HIS, kittens. 
I guess by not having bad news about the kitten is a good thing.
And now, the teaming millions demand pictures of the little fluffball.
that’s a wee little kitty there.
i hand raised a kitten from 3 days old, she is 3 years old now and a hefty 13 pounder.
good luck with the wee one. the sleepless nights are over very quickly. i found for the first two weeks malenka was quieter when in contact with me. she would settle down and play with her feet if i kept her in a big pocket or bag around my neck. if she was in a sep. box she would holler up a storm.
i have kept emergency kitten supplies after the wild night of finding a place open at 8pm for malenka. the kit is about 10 bucks in the pet store. in a pinch pedialyte can keep a wee one going until you can get to a vet or supplies.
enjoy the wee one. aren’t those ears the cutest things you ever saw???
How is kitty doing?
Just this last weekend we babysat a three week old kitten that a coworker of my mom’s had found in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City. That little bugger so was cute! He would latch onto my mom’s bottom lip and suck until he fell asleep. Earlobes were also fair game.
Bestest news about the kitty. First, she has been christened Thimble because . . . it seems to suit her. She’s just exudes a unique thimble-ness.
Second, she’s been adopted into a litter and is doing great. The other kittens were discovered at about seven this morning and are about the same age as this one – eyes still closed. We smuggled the Thimble-cat under the other kittens while the mother was away, and when the mother cat came back, she was just like, “Dude. Another kitten. Gnarly.” (Because, apparently, in addition to being a lethal pigeon-stalker, she’s also a surfer. Really laidback. We don’t ask questions of our cats.)
I’m a little sorry to see her go, but I know that’s it’s better for her to grow up with other kittens and sucking on an actual teat. Filled with cat’s milk. (Agh, I hope it didn’t cripple her digestive system.)
She’s just so cute! I’ll take pictures when she’s older and less rat-like and even more adorable than she is now.
Agh, Seven, sorry I thought you were a girl.
That’s GREAT news about Thimble. Getting into another litter is really best for her. I was worried about opening this thread when I saw the last poster, but now I’m relieved.
And I, for one, absolutely adore pictures of very young kittens. So grab some pics now!
One can use non-fat evaporated cow’s milk in a pinch. It doen’t really have enough protein for the long haul, but it kept my abandoned babe alive for a day until I could get proper formula for him.
Okay, I’ll take pictures of my mouse-cat now, though you’ll have to wait a while to see them as I don’t have a digital camera. I think I may just start a Doper pet thread, so we can all show off our pets.
Sorry I left everyone hanging on the update – I stayed up all night last night with Thimble and then slept until four. I just got back from the community band concert I played in with my last post. And, now, to bed with me again.
Yay! She’s a survivor!
I’m so glad she made it (:
And yes, do post pics!!
Great news.
So, is she back with her litter or is this a different litter all together?
(Sorry, I might have missed that part)
Congratulations on all of the little fuzzers! :kittenhead smiley:
She’s with a different litter, but it only amounts to one rather fat kitten, who is black and white and currently named Gus. We’ll see if he turns into a Gussette. 
Bad news. The calico kitty died sometime last night. 
I guess she just wasn’t big enough to survive being jostled from being abandoned to being adopted. She’s buried under the lilac tree in the front yard.
God, everything I try to take care of dies. I can’t even get spider plants to grow. Spider plants! They’re like the dandelion of houseplants.
For an odd touch of irony, Mom made me work in the garden all this morning so I wouldn’t mope around the house. It helped, a little.
I’m so sorry.
Perhaps, the mother cat knew something was wrong, and that’s why they were abandoned?
(Don’t sometimes animals abandon their young if they know there’s something wrong with them?)
I’m sorry about Thimble’s end, Miss Purl. I hope you feel better in time.
I was taking care of a friend’s farm for a few days when their spaniel Duchess had puppies. (They weren’t expected for another week; I could have told them she’d have her pups as soon as they left!) When I came to check Duch that afternoon, there she was with seven pups! Six were squeaking and complaining and jostling Mom, but one was off by himself and raising a hell of a cry. I tried to scoot him back in with the group, but Duch took my hand oh-so-gently in her teeth and let me know she wanted nothing to do with him. He was still wet, and cold. I tucked him into my bra (hey, it’s warm in there!) and named him “Iceburg” on the spot.
I got the whole set-up going, just like you, with the heating pad and clean towels, and I got a puppy nurser and formula from the pet store. Iceburg rode along, still in my bra, squeaking and complaining. The clerk thought my pager was going off or something .
Back home, after I got him warm and dry, I prepared to feed him. He gave a mighty yawn as I picked him up, and that’s when I notice his cleft palate. The roof of his mouth was split open all the way back, and I could see into his nasal cavity. I knew he wouldn’t be able to feed properly, and after a call to my vacationing friend we decided to have the vet put him to sleep. That was a tough drive to the vet’s.
I cried for three days afterwards. Just about anything would set me off. I think the hardest part for a while was watching the other pups; they were thriving, and all of could think of was poor Iceburg, buried under a dogwood tree in the backyard.
I took some time with him before the vet took him. I told him all the things a dog needs to hear in his life. I told him he was a good dog. I told him to “fetch the ball, boy!” and “Who wants a cookie?” Then I kissed him on the head and let him go.
God, now I’m blubbering all over again, and it’s been a year and a half.
It isn’t easy, and your grief is understandable. I can only tell you it’ll get better. (Except when you write about it on the SDMB, apparently.) You’re a member of a pretty exclusive club, human kitten- and puppy-moms. Here’s hoping all future stories have survivors, and that your spider plants hang in there.
Sorry the little kit didn’t make it.
There are any number of reasons why this happened, you know you did your best.
Putting a kitten with another litter is only a good idea after at least 24 and perhaps 48 hours pass.
This is unrelated to your sad news, since kittens affected by the following tend to take a few weeks to pass on, but it seems a good place to put this advice for anyone thinking of fostering a kitten to another mother.
Most cats are of one blood group but occasionally the kittens can be of a differant one to the mother, when this happens there is a very strong chance that the litter might be lost unless it is spotted very quickly, the mothers antibodies in her milk will attack the internal organs of her offspring. It depends upon the exact group, type B kittens would likely be ok to a type A mother but not the other way, however even then it is possible the odd type A kitten will survive a type B mother and it is not all that well understood why this should be so.
Some breeds are far more prone to the mothers having a particular blood group.
The antibodies that can affect a newborn kitten can only cross the intestinal membrane in the first 16 hours or perhaps a day at most, if you can hand feed for that long then fostering will be ok if you can get acceptance.
Thanks for the condolences, guys. Nature kind of sucks when it comes to baby animals. At least she wasn’t eaten by a coyote, which is the next leading cause of death around her for animals, after failure to thrive.
Remember-she had her whole life (short as it was), being loved and cared for by you. That’s what counts.