July 8th

Momma Odie (named after Princess and the Frog) has been a wonderful mother to her babies. She went to the vet last week with her baby (Prince Naveen pictured below) for an exam and booster and the vet worked very slowly with her to make sure she was comfortable. She did wonderfully and continues to open up day by day and slowly let down her guard-leaning in for rubs, rolling over for attention and meowing for more.

Early one morning about a week and a half ago we went to check on her and found that her other little baby (of whom we called Evangeline) had passed. She was showing no signs or symptoms the night before, nursing often, and then the next morning she was gone. We had noticed that she wasn’t growing as quickly as her brother although she was alert and gaining weight just the same as we were weighing and tracking their progress. Her eyes were fully open, she was walking and meowing often. Fading kitten syndrome, which happens between birth and weaning, can happen quickly and without warning. There can be a variety of reasons-difficult birth, low birth weight, birth defects/underlying health conditions, for many reasons that are still yet unknown…but for whatever reason no matter how hard we try…they just fail to thrive.

It never occurred to us until after she passed and she was peacefully laid to rest that she was literally named Evangeline: after the evening star. We made sure to let Momma Odie lay with her so she would understand that her baby was no longer with us. It brought tears to our eyes to know that her beautiful soul was not meant for this earth…her sweet little soul, unknowingly to us, had always been meant to live among the stars. 

August 9th

Prince Naveen is growing bigger and stronger!

He had his first vet appointment a couple of weeks ago where he received his first shots and worming. Due to his small statue his doses had to be smaller. We discussed concerns with his size as he’s more petite than he should be. He has a voracious appetite and even hogs his moms food as he lays in the plate to prevent her from getting to it!

They weren’t as concerned about his size at this visit due to the fact that he is a active kitty but we are keeping an eye on his growth and ensure he is getting his daily required calories through canned kitten food since he has weaned himself. He goes again next week to the vet for another checkup. He is too small to do a lot of the tests to see if he has a underlying health issue.

The vets are happy with his strength as he has been meeting all of his other milestones and loves playing with toys. He loves pouncing on his mom (especially by play biting her face). Although his liveliness makes us happy…his mom does NOT appreciate how much energy he has!