These are my four furbabies. All are siblings, believe it or not!
The story goes like this:
I used to work at a horticulture center, and in the fall the landscaping department burns down all the old debris and dead plant material to make room for the upcoming year's work. One of my best friends working there at the time had come across a baby kitty (the orange one) in a greenhouse. He was the size of a hamster when we found him, and another one of the employees had the bright idea to leave him in the greenhouse while she potted up custom pottings for customers. Now, mind you, it was approximately 95 outside, let alone the temperature inside the greenhouse. So, my friend and I took the little guy to my house, where we had nursed kittens without moms before and had all the equipment necessary. When I came him, my mom thought I had a new rodent for the house
! So, after a couple of days, the kitty started getting better, and I received another phone call from my friend at work - she had come across the mama kitty and another little kitten with her in a barn way in the back of the complex. The mom was so skinny that she couldn't produce milk, so my mom and I went by and picked her up with the kitten. Meanwhile, my friend looked for any more kittens, but we assumed they must not have made it because of the mother's lack of nutrition. So, my mother and I started the long journey of nursing the mom back to health so she could, in turn, nurse her two kittens. Pumpkin became the orange kitten's name and Spice the little tabby cat. The mom was affectionately give the name "Mama" (we're creative, what can I say!).
The by the end of the week, the mom had started producing milk, we had taken her to the vet to find out she was only 7 months old herself, and was very sick. So, not only were we worried about her kittens, but her as well!
Five days later (and this is not a stretch) my friend called me again and they had found 3 more kittens from her litter (we determined by their age and lack of mother) in the debris pile in the back. One of them was very dirty and had an eye infection caked with mud and the other two were very frail. So, my fiance and I drove up and got the other three kittens, took them home and cleaned them up, gave them bottles, and gave them a warm place to stay. We took them to the vet and had them checked out, received appropriate treatment for their issues and started the slow process of recovery. It's really a miracle that we found these three alive, and each day I see them reminds me of it!
So, the gist of the story is this - I loved them all far to much to give them away to people I didn't know, especially after everything we went through. So, in total we had one mother cat, two girl kittens and three boy kittens. My aunt took one of the girls and my mother kept Mama, and I have the rest. Pictures are to follow!
Oh yeah, we were in the hoiday spirit for fall, as we found them at the end of September through begining of October, so their names are because of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"! And, as you will soon see...the Great Pumpkin is right - Pumpkin is HUGE (and dumb
)!
Pumpkin:
Charlie Brown
Linus
and
Spice
here she's playing with a toy mouse!
As you can see, they are living the good life now
!