No one should ever be abandoned

Meet Missy and Gus!

    No one should ever be abandoned.  Not sweet little kitties and puppies, a neglected child, or unborn babies in the womb.

    Want to know what I've been busily enjoying this month?  Meet our two new kittens, Missy and Gus, who were abandoned and left to die.

    We now are the proud owners of four cats:  two adult females who are about 4.5 years old (we've had them since they were 8 weeks old), and two new kittens, ages 12 weeks, that we've had for three weeks now.

    Here are two photos of Missy and Gus when they arrived at our home at about 9 weeks of age:

Kelsi with Missy at about 9 weeks of age. See the "M" on her forehead? That's why she was named "Missy". If you click on this photo, you'll see her weepy eyes. Poor thing!

My husband, Elmer, with Gus around 9 weeks of age. His fur was still quite sparse, but his eyelashes and whiskers were amazingly long!

    My friend, Heather, who used to work at a local animal shelter, discovered these two little ragamuffin cuties abandoned in a baseball field park where she regularly walks her dogs. 

    They were scrawny as anything, and about 7 weeks of age, from what the veterinarian thought after examining them. 

    They both had an upper respiratory virus which causes sneezing, wheeziness, and runny eyes and nose, much like a common cold that we humans get from time to time. 

    After three trips to the veterinarian, two rounds of antibiotics and eye cream, and lots of loving care by Heather and her family - and my family, they are finally doing so much better!  We realize that they may deal with this upper respiratory virus their entire lives, or that they may be carriers of it throughout their lifetimes, but we took them knowing that this may be the case.

    We initially thought they were part of the same litter of kittens, but now, we're not so sure.  Missy is definitely 1-3 weeks older than Gus, based on what the veterinarian observed with their teeth on their most recent visit.  It's possible they have the same mother who was possibly impregnated twice within a couple of weeks' time, but we're just not sure.  It's also possible that they were from completely different litters but bonded together due to the need to survive.

    Anyway, THIS is why you haven't heard from me as much this month.  ☺ I've been holding and loving these sweet babies a lot, as well as making more of a priority to spend time with my teen daughters and husband. 


    I do have some blessings I can share about these kittens:

• They came litter-box trained and have had zero accidents so far!
• They are used to being around dogs, so when we dogsit for friends, it isn't a problem.
• They love to snuggle up in our laps.  LOVE!
• They sleep almost all night long, allowing us to sleep.
• Our two older cats are tolerating them fairly well now.  That was a concern at first.
• Gus, the long-haired cat, loves to be brushed.  This was pretty important to us because of his very long hair.  If he couldn't tolerate being brushed, that would mean he would be shaved to look like a lion or a poodle every June! 
  

    I'm wondering if any of you have ever rescued abandoned animals and raised them as pets?  How has it gone?

    The only training we are really needing to work on right now is that these kittens were fed some "people food" as babies, probably by visitors at the baseball park where they were living, so they can be a little bit of a pest when we are eating our meals.  I don't blame them; they were starving for quite some time.  So sad!  I do know I won't need to vacuum up the kitchen as often because they are the little crumb-gobblers that come running when they hear me in the kitchen!  Ha! 

    We've made a strong effort with our older cats not to ever feed them people food, and that has worked really well because they think our food is "gross"!  They only want their own cat treats and cat food.  So we'll have to work on these little babies and retrain them to stick to their own cat food. 

    But other than that, we're enjoying our little sweethearts.  ♥♥♥

    I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed, and you are focusing on the hope of CHRIST-mas.  ☺

     This post was originally published on http://www.JoyInOurJourney.com. If you see this posted elsewhere, it has been illegally scraped, and I'd love it if you would let me know. Thanks!

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