Kitty punked

I believe I’ve been a victim of a kitten punking.

Last weekend I picked up three kittens from the vet’s office.  The person who’d dropped the kittens off at the clinic had said that the kittens belonged to his grandmother’s cat, that the grandmother was out of town, and that the mother cat was eating the kittens.  He said the kittens were about 10 days to two weeks old. He also said that his grandmother had a second cat in the house who’d just given birth, and that he tried to put these kittens with the other nursing cat, but they were rejected.  That was the story I was told via the staff at the clinic.

The day I picked up the kittens, something seemed off—they didn’t seem to all be the same age.  They were all small, but in different stages of physical development.  While their eyes were just opening, other physical features, like their ears, were fully opened, and they had excellent mobility.  One of them had a hefty set of painful teeth.  On the second day, two of them ate Missy Mae’s solid food, and used the litterbox!  I’ve come to the conclusion that two of these kittens are really about four to five weeks old (and just undernourished, with bad eye infections), and that the third kitten is now about three weeks old.  I think I’ve got cats from two different litters, even though their colours are similiar (I guess they may have had the same father).

The kittens are all doing very well, but they’re still tiny for the ages I’ve guess-timated.  They were just skin and bones when I got them, and someone at the vet’s office suggested that perhaps the mother cat was starving, which was why she wasn’t feeding the kittens, or even why she might have been eating them (if she really was doing that).  They obviously didn’t come from a very diligent environment, although it was good of the grandson to make the effort to get them some help.  These are the most “wild” kittens I’ve had to deal with—the two older ones (TJ and Fannie Mae), are skittish, and Fannie Mae spent a few days biting me for all she was worth every time she got the opportunity.  She still bites and growls a bit, but it’s starting to become more playful and less “I’ll fight you to the death”.  Freddie Mac, the youngest, has been cuddly and purring since day one, which is another reason I think he’s younger than the other two.  Last weekend he was cross-eyed, but his eyes are now straight and clear, so I really think his eyes had just opened up when we brought him home.

I’ll have to give these kittens some extra attention to make sure they grow up to love people and to be trusting.  They’re all eating solid food most of the time (Freddie Mac still drinks from a bottle once or twice a day), so I don’t get the constant “bonding” experience of bottle-feeding.  On the other hand, that allows me to just spend time playing and holding them, so perhaps it all balances out in the end.

I’ll definitely try to add some more pictures soon.  They mostly look the same as they did in the other photos I posted—they still need to fill out a bit more so they don’t look so sickly.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/13 at 06:12 PM

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  1. I’m so glad they found someone like you to care for them. Tiny kittens are very helpless, but resilient. I once nursed a kitten that was less than a week old and it grew into a 15 pound, very loving cat. Totally repaid me.

    Posted by jan  on  10/13  at  06:41 PM

  2. I definitely hold a soft spot in my heart for the three orphaned kittens we raised last year and then kept.  They’re just so trusting and affectionate, and I get a kick out of having them still treat me like I’m “Mom”.  I feel fortunate to be having the experience of living with cats I’ve been with since they were literally one day old.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  10/14  at  06:36 AM
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