Sweet Boy's Story

This is the story of one of my rescue kitties. Sweet boy gets him name from my terrible habit of never actually naming cats, rather just calling them by color, personality, or whatever. Anyways, Sweet Boy was born to a feral cat. Over a year ago, I noticed 3 kittens hanging around my apartment complex. Naturally, I began setting out food for them every night. Unfortunately, I didn't know just how fast cats can actually reproduce and how young they can be.  When I realized this was an issue, we already had a huge problem, these kittens couldn't have been more than 6 months old before 2 of them ended up pregnant. I did my research and began to T-N-R, or Trap-Neuter-Release. I immediately borrowed a trap and set out to catch the third kitten to get her fixed before she got pregnant too. While trying to trap her, the two other cats had a total of 11 kittens.



There are 4 cats pictured here. One black and white one I believe was the mother of the other three. She was also trapped and fixed and returned.

To my devastation, one early morning on my way to work, I saw one of mother cats lying dead in the street after being hit by a car. I didn't know exactly where this mother cat had kept her babies but I knew I had to find them fast. Without their mother, the baby kittens wouldn't last long. I was determined to find them and make sure they were okay. I sat out in a field for a few hours and waited for any sign of kittens.

I was so excited when I finally saw this..
The one black mom cat that was still alive was caring for her litter and the litter of her sister who was killed by a car. She was feeding all 11 kittens! In this picture you can only see the two bravest kittens, an all black one and a white one. All of the others also seemed to be in "good" condition and were happily jumping around and playing with each other.

Well, all but one. One tiny, lonely kitten was left to die. His eyes were glued shut with mucus from an infection, and he was all bones. I really don't know how he made it as long as he did, but when I saw him I knew one thing for sure. I was NOT leaving him out there like this...
Sweet Boy needed my help desperately. I knew he was very sick because he didn't even resist when I reached down and scooped him up. All of the other healthy kitties bolted behind mom at the sight of me.

 

 

 

 

I held him close to me and walked through the fields up to my apartment, and brought him into his safe new home. I made him his own cozy room in my bathroom, with blankets and teddy bears and lots of food and water. I didn't know how old he was or if he had been weaned but he must have been literally starved to near death because when I put some wet food that I had mixed with kitten formula down, his claws came out and he started growling while scarfing down his food. After he ate his dinner, I tucked him in and let him sleep.

 

With each day, he grew stronger and healthier. I gave him tons of love, food, and comfort.

 

 

In no time, he was like a completely different kitten. He was hyper, he was happy, and he was playful.

 

 

 

As Sweet Boy grew older, he did have some health problems. The vet even nicknamed him "the million dollar baby" because before even being neutered and getting his first set of shots, he ran up $700 in vet bills.  I knew that I had interfered with nature but it was worth it. The IV bag pictured here had to be given to him by a needle twice a day. My Mom came to the rescue and bravely poked him every single time.

 

He's now a healthy, happy, Sweet Boy. He loves his adopted siblings and he loves his home. He is a lucky guy. And don't worry about the other 10 kittens that were out in the field. When they were old enough, with the help of a group in my area, I trapped them, housed them in my bathroom for a few weeks, and they were adopted out- FIXED OF COURSE. The mother of all these kittens has still not been trapped. She is too wise for my cat traps, and I am working on getting her in a drop trap, she needs to be fixed immediately.  If you have any suggestions for catching this stubborn girl, please let me know.

 

 

 

 

PLEASE SPAY, NEUTER, & ADOPT

If you need help with feral cats in your area, please email me: kathleenmcbride37@yahoo.com

 

 

Special thanks to my Mom who helped me do this all without thinking I'm a crazy person

and to Feral Alley Cats for helping with the TNR of my other feral cats. If you would like to donate to Feral Alley Cats, please visit their website