Hi Steemit, meet our newest fur ball. His name is Oliver and he's a happy little pipsqueak. He was born in a barn with many brothers and sisters. As cute as the litter was, the mother was not pleased or maybe she had some other more important cat matters to attend to. She ran away leaving the litter kittens to fend for itself. When the litter was found by humans, the kittens were bunched up together and attempting to fend off dogs.
Oliver was taken in by the loving family of a close friend. They bathed, and nursed him for a few days like his mother should have. He was happy to be carried around outside, visiting stores, Starved Rock national park, and the city streets of Chicago.
My girlfriend heard about the cat through Facebook and immediately jumped on the opportunity to take him in. She called up her friend and the next day we took him in to our home. He still had some dirt in his nose, which we cleaned off, but otherwise he was a happy and wobbly little thing. He was very curious, and above all else, fearless.
Happy Little Pipsqueak
Since we already had an older cat, Annabelle--which was named before the horror movie even came out so I'll always imagine my cat over some wannabe scary doll thing--we took Oliver to the vet in the morning the next day. He got his full checkup and shots. They kept him occupied eating Easy Cheese, cheese in a can, as he got a shot in the leg. Did anyone else know that kittens like cheese? I sure didn't. Anyway they gave him a dose of dewormer as per vet procedure. Everything else looked great for him.
At our apartment we kept him away from our other cat just to be sure he wouldn't spread the worm or any other disease such as FPV. We also wanted to keep his tiny self safe from the ten-times-his-size Annabelle. We followed all the rules of scent swapping and room swapping and eventually I placed a glass table on its side blocking my doorway so the two cats could look at each other throughout the day.
His follow up vet visit came around and he got his FPV shot, stool sampled, vitals checked out normal, but it turned out he had roundworm. That was a total bummer because we were going to introduce him to our older cat already. A few doses of dewormer over the next three days covered it.
Fluff Ball
Two weeks later we were finally able to take Oliver out of his makeshift bedroom prison to meet Annabelle. The first meeting was tense, the two of them stared at each other, Oliver being curious and Annabelle being super serious. There was an approach and a few slaps to the head from the bigger cat but otherwise no big deal. I had them eat next to each other and I knew they would get along soon enough.
The days passed and Oliver started getting less wobbly and better at hunting. He's keen on hunting our feet and our shadows. It's actually quite hilarious watching him chase the shadow of a hand across the floor. He loves to climb on our chests to sleep getting as close as possible to our face in order to feel our breath. He also likes to touch our faces with his paw, I'm really not sure why but it's definitely cute.
Sleep Anywhere Warm
A couple days ago Oliver went to the vet again on a scheduled checkup. He climbed all over the examination room and the vet, thoroughly and confidently exploring his surroundings. He got a booster shot, and his vitals were checked. The vet spent an extra long time listening to his heart, unfortunately, for a reason. He was diagnosed with a prominent heart murmur. He will be getting an x-ray and echocardiogram to verify if it is under-developed blood vessels or a leaky heart valve. The former still has a chance to be resolved with heart medicine but the latter would require heart surgery which is normally not conducted on pets and especially not on kittens. I was crushed hearing the news since he's a lap cat and finally the perfect playmate for Annabelle. I decided to walk back home instead of taking an Uber.
When I got back I told my girlfriend the news and she immediately started sobbing, knowing that there's a chance our new little kitten could pass before his time. We talked about our options opting to stick things through and just make sure him and Annabelle have fun together.
Regardless of the outcome my goal will be to make his kitten life as happy as possible. I'm sharing Oliver's story to both get it off my mind and to share some cute pictures I've taken. He's a good cat and now that him and Annabelle are ever more playful I know he'll live happily and feel loved.
Thanks for listening.
He's grown really fast by the way.