My husband and I just recued two kittens...

Our neighbors cat had been hanging around our house for the past month until about three days ago. Three days ago I heard neighborhood dogs barking and saw a pit bull or a dog like that type in my driveway. I haven't seen the kittens mom since

Yesterday my husband said he could hear kittens (we didn't know where she had had them) and discovered the were on the property behind us. Today we went over to the neighbor behind us (it's a nunnery?? A place where retired nuns live...not sure what you call it.) and the grounds keeper had found one of them by the time we came by and I found the second one.

These poor babies had been without their mom for 2-3 days. If it wasn't for the little girl kitty meowing her head off they wouldn't have survived. Thankfully my moms cat has kittens about the same age and she accepted them right away. The weirdest thing is one of them doesn't seem to accept her...it's the one who was very vocal. She seems to already be attached to me. Please pray that she will accept her new meowmy soon. I've been worried about the momma cat and knew for sure something had happened to her after hearing her babies.

Now we get the "fun" job of telling the neighbor who is an older lady that her pet more than likely was killed by a dog.

Oh BTW the little girl is a tortie and VERY rambunctious and the little boy is a BEAUTIFUL tuxedo kitty and very calm. I'll get pictures when I can but I'm not gonna go over for a few days to see if the little girl can learn to accept my mom cat as her own.

What a wonderful thing you've done by rescuing those kittens.

Stories like this warm my heart.

This story needs pics. Just an FYI.

Bless you! You are in for a lot of fun!

OK here's pictures of the babies...

The first is the little tortie girl. We had to use the "Vulcan death grip" to get her to remain still for the pictures







and this is the most adorable little tuxedo kitten I've ever seen! This is a boy...





And finally here's their foster meowmy and siblings...sorry they are a bit fuzzy.







Does anybody have any suggestion on how we can get the first kitten to nurse off of the foster meowmy? She just runs from her. The adult cat would love to take care of her but the kitten doesn't let her?

Awww, they are so cute! You are wonderful for saving them!

You might find yourself forced to bottle feed the baby. But it's not hard. Just get some KMR and one of those little bottles. I had to do this for about 5 weeks with both of mine (their mom died).

My mom's doing that right now but the kitten's not pooing. We were hoping she'd get attached to the foster mom so she would clean her (it's of course more natural) but she just won't go to her. We did give her a few drops of mineral oil (a very tiny amount) to loosen everything up and hopefully she'll be able to go soon.

Originally Posted by fastnoc

You might find yourself forced to bottle feed the baby. But it's not hard. Just get some KMR and one of those little bottles. I had to do this for about 5 weeks with both of mine (their mom died).

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yeah you need to stimulate her. get some cotton and wet it with warm water. then blot her bottom with it gently. Be careful though because it'll get raw pretty easily.

The mom isn't really cleaning her when she licks down there. she's forcing the kitten to eliminate because they don't know how to do it on their own. when you do this it triggers their muscles to release.

If she gets too 'plugged up' you'll have to take her to a vet to get an enigma.

There are some real experts here on kitten care. The only suggestion I could make would be to put some vanilla extract on the kitten's nose. This is to overpower his normal sense of smell. Then put some on your mother cat. I'm not sure where. But I think the problem is that she just "smells wrong" to him.

My Monster didnt poop for the first week i had him.. i would stimulate him & he would pee but no matter how hard i tried to (gently) make him poop, i couldnt. i called the humane society after about 3 days of no poo & they basically told me that if he went too long, to bring him in. i had also been talking to a woman who came into my work who had raised a litter of kittens whose mother abandoned them, & she said that they wont poop until they start eating solids. i didnt believe that. BUT, once i started trying to wean him, and started feeding him solids, he pooped. it was actually the first time he used the litterbox without stimulation first. i figured the reason he didnt poop for that long was bc up until he came to me he was being fed his mothers milk, & then out of nowhere hes getting fed something different, & i think his body was getting used to the new formula & thats why he wouldnt poo. but thats just a guess.

lol they poop from the day they're born. In fact, when Madonna had her kittens they had poop coming out before they hit the air.

Originally Posted by laureen227

actually, i thought the base of the tail was where you should put the extract?

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Yeah, if you're trying to introduce adult cats, because that's where they're going to check. Putting it on the mother's tail base would help fool the kitten; and putting it on the kitten's tail would help fool the mom; but they have to have that smell on them first, so they don't think they're smelling a stranger.

Kittens that age don't see well at all, and judge the world a lot by smell.

The baby (the tortie) that wouldn't accept her foster meowmy does now. She's doing very well!!! <-- can you tell I'm happy!! Everytime I go to to my mom's house and the tortie hears my voice she comes running. It's the cutest thing!!!

Well I just wanted to let ya'll know the good news!

Did they use some trick, or just persistence?

I cant add anythjing to what ohters have said about the poop, I had to comment on your tux boy's big paws! He is going to be a big cat!!! Also had to laugh at the "Vulcan death grip" on your tortie.

The only trick used was not feeding the kitten and forcing her to go to the Foster. It worked and they are bonding

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Did they use some trick, or just persistence?

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Well we just found out that the momma cat was not our neighbors. She probably was just a stray someone dropped off. Well at least she got some loving and attention before the dog got to her. Her babies will find good homes though.

Poor mama-kitty - may she play happily over Rainbow Bridge, and know that her babies are in good hands (and paws)
I hope that the dog who killed her is restrained from attacking any more cats, one way or another
May God bless the Foster Mama-kitty and prayers and vibes to your entire family

I found another one!! This one was from a different mother. Found in a totally different location.

I was out BBQing and heard a kitten mewing and sure enough at the neighbors house there was underneath a step. This one I'm gonna see if the Animal Defense League can take it. He has an eye infection and I don't want to expose the other kittens to it. He also doesn't seem to take to the bottle either. I'll get some pictures soon.

I'm thinking that this one is from the other black cat that was hanging around. I don't like the black cats dissapearing so close to halloween Hopfully we can get this little guy and the other two a good home.