The babies of a species are always the most vulnerable. But when they are challenged with a health problem, the situation can become particularly dire.
This past January, an innocent kitten was born with one of these challenges.
The kitten’s mother had been dumped on a random property, and by a stroke of luck, the homeowners had decided to keep her. The people supported the cat throughout her pregnancy, helping both her and her kittens. Despite everything they tried, however, one little kitten would not grow. That’s when they knew they needed help.
Gracie, as the kitten had been named, was brought to New Life Animal Rescue, a foster-based rescue devoted to caring for special needs animals. The rescue has no physical location so all animals live in real homes while awaiting adoption. If the name sounds familiar, you probably remember it from the Puppy Bowl; the rescue’s puppies have been featured on the special for the past 3 years.
After getting 11-day-old Gracie, New Life Animal Rescue placed the kitten with Brea Furman, an experienced kitty fosterer.
“My husband and I started fostering kittens almost 3 years ago,” Brea told our staff via e-mail.
“We started with healthy kittens who were just too young to get adopted, but then as we learned more, we started taking tougher fosters who were sick or needed socialization before adoption.”
Brea drove all night to pick up the little kitten, and although the baby had originally been named Gracie, Brea and her husband thought she needed something a little ‘stronger’. From then on, she would be called Xena.
Despite Brea’s experience, this was also her first time fostering a cleft palate kitty, and she had never tube fed a feline before.
“The director of the rescue regularly tube feeds puppies so she taught me how to tube feed. and I watched a lot of YouTube videos to get ideas on keeping Xena in the right position while I did the feeds.”
Brea also got support from other cleft lip and palate cat owners, such as Mona Widger from Alaska Kitten Foster. (We covered Mona’s cat Clefton’s story here, if you aren’t familiar.)
Brea said, “Clefton’s story caught my eye from the beginning and when I first got asked to foster Xena, I reached out to @alaskakittenfoster [Mona] for any advice she could share on cleft kittens.
“She was the only one who I had come across who had fostered a cleft kitten from the beginning.”
She told me that I could text her anytime I had question or was in a panic about something she could relate to with Clefton.
It turned out that Xena’s cleft is significantly less severe than Clefton’s but I like to think they are sort of ‘virtual buddies’ or something, connected by their foster mamas!”
With all the help and support, Brea quickly learned how to tube feed little Xena. Within only two days, the tiny kitten had increased by one-third of her weight!
(Xena would also try to latch on to her foster mom’s elbow after feedings— which is pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.)
Xena’s growth wasn’t without obstacles, however, which seemed to grow in number as the kitten sprouted her teeth.
“The doctor told me to start her on softened kibble and wait to introduce canned food. That was challenging because I was still trying to tube feed her and she wanted to chew on the tube, so she wasn’t eating enough kibble to gain/maintain weight.”
Xena is an amazing little fluff with the warrior spirit of her namesake. Who knows what could have happened to the affectionate kitty without the kind help she’s received?
