Raising An Orphaned Kitten: River's Story

I had been wanting to adopt a kitten for the majority of the summer, and had contacted a few fostering agencies to foster a kitten before I adopted, since I had never owned a cat before. In the afternoon of June 24, 2010, while I was waiting in line for my iPhone 4 (for a good 7 hours, I am such a nerd!), I got a phone call. One of the foster agencies had given my info to the local humane unit, and they had stumbled across a 3 day old kitten who was without a mother. They asked me if I wanted to foster her temporarily, and told me that there was a possibility she would be put down if they couldn't find someone to take care of her, because she would starve otherwise.

Well of course I said yes! I couldn't let this poor, helpless baby be put down just because no one else was to be found!

So right after I got my iPhone, we drove over to the humane unit to pick up the tiny kitten. She was so small, she could fit perfectly into the palm of my hand. And at 3 days old, I would have to feed her every two-three hours. No one thought that she would even make it...

I thought I would go mad with River's feeding schedule. Every three hours I had to get up (whether I was asleep or not) and prepare River's bottle. Getting her to eat was extremely difficult too, as she had no idea how to suckle on a bottle. It took her several times before she finally grasped how to drink from the bottle. The schedule was also made crazy because I was taking summer college classes that were four hours long, with no break, so I had to pick my sister up from her volunteering and take her home so she could feed River. Some days I felt like crying from my lack of sleep; even between her feeding times, I would find myself jumping up in the middle of the night to make sure she was still breathing. The worst part of that first week was when I woke up at 6am to find that I had slept through her feeding time 2 hours ago! I nearly had a heart attack as I ran to make sure she was okay; she didn't even make a peep until I walked in with the bottle, and then she started screeching like a monkey!

She loves crawling into tiny little spaces, and jumping out at you when you least expect it! She climbs up high and watches the room from there, and she absolutely LOVES anything dangly, which makes cords a big issue. She has her favorite feather toy, which I run around the room and she chases it. It's adorable and hilarious. She runs around for hours and hours, playing with the dog and biting at people's ankles, but at the end of the day, there's nothing she loves better than to cuddle up and just sleep in your lap while you watch TV.

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River is 4 months old, and it's so hard to believe how much she's grown! She's gotten almost all of her shots, and she loves to play and be crazy kitty. She is finally eating solid food after the terrible time we had weaning her, and she is completely litter-box trained. I know I would never have been able to raise her without the help of my sister either, so I am eternally grateful.

River also enjoys hopping into boxes and bags, including my sister's mini backpack...I think she wanted to go to school with her!

River's birthday was about a week ago, (June 21st), and it's so amazing to look back and see how she's grown! The people at the humane unit didn't believe River would live a week, and now she is one year old and a healthy cat. She was spayed a few months ago, and has given us some scares with an infection and a cold, but our unruly River Monster (as we have lovingly nicknamed her) is happy and playful.

In case you can't tell, River has grown to love sinks almost more than she loves her bed. The picture is not completely up to date, and she's grown a bit more since then, but it was too precious to leave out. River also plays around with my roommate's dog, although sometimes we have to separate them for acting out too much. Can you believe this full-sized cat started out so small?