I've adopted a newborn kitten

[LinvilleGorge]

A feral cat by the house had a litter of kittens. I found them while I was fencing in our pasture on Saturday. I set up a game cam to keep an eye on them. She moved them yesterday but abandoned one. I waited about six hours. She came back to eat some food I'd left out for her and still left this kitten. Damn it. Now I gotta take it in.

So I ran it to the vet to see if anything was obviously wrong with it causing her to abandon it and she said there was nothing obviously wrong. So I'm feeding this thing every two hours and getting it to go to the bathroom and good lord. I'm not even a cat person. I just have a soft spot for animals. I have a Rottweiler and a pit bull who hate cats so I have no idea what I'm gonna do with this thing long-term if it survives. Evidently nearly half of kittens abandoned this young didn't survivor even when being cared for.

We'll see. I'll do my best for this little bugger. It cuddles with one of my daughters small stuffies to sleep.

 

 

[toldozer]

Poor baby, you're doing good!

[jasonluckydog]

Good job man!  Don't worry about your dogs if you accept the cat in the house they'll accept the cat. I adopted a feral kitten and was afraid my dogs would eat her. They now sleep together, play together, beg for treats together. My big dog I was concerned at first and now he is running from the cat when she gets mad...smh on that one. 

[jasonluckydog]

Btw The kitten is beautiful. I'm not a cat guy but now I'm watching cat videos on tiktok and now looking to buy a male main coon cat. Google them if you never seen one. 

[toldozer]

16 hours ago, jasonluckydog said:

Good job man!  Don't worry about your dogs if you accept the cat in the house they'll accept the cat. I adopted a feral kitten and was afraid my dogs would eat her. They now sleep together, play together, beg for treats together. My big dog I was concerned at first and now he is running from the cat when she gets mad...smh on that one. 

Not always true. I have a 3200 dollar vet bill to prove it after our cats and dogs were together for years. One started catching squirrels and mice in the back yard and it was over. Cats stay in the basement and the dogs stay upstairs now

[LinvilleGorge]

The kitten is doing well. It has gone from 120 grams when I took it in to 180 grams this morning. 

[Paa Langfart]

Glad your kitten is doing well thus far sounds like youre doing the right things.  I went through raising 5 newborns with a bottle during the pandemic.  How and what are you feeding it?  Best is the powdered formula - goat milk if you can get it is the best.  Also very very important to keep a kitten that small warm so put a small heating pad in the box on low at first with the room to get off it if it gets too warm.  She has no siblings nor mother to help her keep warm so .........  My sis had a very young kitten up in virginia a few years back she was taking care of that died on her- I'd almost bet it wasn't kept warm enough as she didn't know to use a heating pad.  We got all of ours weaned and adopted out to good homes  - here is a pic of me feeding the lone male ( that I kept ) at about 7 days old.  And yeah I was always a dog guy, never a cat guy myself until one adopted me about 20 years ago.  

 

 

[LinvilleGorge]

9 minutes ago, Paa Langfart said:

Glad your kitten is doing well thus far sounds like youre doing the right things.  I went through raising 5 newborns with a bottle during the pandemic.  How and what are you feeding it?  Best is the powdered formula - goat milk if you can get it is the best.  Also very very important to keep a kitten that small warm so put a small heating pad in the box on low at first with the room to get off it if it gets too warm.  She has no siblings nor mother to help her keep warm so .........  My sis had a very young kitten up in virginia a few years back she was taking care of that died on her- I'd almost bet it wasn't kept warm enough as she didn't know to use a heating pad.  We got all of ours weaned and adopted out to good homes  - here is a pic of me feeding the lone male ( that I kept ) at about 7 days old.  And yeah I was always a dog guy, never a cat guy myself until one adopted me about 20 years ago.  

 

 

I got kitten milk replacer. Yeah, I have a heating pad in it's little box under it's blanket.

It was ice cold when I took it in. I thought I'd waited too long and let it die. I just wanted to give the mom plenty of time to come back for it first. I could tell it was barely breathing so I just tucked it up under my shirt and let it lay against my belly while I drove to the vet and it came around. I really don't think it would've made it much longer.

[Paa Langfart]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I got kitten milk replacer. Yeah, I have a heating pad in it's little box under it's blanket.

It was ice cold when I took it in. I thought I'd waited too long and let it die. I just wanted to give the mom plenty of time to come back for it first. I could tell it was barely breathing so I just tucked it up under my shirt and let it lay against my belly while I drove to the vet and it came around. I really don't think it would've made it much longer.

I found a lone kitten about 15 years ago wandering around in the median of route 17 just outside ILM.  It was probably about 4 weeks old.  Poor thing slept with me for the first 4 or 5 days and would curl up in my arm pit at night - just couldn't seem to get warm.  I nursed it back to health with the advice of a very nice vet and found her a good home too

[KatsAzz]

21 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The kitten is doing well. It has gone from 120 grams when I took it in to 180 grams this morning. 

I am an animal love and I give you a big thumbs for rescuing the feral kitten.

I live in the eastern city limits of Gastonia and have lost two cats to Coyotes, so i hope you have better luck with your new kitten.

[LinvilleGorge]

8 minutes ago, KatsAzz said:

I am an animal love and I give you a big thumbs for rescuing the feral kitten.

I live in the eastern city limits of Gastonia and have lost two cats to Coyotes, so i hope you have better luck with your new kitten.

We have tons of coyotes and big horn owls both. We live on 12 acres and can't see our nearest neighbor. To our south is miles of wilderness. We see deer and wild turkeys nearly daily. Hear the coyotes often but very rarely see them.

[Anybodyhome]

43 minutes ago, KatsAzz said:

I am an animal love and I give you a big thumbs for rescuing the feral kitten.

I live in the eastern city limits of Gastonia and have lost two cats to Coyotes, so i hope you have better luck with your new kitten.

I went into a bar in Gastonia 30-some years ago. Trust me, a female coyote in there would have been the best looking creature to come thru the door.

Rule of thumb; keep your pussies close and your cats closer.

[Paa Langfart]

45 minutes ago, KatsAzz said:

I am an animal love and I give you a big thumbs for rescuing the feral kitten.

I live in the eastern city limits of Gastonia and have lost two cats to Coyotes, so i hope you have better luck with your new kitten.

Sorry about losing your pets to coyotes.  Several years back I was walking to my computer desk with a cup of morning coffee, looked out the front window to see one of my cats facing off with a coyote about 3 feet apart - I keep a loaded .22 by the front door and I grabbed it and ran out the door yelling - by the time I started shooting the yote was in full flight - I got off about 5 shots - don't know if I had any hits or not but I know both me and the yote were a bit shook up at the least. It was about as close a call as you could get without losing a pet.   As a qualifier I live in the woods on 25 acres of land - no neighbors in sight nor downrange of my shooting.  I never willingly let my cats prowl out on their own after that, which if you know cats,  is an undertaking.  I had already put up a wood fence in my " backyard" for my dogs so I cat proofed it as well.  Well mostly cat proof anyway, lol.  That way they can still get out without me tending to them constantly and the kitten I posted a picture of above I have harness/leash trained.  

[KatsAzz]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

We have tons of coyotes and big horn owls both. We live on 12 acres and can't see our nearest neighbor. To our south is miles of wilderness. We see deer and wild turkeys nearly daily. Hear the coyotes often but very rarely see them.

Wooo!!! You are really out in the country. Do you live in or near Linville like your name implies?