Pipsqueak came to us Wednesday evening while we were relaxing under our pergola. We heard her making noise on Saturday, but couldn't find her. Now, on Wednesday we heard the same muffled, raw, squeaky meow. We coerced her into our yard only to discover that she was indeed an abandoned kitten who was famished and covered in fleas. We immediately felt sympathy for her. We brought out some dry cat food and water and she scarfed it down quickly.
We tried to guess her age, but it was very hard. We assumed under 8 weeks and maybe around 6 or younger, but we had no idea. She needed a bath badly. We knew a flea bath would kill a young kitten so thanks to Google we found out we could use lemon dish soap and lots of water to kill the fleas. So, we did. She complained at first, but then gave up. We ended up giving her 2 lemon flea baths on Wednesday. We decided to take her to animal control the following morning.
Seth and I met at animal control on Thursday to say our goodbyes. It was very sad, but needed to be done because we already have 3 cats and I have allergies. However, the vet assistant said that she was only about 4, maybe 5 weeks old and weighed 0.8 lbs and at that age (under 8 weeks and under 2 lbs.) they euthanize them. What? Our mouths dropped in surprise, but only for a second because we realized we would get to keep her, if only for a little while. Now we temporarily have a 4th cat to love.
We've named her Pipsqueak. It's often shortened to squeak or pip or some variation like squeaky, squeak, squeaker, squeakin (reference from Emperor's New Groove). Thursday afternoon I picked up some kitten chow, cat milk and a flea comb. When I got home I gave her another lemon flea bath using the flea comb. I then proceeded to flea comb her for 2 whole hours. She loves the flea comb and fell right to sleep after she was dry. Yes, she was asleep in my lap for nearly 2 hours while I combed her. It worked out quite well because she let me maneuver her little body so I could reach every mm. After 2 hours of flea combing and 3 baths I felt we had finally rid her of fleas. We then felt safe to bring her into the house. As a precaution we are treating our cats with flea medicine, but she is no longer scratching, biting or itching.
She has slept very well lately and loves to play. She likes to sleep in whatever bed we make for her. She is the best little kitty ever! Our 3 adult cats don't know what to think. She follows Buddy around and wants to play with him. Buddy is massive in size compared to her. Twix and Misty (aka "the girls") don't like her so we have to watch them. Right now she is sleeping and purring in her bed and perks up whenever we say her name. She has consumed all our time since Wednesday and we need to find a good home for her soon before we get in too deep. I was trying to fill out school applications, but Squeakers is a BIG, rather small in size, distraction.
Next week we leave for Minnesota and are taking her with us. Hopefully one of my in-laws will take her. Or, if anyone wants a kitten locally your welcome to come take a look at her. She will win you over.
1 comment:
soooo cute! I wish we had time/space for her. We're not cat people at all, but she is adorable!
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