Return to Adoptable Animals in Foster
April 11th - 6 weeks
At six weeks, things have taken a slightly unusual twist. Judging from her behavior, Velvet appears to be in heat. Although cats can come into season while still nursing babies, this is unusually early. She is extremely restless, rubbing against everyone, rolling around, calling loudly, and trying to get out the doors and windows. The kittens try to nurse from her, but Velvet does not want to sit still long enough to let them. Normally, she would be starting to wean the babies at this time, but she has absolutely no interest in them and shakes them off as they try to snuggle with her. The kittens are extremely persistent, however, and any time she is near one or another is attempting to nurse. Velvet finally gets frustrated while we are in the room and jumps on the shelf in front of the window, where the kittens can't quite jump yet. and where there is nothing fabric to climb. Spice, the little black female, is particularly persistent, climbing on the bed and the cat furniture trying to find a way up to mom. It is obvious that the kittens are occasionally managing to nurse, but not very often. In the meantime, they are getting into lots of trouble, and even tore open the bag of kitten chow in the room, spreading cat food all across the room! All signs of upper respiratory are now gone also.
April 12th
As we start to approach kitten season the first orphaned litter comes in to the shelter at only a couple of days old. These 5 kittens are tiny and are not very strong, and one has to be euthanized when it comes to the shelter as it is already beyond saving. Unfortunately, Velvet is the only mom with milk right now. Her kittens are old enough to go without nursing, so we can separate them from her if we need to.. She is a very good mother, and normally we would expect her to accept new babies, but because she is in heat, we don't know if she will accept them. But since the kittens need to eat every couple of hours, and nursing will help to provide them with immunity that formula can't provide, it is worth a try. Her foster mom brings home formula in case mom won't take the kittens. Several hours and much effort later, we conclude that Velvet is not going to take the little ones. She is not mean to them--her call to reproduce is simply too strong and she is too restless and too busy trying to escape to take them. Velvet is put back in the room with her own kittens, and the foster mom has to continue bottle feeding and cleaning the kittens until Monday, when we will hopefully have a foster home to transfer the kittens to. On Sunday morning, one of the kittens dies--it was simply too young and weak to make it. Monday one of the shelter staff takes the kittens home to nurse, and on Tuesday the kittens are transferred to a new foster home who is more prepared for the necessary bottle feeding.