Cat step-moms
Newborn kittens in nature are not weaned until about a month after birth, so during this time foster parents have to play the role of the mother cat. They must prepare milk from a powder made especially for kittens (who should not drink cow’s milk), and feed them using a special nipple every three to four hours. Newborns have to be taught to defecate on their own, so foster parents must wipe a kitten’s anus and urinary tract with a wet cloth to replicate the licking of these areas normally done by the mother. Newborns have low resistance to disease, so special attention must be devoted to keeping them clean and warm and under constant supervision, taking them to the vet at the first sign of trouble.
Nonetheless, no matter how careful foster parents are, newborns that get sick have a very high mortality rate.
“When you see them struggling to stand up with their tiny little bodies, you forget how tired you are.” Yezi recalls one newborn kitten called Strong. When she was found she was covered in sores and there were maggots crawling all over her, and even the vet advised Yezi to give up on her. But Yezi picked off the maggots one by one, and the kitten showed real pluck by drinking down some milk, and her life was saved. She survived for over 10 more years.
Some kinds of cats—the timid, the abused, cats that require special care—are not suited to be given away to new owners, so in such cases Yezi always psychologically prepares herself to keep the animal until the end of its life.
For example, she has a cat named Little Four, who was hit by a car, and all his organs were squeezed into the upper part of his body. He now lives comfortably in Yezi’s cat “apartment block,” but is unable to move around and has trouble even breathing, much less eating. Yezi has an oxygen machine for Little Four, giving him pure O2 four hours per day, so as to reduce the impact of his breathing problems. “My hope is that before he passes away he will have a chance to try every kind of cat food,” says Yezi. Little Four could die at any moment, but until that moment comes, she plans to give him the best possible care.