The Babies

I have lost my heart to this little minnie. We call her Angel. And she is one too.

The ring of the doorbell a few weeks ago was kittens being delivered, three of them. There were four but one was adopted the night before so I was taking over as their foster mother.

Indeed, I really was taking over as their mother. These little ones, at the time 3 weeks old, had lost their mother. She was outdoors raising them (a stray cat, most likely a drop off) and she got hit by a car. Caring neighbours took her to the vet in an effort to save her life but they were not able to.

So she died and her babies, still nursing and three weeks old no longer had a parent. The neighbours called the animal organization and that's how I got involved.

Kittens are pretty sweet but these kittens are downright adorable. A little bit dirty and smelly, I did my best to towel them off to give them their mommy bath. I tell you Mommy cat does a much better job keeping kittens clean than I do. I felt like the parent with the dirty children. I've had a hard time keeping up.

I'm pretty sure that the littlest one, the black and white female, is the runt of the litter. She's a little underweight and I wish she'd eat more.

They all love a cuddle and want some time to cuddle with me on my shoulders. For the first two weeks they kept looking for a spot to nurse. My heart just broke for them because I knew although their tummies may be full, they were seeking that special comfort that nursing could bring.

They're seven weeks old now in the photos, and four weeks old in the video.

I've had them in a spare room for their safety and also as a quarantine. Normally the mom cat is tested for the contagious cat diseases and if she's found disease free then we can usually assume the kittens are healthy and fine.

But in this case there was no mother cat to test so we're having to wait for the kittens to be eight weeks old so they can be tested.

In the mean time, I'm learning to play mother to my little pride of dirty faced sweeties.