bed.  Then Mouse, now named Jasper.

Now for the mummy.  Virgo wasn't as easy to get out of the cage as her kits.  She was already freaked out about her past dealings with humans, the last thing she wanted was to come out and meet another human face.  So tipping the cage on it's side so that she hopefully would fall out through the door clearly didn't work.. she'd figured out how to hold onto the back of the cage, no doubt hanging by her claws, cause she wasn't coming out for anything.  In fact, this only served to freak her out more.  Can't say I blame her.  But I couldn't leave her in the cage.  I was worried had I left her there, as soon as I left the room, she would have either retrieved the kits and took them back to the cage.. not an option; or, she would have stayed in the cage and left her kits unnattended.  By this time, they were about 20 hours old (see images above), also not an option.  They needed her body temperature and her milk for their survival.

What to do….   Looking at the cage, I came up with another idea.

Placing the cage close to the bed where the kits were, I proced to remove all the screws that held the cage together.  When the top of the cage finally removed, Virgo decided enough was enough.  She hopped out of the cage and straight to her kids.  At least she could feel safe where her kits were.

The section of the bath where I'd made the bed up, I'd placed a bath bench on top, as I knew she's want to feel like she was hiding.  Then once she settled, I got another blanket, placed that on top of the bath bench in a way that it hung over the sides.  Now mummy and kits were completely hidden from view, no doubt making mummy felt safe.

I pattered her some more, and remembering how angry I was when I was a teenager, and the one show that inspired me all those years back was "Hour of Power".  I would whisper to her, "God loves you, and so do I."  It's the line I heard as a teen, and the first time  since my childhood that I felt loved.  I thought it could help now.  Strangely enough, every time I said this.  She stopped growling and hissing.

Before leaving her alone, I borrowed her kits one more time so I could take the above pictures.  Now she could be left alone.

The fun part was getting carry cage back together.  Got the top and bottom together…forgetting about the door!  When my friend, Linda, came to collect the cage hours later, I handed back the cage in 2 pieces.  The body was one piece, the door was the 2nd piece.. let her figure it out!

4pm

Couple of hours later, went in to see if she'd had anything to eat (doubt she would, guessed she would have still been too upset).  She hadn't touched the food, water or cat milk I'd left out for her.  Understandable.  But another problem arose.  The bed had been shoved aside, and Virgo and her kits were now lying on the bathtub with no material protection between them.  Ok for Virgo, but the kids needed something to keep them warm, so leaving them there was out.

Plan B.  Transfer to a new bed.  Not a problem with the kids… how in hell was I going to handle a hissing, growling, shitty & very scared mum cat?

So remembered I had a small cat bed a neighbour gave me for my own cat a couple of weeks prior. My cats never use it, but it's the perfect size for mum and kits.  So transferred baby to their new home, now for mum cat… what fun!  How to transfer her without losing fingers or a lot of blood…..

Years ago, I did an animal technician course.. part of one.. till my funds ran out anyway.  And a little trick I learned there gave me an idea.  It was basically a lesson in how to handle feral cats, but figured it couldn't hurt this time.  So I got the blanket I had been using to cover the family to give them complete darkness, and gently placed it over Virgo.  I could hear a lot of hissing and growling coming from underneath the blanket, but the poor soul was so terrified, she didn't move.  Then I very gently picked her up and placed her next to the cat bed, I figured she'd want to go in by herself and make herself comfortable.  No go.  She wasn't moving from under the blanket.

Ok, 2nd attempt.  Gently picked her up again, to more hisses and growls, and placed her over the cat bed, and let go, letting her carefully fall on top of her kits.  She curled herself up into a tight ball in the back of the cat bed eyeing me with distain.  I could leave her now.  I figured she'd make herself more comfortable after I left.

Covered up her whole bed in the blanket so she could be left in peace in total darkness making her feel safe.  Then whispered once again to her, "God loves you, and so do I".

Midnight

So I went into the bathroom to check on Virgo and her kits one more time to see how she was doing before lights out.  Sure enough, she had laid herself in a more comfortable position so her kits could feed, but hissed at me no sooner she saw me.  I left her be.

Had a 2nd thought, went back in with my mobile phone, and filmed one and a half minutes of her kits feeding.  After all, how often do you see babies that young.  🙂

Day Two, Sunday, 11th September

8am

Went into the bathroom, peeked under the blanket to see how the kits were doing.  Think I woke mummy cause she hissed no sooner she saw me, and kept on hissing till she needed to blow her nose.  (She had been sniffling the day before when I got her, but her sniffles were clearly getting worse).  I offered her the food and milk I put out for her, but she wouldn't touch anything.  I then very gently started to stroke her, and scratch behind her ear and under her chin.  Managed to get half a minute of purring out of her before she realised what she was doing and started hissing and growling again.  At least it's a start.

9.30am

I had an idea.  I had some chicken mince in the fridge that I bought from Aussie Farmers Direct.  So grabbed a small pinch of that, enough to make a tiny meatball, and took that to Virgo.  She wouldn't accept it at first, but on her next hiss, I placed a bit of mince in her mouth, leaving her no choice but to taste what I'd put in her mouth.  The look on her face was priceless. I don't think she expected me to stuff food in her mouth while she was hissing at me.  It wasn't much, but at least I got her to eat.

6pm

After feeding my own furkids, I put aside about 1 tablespoon of food and some cat milk for Virgo, hoping to get her to eat it.  So when I go in, her hissing and growling starts again.  "You again!", the look clearly says.  So I start by patting her and scratching behind her ear.  While doing that, check on her kits, they're all still alive and appear contented.  Good sign, she must still have milk.
I offer her the bowl of food, but by now, her nose is so stuffed, she can't smell anything, and she doesn't find the food visually appealing.  So the hissing game starts again.  I grab food with my fingers, and every time she hisses, she gets a bite of food in her mouth.  She seemed to accept this and I think would purposely hiss just to get the food.  After awhile, although I can't get her to eat out of the bowl, she will willingly eat from my fingers.. go figure.  When she's full, she starts growling and hissing again.  I don't think this poor girl knows any friendly meows.  Growling and hissing seems to be all she knows.  But she always ceases to hiss and growl every time I say to her just before leaving, "God loves you, and so do I".

Day Three, Monday, 12th September

8am

Went in to see how she was doing.  Once again her morning cheerfulness shining through full of hisses and growls and nose blows.  I had come up with another plan this morning.  Since I can't get her to drink out of a bowl, and since I can't dip my finger into the milk and pick it up in the same way I do with her food, I decided to try something different.

First though, I had to work out where the overpowering urine smell was coming from.  Litter tray was spotless, so felt around the towel that had been the first bed for her and the kits.  Sure enough, the area of towel near the bathtub plughole was very wet.  So removed the towel from the bathtub, and it's in it's place, I put the litter tray there.  This makes it more convenient for Virgo too, litter tray right next to her bed, she doesn't have to go far if she doesn't want to.

So back to feeding…

She still doesn't trust me, as she still hisses and growls at me, but she is eating off my fingers, she lets me scratch behind her ears and under chin, she lets me handle her kits, help them find her teats, and pat her, she just won't purr, and definitely doesn't want to be picked up, so thought it was time I went a step further.

When taking her breakfast in this morning, and milk, this time I also took in my smallest teaspoon.  Offered her some food first using my fingers, I hissy fed her, (what else do you name a task where you hand feed a cat using their hisses), then my new challenge.  Get her to drink.  This was going to be interesting.  So using the teaspoon, I put about 2mls of milk into the teaspoon, and this time when she hissed, I poured the milk in.  She didn't complain, and although she stopped hissing and wouldn't open her mouth again,  found all I had to do was place the teaspoon at her mouth, and start to tip, and she's start lapping up whatever poured into her mouth, no argument.  By this way, I managed to get her to drink about 2 tablespoons of milk.

I was happy.  I got her to eat and drink, patted her, checked her kits, reminded her who loved her, and left her be.

Lunchtime feeding came and went, same routine as breakfast.  I remember thinking it's quite funny that this scared little girl who is such a wonderful mummy to her kits, doesn't mind being babied herself by being spoon fed and hand fed.

6pm

Dinner time once again, and routine was pretty much same as breakfast and lunch.  Since I was about to turn off the light and let her sleep through the night, I thought I'd check on the condition of the kits first.  

Jasper and Lucy are looking plump, but Sylvester is looking a bit thin.  Wasn't surprised considering Sylvester had gone missing.  He somehow managed to get buried under Virgo's back, so I had to dig him out from under her before I could examine him.  So anyway, I tried placing a drop of cat milk on his chin, but he wouldn't suck it in, so made sure he got a teat before I left.  Since I only knew where the location of one of the teats, I moved aside a rather annoyed Jasper (he was suckling happily until then), and placed Sylvester there.  Took 3 attempts, but he finally found the teat.. good timing too, Jasper was clawing his way back and was almost on top of it.  I wasn't worried, I knew Jasper would have better luck than me in finding another teat that he could suckle from.

I plan to pop in around Midnight to check on the welfare of the kits before leaving Virgo alone for the rest of the night.

I really can hardly wait till the items from Vet Shed arrive.  I had bought some baby formula that simulates the milk of the mother cat, and also a feeding bottle.  I figured if need be, I could help her if she doesn't have enough milk or didn't want to care for kits for whatever reason.  I had bought all this before receiving my young foster family as I wasn't sure what kind of character my mummy cat would be when I got her, and wanted to be prepared.

She is being a wonderful mummy after all, and 2 of her kits are fine, but I want to help her by bottle feeding Sylvester.  He's thinner than the other two, so figure he may need the supplement.  REALLY hope my delivery gets here soon.

11:50pm

Just went in to check on mummy and kits.  She had clearly been asleep as her eyes blinked open to see me.  Only one hiss.  Either a greeting, or cursing that I woke her.  No growls.  Got to be an improvement!

This time it was Jasper that was behind mummy's back, I placed him by mummy's belly in case he got the munchies.  Sylvester was asleep under mummy's legs, picked him up and placed him on teat.  Left Lucy be, she seemed to be ok where she was snuggled up against mummy's belly.

I offered Virgo some milk, but she didn't want any.  Think she just wanted to sleep.  Her nose is so stuffed up poor baby.  Patted her some more, told her God & I loves her, and covered her up in the blanket.  Turned off the light for her so she could be in blissful darkness for the rest of the night.

They'll be ok till morning….

…I hope.