Always learning.

Two little twin kittens are in my care today. We have had many a wild mama cat abandoning her young around here lately. My husband tried to save two that didn't make it, then a few days later we found four more, two went missing over night now we have two left. So, he started up bottle feeding kitten replacement formula to them and they seem to be thriving.

I had been thinking of getting the kids a pet that they could call their own but they are yet way to young to take care of one themselves. Seems the Lord has dropped two pets in our laps when we weren't expecting it. Thank goodness for internet! The wealth of information on caring for newborn kittens is massive and I learned many things I didn't know about caring for them.

I was a little worried as I haven't had a pet in many, many years and those were all big enough to eat regular dry food and not need to be cleaned much. These little ones require many feedings from a tiny kitten bottle and some washing...some of it in unpleasant areas....yeah...fun.

Thankfully it turns out it isn't too hard to do. They need to be fed, pet, washed to encourage them to tinkle, and burped...what? Burped? I wasn't sure I read that right but I realized that the mother doesn't have to do that because they feed directly from her, but I guess with a bottle it is like a bottle fed baby, they can swallow lots of air! So, as I snuggle the sweet little kitten in the palm of my hand I pat its little back to burp it. A little strange but it is actually quite rewarding to see these tiny little kittens plumping up and thriving.

Time will tell if they will make it, I am hopeful they will as they have lived with us caring for them for many days now. The first two we tried to save didn't make it and I think a lot of that was due to lack of knowledge as to how to care for little kittens. I think the Lord must have had a hand in this, DH said we couldn't raise all four...He wanted to raise just one, I said let's keep two so each of the kids can have one! He wasn't into that but either way, what to do with the others? We didn't know, didn't have the heart to just "get rid of them" :(

So, we weren't sure, but two of them were gone in the morning. Don't know where they went, maybe the mama decided she could raise those two after all and came back for them, but we watched and watched and she never came back for the two that were left. So, we were given two little kittens by default, two pets, just what I hoped for!

So, a new skill learned, newborn kitten care. And when the kittens eyes open my kids will have two tumbling little kittens they can play with. :)

Update, one of the kittens opened it's eyes today! Looks like they are going to make it. As I picked them up to feed them I can definitely tell they are gaining weight and getting bigger.