JW

The first picture below is the latest addition to my clowder. My wife discovered them about one year ago as they emerged from under our utility shed.

They seemed quite young to be exposing themselves. They were feral kittens, after all and such animals tend to be cautious where people ambulate about. My wife kept an eye out for their mother. The mother was nowhere to be seen over the next several days.

We have coyotes and foxes and an occasional wolf in the area, and a neighbor who shoots feral cats, so my wife started feeding them… and they were obviously very hungry.

In any case, we continued to feed and water them and their hunger never seemed sated. That is, except for one little guy who sat in the background while his brothers and sister ate their fill. You can see him in the photo.

After not seeing him eat anything and suddenly finding him with a bloody nose and covered in bot flies, my wife grabbed him and fought him into our cat carrier. It cost her some deep scratches and nasty puncture wounds. The terrified little creature screamed and cried and scratched and bit but he wound up in the carrier.

As he was being captured, one of the other kittens was screaming along with him from under the shed where the tiny troupe had run when the screaming started. I had never seen that before and thought it unlikely that a cat would be empathetic so I ignored the behavior but it did start me wondering.

We took the kitten to a local veterinarian. The vet cleaned his nose, removed three bot fly larvae from his face and neck and determined that the kitten was unable to swallow. She said we could try to force feed him a kitten food slurry but it was her opinion that the kitten would not survive. We tried to make a follow-up appointment but the vet said there was no point.

For the next two days, I injected into his mouth a small syringe full of the slurry and by the end of day three he was eating on his own. It looked like he might make it after all.

Then early the next morning, I found him collapsed on his towel. He could barely move his eyes to acknowledge me and he had clearly sneezed up a huge clot of blood and foreign tissue. I was sure we were losing him.

Since the vet didn’t want to see him, I went back to forcing him to eat the slurry. At the end of that week, we decided he was well enough to see the vet. We didn’t bother with an appointment since they said they did not want to see him again. We just arrived on their door step.

They expressed complete surprise to see him apparently starting to thrive. My wife informed them that his name was Aaron, which she learned meant miraculous. He was our little miracle.

The vet gave him a complete going-over and pronounced him sound. She expressed definite amazement that he survived and credited his will to live as having been remarkable.

Jumping ahead in time to six months later; I had taken in the rest of the family and moved them into my office. They had all been neutered and needed some recovery time before they were released into the wild again. During that time, we became attached to one another and when I opened the door for them, they declined to leave. They became my office clowder.

I was uncertain that having been separated for those many months, would Aaron‘s acceptance by his siblings be likely.

I took Aaron to the office and cautiously introduced him to the rest of his family.

I saw something that I never anticipated nor of which I had ever heard. Aaron ran to one of the little males and they both began chirping to each other and nuzzling and mutually g***ming.

Not only did they accept him, they knew who he was and they clearly were still bonded. The picture below is of those two at about one year of age, napping together.

Loving fellow creatures, even if not our particular species is not only possible but is impossible to avoid if you really get to know them. Oh, and being loved by them in return is the reward for getting to know them.

bggamers Loc: georgia

that is quiet some family you have the mother probably was k**led why she never came back

JW

They are something special.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Wow... Great story

And I agree.. It is amazing how love can be found in so many different species...

Although not a cat person, I can rarely resist the opportunity to rub their belly... And love the sound of a content cat

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Kudos, JW. Enjoy your newest family members.

bahmer

Welcome back and how did things go with your brother?

Big dog

Nice.