Adventures in Kitten Hunting

 I was going to title this post That Time When I Had a Kitten for a Day. Well, cause that’s what happened. 

We have a neighborhood cat we named Girly who eats at our house (aka the 24/7 cat cafe). When she first started showing up we could tell right away that she was pregnant. Well, the anticipated day came, and this chunky girly showed up without her pudge…so we knew the kittens had been hatched. And we planned on finding these kittens and making them ours because we’re kinda feline deprived (not depraved) people, and kittens are such a joy, and we would be giving them a better life (i know first hand that life on these trailer park streets is not pretty). 

But we had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. 

Because you cannot take new born kittens away from their mother (like I said, not depraved. I’ll keep repeating it), and we don’t have the talents to raise practically naked and needy infant kittens (we tried once. We failed). So I waited four weeks until I got word from our next door neighbor that he knew where the kittens are (at the trailer right next to him, conveniently).

So we thought we’d dive in like Superman and superwoman and adopt these babies, which by now should be okay without the mother. John grabbed the black and white one and I grabbed a gray and white, and that’s all we could catch (they’re very clever. But not that clever).

I had a kitten crib all made up for them, a cheddar cheese box from bjs that I lined with my personal “baby” blanket and some toys and stuffed animals. Beautiful. Pretty proud of it. And they liked it. They spent the night in it and I got some cute pictures (id post them, but I don’t know how to get them off my phone). I was ga ga for these kitties, I mean it. I was trying not to touch them, but I couldn’t help it, even though they kept hissing at me (whatever). I put on kitten lullaby music. They hid behind Mr Monkey and slept with Mr bear and Mr squirrel. 

But the black and white one wouldn’t stop crying. Like my brother said, it wanted its mama.

The next morning black and white had disappeared. John went to bjs for kitty supplies (the little soups) and when he got back no sign of him. He thought maybe he snuck out of the crib, but pretty soon it was evident mom snatched him, because she has full acccess to the house and the kitten was constantly yelping. 

So we thought, at least we have the little gray. And he was so cute, and I got him to drink water, and I put him in the litter pan (and he tried to eat the litter, yuck), and he started roaming and laying with John on the couch.

And soon enough mom was on the kitchen counter and heard his yelps, because however much he seemed to be enjoying himself he did have a strong craving for his mama, the creature feeding him every day for a month. I guess there is nothing like mother’s milk.

So we were in a dilemma , and John basically left it up to me whether we keep him or let mom take him. And when I heard the mom cry and the baby cry like they were playing Marco Polo, quite literally, I knew this was a sacred bond I couldn’t interfere with (even though we already did) and this kitten had to go back to mom. 

It was sad for us, but such a sweet thing to see a mother cat care for her baby so much, like no kitten left behind. We like Girly a lot and wish she was more domesticated, and hope soon it will be time for them to leave the nest and we can have a few (or all of them). 

I guess we were too soon. But you want to get them small so you can imprint on them, and out run them of course. 

And that’s the time I had a kitten for a day, and I didn’t even get to name him. 

Bye bye buddy.


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