KITTENS!

What a life. So I went up to Porterville for my Nonna's funeral last week, and as we drove down the dirt road on the ranch we saw a bundle of orange fluff huddled outside one of the old houses. "Kittens!" Sis and I screeched, turning once again into cat-crazy little girls who used to buy Cat Fancy magazines (Don't judge. Please. I already judge my 10 year old self). I of course hopped out of the car and raced over to look at them because I am part cat pretty much and I love seeing the new spring kittens when I go up to my Nonna's. it's been a few years since we've had kittens, and even though we can't bring any more home, it's nice to look. Sadly, it's normally the last time we see those kittens because they're usually the victims of malnourishment, dogs, coyotes, or owls. Ranch cats have a hard life. So I ran over and saw two babies, barely three or four weeks old sitting in the sun. Since they're too young to be weary of me I picked them up but I couldn't stay for long because we had a viewing and rosary to get to. I left them in the flowers as they tried to return to under the house where their mother probably put them.
The next day I noticed the beat up male cats staring at a bush where I found said kittens. I went over and found the babies again. They were out and about, which is not normal for really young animals. Now if you know me, you know that I freak out about anything that can't defend itself, so i pushed them back to the opening of the house so they'd be safe. After the funeral, they were out again, huddled together. this time, when I approached they started crawling towards me, crying. I was beginning to realize that their mother was most likely dead.  ferile or not, they're very protective, and she would have moved them to a completely different place if she saw us holding them or even smelled us on her babies. So Sis and I decided that we were taking things in our own hands now. The mom was definitely gone, so we borught them into the house, made up a box for them, then searched for an open store to look for droppers to feed them with.
My Aunt Kathy confirmed the next day that their mother was found by some ranch hands on Tuesday night. She had been killed by some dogs that ran through. So we brought the kittens home with us and they currently reside in our guest bathroom. They are adorable and fun and we're not keeping them. We are going to be the foster parents until they're old enough to go to a new home. It's definitely a challenge. We have never had to worry about our kittens before because we've always had the moms there, but now we're the moms. Thankfully, they're almost old enough to start eating solid food, which is a relief because I don't enjoy going to bed late and getting up super early to feed them. I'm back to my highschool sleep patterns. I don't know how I managed back then.

Wow. So that was a very detailed story. i hope it was exciting. It probably wasn't, but oh well. Here are some pictures of the little guys.

cheers.