another baby animal saved :P

[Stormy Peak]

I live a little ways out of town and have been here since 2000. Over the past few decades, I can even begin to count how many cats have been dumped then end up around my house. I've never had the time and/or money to do much for those cats. I would see the spring, summer, fall with cats running around, but after winter was over, I rarely ever saw the same cats again.
If I could catch one, I would take it to the shelter, but most were to afraid to let me get near them.

Anyway, some of the babies, I've rescued.

One January morning, about 5 years ago, I went to let the dogs out, but in the white snow, on the other side of my yard up against the fence, I saw a black patch. I wasn't sure what it was, but didn't want my dogs to get into it, so I put on my shoes and walked through the deep snow and I found a black baby bunny. It was just shivering and not moving at all.

I brought it in, called the Humane Society but they said they were out of cages, and could I keep the bunny for a few days to even a week. That wasn't going to work...not with 2 dogs and a cat in my home and me not having money to go buy a cage, bunny stuff, food, bedding etc.

So I called my vet Andy, and she said "bring it on down, we will check it out, and find it a home"
Andy said the baby bunny was in bad shape, probably almost died of exposure, it was very skinny too. Still, she managed to adopt it out the next day, and I heard recently that the bunny has the run of a house, and is treated just like a pet cat, or dog.
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About 3 years ago, in February, I was driving down the country lane to my home and a black and white kitten that looked like it was just under a year old, came up on the road and sat down...I slowed to a stop, thinking the cat would move away from the car...but it just sat there. So, I got out, and walked over to it...expecting it to run, but it just sat there and looked at me.

I was horrified to see the kitten's nose was almost gone, just a little bit of black nose on each side of this hole that ran all the way between the kittens eyes. The sinus bone was exposed and all that is bad enough but it's bitter cold...and that had to add to the misery of such a wound.

I take it to Andy's and I thought maybe a dog's tooth might have destroyed the nose like that. A few weeks late, I asked about it, and they were treating it's wound. About 2 months later I asked about it, and Andy said she had to put the kitten to sleep as what was going on with the nose was cancer. : ( This rotting away of it's nose didn't happen overnight. I'm pretty sure someone got the kitten, (probably for Christmas?), saw it's nose falling apart and rather than spend money for a vet, they dumped it.
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Then about 2 years ago, I am pulling into my driveway and see this small black kitten on my porch, it jumped down and staggered away. I stopped the car and followed it until I could catch it. It was very weak, and I could feel every bone in it's body. I called the Animal Shelter and they told me that as it appeared the cat would need vet care, to take it to the vet of my choice and arrangements would be made to pay for the vet bill on it. So, Andy got the black kitten. She had it adopted out in about 3 days.
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Then this morning. I am woke up around 2am by my golden retriever AU. He's looking at the front door and making oofing sounds while wagging his tail. Usually, AU sounds like a Rottweiler when he hears someone outside my door, he has a terrifying growl and a very loud bark. So, I'm thinking there is a dog in my driveway or something like that, and I open my door, kick on the porch light and I then hear a kitten mewing....very loudly and at a constant pace.

So, I get dressed, grab a flashlight, and I spent a half hour looking for it. It was in the weed and grass filled 'junkyard' that is on the other side of my driveway. I'm worried about stepping on nails, or getting tangled in wire, and afraid of stepping on the kitten as I got closer to the sound, the grass was knee high and other than my flash light it's Pitch Black.

I got to a point where I could hear it, but couldn't see it. I almost gave up looking when I noticed a front loader bucket, laying on it's side almost hidden in the tall grass. The bucket was a narrow one, and has probably been there for 15 years or more, and it had filled up with dirt over the years, I put my light into the opening and laying there was this kitten. It's eyes looked like they just opened, and it's ears...the same. It was sooo Tiny! but, still very vocal.

I'm surprised a predator didn't get to it before I did.
I picked it up, and worked my way out of the junk yard and took it inside...and using a very small syringe I fed it like 6ml of cold whole milk mixed about half with hot water, so it was warm. I don't know how rich cat milk is, so I erred on the side of caution and thus the half milk, half water. I just wanted to put a little of something in it's tummy incase it was a little dehydrated.

I put it in a box with a towel for it to sleep on, then went outside and listened for another half hour, but I didn't hear any other kittens. By the time I got to bed it was almost 4am.

I called Andy...and as always, she says 'Bring the kitten here" It sounds like the kitty will need bottled feed for some time, it's that little.

Also...and for the 3rd time...the coloring of the rescued baby is black : )
So, one black baby bunny, two black kitties, and a black and white kitten.

Stormy

[LA Pepper]

Bless you and your vet

[Darcy McBride]

Kudos to you and to your vet, Stormy!

[Kelly Haggerty]

So glad you kept at it until you found the baby and that it's where it will be cared for now.

[Stormy Peak]

Talked with Andy today, and she thinks the kitten is about 10 to 12 days old. It's so incredibly tiny, just a little bigger than a full grown mouse.

I also let AU into that lot, the following morning, just incase there were some more kittens to be found. I know he would stop and alert me to any, but also not attack them. I didn't do that at night because it was so dark and I could hear the kitten myself. I also didn't want to risk, at night, AU getting into barbwire or anything that he might not see in his excitement in being allowed to explore the lot. I called him over to the loader bucket, and let him sniff around, and he then poked around the yard for about 15 minutes, but never stopped in one place like he discovered something. I'm kind of wondering if momma cat gave birth to the kittens in that loader bucket, and a predator got to her and the rest of the litter...leaving one kitten as it ate it's fill ???

I otherwise cannot figure out why just 1 kitten inside that loader bucket...unless momma cat was picking them up and moving them to a safer place. But that kitten was crying for a long time. AU was alerting me for some minutes probably before I woke up...and I was in the recliner for another 3 or 4 minutes before deciding I needed to see why he was so focused upon the front door, but not growling. Then me listening and hearing the kitten, getting my shoes on and getting a flashlight and going out there. I would think by then, the momma cat would have got to her kitten? I hope that was the scenario other than the other one. Yeah, momma cat might have lost her kitten to me, but in the long run, the kitten will have a home and be cared for.

Andy said that the kitten that is still crawling, and still in the process of opening eyes and ears, will be bottle fed and is already the 'darling' of the clinic with all the techs and volunteer help wanting to care for it.

She's pretty sure that it will be adopted out soon...maybe even in a few days, as 1 person she knows very well, said they were thinking over adopting it, and they would be willing to do the bottle feeding that it will need like every 3 to 4 hours until it grows up a bit.

Andy does have some volunteers who stay at her clinic at night in cases like this, or they take turns taking babies like that home with them at night. It kind of depends upon what's going on with the volunteers' life at any given time. And if Andy does have kittens or puppies that need bottle fed frequently, and no volunteers are available, she will stay over night at her clinic to take care of them.

People in this town love Andy, and she's been blessed with a lot of volunteers, so usually pets that need some 24 hour monitoring get it, without Andy having to be the one to do it.

Stormy