#we're fostering another litter!!! three little ones just like this

[etraytin]

New Fosters!

We're back from our spring break beach trip (yay!) and wouldn't you know, it's time to dive headfirst into kitten season here in Appalachia! I have three new babies I just picked up today. They're about a week old, eyes still closed, and like all bottle babies their age, they've got a sad little story. Apparently one of ENKA's regular foster folks was at a local shelter to pick up a pregnant cat when a woman walked in with a box of screaming newborn kittens. She told them her neighbors had moved away and left their outdoor cat behind, and she'd tried to bring the cat indoors, then realized it was pregnant. The cat gave birth, then a day or two later had begun acting weird and eventually died at the vet's office, leaving behind five orphans. She couldn't take care of them and wanted to surrender them. The shelter told her they couldn't do anything for her except euthanize the kittens, but the foster asked her to wait and contacted ENKA's foster coordinator, who told her to bring them in. Situations like this are sort of our bread and butter, taking on kittens that shelters have no room or skills or resources for.

So now I have babies! Two of the kittens are with another foster because five bottle babies is A Lot, and I have the remaining three. There's a dilute tortie girl named Jocelyn, a gray girl with a white muzzle named Moira, and a gray boy with a white chin named Roland. (Their litter is the Schitt's Creek litter, so now I'm going to have to watch the show to understand what I'm calling them.

They're about seven days old now, which is still very little, but we're fortunate that they got five critical days with their mother so they got colostrum and learned how to suckle. Roland is a deeply inefficent nurser who mostly just wants to hold the bottle in his mouth and purr, but they are all eating well at two hour intervals.

Callisto, who is now four months old, is extremely miffed about this revolting new development. She is not allowed in the kitten room because they are under quarantine for two weeks, but she can hear their hangry cries when I am handling them and will stand outside the door and yell along. I have to keep a toy right outside the door to keep her from running inside the moment I open it, and as soon as I wash my hands it is Hold Your REAL Baby Time. Or it is "I am mad at you and I'm going to my sulking spot" time.

They've got another week or so of hyper-frequent feedings, then at two weeks we go to three hours in the daytime and 3.5 at night. I can't wait to see what they look like as they grow and become more cat-shaped, I think they're going to be real cuties!