Tiny Tim

Today my upstairs neighbour came pounding at the door. When Xander answered I could hear her panic and she was saying “I need Tammy!!” When I asked what was wrong she freaked out telling me something about her cat eating kittens. When I put all the pieces together I found out that she and her boyfriend were out for the night and while they were gone her pregnant cat finally gave birth. Before they got there, the father of the kittens had eaten half of one of the kittens, which was not a nice sight for them to come home to.

When I went upstairs they were telling me that the cat only had the one kitten, which I found very hard to believe. I thought perhaps the birthing had begun just before they got home and perhaps there was still some to come, but after a bit of searching they found two more. One was normal sized and appeared to be ok, the other was very small and covered in blood. We were sure he was dead..

.. but then he started moving. After some warm breaths and a bit of gentle rubbing he started coming back to life! He was wriggling around clumsily and of course, stole my heart that very second.

His hind legs were bleeding. It would appear that the male cat may have grabbed onto him at one point as well because it looked as though the legs were bitten. His back paws were a dark purple color and still bleeding a bit. My heart was breaking seeing this little animal in the palm of my hands and not being able to fix everything and make it ok.

My neighbour was in a total panic because she felt bad for not being home to prevent the first kitten from being eaten and she didn’t know what to do about the other two, especially the smaller one. She was also upset because she and her boyfriend had no money to pay for the vet. I mean, what do you do in that situation? Just say “Oh well, too bad.. guess you’ll have to sit here and watch him die then.” Can’t see me doing that.. not because I want to be a piggybank for them but the animal lover in me just wouldn’t allow it. Xander knew that as well and since we can afford it at the moment we told them we’d foot the bill if they wanted to take the animals to the vet.

Two hours and 92 euros later we left the vet with antibiotics and formula. There was a skin problem with the mother of the kittens which requires a needle and a course of antibiotics as well as the medicine needed for the kitten. While we were in there the vet didn’t seem too positive, he said the kitten was very small (only 40 grams) and things didn’t look good. That it was up to them if they wanted to try to keep him alive and see how it goes. I’m sure if they had said no at that moment I would have told them LIKE HELL and taken the little man home myself. Thankfully they felt the same way and think that a small chance is better than no chance at all…

Xander jokingly said that we should name him “Tiny Tim” and the vet put that in the computer as his name.. so it’s official. We took Tim home where I gave him small amounts of formula out of an eyedropper and continued to try to get him to drink from his mother. I left after a while, tearing myself away from the little guy and assuring my neighbour that if she had trouble feeding him to bring him downstairs. I don’t know why but I feel very control freaky about this, I wish I could have him here by me so I could take care of him and watch over him.. but alas, he isn’t mine.

So, now it’s all in the hands of… who? God.. ? Mother Nature… ? My neighbour.. ? Whoever it is, I hope they look kindly on Tiny Tim and keep him with us for a while.