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The first kitten of 2008 has arrived at my house, along with his mama. Check out the tip of his tail!

I got a call last night from a fellow volunteer who was working on this situation... a kid found a dead kitten in the yard, told his mom, they found the mom cat moving another kitten around and took it from her to give to a neighbor to try to feed (assuming that the mom had killed/neglected the first kitten). Well, that kitten died - who knows if if it was related to congenital defects, maternal neglect, or the kidnap and resulting stress. Then they called us for help on the third kitten, still with the mom, whom they claimed was born that very day (a day or two after its sibs). Mom is a yard cat but tame and was easily popped into a carrier. The kitten was put into a box and brought to me last night. I insisted on mom coming too, even though they'd given her up as a terrible mother, because I know the liklihood of a kitten that young surviving without it's mom is very, very low and it was worth the chance of giving her the opportunity to raise it under supervision. I also didn't think she'd been given a fair chance with all the chaos surrounding her other babes.

I caged mama with her baby and he took charge of the situation immediately. He crawled right over under her belly like nobody's business and latched right on until all the bewildered lady (a kitten herself, really) could do was lie down and let him nurse. She had a rough night as she's very vocal and hypersensitive to other cats, so she whined and growled at everyone who passed by all night long. In the morning I put her in the closet and that seemed to help her calm down. When I came home from work today she was cuddling her baby under her chin. Turns out all her yelling is probably just talk - she does it to me too when I approach, but if I go on and pet her anyway, she soon starts to purr and roll around on her back.

I will probably move her out to another foster home in the next day or two so she has fewer cats poking around her business and stressing her out. But she's mothering the kitten very nicely. My personal opinion is that with these really young mothers, it often depends completely on the baby to be robust and "know" what to do to initiate the bonding process. And this guy did. He's still got that little umbilical cord hanging off and his sealed little eyes and his bare little tummy, but he knows where his milkie comes from! And doesn't she look happy with her little prince!

I don't know the entire situation on this cat, but I do know that far, far too often, people pull tiny kittens from mothers unnecessarily, thinking they are doing the right thing. And unfortunately, this artificial orphaning either kills the kitten itself, or they take it to a shelter which is not equipped to keep kittens that young alive, and so the kitten dies by injection. I wish people would keep their hands OFF until the kittens are big enough to be weaned and the mom can be TNR'd, or else take the whole group at once!