Although Precious Paws is predominantly a dog rescue, during "kitten season" (spring/summer) we often find ourselves with orphan kittens and sometimes even litters of kittens that we foster, vet and adopt out. This year of course is no different - unfortunately the overpopulation of cats and kittens seems to be a never ending problem. And worse still is that many of these cats and kittens end up in shelters where they are euthanized due to sheer lack of space or illness, or they end up growing up on the streets and then having even more kittens of their own. The cycle never ends!
So far this "season" we have taken in 3 little kittens and very sadly 2 of those babies have since passed away. Little Patrick was an adorable little orange tabby who came to us with his brother, a black kitten named Cole. Patrick was taken to our vet and then cared for overnight at the emergency clinic when he went hypo-glycemic and fell into a comatose stat. He then bounced back and seemed to be improving day by day, was back home in fostercare and doing well until we came home to find Patrick had passed away suddenly. The poor little guy just wasn't able to recover.
Last night we lost the other little kitten, Henry, who was a black and white, spunky little kitten who was also brought in as an orphan. Henry was doing wonderfully, was a chubby, active little guy who was a non-stop purring machine. We still do not know what happened to Henry but last night we found him already gone when we got home from work. No warning. After consulting with our veterinarian - he felt that Patrick likely passed because he just couldn't recover fully from being so underweight when he came to us and with Henry we can only assume that he had a congenital defect that caused him to pass suddenly. As these two babies were not related, it's just a very sad fluke that they have both passed away.
Thankfully, little Cole is still with us and doing quite well. We are keeping a very close eye on him, he's being quarantined and we are not taking any new kittens into his fosterhome just in case but so far so good. We hope that he continues to gain weight and that he can go up for adoption once he's old enough (and neutered/microchipped of course!).
We would love to be able to take in more kittens to rescue, as well as taking in more dogs that need us. But right now (and always it seems!) we have a shortage on foster homes. So the drive is on to find dedicated people who are interested in fostering! If you've ever considered it, please let us know! We would love to hear from you!
And for now - please keep Cole in your thoughts and send him lots of well wishes. I'll keep everyone updated on his progress too!
