TigerLilly

Description. Tiny tabby and ginger Kitten. Blue eyes, may end up gold I think.

Nick name. Squirt.

Why hadn't I named her before? (well I did kinda have the name picked out, but....) Because I knew, I couldn't keep her. I have two other cats, Kismit and Cinnibar. They have FID, which is like a feline AIDs. So keeping her was out of the question, not naming her kept her at a distance - for about, oh, five minutes. So much for that theory.

Anyhoo, the vet thought she was probably on the cusp of turning three weeks old. So, feeds eight times a day minimum. Tickling of bottom with a soft wet tissue over the toilet to stimulate the bowels (just as mother cat does. Did you know that a Mother cat purrs during all her care of the kitten's duties, except for that one. Me, I don't blame her, and I wasn't using my tongue!) and lots of nice quiet resting.

Did I say resting? I thought a kitten would sleep after a feed. Wrong, that was TigerLilly's most active time of the day. Little Monster. She had a gift for pulling the teat off the milk bottle too, usually when I was all dressed for work. Bottle-feeding is hard work; thank goodness weaning took one meal, then wham, onto solid food and lapped up cat's milk in one shot. Litter training was almost as easy, I took to tickling her over the tray, then digging with her paws afterwards. Before I knew it, she was seeking out the kitty litter tray on her own. Phew!

At first I took her to work in the big carry box, so she would get all her feeds. Then I kitten proofed a room so she could play without getting in Kismit or Cinnibar's way. The two older cats were not happy about the new arrangements, hiding at the top of closets and under the fish tank if she ventured (supervised!) into their space. I knew they would do that and not attack her, as I have emergency cared kittens before with the same result. However, this had been a longer stay, and the stress was showing.

Cinnibar had a wee in the middle of my bed. Not, as some people might view it, to get even for bringing the kitten into his home. No, behaviors like that is a way of establishing his familiar territory to reassure himself, because he was feeling worried and insecure. The kitten was getting all the attention, and routines were being arranged around her. Indoor cats need their people to uphold our routines as much as possible (because they have less control than outside cats on their daily habits) or they become nervous. I realized that, and tried to spend more time with them. I do love them after all.

Then the one night, two days after her first set of vaccinations, TigerLilly became withdrawn. Shaking, not eating or drinking, walking with a limp and she was slashing her tail in a frenzy. The next day I took her to the vets. She had a temperature of 41. Not good. They kept her over night to get the fever down; the limp had all but gone the next morning as well. They never found out what was wrong, but she recovered totally. And a Chemist friend who owns an Arab horse stud farm agreed to take her in. TigerLilly again landed on her feet!

There was one more adventure for my little tiger however. She came to work one last time so that I could take her for a last vet visit at lunch. While I was working another lab assistant came in very distressed, she had found TigerLilly's cage covered in big black meat ant's! Donna had quickly rescued a luckily unhurt TigerLilly, but she smelt strongly of ant chemical, the little might may brave been battling them. Donna cleaned the cage for me, getting rid of the biscuits that must have attracted the horrible ants. Another close call! I really am starting to believe in a kitty angel, this time it inspired Donna to look in on TigerLilly during her tea break. Thank you Donna.

I had a phone call almost immediately from the new owner, asking if she was 'always' this energetic. Heeheehee, so I'm not the only one she's worn out! Good fortune smile upon you kitten, may all good things befall you.