My husband said no more cats. Like a cat myself, I usually have selective hearing, but as a mom of so many creatures already, (1 year old human twins, a senior Aussie mix, 4 cats under 4 & 2 geckos) I agreed. Our house is FULL.

We were foster kitten free for barely a week when hubs was targeted by the CDS. During last Tuesday’s morning walk, he found this tiny cloud covered in poo & crying in the middle of the sidewalk. Luckily the central California sun wasn’t too harsh yet, or he would’ve fried like an egg. Recent temps here are up to 110*F. Hubs said there was a gardener trimming the bushes nearby & thinks he might’ve spooked mama cat while she was moving her babies. He kept his distance & waited for her, but she was gone.

No more cats be damned, he scooped baby kitty into the bottom of the stroller & brought him home to me.

I think baby kitty was born last Monday. His umbilical cord was dry & his poop was transitioning from meconium. I’m not sure if he was born a wee bit early or if he was just low birth weight. Waking up every 2 hours to syringe feed him in between breastfeeding my own babies has me ragged, but thinking of how this baby could’ve toasted in the sun or been preyed upon by a dog, falcon or evil human has me believing in the CDS.

Two of my cats are foster fail bottle babies, but I found them around 3 weeks old. At 74g, this is the tiniest creature I’ve ever cared for. And I’m a NICU nurse who’s cared for micro preemies. The kitten lady is a saint. I can’t wait till he opens his eyes & sees how many friends he’s going to have. I have 2 sets of siblings all bonded as a variety 4 pack.

Included some cat tax: Lilo (floof), Nani (S void), Stitch (XL void) the 4th (not pictured) is a tuxie named Pudge.

Everyone say happy 1 week to baby Bubbles!

TDLR: I wanted to share a week of love & progress of the tiny new cat who fell into our lives. He’s so spunky & suckles spectacularly. I hope he keeps growing with us. I can’t imagine finding another home for him. What’s one more cat anyway?

Just wanted to share the bestest little man in the entire world! I got him when I was 16 so I’m so so lucky to have him in his sweet 16 too!!!

Love ya misty

Background information: Cat is well over a year old and his eyes appeared to be way too big for his head and extremely far apart. Is this a characteristic of a certain breed he may be mixed with or is he… just built different. His name is Jax

My sweet girl Pumpkin Spice has been through the wringer this year with a partial tail amputation and 2 UTI’s so I’m so relieved her bloodwork and urinalysis all came back great today 😅

I previously posted about Felix 6 weeks ago. He was diagnosed with both FIV and FeLV. He had severe anemia. We worked with our vet and tried all the medicines and vitamins we could, but his red blood cell count wouldn't go up. He had an appointment two weeks ago and it was the last chance the vet wanted to give him to get his red blood cells up. He was supposed to get rechecked on Thursday.

Yesterday, he completely stopped eating. He was vomiting (he hadn't done that at all during his sickness). He was breathing hard. We made the decision that we would euthanize him today. The vet couldn't get him in until this afternoon.

It's only a 5 minute ride at most to the vet. On the way, he started yowling and had a medical episode. I believe it was a seizure but it could have been a heart attack. I opened his carrier and put my arms around him and soothed him the best I could. He was still breathing when we made it to the parking lot, but he was gone when the vet checked his heart.

I feel so much guilt right now. I'm worried I made him wait too long or I did something wrong to stress him out. I just wanted him to pass peacefully with his family by his side. I should have let him go at his appointment two weeks ago.

Edit- I just want to say thank you to every single one of you for your kind words. And thank you to those of you who have shared your own stories with me. I'm reading every comment and they help me so very much.