Working at the "Cat House"

I thought you would like an update on the Kitten Nursery.  I still continue to volunteer for the Kitten Nursery with Best Friends Animal Society.  I find the work difficult at some times but it is also so rewarding.  I love what the kitten nursery is all about and how they are saving lives every day.  I heard statistics last week that 1,400 kittens have come through the nursery this summer!  That is 1,400 kittens that would have been put to sleep without the kitten nursery.  

Kittens are hard.  They need feeding every 2 hours when they are on a bottle.  They need help with their bowels (usually Moms do this for them).  They need love and attention.  Each stage has its own challenges.  The weining babies are ready for more solid food but they aren't necessarily ready to give up the bottle.  Learning to eat food takes time and patience.  And the older "independent" eaters can eat on their own.  But they like to play and they need as much socialization we can afford to give them.  In addition to feeding them, we clean the kennels and weigh ever single kitten, every feeding.  We also make notes on their health.  There is a veterinarian and several medical staff on the team that keep a close eye on the kittens to keep them healthy.  That is quite a feat considering we often have 200 kittens in the nursery at any given time.  The goal is to get the kittens big enough for immunizations and hopefully out to foster homes to be socialized before adoption.  The great news is they all eventually find forever homes - it is a no kill shelter.

It truly breaks my heart each week when I go in and see new babies in there.  It means another mother kitty got pregnant and had yet more babies.  They can have babies every 6 weeks.  We can't even churn out a litter for adoption that fast!  I really hope people are getting the message to spay and neuter their pets!

I thought you would like seeing some photos.

This is the proper position to bottle feed babies.  We suit up in a gown and gloves for every single litter in an attempt to avoid cross contamination of any disease a litter might have.  We call this the superman pose.  They are on a heating pad covered with a puppy pad so they stay warm.

Look at this darling cross-eyed seal point Siamese!  Such a sweetheart.

This is Popcorn.  He is a big sweetheart.  Some of the kittens enjoy stuffed animals. 
Especially when they are in a kennel alone, it is like their mom is there.

 

Check out these cuties.  They are small enough, they are in a bin in the kennel so they stay close and cozy.  They have a "snuggle disk" which is a heated circle that stays warm about 4 hours.  Keeping kittens warm is critical while they are tiny.  I think these guys are about 200 grams each.  I fed them just last Saturday.  They are really hungry.  The tiger one likes to comfort feed so he latches on the bottle and then falls asleep without eating.  I let him hang out for about 25 minutes Saturday although I'm not supposed to spend that much time on one kitten.

This is Vanilla Ice.  He is one of the Nursery rock stars.  Everyone loves Vanilla Ice.  He is such a pretty kitten and his spotted tail is just too cute.  We don't mean to have favorites but sometimes you just can't help it.  (He is in his litter pan)

We will keep volunteering for the nursery until litters quit coming in.  They said last year, it was until about Thanksgiving.  We had tons of volunteers over the summer but it has cut to almost none showing up.  There are full days without volunteers signed up.  So we all go in and do what we can that day to help.  I fear I will be dedicating much more time over the next month or so to help these kittens.  I can't stand to see them hungry and crying for food.

It is probably a good thing the house is on the market or I would be fostering for sure.  I'm pretty sure I would own Vanilla Ice or even Popcorn in due time!  They are so sweet.