cat ailments: Size of a mouse, but a voice of a lion!

Look what was found two days ago! This newborn kitten was screaming in front of a local hardware store, when Chris from Lutwala went to do some shopping.

Chris heard it cry and went to check what was the noise about. The poor kitten was covered in ants and was - naturally - just miserable. No mommycat anywhere to be seen. Well, what can you do? You cannot just turn your back and walk away, so Chris picked up the kitten and hurried back to Lutwala. Hardware shopping could wait!

Fern called me and told about what happened, asked if I had any small syringes, since one was needed for feeding the little thing. Sure, I had one, took my bike and rushed to Lutwala to see what's going on.

The kitten was clearly just one day old when found, it even still had it's umbilical cord (excuse me for most likely spelling this totally wrong, but you know, the "wire" going from your bellybutton to...eh...somewhere, while you are still in uterus. Yes, I know I totally impress everyone with my medical knowledge now!). The kitten had a bit of bleeding from it's mouth and nose, since ants had been eating it alive when Chris found it. It also had some maggot eggs around it's tail, but all was picked off with tweezers. Other than that it looked just fine.

We have been asking around if anyone has a mommycat with newborn babies, since a surrogate mommy would be the perfect solution, but so far no luck with that. So, a baby formula is being fed - a formula for human babies, since we don't have any formula for kittens, yet. Luckily, BARC, an animal welfare organization in Bali, promised to send some when Fern called them yesterday.

They have a lot of experience in taking care of orphan kittens at Lutwala, but they've never had one this tiny - a newborn - before. And sure, we know the chances for a kitten this young to survive without it's mommy are small; even with a mommycat around not all kittens make it. But everything possible is being done at Lutwala to keep the poor baby alive.

So far so good: it eats A LOT, and all the time (during the night too!), it pees and poos when it's bum is gently wiped with a wet cotton (normally mommycats lick their kittens to make them do the toilet business), and it's LOUD. Incredible how much noise it makes, being so, so tiny! It surely has strong lungs! Size of a mouse, but a voice of a lion!

Day 3 going now and it's still alive, it's incredibly cute and it's doing good! But it's one day at a time. Fingers are tightly crossed for the ginger kitten's survival.