Happy Birthday Little Orphans!

Around 2 weeks old.

Sept. 23 my little orphan kittens turn one year old.   Last fall I tried to adopt their pregnant mom Dayo to defend us against the mice and rats in the guest house I was in.  She kept going back to her original home about 3 blocks away, which is the guest house I'm in this fall.  We gave up trying to get her to stay with us, and decided to adopt her kittens when they were weaned.  They were born Sept. 23, 2012. Unfortunately, Dayo died 2 weeks later, so I was the recipient of 3 orphaned kittens.

Some veterinary friends told me what to feed them, a mixture of an egg yolk, spoonful of oil, and milk, and one supplied a syringe to use as a bottle.  When the kittens got older we graduated to using a travel-sized contact lens solution bottle.  The vets said goat milk was the best kind to use.  Despite all the goats in Haiti, no one seems to use goat milk, so I used powdered cows milk.  

Sharky (?) and Mesay, about 1 month old.

And the kittens grew up strong!  Sharky was always the largest, Abu seemed to be a bit smaller than his sister Mesay, but was the first to catch a mouse!  And each developed a different pseudo-nursing habit from being weaned from their mom too early.  Abu sucked on shirts, Mesay on fingers, and Sharky on his right front leg (probably from spilling milk on it).

Mesay the calico girl came back to Kansas with me, via a Christmas stop in PA.  Sharky and Abu remained in the guest house.  Unfortunately Abu wandered off and I haven't seen him since I left in Dec.  I saw Sharky during my visit in May this year, still sucking on his leg which confirmed it was him and not Abu.  And he is with me here in the guest house where he was born, still sucking on his leg when he is happy.  Both Mesay and Sharky have an odd habit of sucking water from their bowl, after lapping some up first.  Mesay seems to have outgrown it, perhaps learning from my older cat Yoda.  But Sharky still turns his lapping into quite audible sucking.  I guess drinking is as much learned as instinct?

iCats

Mesay, Sharky sucking on leg, Abu, about 2 mon. old.

Mesay sucking on Colleen's fingers.

Mesay has to contend with THIS now!

Sharky learning to be an urban cat, almost 1 yr old.

Sharky, almost 1 yr old, still sucking on his leg.

Mesay, Sharky, and Abu, and Hurricane Sandy

4 weeks old.

Rather than being thrown into the fiery furnace like Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, our month-old orphan kittens Mesay, Sharky, and Abu survived their first hurricane safe in the third floor guest house.  Hurricane Sandy hit Jamaica earlier this week, and here in Cayes Haiti we have had heavy rain and winds for three straight days.  I haven’t left the building since Monday (today is Friday), but I heard that roads were flooded and power was out in town.  I was to take my two classes to the botanical garden this week.  Tuesday morning as it became apparent that the rain would not stop, that got changed to staying in and watching a movie (Medicine Man) during class.  It wasn’t until later in the day on Tuesday that we realized this was a major tropical storm and everyone needed to stay home.  But four ecology students showed up yesterday!  So we huddled around my netbook and watched the 1992 movie starring Sean Connery as a researcher on the brink of discovering the cure for cancer in a rain forest about to get bulldozed for a logging road.

A couple Haitians that I don’t really know texted me to see if I was ok during the storm.  One even asked if I was scared!  Which put into perspective how they must be viewing the storm verses how we are, all safe in our concrete building.  Watching movies, making pizza, snuggling the luckiest kittens in Haiti.

For more details about how Sandy has affected Haiti, visit this post by a friend who lives in Port au Prince.  http://vetmissions.blogspot.com/2012/10/sandy.html?m=1.

My favorite, Mesay, named after her mom Day-o.

At the pizza restaurant with Uncle Earl - 3 weeks.

2.5 weeks old.