What I Learned from A Tiny Kitten

First, for those of you who are unaware, I love kitties and am including images of cats we’ve rescued who live with us now, at about the age we took them in, and Tiny Mite at the end. Our cats are a Siamese Tabby Mix, Pavel, (1-year-old now) Percy, a Gray Tabby, middle-aged, and Minnie Mae, the oldest, rescued as a several days old kitten. The kitten tea party is Minnie Mae and Percy is singing and dancing with our rescue dog, Mia.

Back to my story. Saturday evening I discovered a newborn kitten in the garden by the rhubarb patch, its siblings dead or dying. Tiny Mite, as I called her, was squawking loudly, which is how I made the discovery. We finally located the barn cat mama, or think we did, but she wasn’t interested. I assumed an infant with such a powerful set of lungs had a fighting chance, even though she was so new and it was chilly out. Daughter Elise and I warmed the baby and prepared our homemade kitten formula, the simple recipe given to us by a country vet, and tried to feed her with a small syringe. Problem is, she didn’t have a good sucking reflex. This continued to be a struggle as we attempted to coax drops into her mouth. We were up every few hours trying to feed her and reheating the improvised water bottle and cloths for her box.

For a while, she seemed to rally, and on Monday morning we felt more hopeful. Then as the evening progressed, she grew less wriggly, feeding her was more difficult, and she was so sleepy. We thought maybe she was just worn out, but I feared the worst, which came to pass early Tuesday morning. I tried much of the night to save her, realized it was futile and held her until Elise got up, then she cupped Tiny Mite in her hand, stroking her, until she faded away. We also noticed she made a clicking sound that had grown steadily worse over night and assume she probably got pneumonia from aspirating formula, because she was too weak to suck properly. We even bought her the recommended brand on Sunday morning, but it made no difference. The mother of a friend who works for the local cat rescue organization said kittens that new are very difficult to save, and they probably couldn’t have saved her either. Although I realize some people have managed, and wish I could have been one of you..

We’ve done many kitten rescues over the years, most of them successful, but never one this newborn. The others all had at least a few vital days with their mama’s first.

We were very saddened by this loss, and touched by this tiny life. It amazed me just how much even the tiniest soul can move us in ways we never imagined. And I’ve often thought of the words to the beloved hymn: “All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures great and small, All Things wise and wonderful, the Lord God Made them All.” .

Every time we try to save a helpless creature, it may or may not survive, and we risk the pain of loss, but are also enriched in ways that cannot be described, if you haven’t ever cupped a minuscule kitten in your palms, pacing and praying, realizing it was going to die and you could only be of comfort. And that maybe, you’re not such a bad person; you must have a good heart to spend hours in the night doing this, to care so much. It was an epiphany.

We buried Tiny Mite beside the rhubarb patch where we found her.

Who Doesn’t Love Baby Bunnies and Kittens–Beth Trissel

“It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens.” ~Cynthia E. Varnado

“An ordinary kitten will ask more questions than any five-year-old.”
Carl Van Vechten

“A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there.”
Agnes Repplier

These precious little cuties are my son and daughter-in-law’s. Elise and I went to visit this week and she had her camera.  I’m holding them in my bandaged overgardened hands. I got in a fight with a thistle and lost.

“It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is ‘soporific’.”
― Beatrix Potter, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

“Peter lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, And the other shoe amongst the potatoes.”
― Beatrix Potter

“Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: “One table-spoonful to be taken at bedtime.”
― Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Rescuing An Orphan Kitten

Excerpt from my award-winning nonfiction book Shenandoah Watercolors:

“Elise and I found a bedraggled black kitten in a shadowed corner of the old barn huddled beside an ancient water trough. Manure and hay stuck to its fur and its head was slick in places from a calf’s sympathetic tongue. We carried the mewing puffball down to the house and gave it a bath. Being mostly fur, it shrank considerably in the water and nearly disappeared. After drying this soggy specimen of catdom, we bundled it up in an old towel and fed it the formula concocted by a local vet for orphan kittens: one cup whole milk, one teaspoon of vegetable oil, one egg yolk, whisk well, and warm. (Use a tiny pet feeding bottle or syringe)

This baby is old enough to lap and downed the lot I’d poured into a lid. We filled a canning jar with hot water, screwed the lid on tightly and tucked our swaddled charge beside the improvised water bottle back in the small closet in the laundry room. Assorted farm coats, jeans, and shirts hang on hooks up above and brush our heads as we kneel to peer into this den-like place. There’s nothing dogs like better for a bed than a worn coat with that farm smell clinging to it, cozily tucked back into this closet.

Cats prefer sunbeams but will make do. I’ve spent many hours on my knees helping to birth puppies, fuss over their care and tend kittens. Countless kittens and puppies, tiny terriers that could fit in a shoe box, medium size dogs and dogs that have grown too big but are still attached, have called this comforting space home. The narrow walls are gnawed and deeply grooved from the many inhabitants over the years. Every household should have such a place.

Fortunately Mia also likes her dog bed in the dining room because she can’t be trusted to kitten-sit. The formula rapidly dwindles. Not only that, but she’s afraid of kittens. Silly, silly Mia. The kitten does not yet have a name because if you name a creature this implies that it’s staying, which this one very well may be. Sometimes you just need a kitten and Elise is at that time. Perhaps I am too.

Oddly, it would seem Mia always wanted a kitten of her own after all. She follows the minute puff ball around the kitchen and hovers over it with a worried look. Actually, Mia generally looks worried. I suppose from earlier traumas before we took her in. She’s never had a small furry friend and even tries to play with the kitten as it bounds around the kitchen in great excitement, over everything and anything.

My mother made the observation that kittens and other babies can utterly give themselves to play in a way that the rest of us can’t because we’ve had the play smacked out of us by life. Now and then, I think we should all play as unreservedly as possible.”

Since I wrote this piece, Elise and I have gone on to rescue several other kittens.  If it weren’t for the restraint urged by my husband, we would have many more.

***Images of kitten and gosling and Mia as a young dog with our rescue kitten Percy taken by my mom, Pat Churchman

***Our latest rescue kitten Pavel,  Pavel with my niece Cailin, and Grandson Colin holding rescue kitten beside my tiny pom-poo Sadie taken by Elise

We Live With A Flying Squirrel–Well, Kind Of

Cats are sacred to our people.  These pics taken by daughter Elise are of kitten Pavel, pronounced Pabel, who grew from  a tiny sleepy little runt to a healthy, happy, busy kitty flying around the house.

“Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.”  ~Mary Bly

“Although all cat games have their rules and rituals, these vary with the individual player.
The cat, of course, never breaks a rule. If it does not follow precedent, that simply means
it has created a new rule and it is up to you to learn it quickly if you want the game to continue.”   (Sidney Denham)

“Kittens are born with their eyes shut.  They open them in about six days, take a look around, then close them again for the better part of their lives.”  ~Stephen Baker

“Cats seem to go on the principal that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.”   (Joseph Wood Krutch)

“Cats are love on four legs.”  (Richard Torregrossa)

“There is something about the presence of a cat… that seems to take the bite out of being alone.” ~Louis J. Camuti

“Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash.  That one is the cat.  If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”  (Mark Twain)

“As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.”  ~Ellen Perry Berkeley

“There is no more intrepid explorer than a kitten.”  (Champfleury)

“Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience.” ~Pam Brown

“After scolding one’s cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word.  And has filed it for reference.”  ~Charlotte Gray

“A cat can be trusted to purr when she is pleased, which is more than can be said for human beings.”  ~William Ralph Inge

“The reason cats climb is so that they can look down on almost every other animal – it’s also the reason they hate birds.”  ~K.C. Buffington

“A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem.”  ~Jean Burden

“There has never been a cat
Who couldn’t calm me down
By walking slowly
Past my chair.”
~Rod McKuen

“Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning.  He won’t attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling.”

~Helen Powers

“A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather.”  ~Judith Merkle Riley

“I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.”  ~Edgar Allan Poe

“A world without cats…I dare not think of it.”(Anonymous)

“The cat is the only animal which accepts the comforts but rejects the bondage of domesticity.”  ~Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon

***And what of you, do you live with flying squirrels too?

Writers and Cats~

We recently took in an unusual barn kitty, the part Siamese offspring of a tabby mama.  A tiny runt, Pavel (pronounced Pabel) was half the size of his robust litter mates.   We’re told he was born pink and hairless, so must have been a premie.

Feisty,  we guess that’s how he survived, this determined little guy can be very sweet and purry when he so desires and has brought much pleasure  into our life.  I particularly like it when he cuddles with me.  Mostly he wants to play and practice his pouncing.  Our two older cats Percy and Minnie Mae are gradually adjusting to him, although relationships have been strained.  They were once the new kid who had to gain acceptance among the ranks.  I tell them sometimes you just need a kitten.

“It is impossible to keep a straight face in the presence of one or more kittens.” ~Cynthia E. Varnado

“A catless writer is almost inconceivable.  It’s a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat; they make nests in the notes and bite the end of the pen and walk on the typewriter keys.”  ~Barbara Holland

(Pavel and my little pom poo Sadie Sue sitting with me as I write).

“The cat could very well be man’s best friend but would never stoop to admitting it.”  ~Doug Larson

“There has never been a cat
Who couldn’t calm me down
By walking slowly
Past my chair.”
~Rod McKuen

“I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult.  It’s not.  Mine had me trained in two days.”  ~Bill Dana

“If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor, a cat will find it and soak it up.”  ~J.A. McIntosh

“No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.”  ~Leo Dworken

“Kittens believe that all nature is occupied with their diversion.”  ~F.A. Paradis de Moncrif

*Images by daughter Elise

Kitten Rescue

My youngest daughter, Elise, and I found a bedraggled black kitten in a murky corner of the old red barn huddled beside an ancient water trough. Hay was stuck to its fur and its head slick in places from a calf’s sympathetic tongue. We carried the mewing puff ball down to the house and gave it a bath. Being mostly fur, it shrank considerably in the water and nearly disappeared.

After drying this soggy specimen of catdom, we bundled it up in an old towel and fed it the formula concocted by a local vet for orphan kittens: one cup whole milk, one teaspoon of vegetable oil, one egg yolk, whisk well and warm. Sometimes I use a tiny bottle, but this baby is old enough to lap and downed the lot I had poured into a shallow lid. We filled a canning jar with hot water, screwed the lid on tightly and tucked our swaddled charge beside the improvised water bottle back in the small closet in the laundry room.

Assorted farm coats, jeans and shirts hang on hooks up above and brush our heads as we kneel to peer into this den-like place. There’s nothing dogs like better for a bed than a worn coat with that barn smell still clinging to it, cozily tucked back into this closet. Cats prefer sunbeams but will make do. I’ve spent many hours on my knees helping to birth puppies, fuss over their care and tend kittens. Countless kittens and puppies, tiny terriers that could fit in a shoe box, medium size dogs and dogs that have grown too big but are still attached, have called this comforting space home. The narrow walls are gnawed and deeply grooved from the many inhabitants over the years. Every household should have such a place.

Fortunately our rescue dog, Mia, also likes her bed in the dining room because she cannot be trusted to kitten-sit. The formula rapidly dwindles. Not only that, she’s afraid of kittens. Silly, silly Mia. The kitten does not yet have a name because if you name a creature that implies that it’s staying, which this one very well may be. Sometimes you just need a kitten.

Oddly, it would seem that Mia always wanted a kitten of her own after all. She follows the minute puff ball around the kitchen and hovers over it with a worried look. Actually, Mia generally looks worried. I suppose from earlier traumas before we took her in. She has never had a small furry friend though and even tries to play with the kitten as it bounds around the kitchen in great excitement over everything and anything.

My mother made the observation that kittens and other babies can utterly give themselves to play in a way that the rest of us can’t because we’ve had the play smacked out of us by life. Now and then, I think we should all play as unreservedly as possible.

Photograph of a rescue kitten and baby barnyard goose by my mother, Pat Churchman