Three Little Kittens

Two weeks ago we had three days of steady downpour in Chicago – the kind of rain during which there is no let up. On the morning of the second day of the deluge, I had an e-mail from one of my across-the-street neighbors, Aga, who said that she, her husband and son, had rescued three small kittens from the alley behind their home the previous evening.

“When we saw them at first, we thought they were baby bunnies. We could not NOT bring them in from the storm,” she said. That’s the kindness that Aga shows to everyone –humans and animals alike.

I live in a neighborhood where there are no stray cats, so I thought it odd that three little kittens had mysteriously shown up. Aga asked me to come over at my convenience to check on them and early that evening after work, I paid a visit.

Aga and her family had placed the kittens in a lovely, large bathroom in their finished basement and the three wee ones were huddled in a corner. They hadn’t touched the milk that Aga had offered them and weren’t hungry for the canned food that I brought. The kittens were about five weeks old. The irises – the colored portion of the eyes – change from blue to a cat’s adult color at about six weeks of age; these kittens’ irises were in an in-between stage. The was one handsome grey and cream shorthaired male; a larger female shorthaired brown tabby; and a very petite shorthaired grey female. Aga’s son is allergic to cats and dogs, so I volunteered to bring the kittens over to my house, give them a few weeks of TLC and try to place them with one of the excellent, small, cats-only, no-kill shelters that we have in the city. The kittens were easy to load into the carrier I brought with me and off we went.

I have written before that my husband and I live with four adult cats (Albert, Mikey, Emmy and Gwen) and four basset hounds (Daphne, Theo, Milton and Julia). The dogs were out in the yard when I brought the kittens in, but the cats quickly surrounded the carrier and weren’t too thrilled with the prospect of new felines in the household. I assured them that these were little waifs who needed a home for a few weeks and that they were temporarily staying.

That seemed to go over well with our cats, who I should mention were ALL strays at one time in their lives. How quickly they forget!

I put the kittens in a very large dog crate in our finished basement, provided a large old pie plate filled with Feline Pine for a cat box, “mooshed” some canned food on a glass plate, put in a small bowl of fresh water, provided nice, thick towels for cuddling up and sprayed the entire crate with some facial marking pheromone spray, which helps to decrease anxiety.

The next morning, I was greeted by three little kittens who had developed very distinctive “purrsonalities”! The little male was the greeter and a cuddler of the highest degree; the little brown tabby girl was a bit shy and hid under one of the blankets (but could be coaxed out); and the littlest kitten was a hisser and a spitter who really thought she was one tough cookie! They had polished off the food and like good kitties had used the cat box without a miss!

Each day, I took the kittens out individually and as a group and worked with them. It’s important to expose young kittens to a variety of stimuli as early as possible. So, I cuddled them, petted them all over, walked around with them and very carefully allowed them to see (but not interact with) the cats and dogs in the household. We definitely made progress in a short amount of time and I measured the progress by how much hissing and spitting the little grey gal did each time she saw me. After five days, she came up to me without so much as a snort and while she wasn’t the cuddler that her brother was, she was well on her way. The happy ending to the story is that a wonderful no-kill shelter in Chicago found room for them on Sunday and my friend Nancy and I brought them over to Felines, Inc. early in the afternoon. I have no doubt that next month, each of them will find themselves in a new, forever home. If I get an update from the shelter, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Have you ever taken in unwanted kittens? If so, how did you find them new homes?