My husband and I have done quite a few kitten rescues in our home. I believe, at last count, we’ve rescued 20 kittens and placed most of them in new homes (3 are still with us). Since we lived in a neighborhood with lots of feral cats, we trapped about 7 adult cats and took them to the Humane Society to be fixed, and then released them back into our neighborhood – a process that keeps the cats out there, defending their territory from newcomers, but keeping the population from growing with new kittens.

It’s not a huge number, and it was spread out over a few years, but it was pretty good for us, on our own, with no financial help from any organization I think. The last kitten we rescued was truly an emergency case. I named him Midget – a neighbor heard his tiny cries from inside a built-in, locked storage cabinet in our building’s garage. He got a construction worker who was on the property for some repairs to break off the padlock with his hammer and found a scary scene inside: A mother cat had obviously given birth on top of the boxes stored inside the cabinet, because there were smears of blood and other fluids up there. But momma cat and all her babies were gone, except one – Midget was trapped between the wall and the boxes, probably having fallen there and gotten stuck. Momma cat, we think, tried to get him out but couldn’t reach him, realized that her birthing place wasn’t as safe for her kittens as she thought, and took the rest of them elsewhere.

I called him Midget because I figured he'd grow up to be the biggest cat ever. It's like calling a huge man "Tiny"...

Midget probably hadn’t gotten his first taste of milk from his mother before he fell. His placenta was still attached. My neighbor had never had kittens and didn’t know about the placenta so he was horrified thinking there was something wrong with the kitten, and immediately brought him to me for help, since he knew I did rescues. I detached the placenta with a pair of kitchen shears, wrapped Midget up in a tee shirt, and took him to the vet.

My vet is the coolest vet in the world. He gives the first exam of rescued cats for free. If there’s medicines or whatever, you just need to pay the cost of those and you’re done. So he saw Midget, decided he was fine if a little cold, gave me some tips on mothering him, and recommended a Milk Replacement Formula to get. Thus, I became mom to an hours-old baby kitten. I hand raised him – took him to school and pretty much anywhere else with me. At first, I’d just wrap him up in his tee shirt like a little purrito (purr + burrito!) and maybe slip him into a little purse I had, but later he got a nest in a shoe box lined with a towel, and i put his little purrito self in there to carry him around. He was a great baby, and my teachers were pretty darned cool with him having to come to class.

I had two scares with him – one, his eyes were just starting to open and they leaked what looked like infected pus. I thought he was sick so I took him to the vet and he went on antibiotics for a few days and was fine. The other time, he went completely lethargic and had a fever (I could tell from just touching him that he was too hot). We took a bus to the vet’s office and again he went on antibiotics. Within 2 days he was back to his old self again. It was scary but I’m so glad he was ok.

I always loved his nose and the 3 little white hairs between his eyes

Anyway, he’s fine now. It’ll be exactly 6 months tomorrow since my neighbor found him and brought him to me, and he’s with a new family – a friend of mine from chorus adopted him. She has two sweet kids who love “Snuggles” (he got renamed when he was adopted). Snuggles, for his part, loves his new family. He’s a little odd for a cat, which I attribute to him having a human mom instead of a feline one, but that’s ok. I miss him every day, but my friend sends me pictures on Facebook.

I was browsing the internet today, as I do, and I saw this beautiful video of a puppy getting rescued from a pipe under someone’s home. It made me think of Midget/Snuggles, so I’m sharing it with you.

Happy Valentine’s Day.