. . . much.
A couple of weeks ago my daughter found a stray kitten on her way home from school.
It couldn’t have been more than a week old, as it was tiny and its eyes were not fully open.
She said she found it right near a drain, with no sign of the mother about.
With my life in a bit of turmoil right now, this was definitely not the right time to be taking on a pet, and I told her honestly that I wished she hadn’t brought it home, but I also had to tell her I was proud of her for taking compassion on a helpless creature.
So, for the past 13 nights, I have been feeding kitten formula to a tiny ball of fluff; first with a medicine dropper, and now with a bottle. It’s been a test of patience, but the little critter has at last learned to drink from the bottle fairly well, and darnit but if it ain’t the cutest widdle fwuffy cwitter I ever done seen!
My wife and daughter call it fluffy, but I think that is a dreadfully mundane name for a kitten.
Anyway. That’s taken care of the feeding end of kitty. Now as for the other end . . .
After having to clean up a considerable amount of poop shortly after kitty came into our home, I considered Christening it Baron Poopy Von Poop (much less mundane than “Fluffy”, and better than “The Count Monte Shitter”). However, since then I have come to realize that Von Poop actually doesn’t poop that well.
Turns out newborn kittens tend not to excrete without external stimulation. This is normally provided by the mother licking the kitten’s anus and genitals. Or in our case, by gently massaging kitty’s nether regions. I haven’t been able to get it to do more than pee in this way, but thankfully my wife recently had better luck and with some gentle massaging under warm water, managed to get the little critter to void itself like a tube of chocolate toothpaste. (Just as I was about to take it back to the vet out of concern that it might have an obstructed bowel.)
Fluffy Von Poopy is a handful (literally), but our adoration at his (?) cuteness is something that our whole family is able to share, so it’s worth it.
HARK! He (?) calls me even now!
*(The vet said Fluffy Mc Constipated is probably a boy, but it’s still too early to be sure.)
