Here is her story:
In May 2009 my neighbor's cat had a litter of four kittens. A few weeks later, I could hear the babies crying in distress. I went next door to find out what was wrong.
They told me the mama cat wouldn't take care of the kittens. She would leave them out in rain puddles.
The neighbors were trying to feed the babies, but they still kept crying. They said 2 of the babies had disappeared and they didn't know what happened to them!
I could not bear the thought that the two remaining kittens might also "disappear" and die of neglect and exposure!
I immediately offered to take the babies and they gratefully turned them over to me.
As soon as I picked them up and cradled them to my chest, they stopped crying.
They were so tiny.
I could feel they were skin and bones and were undernourished. Their little blue eyes were open, and they were just starting to walk on their wobbly little legs.
I estimated they were about three weeks old at that time.
One of the kittens was an orange boy, and the other was a black girl.
The little girl was constipated even at three weeks, and didn't poop for a few days.
I started feeding them diluted evaporated milk, which is what the neighbors had been giving them.
I went online to find information about bottle-feeding kittens. When I saw the price of kitten milk replacers, and read the list of mostly species-inappropriate ingredients they contained, I made my own formula for them. I mixed diluted evaporated milk with an egg yolk from my free-range chickens and added the contents of a fish oil capsule.
I took them to work with me for a few weeks so I could feed them when they were hungry.
Little Princess Babycakes always had a funky gut. Her belly was always bloated. Sometimes her poops were tinged with blood. Sometimes she was stinky and farty.
Her brother Beavis had a much bigger appetite and grew a lot faster than she did.
Despite her digestive issues, Princess Babycakes was alert and lively and strong.
She was a fighter, and she survived for a reason!
