Tale of the Left Behind Kitten

here it is - this little squirt was brought in to my office by some people who had picked it up from a construction site. apparently its mama had been disturbed from her nest and took all the other babies somewhere else. for some reason she left this one. it seemed a healthy enough little squeaky thing, and it needed some milk asap.

as it turns out, we had a feral mama cat in for surgery. she had milk. it was warm and there was plenty of it, and she wasn't awake yet:

so that little kitten latched on for a meal, and wouldn't you know it, the mama cat woke up purring. she let the little squirt keep eating until it fell asleep. if only that mama was a tame cat, we could have left the baby with her.

in the meantime, bella mama (who already has five kittens of her own) was being brought in. from the first second she heard kitten squeaks, she glared at us, as though to criticize our care (or lack thereof) of the smidgen kitten. she glared while we tried to bottle feed it. she glared when we removed her kittens, one or two at a time, and rubbed them with the baby. she glared when we let her kittens cuddle the baby and get its scent on them. she glared when we put her kittens back in with her, and then washed them as quickly as she could. after a couple of hours of this nonsense, we finally gave her a chance - we snuck the baby in to nurse when bella's kittens were already at the milk bar. she immediately washed and pottied the baby.

i decided this would be a good time to take a picture:

bella did not agree with me:

she put her paw over the baby, pulled it closer, and began to wash it again. can you seee the "leave my baby alone" glare? over the next few days, the kittens gradually accepted the new baby as some sort of squeaky toy. a few of them have copied their mama and begun to wash it. they are fascinated by the noises it makes when it's looking for the milk bar.

finally, the baby is one of the gang. here they are on the 4th of july: