mel's art zone

There's this stray cat that frequents my house that I call Baby when I see her. I had tried to trap and release her to check for any signs of past ownership and maybe get her adopted because she's so friendly. Well she dodged my trapping attempts and ended up having babies under my porch.

I literally tore the floorboards out with my bare hands to help them out. At first I only found two, but then I checked to make sure there weren't more and found a third!

So, once I had babies in hand and established trust that I was going to hurt them, I was able to take them into a spare room and mama followed. I made sure they're separated very securely from my two adult cats and 12 lbs Chihuahua mix (who loves cats btw).

I took a call at work (veterinary office) from a woman who said she found a "very baby" kitten in the middle of the street. After asking if we (the clinic) could take it (we technically do not board or foster), I said bring the kitten up away so I can assess how old it is. Bottle babies are incredibly fragile and can die easily so I didn't want to risk this lady with no kitten knowledge to accidentally do that.

After seeing that she's A) female and B) probably about 3ish weeks old based on her eye/ear development, I decide I'll try and graft her onto my nursing mama and see if I can help her.

After a dawn soap bath and a drive home shoved in my sports bra driving my truck for 30 minutes, I got the new little one home. Baby mama and her kids took to her immediately. I had a backup plan if mama wasn't willing to adopt her involving scent spreading I had gotten as a tip from a veteran cat volunteer, but I'd still never done this. I was so taken aback by how easy she blended into our little found family.

Meet Dessert! The luckiest black cat in the world who - against all odds - managed to somehow be both the most fragile creature on earth with the funniest, noisiest meow, and still survived the busy DFW roads, was SPOTTED by someone, brought to a vet who just HAPPENS to have a knowledged vet tech with a mama cat at and babies at the same relative age.

Not to mention - on a personal level, I'm going through some of the hardest emotional shit I've ever been through dealing with a very messy breakup situation, losing a member of my own found family in the process, and grappling with self harm/self hatred because of how it all went down. I had just literally the night before Dessert was found been venting to a friend about how I feel like a lost animal right now and bringing together other lost animals into new happy families is what I want to be doing most right now, and then she falls into my lap.

I am convinced this is cat is a good luck charm.

Just a little update on my kitties:

They're going to be 4 weeks old and they've developed so much so quickly. They're running around and interacting with play things. I've brought them to my work to get looked over by my doctors. Dessert's got a bit of chronic goopy eye I'm treating but other than that they're doing great 😊

Mama cat has been spayed, chipped, tipped, and has an outdoor enclosure with readily available food and water. I see her almost every day when I leave for work and come home. She actually drew attention to another litter and mama who need help so I'm gonna get them trapped and taken care of now that I have a trapping permit.

King is the one I kept, the only male, aka LUNCH. Clover (dessert) is now living with my sister. Breakfast and dinner now Sable and Dottie are living with my local friend.