The Fosters: The Itty Bitties

I LOVE FOSTERING THE ITTY BITTIES!!! Fostering the tiny ones from early days to adoption is one of my all-time favorite things to do. I’m glad to foster at any age, but this is the absolute best. I know one of my blogging buddies lives in an area where there is a neo-natal rescue, and if we had one here you can bet I’d be doing that all the time.

Mom, (Rebecca) and babies are doing well.

Once I can sex the kittens, and that may be a couple weeks, they will all get names of the “This is Us” characters. I’m so sad that show is ending, but what an amazing final season they have running now. But I digress.

I must be full up on Oxytocin, ’cause I can’t stop saying how much I love working with the itty bitties. One was a good bit less in weight than the others when I weighed everyone this morning, but she/he has already added five grams, which is great. I’m just making sure that kitten bellies up to the bar whenever mom is nursing, which is a lot. Rebecca is a very good mom.

These aren’t good photos, but I need to be able to tell the kittens apart so I can weigh them daily, or more often as needed. So here are the five kittens. You can see how tiny they are compared to my hubby’s hands!

#1 – the smallest one

#2

#3

#4

#5

They range in weight from 195 grams to 270 grams, which is quite the spread. We’re giving them a birthday of 4/25, about 10 days old. Kittens basically sleep and nurse at this stage, and probably won’t do much else for another week or so. Right now, it is just a matter of tracking weights, and handling them regularly so they are comfortable with human touch. Luckily Rebecca doesn’t seem to mind my messing with them a bit.

I’m working on teaching Rebecca about litter boxes. I doubt she had access to one where she was, and she had a big poop on the floor last night. (The good thing was that it looked good, no obvious parasites crawling around in it.) So I put some of that in her litter box, along with a litter box attractant, and I’m hoping she’ll get the message. She’s definitely a fan of food, and has been happy to eat both the canned and dry out for her; she’ll need that in order to feed 5 kittens. She only weighs 5.5 pounds, and I would bet she’s not yet a year old. She is absolutely desperate for attention for herself, and she’s very sweet.

At any rate, that’s the story from here. I will definitely miss these little ones while we’re gone, but they will be in excellent hands, and I’ll be excited to get them back on our return. We’ve got most of the summer together before they will be ready for forever homes.

23 thoughts on “The Fosters: The Itty Bitties”

  2. Such tiny little lives with so much ahead of them……they have a great Mom (and foster parents!!)…..There’s something about kittens though that makes you just plain SMILE!

    Hugs, Pam

    1. They are smile-worthy for sure. So much fun watching little ones discover things for the first time.

      2. Probably didn’t have much in the way of nutrition before now. Shes eating like the proverbial pig.

  6. #1 in the Tupperware container–you were not kidding about ‘tiny.’ I was looking at their faces, trying to differentiate–good luck! I did poorly. 😸

    1. They are actually pretty easy to tell apart, thankfully. They have different blazes on the face and different colored fur around the eyes, and other things that help. Not like the litter of brown tabbies that I had a bit ago that I could never tell apart, and had to put collars on them. #2 and #5 are the closest, with only the difference of a little beauty mark near the mouth on #5.

  7. Oh my heavens, they really are itty bitties, aren’t they. So cute. I’ve always been a fan of B&W cats-they are adorable. Have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend with your fur babies.

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