Almost 3 weeks ago now that I picked this little poor
thing from the street and took it out of the burning sun inside our home. I
placed it on a soft rug in our dining kitchen, expecting it would just die
there. No, I did not give a cent for its life. It slept all day and at moments
I thought it already passed away. But she was staying alive and I have written
about her first period in the former blog post.
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| How can I go up there? |
And here we are. The kitten soon got a name: Snow
White. Completely helpless she was and I, not knowing how to raise such a young
kitten, kind of felt helpless as well. On FaceBook I asked for advice and also
for people who could/would take care of Snow White. Google lead me to many
sites with all sorts of ‘manuals’. Soon I learned that I needed to get special
kitten milk because cow’s milk would not contain enough fat. I had to make sure
that the temperature should be 35 degrees Centigrade in the first weeks slowly
going down as she would grow older. Mother cats lick the bellies of their
kittens to activate the intestines and the Urinary tract.
Here I am to tell you that all these things were
simply not to make come true. Living in the Tropics special milk is hard to
find, there is no heather available and I was definitely not going to lick the
belly and then eat all that would come out. I figured that all I could do was giving
her the best care I could give and blend some love in it. If she was meant to
survive she would after all. The good thing was that there was a very small
bottle available with a small tip to pour out the content drop by drop. This
would make a perfect substitute mother-cat-titty. A small basin covered
with old T-shirts would make a perfect nest. There was nothing I could do about
the temperature except for covering her for the nights. Just to find out that
she was on top of the shirts the very next morning.
A big problem
was –and still is- the dirt that seems to come from her eyes. After a few hours
of sleep, she cannot open her small blue eyes and I have to clean them first. For
that purpose, I use an old tea towel. I soak a small corner of it in boiled
purified water and then gently wipe her eyes plus surroundings. After about a
minute I repeat this treatment and then open her eyes with my fingers. Of
course, she had lots of complaints the first days but I guess she’s used to the
protocol by now. She even is not giving me a hard time anymore when I wash her
whole tiny body. That really needs to be done sometimes because thanks to the
white fur we can see she gets dirty at times.
When very young kittens open their eyes they cannot
see anything. It takes a few days before they can see shadows and dark and
light. Then a few more days before they can see but even then they are hardly
aware of what they are seeing. I could follow this development day by day and
be very interested. At a given point it was clear that she could see us walk
when we passed by her nest. But a few steps away she already lost us. Bit by
bit however she could take all the images in and it did not take long for her
to come to me often, trying to climb into my leg. That could only mean she was
hungry. Preparing her bottle with only milk and water was not enough and I
asked my friend if I could have one of the bags with powdered proteins. Less
than half a teaspoon should be enough I thought. At least it could do Snow
White good. Also, I mixed the milk with water where I had boiled vegetables in.
Of course, I knew it was not all perfect but at least it would not harm her.
This week for the first time she really looked at me
and I could see she was not just staring at ‘something’. It was obvious that we
had eye contact. For the last days, all goes much faster now. She started
playing with empty wrappers that I made into balls and a pair of socks that I
also made a ball of hanging from the armrest of the chair. She started going to
pee on a small rug in the kitchen and I now placed an old newspaper there.
Every time she goes there she walks to another rug and wants to pee there. I
then take her to the newspaper and praise her for peeing on it. The first week
she could hardly finish a bottle a day. Right now she easily can drink 4
bottles. A few days ago she was asking for attention while we were having
dinner and I tried to give her a very small piece of the fish. She ate it and
soon she got more. This means I have to get her used to several kinds of food
so she will not refuse any kind later.
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| Snow White, washed, eating some fish |
Snow White is somewhere between 4 and 5 weeks old now.
She’s a strong kitten who made it so far and I’m sure that one day she will be
a strong and mature cat.
Love the ones
you’re with and be loved in return
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