What's Josh Doing?

What’s Josh Doing: Being the Best Kitten Dad Ever

06/18/2012 , 3 annieb

My husband is an ace at bottle feeding newborn kittens.

Let me back up.

Our house is a hot spot for animal dumping and various strays. I don’t particularly want these animals to hang around our house, but I can’t help but feel bad for them. It’s not their fault that someone was an irresponsible pet owner and didn’t pay attention to Bob Barker on the Price Is Right. So, we feed them. Take them in, in some cases, even though Josh is allergic to cats. That’s how we got our little angel Kitter Cat.

She showed up in our front yard one day. The cat that birthed the kittens also just appeared one day. Her name was Grey Cat. We fed her and she slept on the porch. She was all grey except for some stripes on the tail. And she had yellow/orange eyes.

Now, I will admit that we should have had Grey Cat fixed. But, slightly in our defense, we thought SHE was a HE. And she wouldn’t really let us get close enough to tell the difference. One day SHE showed up looking fatter than normal and we thought HE might have worms. Then, SHE had kittens on the porch. And that’s how we got five kittens.

I had never seen anything so adorably small. I was all awe. Josh was all action. Laying out a palette for momma. Fixing up a nice turned-on-its-side box house for the new momma and babies. Keeping her fed, petting her, showing momma how to be a momma. He knew exactly what to do. And I just stared, dumbfounded, and took a lot of camera phone pictures. Like these!

This past Sunday, five days after the kittens were born, Grey Cat disappeared. I know my sister, Erika, will read this, so I won’t go into the details of why we are pretty sure she’s never coming back. But, we’re pretty sure she’s never coming back. That left us with five hungry kittens. Hungry, crying, sweet, little kittens. It broke my heart and forty dollars worth of pet store formula later, I was trying to coax the kittens to eat from a bottle and failing miserably. And the Josh stepped in.

He showed me how to hold them where they can lay down like they would if they were nursing. He showed me to support their front paws because it’s their instinct to push against momma’s tummy for food. He showed me how to watch for air bubbles and feel their throats move. He assured me that we could keep them alive.

It was coincedence that he showed me all this on father’s day. He’s the best kitten father a kitten could ask for. He’s even given them names. Little One, Blackie, Goliath, Pigface, and Other Pigface. I took the 5 a.m. feeding this morning. And thanks to Josh all five kittens ate happily and one of them peed on me in appreciation.

Thanks for being such a great kitten dad, Josh. I’m looking forweard to convincing you we need to keep at least one.

-annieb