Cath was trying to study but kept hearing Miaow, miaow! from downstairs. Turns out mommy cat had a litter and moved them to a bush right under our window. So the 'miaow's' weren't cat sounds, but cute lil kitten ones. Mom was looking after them though, so we gave mom some milk and a bit of chicken. The cats (dad was around too occasionally) were completely wild though.
We went down to have a look and saw about five kittens - all tiny, like a day or three old.
That was that - we were just looking. But a few days later the loud miaowing started up again, and with Cath trying to study, it was just too distracting. She had to go have another look. This time we found one kitten, all by itself, mom no-where in sight. Abandoned, it was crying out for mom.
Imagine Cath - tough as nails "No, we must leave it to fend for itself. It is the way of the wild. Leave it I say!"
Not bloody likely. "Aah, look at the pwoor widdle twing. Can we keep it, huh Al, can we keep it? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez" is more like it...
For an idea of its size...
Well I haven't seen THAT smile on Cath's face in a long time so it was tough to put the little thing back under the bush, but by the evening mom still hadn't come back and so we temporarily adopted a kitten. We knew we couldn't keep it (especially since we were going on holiday in a week) but we didn't think it would get through the night without food, warmth and a little TLC so we took it up to our place and made it a little bed on a hot water bottle in a shoebox with a frog for company.
How cute is that? He snuggled up against the frog for company! At any rate, we did some research on the net about what to feed really young kittens, went out and made the mootie and fed the lil bugger three times. We only had a spoon and it was really tough cos he wanted a teat,
but we got some stuff in him at 11pm, at 6am and again at about 10am.
The next day, mom was back in our courtyard so we took him down, and put his box on the floor near her while she drank from a saucer of milk nearby. We knew that his only chance to make it would be if she took him back. She ignred him totally though so we took him out of his box and he immediately began to cry as he walked around in circles (his eyes hadn't opened yet).
Mom then walked past him, apparently ignoring him again, then turned and seemed to bite him on his bum, then his back, before picking him up by the nape of the net and running off to her new nest - wherever that may be.
HOORAY!
I am please to report that it is now about 2 months later and the lil bugger is now back with his mom, visiting our bush every now and again, doing fine. Thanks to... CATH AND AL...
PROTECTORS of the KITTIES!
PET HEROES
MIAOW!
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