As much as I hate to agree with miss elizabeth, I agree with miss elizabeth. Of course you *could *have put aside or raised $50 in three years to have her spayed (that’s less than a penny a day), but it didn’t register as important enough for you to do so. Everything you’ve posted so far indicates that you’re not unkind, but you’re still an irresponsible pet owner.
LilyoftheField, I really am sympathetic to you and your situation, but you need to decide whether you’re a cat owner or not. If you are, spaying your cat is pretty much a necessity. If you aren’t, it’s time for kitty to find a good home where the people living there can afford to take care of her the way she needs. If you can’t afford $50 for a spay operation, you’re going to be in serious trouble when kitty gets older and starts developing health problems. As others have said, she might have some now, if she’s getting fat from a medical condition rather than a pregnancy. Cats are pretty low-maintenance for a fairly long time, but they still need to see the vet once in a while. Just saying that it’s your son’s cat is not dealing with the reality of this cat.
Well, in the interests of full disclosure, even though it makes me look even worse and more irresponsible than I already appeared, and by way of a moral cautionary tale - I will tell you what happened. It’s not a happy ending. I seriously considered just not following up on this at all, believing that no one really cared anyway. But I care.
Yes, she was pregnant. In fact, xrays revealed that she was carrying five kittens - which would explain why poor little Maddie got so fat in the weeks since I originally posted this. She had her first two kittens easily and without fuss - the first one she gave birth to on my bed! (they were not orange…)
But, several hours later it became apparent that kitten 3 was an issue… In the middle of the night, I woke up from an hour doze to find Maddie straining with unproductive contractions. I checked her out and found a…leg…just a leg sticking out. Maddie, being a very phlegmatic cat, did not seem overly distressed, but I was concerned. After an hour of periodic unproductive contractions, I realized that she had a ‘stuck’ kitten. This exceeded my level of expertise, so I packed up her and her two kittens, and took her to the emergency vet clinic. This was in the early hours of mother’s day.
Maddie died. The three unborn kittens died with her. This happened after she was under the vet’s care and he doesn’t know why. Perhaps a reaction to the sedative he gave her so he could try to reposition the stuck kitten, perhaps an enzyme/electrolyte imbalance that stopped her heart, perhaps she threw a clot. No way to know.
I went to the clinic with an alert, albeit distressed momma cat with two kittens. I came home with just the two kittens, some kitten milk and a bottle. And the sad advice that few orphaned kittens, especially this young, survive.
One has already passed. After all this, I am left with a kitten less than two days old. And the only one left, the firstborn, has a whole lot of attitude. He/she spent its first day steadfastly refusing the bottled milk. vocally. ‘you’re not my mom! this is not my mom’s teat! this is not my mom’s milk! You can’t make me!’ He/she is as much a squaller as its mom was a quiet little squeaker. Finally it consented to drinking from the bottle, albeit not happily. I have managed to get some nourishment into it.
And although, I feel somewhat encouraged, I know that the odds are against this little one…which is why I don’t give it a name and I don’t even know for sure if its a boy or girl - I clean it, of course as needs be, but I just don’t look that closely.
Most likely, it too, will be lost…we’ll see…
I’m sorry, Maddie - I miss you already- you deserved better. 
Well, hell. Thanks for the update, but damn, that’s a real bummer.
Poor Maddie, if only she had been spayed.
Another Thanks for the update, but darn it, why does reality have to be so depressing sometimes?
Good luck to you and and the last little one, for however long as you are together.
thank you - reality does suck sometimes, doesn’t it?
Hopefully, the little one will hang tough…but if not, well, we had some time…
thank you.
I’m sorry to hear of this awful turn of events, and hope the last one pulls through.
thank you, ferret…
It’s not even so much that I condemn others for condemning me…it’s just that…well sometimes we have to learn the hard way. And sometimes ‘the hard way’ does not hurt ourselves as much as it hurts the innocent…
I too am sorry to hear this.
I’m not a vet nor do I have first hand experience with this, but I understand that they sometime use syringes to feed really young kittens, maybe that would help.
Good luck to the little guy (or gal) and you.
Ask around, if you can find a momma who has recently given birth (a couple weeks or less) you may be able to foster the kit. Call P.A.W.S. they may be able to connect you.
Oh man, what a horrible way for things to go. I’m glad that you came back to this thread to tell everyone what happened so that hopefully someone who is reading this will get their cat spayed and avoid this kind of tragic situation. Nobody would expect things to end up like this.
Did they give you good instructions on how to care for this kitten? Do you have a way of keeping it warm? At that age they can’t regulate their body temp.
I know that caring for kittens that small can be very hard so maybe it would be worth asking around on the facebook pages for some of the rescue groups in your area to see if anyone who has experience raising kittens would be willing to help you to try to save this little one.
That sounds like a good idea - I don’t know how any human would have enough time to spend with a newborn kitten to keep them healthy.
i’m sorry to hear about maddie.
yes, it is tough to keep a wee one alive. i raised malenka the miraculous from when she was 3 days old. she went where i went. i got a nifty purse thing that she would be in when we were on the move. it had a pocket for her bottles and a cloth for wiping which ever end needed it. the purse kept her close to my body heat as it looped aroung my neck and was about mid chest.
at night she would be in a nest of towels by my head so i wouldn’t roll over on her. she got a bottle anytime she screamed. i found it easier than waking her up for one.
we did this for about 2 weeks, then her feeding times grew further apart and she was able to have her own room in a kitty carrier. i was able to move my hours at work and worked just 20 minutes from home so i was able to get to her every 4ish hours.
weaning took a bit of time… i had to give her each kibble one at a time for about a week until she figured out the dish. she would lick wet food off of a spoon.
i hope things go as well for you with the wee one. keep us informed. we are interested, and around the boards during those wee hour feedings.
What a great story, rocking chair - I can only imagine how bonded to you Malenka the Miraculous was! 
SK (survivor kitten) is celebrating her fifth birth’day’ today. So far she (he? its little ‘parts’ are still pretty miniscule so I’m not absolutely certain…) seems to be doing okay. She is still breathing, sleeping, eating, screeching, peeing and pooping - pretty much in that order.
Unfortunately, neither I nor the vet were able to locate any local cats who’d had a litter of the right age to allow fostering. Luckily I am home all day (unemployed/retired), so I have been able to devote my time to her care. Still, I am surprised that she is doing as well as she seems to be…
She is a very active little thing. Her bed is a deep plastic tub with a heating pad on the bottom, covered by a towel, covered by a lush soft throw. When she wakes and wants food she starts to move about briskly climbing over the mounds of blanket and scaling the sides like a little mountain climber. Screeching. She will not be ignored! And she just screeches louder when I pick her up to feed her - she knows that I am ‘not the momma!’
But hunger gets the better of her little scrap of defiance and she settles in to nurse once I get the bottle nipple to her mouth. At first she would only nurse for a minute or two, but now she will go for up to five minutes - once it was 8! The KMR is somewhat thick and tends to clog the nipple after a while. I have enlarged the hole in the nipple several times, but I’m afraid to make it too big for fear she will aspirate. Most of what I read say its better to underfeed than overfeed at this age for just that reason. So, sometimes, mid-feeding, I have to put her down in the middle of my bed and clear the nipple for another go. But she is so fast! I dare not leave her unobserved for more than half a minute or she will belly crawl her way to the edge of the bed! Today, I gave up on trusting her on the bed, and just put her back in her box for the minute or so it takes me to wash and clear the nipple.
I have tried to remain aloof and just do what needs to be done for her without becoming emotionally involved. The longer she survives, the harder this becomes. The vet did advise me that kittens orphaned so young have at best maybe a 50/50 chance of survival - and that is in the hands of an expert, which I am totally not! All my pets to date have been spayed/neutered (yes, I was irresponsible with her mother, but I am not ‘always’ so irresponsible!), so my experience with kittens is limited to much older ones…but I am doing what I can and she is obviously a little fighter.
At first my thoughts were, if she’s going to die, let it be quickly! Now, I am hoping more and more that she will find the strength to survive. If she does, I know it will totally be due to her own survivor nature, more than my amateurish care.
Anyway…just thought I’d let you all know how it’s going to date…
Thanks for the update.
Awww … that was great. It’s hard to remain aloof and detached. It’ll get harder each day she survives and grows!
And we ahem have some rules around here. Something about cats … and photographs … the details escape me.
I’m so proud of you, Kitty Momma! If she’s made it 5 days you are doing something right! Some questions from a veteran kitty momma - are you cleaning her with a warm wet cloth? In another few days you can make a litter box from a cut down kleenex box lined with duct tape. (don’t laugh - it works!) She’ll start using it sooner than you might imagine. Make sure there is a spot where she can get off of the heating pad onto just towel or something, so she can move if she gets too warm.
Do you hold her at all other than feeding her? You might want to start doing that…since she has no siblings for company. Just talk nonsense to her. She’ll probably talk it right back at you.
Please keep us posted…I am very sorry for the loss of Maddie.
Got something in my eye over here - I’m so glad to hear she is a little fighter, and you have the time to devote to a newborn kitten, Lily. My fingers and toes are all crossed that Little Fighter makes it!