A Cat Tale of Bottle Baby Care

One August, three 2-day old kittens were dumped on a police officer's lap by a woman who said the mamma cat had been mauled by a dog and had been killed. She later dumped the 4th one at another location and the officer was able to match it up with the rest of the litter. The four spent all night with no food.

In the morning they were still alive and my daughter and I rushed immediately to pick them up and give them a chance to survive. They were covered in fleas that were sucking the life out of them.

We fed them every three hours around the clock to try to get them stable. Huge fleas would be crawling across the nipple of the bottle, their noses, faces, and eyes as I fed them. They would jump and flinch from constantly being bitten.

After 24 hours of constant 3 hour feedings to try to get them strong enough to withstand a flea bath, we bathed them in Dawn to get rid of the fleas and what a red bubbly mess! These poor guys were infested with them. It was so bad that the bath water turned a light red from the blood caused by the fleas biting and sucking on them.

It took all five of us in an assembly line to successfully bathe the 4 kittens without letting them catch a chill. I would bathe them, my son would be next to me to blot and keep their noses free from soap and inhaling water, my other son would towel dry them, my husband was ready with the blow dryer and my daughter would swaddle them in warm blankets and put them altogether on the heating disc.

What a traumatic experience for 4 day old kittens to go through! They had the will to survive and all 4 kittens made it. They were all girls and we named them after gemstones since we thought they were as tough as a rock. Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire and Opal have all been adopted into their forever homes in pairs and are doing beautifully! I love happy endings...