Spring Sitting

After my battle kittens were adopted in late Jan/early Feb 2022, I was completely kittenless until APRIL. APRIL!!! All of the kittens in the rescue were bottle babies that needed more frequent feedings than I could provide. During my Spring Break, I volunteered to kitten sit for another foster, taking in 3 kittens in the process of weaning, tiny Percy and the twins, Hope and Gratey.

The twins, a week older and heartier, immediately began exploring and playing. Gratey is slightly more black and has more white on his belly. Hope has a slight smokiness to her color and a white heart shaped blob on her chest.

But after a play session, they were content to cuddle. Sometimes with each other, sometimes with Percy, and sometimes with me! They had been weaning for awhile and were completely on a dry kibble diet when they arrived. They're a perfect pair of kittens- active and entertaining, friendly and cuddly. They both purred easily and were perfectly comfortable with being plucked up and covered with kisses. Repeatedly. Whether napping or gallivanting, they'd immediately relax and accept any love I heaped on them at any time. And since I was on vacation, I was able to spend nearly all my waking hours with them!

Percy, on the other hand, was a very high maintenance kitten. He had been found at 2 days old, ice cold with his sister. A well-meaning but inexperienced Good Samaritan tried to help them by feeding them right away- which is nearly almost fatal, before getting them to the rescue. The intake coordinator warmed them in the incubator and provided supportive care-medication and tube feeding round the clock. But the brutal conditions of an abandoned stray kitten life was too much for his sister and she passed away in the first 24 hours. Without his sister, Percy became listless and we didn't think he'd make it. But Hope & Gratey's mom was willing to risk the heartache and take him to join the twins who were only a week old. Percy was comforted by them and was able to settle down for some healing rest. With tireless and attentive care, Percy slowly recovered and began to grow, though slowly. He was very attached to his bottle and slow to wean, though he had started to finally wean just days before he joined me, transitioning to wet food + formula.

Many fosters hate the weaning stage, as it can be very challenging and risky. But most of all, it's the messiest stage of fostering. Personally, it's one of my favorite stages. Food is love to me, so I love helping kittens learn to love food and don't mind cleaning up their faces, paws, bellies, tails- as kittens at this stage tend to swim in their food while learning to eat it.

Percy needed a lot of extra help to eat food. The first several meals had to start by me opening his mouth and placing a tiny bit of food or gravy on his tongue so he could taste it and get interested. Unfortunately this was a very messy process requiring 2 hands so I couldn't video the look of delighted surprise on his face each time before he started sniffing around for more. As he tried to eat, he'd push the food away from him, and when it got too far, he'd completely lose it and whine piteously in starvation. While this is fairly common for many kittens, Percy's range was extremely short... if the food moved over half an inch from his mouth-hole, he'd become convinced there was nothing left for him to eat. So every time he ate, I had to stand there and constantly push the food back towards him or spoon or handfeed it directly into his mouth. We did this every 4 hours, because he didn't have the energy to each much at a single sitting.

After he ate I'd clean up the mess he made all over his face then wait for him to make a matching mess on the other end. It never took long and it was always GLORIOUS, though I won't blog those pictures.

Yes, I did take pictures. Fosters take poop pictures. Fosters share poop pictures. Fosters will rejoice over a good poop picture! But I have learned that the general public doesn't seem to appreciate them as much as we do. Weird.

I'll just say that Percy was better at eating neatly than he was at pooping neatly. Though I've been really trying to eliminate paper waste by using microfiber cloths for general cleaning (Norwex, yeah!), I have not been able to give up paper towels or wet wipes for weaning kittens. Percy let me wipe his mouth and paws off without much fuss, but he absolutely HATED a bum wipe or wash.
For a tiny kitten, he had HUGE lungs. Percy expressed his displeasure with all his might. Luckily, he was under a pound and pretty easy to manage despite his attempts at ferociousness.

Percy NEVER held a grudge though. Once he had a clean fresh bum, he wanted to snuggle. I had a houseguest the first few days and Percy was obsessed with him. My friend discovered how difficult moving <1lb of sheer cuteness was and was stuck on the floor in a tiny kids bean bag chair for HOURS. Percy was only truly happy when he was with a human.

While Hope and Gratey were perfectly content to explore, eat, and play in the kitten room- entertaining themselves if we weren't available, Percy always followed us to the door when we were leaving the room. If the door gate was taken down, he'd boldly waddle out of the room and go exploring, though never far from me. Percy was completely unbothered by any of my other pets-showing absolutely no fear of anything. He seemed to enjoy finding a comfy resting space outside of the kitten room, as long as I was willing to sit nearby.

During his wandering, in addition to riding my sweet senior dog, Luka, Percy discovered the cat wheel. Though he did finally reach 1lb during his stay with me, he wasn't heavy enough to actually move the wheel and needed help to make it spin. Pigwidgeon decided I wasn't helpful enough and tried to show him how to do it.... don't worry, he was not harmed at all!

During the week, I started mixing a mush of minced up kitten kibble soaked in water into Percy's wetfood+formula mix, gradually replacing the formula with more mush. Then I started decreasing the amount of wetfood until he was happily eating a wet mush. As his food became more solid, so did his poops. It was startling how quickly the leaky liquid butt became constipated and he was the first kitten I've ever met that didn't know how to "pinch it off", so I had to help him with the detachment phase. I reached out to his foster and her mentor and found out Percy had just continually had digestive troubles- probably due to being a preemie with a hard start in life. He's actually been to the vet and is undergoing testing since he's been back with his foster- they're still not sure what's wrong.

It's human nature to be more attached to creatures that need extra help. I only had Percy for a week and I became extremely attached and have pestered his foster for updates since he's been gone. But I think his appeal is more than just his medical/health needs. Percy exudes a charming innocence mixed with oversized confidence.

I might have fought his foster for him if I wasn't leaving for Disneyland shortly after she returned to town. Percy has maxed out charisma! Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that he's healthy enough to be adopted. He's such a special kitten.

Update 10/29/22

Percy & Friday- tiktok

Percy grew up and did get adopted, by his original foster mom. She just couldn't let him go. She just posted this fantastic video that captures his personality perfectly- I hope you love it too!