Thursday, July 8, 2010

Last blog of Mustache's kitten

In my life, I've always gotten signs that things were going to change and try as I may yesterday to get into blogger to post about the kitten, it wouldn't let me so I knew something was wrong and I thought that maybe the universe didn't want me on the computer so long, but the answer was different.

It is with great sadness, that I say that Mustache's kitten (Max) died today when he would have turned two weeks. He wasn't interested in eating last night, but after trying and trying I got to have some milk. It also didn't meow at all yesterday. My Lil' One wouldn't stop staring at the box with the kitten all day yesterday and today, and every time the kitten came out she was attentive. I should have known that she knew that something was wrong.

Then this morning, it wasn't interested in having its milk but after attempting and attempting, it finally had some. It wasn't meowing either. By the afternoon, it was dead. I now wish that I would have rushed it to the vet this morning and said something isn't fine, and sat with it all day, but its too late for that my kitten, my little darling, my tiny little sweety pie is gone.

Gone too soon, my little darling, gone too soon,
I don't know how I could of taken better care of you
I fed you, burped you, played with you, wiped you
I loved you with all my heart
I loved everything about you, now I miss you sooo much
I miss the way you wiggled around in my hand, the way you crawled all over my arm, the way you sucked milk, the way you meowed, the way you way crawl your way to me when I put you on the couch or the bed
You will be forever missed my little darling, my little angel, my baby boy

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

10th blog of Mustache's kitten


My cat Lil' One heard about kitten's vet visit, and she was on the driver's seat waiting to drive the kitten if needed. A picture is attached.

Kitten had plenty of milk and had extra bonding time with me and Lil' One. Lil' One licked the kitten from head to toe like a momma cat would do. I think she's going to be a great surrogate mom and help to raise the kitten.

Mustache still does quick visits. He's a good daddy!

Monday, July 5, 2010

9th blog of Mustache's kitten

Kitten had its first vet visit and its second ride this morning. The kitten didn't like waiting in line with all the barking dogs and meowed a lot. The good news was that the vet said that its healthy and the vet thinks that its a boy. I told the vet that I wanted to know about giving the kitten worm medication and flea treatment. The vet went ahead and gave it a tiny amount of worm medication, and said that he'd give the kitten an eye dropper amount of flea medication after it turns three weeks old. The kitten is too young for flea medication right now, but soon it will be getting regular treatments.

The kitten was happy to be back home, have a bottle, and sleep in quiet. Home sweet, home, it thought. Mustache made a quick visit, but the kitten was asleep, so off he went.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

8th blog of Mustache's kitten

Happy 4th of July everybody! This is the kitten's 1st 4th of July, so I just told it that it's Americas birthday. It got to listen to fireworks and couldn't figure out what the sound was.

The kitten is now a week and three days old, looking more gray stripped on the sides of the belly and tail. The black around its head is now more gray. It's tiny claws seem to have it be more steady and it gets itself right side up after it rolls over just a little faster.

Mustache just did another walk through. I think he's uncomfortable with the drizzling rain, the fireworks, and all the activity happening.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

7th blog of Mustache's kitten

Today I read cat.lifetips.com and found out that kittens are fed with a bottle for four weeks and then are weaned by giving them a bottle in between putting wet cat food for a couple of weeks till it gets the idea and then dry food is put for them to eat along with wet cat food. The kitten is now a week and two days old, so there are a few weeks to go. It will be nice when it can eat by itself and groom itself.

The kitten has figured out that the Gator teddy bear isn't real (alive) and it doesn't seem as interested to sleep with it like it used to do. It recognizes human voices and cries when it hears them to be fed or simply to be picked up. The kitten loves to crawl on humans. My Lil' One likes it and gives it little licks when she sees it out of the box.

Mustache hang around for a while today even though it was drizzling. He's happy to hear about the kitten.

Friday, July 2, 2010

6th blog of Mustache's kitten

The kitten is a week and a day old. It's eyes are still closed and it has learned that if it cries enough that it will be picked up. It stops crying as soon as it's picked up just like a baby. Its cry is loud, which lets me know that its little lungs are plenty strong. It loves to be held; it wiggles and claws its way around a hand and enjoys trying to climb up shirts and arms. It also enjoys sucking on fingers, thumbs, and shirts; however, its favorite spot is the area between the thumb and forefinger.

It was a rainy day today, so Mustache just dropped by to check on the kitten for a little while and then went for shelter. Cats don't tend to like water, so its understandable. Talking about water, the kitten got another bath today, since I had seen still one flea on it. It took some serious work but the flea is off of it...yey! I'm sure the kitten will feel better with it gone. Cats normally groom a lot and try to make sure they don't have fleas on them, but the kitten can't groom itself yet. I'm looking forward to the day that it can groom itself.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

5th blog of Mustache's kitten


Happy Meowbirthday to kitten! :-) It's one week old today. We sang to it and had it lay on my cat as a special treat for its birthday. My Lil' One is 18 inches long, 7 inches wide. The kitten is 5 inches long, 2 inches wide, so it's grown a 1/2 inch recently. It drank a lot more milk today, since it's getting bigger.

Mustache hung out for a while and was happy to hear about his kitten. Then he went along his way. He's such a special father.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

4th blog of Mustache's kitten


The kitten has a strong will to live and thrive in this existence that we call life. Both my housemate and me forgot to feed it from 9 pm to 9 am this morning, but it was fine, happy, and hungry. We tried feeding it in the little bottle today and this time it figured it out and drank approximately two syringes worth of KMR. Isn't the attached picture of the kitten drinking of the bottle adorable. It sure was ready to fill up and it likes to claw at our hands when fed, and if its put on a lap, it crawls and claws quietly sucking on clothes. It crawls clumsily, and a little shaky as it tries to steady itself on surfaces. Sometimes when it crawls, it accidentally rolls on its back and then it has to get a claw in on a surface to get itself right side up again and the it crawls again. The kitten enjoys crawling all over the Gator teddy bear in its box and always sleeps either cuddled under an arm, between its legs, or behind it.

Mustache did a quick pass through, and I told him his kitten was fine. He went to a neighbors house and laid down on the porch to watch the growth of his kitten, but not interfere with it.

As to the care of kittens, it has be kept warm, so its double boxed (shoebox inside of a bigger box) and it gets to stay when its put in the shoebox in the warmest part of the place. Its definitely a Florida kitten. It was left with air conditioning facing it once and it was really cold and meowed, meowed, meowed, then it had to be held for a while to get it warm and it was happy again.

I'm hoping that this kitten means a new beginning, a fresh start, a chance to make a change.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

3rd blog of Mustache's kitten



Today the kitten got to see its dad, Mustache. Mustache was in the back yard just looking up expecting to get news of his kitten, so my housemate took it out and I brought a camera out to take a picture of them together. Mustache gave the kitten a loving look, meowed, and looked at both my housemate and me satisfied that the kitten was healthy and happy. Then he went away and the kitten went back to the shoebox inside after a feeding, burping, and cleaning.

Later, I took pictures of my cat, Lil' One, laying next to the kitten. Lil' One was an abandoned cat who had had a litter of kittens, so I knew that she knew that it was a kitten and not a mouse that she was looking at next to her. Lil' One gave the kitten a lick and a look of understanding that cannot be put into words. From what I've read about raising a kitten, it's important to keep it away from other cats, since they might hurt it, so my advise to people that find kitthttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7563711205130397584ens is to follow it, unless they're sure that their cat will allow proximity and not get jealous or see the kitten as a threat.

Monday, June 28, 2010

2nd Blog of Mustache's Kitten



The kitten slept longer last night which made it easier, since it was getting up and meowing every couple of hours wanting to be fed. At 9:15 am, it got a bottle of KMR, a burping, a cleaning, and I put it back in its shoe box next to "The Gator teddy bear," its buddy. The kitten is a gator fan, just like me. :) I've thought of naming it Max, if it's male, and Maxine, if it's female. It looks a lot like Mustache...it's mostly black and has some white in spots such as a little on its back, belly, some of the face, and paws. If anyone has any suggestions as to other names for it, I'd welcome them. I measured the kitten today with my housemates help, since the kitten is a little wiggle worm. Its 4.5 inches.

I fed the kitten again at noon and then I went outside. There was Mustache, in the driveway, and I told him that the kitten was fine. He looked at me satisfied with my answer, and then walked away. I find it amazing that he comes around just to check on the kitten and has no interest in getting fed. The neighbor told me today that Mustache comes over every day to play gently with his grandchild and then goes off. Wow! Mustache is not only a great dad to kittens but a great playmate to children.

Since the kitten was found on Thursday, and it was probably born that morning, its one week birthday will be this Thursday. It's so exciting to see it grow every day and be a mom to this newborn kitten!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

1st blog of Mustache's kitten

Hi,

My name is Teresa and this blog is dedicated to the memory of my mom.

On June 24, Mustache (a black and white male cat with white on his paws, upper lip, belly, and tip of his tail) was sitting next to a newborn kitten just watching it. It felt like he was looking for a home for his kitten. What a good daddy!! The newborn was crying, so full of compassion my housemate picked it up and called me over to see it. I washed him/her and found that there was blood on him/her and there was a piece of the umbilical cord still attached and fleas were everywhere. It's eyes were closed, it's ears were bent, it's tiny paws were perfectly formed with tiny claws, it's tiny mouth was pink and toothless. It was beautiful. It was also precious to see Mustache outside peering in as if he was an anxious father, hoping that everything was alright with his kitten.

My housemate went to the store and got KMR (Kitten milk replacement). Then came back and made a bottle. Feeding it right from the beginning has been an adventure. The kitten moves its tiny paws everywhere, it wiggles around in my hand, and does circles. We soon figured out that we had to hold its tiny head and poke its mouth a couple of times before it realized that we were going to feed it. The best website that I found on the subject of kittens was: "Caring For Newborn Kittens: Day One to Four Weeks Old."

On June 25th, the kitten's ears have straightened and it got its first car ride, since we took it to The Cat Protection Society to ask about raising the kitten, while Mustache sat outside watching us. One lady was very helpful and said that kittens have to be burped after each feeding along with their stuff has to be wiped gently since that can't go to the bathrooms for themselves until they're about 2 or 3 weeks old. She also said that the kitten has to be kept warm and has to be fed every 2 or 3 hours and a syringe is the easiest way to feed a newborn (the small bottle was just not working very well and this made perfect sense; the kitten was very happy with this new change since it got milk easier). Well as soon as the kitten got home, I showed the kitten to Mustache to show him that the kitten was fine, and then I fed the kitten and gave it another bath. I put the little kitten in the sink and run lukewarm water to wash it again, hoping to get the rest of the fleas off of it, and another two fleas were gone. Mustache just hang out outside.

On June 26th, when I picked up the kitten, I noticed that it didn't have its umbilical cord attached anymore, it had fallen off and just this black piece that was once attached lay close to it. The kitten had grown a little and now wanted more KMR. I went outside since I decided to go work out the gym and there was Mustache. I told Mustache that the kitten was fine and his white mustache seemed to curl up into a smile.

On June 27th, it's been a week since father's day, but Mustache's devotion astounds me. He appears every day to get news of his kitten. If all fathers were like Mustache, the world would be a different place.

Mustache's love for his kitten makes me wish that everyone would have that kind of unconditional love. Have a sunny Sunday! :0)