So, it’s been 11 days since they were found cold, wet and alone and I’ve found out a little bit more about their start in life.

These two little fluffballs were found late at night after a thunderstorm, crying their little hearts out, making as much noise as possible. Luckily, their cries were heard by a lady who didn’t think twice about scaling a gate into a private property to get them. After a few minutes, a young man came down to give her a torch to help her in the search to find them and to see if there were any other kittens around. He then told her that he had heard them crying since the day before – so by the time they were rescued, they had been on their own for at least 36 hours. That’s a significant amount of time for 7-day-old kittens!

They were rushed straight to the 24hr vets where they stayed for 3 days. It was very touch and go at first. The little female, Leoncina, almost gave up on life in the car and they were both very dehydrated. They were released from the vets on Saturday morning at which point they came into my care, but on Saturday afternoon, the little male, Bush, took a nose dive and became very lethargic. I rushed him straight back to the vets and they were admitted for another 4 days.

Finally on Wednesday morning, they were given the all clear and I’ve had them ever since. They have both doubled in weight in the last week and are becoming more and more active every day. On Wednesday, they ate just 1.5 bottles of milk between them. Today (Sunday), they polished off an entire bottle between them just for breakfast! They’re appetites are growing as quickly as they are – in the next few days, I’ll be introducing kitten mousse into their diets as well. They’re still having steroids via a nebuliser (aerosol) just to support their development and make sure there are no nasty surprises waiting to come out.

They’re not out of the woods yet. Kittens are very vulnerable until they are at least 12 weeks old, but every day is a victory when they’ve had such a rough start to life.

If you’d like to donate to their care please head over to my fundraising page at http://www.gofundme.com/streetcatsabruzzo

They’re going through a box of milk a week, which they’ll keep having until they are at least 8 weeks old and costs 17€ a pop. They’ll soon be starting baby cat mousse, which costs 25€ for 12 cans of 195g and who knows how quickly they’ll go through that? Then start the vaccinations, flea treatments and worming etc. I am dedicated to giving them the best re-start possible, but they are not the only cats I look after and there’s inevitably always some emergency around the corner. Any help, either financially or simply through raising awareness is ever so appreciated ❤