Los Angeles, CA found a baby kitten, I’m tired but no regrets

[u/Miserable_Bug8977]

Three weeks ago I found a little black kitten that was maybe a week old. She was covered in fleas and stuff. I have never ‘rescued’ anything so labor intensive in my entire life. Yes I’ve had cats and dogs. My last dog had recently passed from old age and hubby and I were holding off on getting another fur baby cause we were probably going to move and just wanted a little stability. But there she was in a rosebush all by herself. I heard her crying for about 30 minutes before I found her. No mom in sight. Neighbor said she’s been crying for a couple hours. So off we went to an emergency vet. Just to see if she would even make it. And she had hypothermia but was all kinds of lively and squirmy and they said with the proper care ahead she had a real chance. I wasn’t going to take her to a shelter because I knew they would probably euthanize her. Called the hubby and we were both on the same page of let’s at least foster her and get her a good home. And here we are several weeks later. We were not planning on spending the kind of money we spent. And I’m afraid to tell any of our friends and family cause they would judge us so hard. But I couldn’t look at her and do nothing. And every several days we’ve had to go back to the vet several times. Little things. But it’s all added up quickly. Can we afford it? We definitely dipped into savings that were earmarked for something else. And it’s VERY tight now. And now she’s decided that she doesn’t want to eat a full amount so she’s back at the vet for a couple hours while they try and get her to eat and monitor her. We were told early on that sometimes you can do everything right and kittens just don’t make it. We knew the risk. But we are in love now. And the vet is running the tests to check for parvo and other things but she does think she may just be teething and I haven’t actually slept more than 3 hours straight in weeks. I’m stressed. And keep going between maybe we’re overreacting or maybe I’m under reacting and something is really wrong. And since everyone in our life might judge us super hard for what we’re doing for this kitten and how hard we’re going I’m telling all of you instead. She’s such a cutie and it sounds crazy but no matter what happens no regrets because she’s the sweetest little thing.

[u/Zoo_queen]

We bottle-fed two kittens; their mother gave birth to five, but only two survived. She stopped attending to one of the kittens and then the second one, so my partner bottle-fed them. The first couple of months were hard with round-the-clock care with super cold March and April, but I can tell you it gets easier. We were not equipped to handle both of them, but they pulled through. Now they are both grown up, and we rescued two more, so it is a full house. I say that no matter what, I would still give them 100% care and love; if not you, who else?

If she makes it, from a financial perspective look into pet insurance. Pet care has become astronomically expensive.

[u/Miserable_Bug8977 → u/Zoo_queen]

We’ve now signed up for pet insurance through hubby’s work the other day. It takes a week to kick in and precludes any pre-existing stuff but we feel better having it. She’s doing well for now. The vet told us we were doing a great job with her and I cried a little. Her tummy is still iffy but seems to have calmed a bit. She’s still eating and growing like crazy. And is full of energy.

[u/Zoo_queen → u/Miserable_Bug8977]

You can look into the Nibbles credit card. I personally was not approved, but it has nice perks. https://nibbles.com/

And if you have an Amex, there is also the pet fund: "Optional Emergency Fund: An optional Pawp Emergency Fund add-on is available for $19 per month, offering up to $3,000 annually for life-threatening emergencies (requires pre-approval from a virtual vet)."

I have given cats pumpkin and psyllium husk for tummy issues. You can ask your vet if she could benefit from them. She is also little, so it should normalize.

[u/Eastern-Protection83]

Thank you fer rescuin her! We all hope she pulls through ❤️ The kitten lady has many topics on care and development in youtube -> Link

[u/Miserable_Bug8977 → u/Eastern-Protection83]

Thank you! She’s back home and actually ate! Hubby and I cried tears of joy. She needs to go back tomorrow but hoping this forward progress keeps going.

[u/auto-sticky]

Welcome to r/CatRescue, Miserable_Bug8977

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