Meet Little Orphan Annie-Arnold

We have a very good client at the clinic who we have developed quite a relationship with. He and his wife are amazing people and such an inspiration.

To give you a taste, they feed cats in the woods. He was turned the mower on, and ran over a kitten (hold on...it's not too bad, keep reading...) even after checking to ensure the mower was clear as usual. The tiny kitten was rushed in, and we saved her leg. He kept this wild hellion of a feral kitten contained while she went through her treatments for her broken bones. She is now a 'house cat'. He found a kitten in the woods surrounding their home that had been picked up by a hungry bird. He rushed her in. Unfortunately, she could not be saved. But, we peacefully comforted her until the end. He found another cat that had been hit by a car. He couldn't leave the cat, but knew he couldn't 'own' the cat with all the ferals they try to maintain.This cat needed almost immediate surgery and a leg amputation. They paid for half of the amputation, even after we accepted the kitten into our adoption program at the clinic. Then, they felt so terrible about how much of the money we'd be out (which we ALWAYS are with these types of 'rescues'). They came and adopted him a few weeks after healing.

They are..amazing. They can't save them all. They can't do it all. But, they do everything they can...and that is enough.

Fast forward to about a week to a week and a half ago. He comes running into the clinic with a barely 3 week old kitten screaming bloody murder. He said he just found her in his wheel well at Wal-mart. Now, their luck with cats/kittens...mama cat could have known a softie when she saw one and placed the kitten there at Wal-mart...or the kitten had been placed their by mama cat at his house and the kitten made it all the way to Wal-mart. Either is likely, is possible, and has happened before.

Either way, we accepted the baby into our program. I bottle fed her every few hours, but was scared to introduce her formerly to the group. Kittens are tricky little critters. Fading Kitten Syndrome is hard and it's so heartbreaking. I wanted to ensure that she would have the best possible chance before introducing her to you guys.

She's been thriving. Playing, running, eating dry food now (does not like canned...period.). So, meet Little Orphan Annie/Arnold.

What's with her name, you ask? Well, the thing about kittens is that as they grow...so do their parts...obviously. When she first came in as an itty bitty baby, we believed she was a boy. Then we felt like she was a girl for a few days...and so on and so forth. We feel like with a name of 'Little Oprhan Annie-Arnold'...you can't really go wrong?