Surrogate Kitty Mummy

It's not easy you know. I didn't think it would be. But it has definitely been rewarding.

I woke up every two and half hours last night to feed Little Grey - the name I've given the runt of our litter. Being the only girl in a family of six she needed immediate care, love and attention. This included being fed every 2 hours (but I changed it to two and half for my sanity) and given eye drops twice a day along with two of her brothers who have contracted conjunctivitis - common in young kittens.

At first I didn't think I was getting anywhere, LG kept pulling away and meowling. Her claws, not fully developed yet and therefore non-retractable, kept sticking into my clothing making it harder for me to feed her. The nozzle on the feeder was too small and I kept panicking that I wasn't going to be able to feed her and she had to be fed, by me. I am lucky Millie is such a trusting cat otherwise this task would have been impossible! During the night she didn't want to feed much and I felt getting up was a pointless task as I was becoming more and more frustratingly tired at trying to make her eat. I'd tell LG calmly, "You need to eat, this is good for you". Then when Millie came upstairs to feed her brood I would have to literally wrestle the 5 boys she has away from the teet that LG was feeding on so she could get anti-bodies from her mummy.

I weighed all the babies this morning and I knew LG was visibly smaller than the others but she is roughly 9oz smaller than the biggest kitten which may not seem like a lot but with it being life and death here it is vital she puts on weight to become as big as her brothers - the meanies. I wouldn't say that I have become obsessed with weighing her but I wanted to keep track of all the weight she put on or, heavens forbid, lost. But this evening I had a little smile on my face when I noticed that LG had put on 0.2oz and was now in the 5oz category and her beautiful little eyes are shining up at me.

"We're not going to give up on you little one" I told her as Millie got into the bed I've made for them and started washing her. I am hoping it's just first time young mum syndrome for Millie that has pushed her to want to look after this beautiful yet incredibly small kitten. LG is the runt and by far the smallest and weakest of them all most cats would have given up on the runt by now but not Millie who purrs lots every time she has her babies near her. I wonder if Millie knows that LG is the only girl and that's why she isn't going to give up on her. I'm not sure but I am glad of it. Millie is a brilliant mummy. I just had to step in a little and give her a hand.

So, fingers crossed that this two and half hour feeding will soon turn into 3 and 4 hours and LG will be feeding more at longer intervals so will catch up to her brothers and make them see who is boss. You can't keep a woman down and she is a fighter.

Another thing about bottle feeding LG is that her mummy, Millie, thinks the milk is for her too so I've had to pull her off the milk a couple of times as she is trying to lick LG's face off because of all the milk. But I guess that helps with the eye problem which is quickly getting better. It's nice to see all the kittens with their beautiful eyes open.