A Tale of 7 Kittens

When there are strays who wander to our house for food, we don't have the heart to turn them away. As a result, we have several cats who regularly come to the house during meal times. There is a lady who cares for some of them but she cannot keep them in her house and because of limited income she cannot bring them to the vet when they get sick. A few weeks ago, one of the cats brought her kitten in our garage and left her there. It was a very small white kitten who was very thin. I tried giving her some food but she wouldn't eat and just lay there. I thought she was already dead but when I picked her up she started moving but was cold to the touch. I brought her to the vet, where she was given a vitamin shot, prescription medication and eye ointment. I told my Mom about her since we are caring for a number of cats already but she was okay with it. She also couldn't turn her back on an animal in need. We named her Sugar.

The next morning my Mom told me to go outside and look at the cage. I was surprised to find that the Mommy cat left another 2 kittens, so now they were 3. This went on for several days until they became 7 kittens.

I bought another cage and we had to put some wire across as some of them could escape because they were so tiny. There was even a morning that the Mommy cat brought a healthy looking kitten which someone was taking care of. We returned that kitten. The babies were on antibiotics and had a viral infection. My Mom patiently gives them milk from a dropper. The Mommy cat, it seemed had been nursing all the kittens even if some of them weren't her own.

We also noticed that they were scratching and had some bald spots. The vet examined them and thankfully it was not scabies but fungal infection. From experience, fungal infection is easier to treat although it is still contagious. They are being treated with Betadine. They are of varied colors and now they all look like brown kittens. 

There is one kitten who is blind in one eye and had grey markings. We called him Molasses. Sadly he passed away last week. 

We are hoping that they will grow up to be healthy kitties. We plan to have them adopted to loving homes when they are big enough and well enough. The sad thing here is that it is hard to have cats adopted out especially if they do not have breeds. 

We have also scheduled the female cats outside for spaying starting next week. It is in a NGO clinic where the spaying fees are much more affordable.