Oops, she’s done it again! Boo too. Boo is as much to blame!

Yesterday  I went to The Breeders farm to collect my milk.  (The Breeder bred Daisy and is my mentor in all things Cow). She was flat out. Jogging across her quad to say Hullo. Huge tractors and trailers parked  by the bins. The flat sun was shining and they were harvesting and there is no rest until the crop is all in.  Can you take these criers? she said.  Their mother has gone.  We briskly trotted to her barn. I did not realise’ til this morning but I have been in the fields. She continued.  I don’t have time.  It added up slowly. The mother cat might have been gone a few days. Abandoned kittens. No longer crying. Just lying still.

Ok,  I said, without thinking, following her into her barn, she scooped up three tiny, tiny kittens.  Eyes still closed. This one feels cold, she said.  Still alive though. She works with animals. She knows the score. She knows what a small cold body means. Pop her in, I said. I will see. Not looking good though,  I agreed, as I tucked the cold wee body in with its siblings. One marmalade coloured was bigger than the rest and two the colour of fresh mushrooms.

I put the box of kittens in the car. Ton moved back, he is not  a Cat Dog – Boo moved forward and lay himself on the seat next to them. We drove home. Quick Smart.

Their eyes were still closed. Glued shut.  I added a hot water bottle to their box and Boo and I cleaned all the gunk from around their eyes with warm tea and the first thing this wee cat saw was this .

And all the rest of the day as I fed them with an eye dropper, every hour, with warm very diluted raw cows milk and a little egg mixed in- Boo had his face in every stage.  More than once I had to tell him not to take the kittens out of the box without asking first.

And I learnt an interesting thing from Becoming Cliche  who works in a zoo – so she knows about these things. I sent her an SOS as the littlest one was so cold.  If you try to feed a little animal who has already gone cold, so cold they cannot digest, the food will rot in their bellies,  she wrote. So it is important to warm the animal first.  In your bra, she suggested!  She obviously has no idea how  small my bra is. However. Boo took over. 

Boo has their corner.

Yes, that is a shot of a dog asleep with his head in a box of dozing kittens.

Good morning. Boo and I fed the kittens tiny feeds of milk through the night and each time they seemed stronger. I am using the same theory as the lambs. Tiny drinks often. They are in a bigger box now, which is wrapped in a duvet. The little pale fella is warm now and as noisy as the others.So far so good.  They can slowly creep about the floor at feed time, though not very fast (and not far as Boo lays in front of them to prevent them getting away) but I am hoping that soon they can lap their milk from a saucer. I think they might be about a week old but it is hard for me to tell. I do not have a bottle small enough for a cat, and using the eye dropper is not ideal. Though I have read that a syringe is better so I will try that today.

I have also read a dozen alarming articles on hand rearing kittens and it seems the problems are myriad.  But I am going to follow my own instincts and do the best we can.

So I did not get around to picking the apples yesterday.  Today maybe?

your friend on the farmy, celi