We're finding them all over the place
We mentioned in Monday's blog post that we found two kittens while running our errands, this isn't the first time we've found kittens. Probably won't be the last either, but that's ok, we love kittens!
These two kittens were abandoned in a box outside of the pet store. When we arrived to buy more cat food, the sales associate was holding the box with the two kittens. She told us they were left outside the front door and didn't know what she was going to do with them. She must have sensed that we're Official Cat Ladies because she asked us if we wanted to take them, and of course we said yes!
Usually when we find kittens the first thing we do is watch to make sure the mama isn't around. Mama kitties will leave their kittens for food and come back after she's eaten. Kittens who still have their mama caring for them are clean and well fed with round little bellies. Kittens who need human assistance are dirty and will cry. We already knew they didn't have a mama, but we didn't know if they were still on a bottle or eating solid food yet, so we bought both kitten formula and kitten pate. The Bakersfield Animal Care Center shared this nifty little flyer about when to help found kittens.
Found kittens often come with fleas, lots of fleas. Most flea removal products are made for kittens over 2 months old, these little ones are about three weeks old so instead of using a removal product we gave them a bath! Using a gentle dish soap like the kind they use for animals is in oil spills, we washed away the dirt, grime, poopies, and fleas. To specifically kill the fleas we applied dish soap to ther fur making sure to cover the whole kitten except their head, then massaged it in creating a flea trap that suffocates the fleas. The soap being soap, kills the fleas and removes their eggs, larvae, and flea dirt. After rinsing with water warm enough for a baby, we gently dried them off first by patting them down with a towel, then using a blow dryer on the low setting and about two-three feet away from the kitten.
Once the kittens were presentable for dinnner time, we offered them a bottle of kitten formula. They quickly chewed off the nipple and we proceeded to the main course of kitten pate with an L-Lysine garnish. It was delish and they ate it all.
Found kittens often have some sort of health issue to overcome before being adopted. Sometimes they have ringworm which can be passed on to humans. An upper respiratory infection is always a possibility, as is feline herpesvirus both of which are highly transmittable to other cats. Both of these kittens had watery eyes and one had her eyes crusted over and couldn't open them at all! The other had loose poopies and of course they both had walked through the poopie. We made the first vet appointment that was availble and got the kittens some antibiotics and they are doing much better now.
With all that being said, we'd like to introduce Lil' Fluff and Martin, they'll be available to DJ your next Bat Mitzvah or Quincenera once the stay at home orders have been lifted.