Kitteh!
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The amazing expanding tiny kitteh. She got a rough start, abandoned by mom sometime between 7 and 10 days old, left screaming on my daughter’s front porch for possibly as long as 24 hours (and verifiably over 12), absolutely covered with fleas and flea shit, with intestinal parasites as well. She (we’re still not sure) survived all of that, and is now to the near-running stage. Her appetite has basically doubled in the last two days. Moar kitteh!
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When she’s had enough to eat, she likes to settle in on my S.O.'s shoulder and take a nap.
Does kitteh have a name?
@heartny Because kitteh is officially a foster, she has only an interim designation as “fuzzy bean”. To us, naming a cat makes it our cat.
@heartny @werehatrack watch out though. I named one I was fostering thingthing (as I had named the other two I was fostering thing1 and thing2) and opps. I kept her. That is still her name. Actually I wish I had kept thing1 as well. That was a darling cat as well and incredibly loving and calm. I have always regretted rehoming him.
@heartny @Kidsandliz @werehatrack and that is why i can never foster. I would keep them all.
@heartny @werehatrack Back in August 2021…
Steve, Goose, Bucky, Carol, Wanda, and Wendy.
Still here. I knew when he started to name them…
@heartny @Kidsandliz @werehatrack Yup, I didn’t want to rename the random Staffy that showed up in my yard, so I started calling him Schmoopie, because of his squishy schmoo face.
I searched for owners for a month.
And now I have a Staffy named Schmoopie.
Obligatory pet tax:
@brainmist @heartny @Kidsandliz @werehatrack The name suits him - he’s pretty cute.
I want to see her little face!
@Kyeh I tried to get a portrait shot; kitteh wasn’t cooperating.
@werehatrack Awww - I hope you can catch her off-guard sometime.
@Kyeh New pic posted below.
@werehatrack Awwww. Thanks. I hope we get updates as she gets bigger.
Black kitties are the best.
The original Lisa Violet. We were on a Simpson’s kick and my mom’s name was Violet (she’s where we got her).
@lisaviolet What a sweetie!
Our local shelter does a “clear the shelter” day where adoption fees are $10 which includes spay/neuter and shots. They also do “pets for Vets” day where adoptions are free. We can not go to the shelter anymore as we are full of cats and dogs from these events. If we went we would find somebody that we couldn’t leave behind.
gasp precious void-kitteh!
Fuzzy bean understands the purpose of the litterbox, yay! Now I need to build her a ramp to get into it.
@werehatrack Ramp? Stunt Kitteh videos to follow?
@werehatrack or use a smaller pan with lower sides. A brownie pan would work. Then clean it well and bleach it once she is big enough for a regular dirt box.
@Kidsandliz No way to keep the other cats out of it, unless I put her in a kennel. And two of them are, shall we say, excavators.
@Kidsandliz And he’s having no issues with getting in and out of the box anyway.
@werehatrack
Or should I say blue-te-ful! 
Those eyes! They’re beautiful!
The more current state of the kitten:
I just saw a novel idea for feeding a kitten:
@Kyeh That kitten is roughly nine times the size of what I was working with, maybe rather more.
@werehatrack Yeah, I know.
I just thought it was hilarious.
Feeding info back to the hive, I figured out an easy way to make a kitten-feeding syringe glide with very little or no push. Pop the piston out, clean as usual, and then coat the black piston head with bacon grease or lard. Reassemble, give it a couple of strokes, and you have an instant Kitten Stuffer. Often, the kitten will be able to pull the piston in unassisted. This beats the heck out of trying to play the speed-matching game.
OBTW, every single one of the commercial kitten feeding bottles I have tried is a misdesigned worthless POS whose only saving grace is that because they don’t supply the nipples already pierced or slitted (which they thoughtfully avoid mentioning) they cannot deliver any milk to a kitten that has been laid on its back - which is the only position in which they would work. And they won’t work with the nipple slitted or pierced either - because there’s no vent to allow air into the extremely rigid bottle. Bad - bad - bad from start to finish.
Anyway, locally, the “rescue group gold standard” is the 10cc slip-fit syringe (not LuerLock). And don’t try fitting it with one of the bottle nipples. That’s another rant. Just don’t.
@werehatrack I found my kitten would just chew on the bottle nipple to no (or barely) any avail. So I resorted to a syringe where I cut off part of the length so the opening was bigger and it didn’t shoot milk with such force and just syringed it in.
This morning, I found the kitten nose down and crunching away on the adults’ kibble. And he has suddenly discovered how to play without having his claws out. But he still wants to gnaw on my ankles. And pant legs are now trees to climb.
@werehatrack Wow - that was fast!
@Kyeh I blame the kitten. I had no idea what I was doing, but the kitten did.
@werehatrack He’s a survivor!
@Kyeh He is that, and I have learned a bunch in the process.
@werehatrack That’s really cool. I have a feeling he might just end up getting named …
@Kyeh My daughter apparently has a home lined up for him.
@werehatrack Well, that’s cool. I hope we get to see him again when he’s big enough to get adopted.
The amazing expanding fuzzy bean; now 1.5 lbs, and since yesterday, no longer blue-eyed. (That was fast.)
@werehatrack
Wow. He’s still so tiny!
@Kyeh @werehatrack technically if he’s off formula/chowing down/has no mom IDK that there’s a reason to wait to adopt him out if she’s found someone? Normally the reason is to allow nursing for antibodies and maybe some parenting/weaning. But. If they can handle him and he’s got no one might be better sooner than later? Not sure how bonding would work in that situation.
Granted he might make a horrible mouser and maybe your others are showing him. Could also be better to get used to you if he can tell the difference. Then be more comfortable with someone else… IDK. They definitely know who their owners are
Moar fuzzy bean
@werehatrack I love that you can see his ‘spots’ on his belly! Like a little black leopard, lol!
He’s so cute!
@k4evryng @werehatrack
I wonder if he’s actually a smoke tabby? I had one - black, but with barely visible black stripes, and if you brushed his fur back, it was white at the roots.
@Kyeh probably! I guess that would be considered a Mackerel Tabby? There are classic or spotted tabby’s too…but Werehatrack’s has stripes and spots, so I’m not sure, lol!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black cat with white roots before (admittedly, I’ve never checked, lol!), but that is very cool! He’s so cute…black cats are so pretty!
All 3 of mine are just mackerels…but I just love those little black spots on his belly!
@k4evryng @Kyeh @werehatrack
That’s neat, never saw white roots on a black cat!
Kitteh is not ready to accept weaning just yet; he went full-leopard on the S.O., expressing hunger by trying to eat his face earlier, so I mixed up some “bean juice” and dispensed 36ccs with immediate cessation of lethal insistence. (Okay, not really lethal, but hey, hungry carnivore.) (I call it “bean juice” because the unofficial designation for this one is “fuzzy bean”, and thus the bean’s formula mixture becomes “bean juice”.)
@werehatrack I love him so much!
@werehatrack Wish you could get the bean up to DFW. One of our mutual friends is fostering a mama and three beautiful four week old babies.
I guess Friday was National Black Cat Day; I just saw that. Belated happy black cat day, little bean!