A Kitten for Raising
So, recently our sweet Nighthawk (who trusts us to give her food but that's about it) gave birth to her second litter of the year in our own backyard. Nighthawk has been with us...for quite a while now. Back in the day, when the fox was hunting Momma Cat's kittens, I ended up saving the three that were left (sadly, I didn't check our front door the night before for the first kitten ) which became our sweet little girls. I thought that would be the last time that I raised a kitten. I thought wrong. So Nighthawk was part of Momma Cat's second litter that year and since she has blessed us with three somewhat surviving litters to watch over (she's wiley...tried and failed to catch her) and in the last one she went and abandoned a little kitten.
Now I know to watch and wait...13 hours later, the kitten was still here and crying and Nighthawk had come and gone for her lunch.... The kitten was truly abandoned. I am probably the least mothering of any woman out there. This whole taking care of babies thing is really difficult for me. I plowed through it, nursing the dehydrated kitten back to hydration (just holding my breath that he would survive the weekend) and took him in for a check up with the vet on Monday. Perfect health...no fleas even (because they all jumped off of him and onto me.... I told my husband...in a sour tone...that I must be key lime pie to those blasted bugs). Well, now I'm just trying to get him through another weekend. He is super strong (and fast...). He also has an unfortunate habit of climbing up my clothes, running off my hand when I'm feeding him (in a crazed rush to eat...makes no sense but this kitten is pretty insane at times) and fell off my lap earlier today. I don't think he's actually hurt from it, but I'm keeping a good watch on him (I think he was more sore from it than anything else). Now he's scratching his face open (I've noticed him clawing his face when he eats all the time but...now he's drawing blood -- trying to wrap him up in a paper towel when I feed him now...keep him from running and clawing himself). v_v Tough times. He was 11 days old when we brought him in...18 days old now (almost to the almighty 3 week milestone).
Well, I am barely sleeping here folks so wish me luck. Some day I'll post a picture of this cutey (maybe after he/she stops clawing at her poor whiskers). Our cat Aida wants to adopt him (tried to take him from me 5 times today --- she'd actually be better for him than me but he must be dewormed first!) so hopefully in another week or so when we can start the deworming, I can get some furry help around here with this.
My husband is trying to understand (he has to turn off the tv for 15-20 minutes after I feed him so he can fall asleep...at least he's down to every 4 hours now as opposed to every 2-3 hours)…. I've started calling the kitten "my kitten"....so maybe the girls at the vet are right in that I probably won't be able to rehome him for bonding with him too much...we'll just have to see. Been thinking up names...maybe I'll run a poll for it...I have trouble deciding on names.
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