Saving Mama and her babies

The Story of Mama Pumpkin-Spice

and her 7 little spice kittens

For those of you not aware, I’m the Carrick Cat Guy and the reason I’m called that is that I live in the neighborhood of Carrick which is in the South Hills district of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I am that one old crazy cat person (although I think I’m not alone in this any longer) who lives in your neighborhood and feeds and provides shelters in the winter for all those stray and feral cats. Oh, when called upon and I am able to, I TNR as my health dictates. So now that you’re familiar with what (who I am) - I’d like to tell you the story of Mama Pumpkin-spice and her 7 little spice kittens...

Mama Pumpkin-spice is a very loving and beautiful female house cat - not a stray, not a feral, but very much a house cat. Now I can only speculate the following: Mama (her age is unknown at the moment) I believe, became pregnant and suddenly became unwanted by the human(s) she lived with. Perhaps it was a matter of finances that made them do what they did, or that the idea of being burdened physically with a mama and litter of kittens was too much for them to handle, we’ll never really know that part of the story - but instead of contacting a local shelter or one of the many animal rescue organizations here in Pittsburgh, they simply tossed her out like day old trash, to try and fend for herself while pregnant and after their birth, caring for her litter of beautiful babies. It is even possible that her human, let her out while she was in heat and when she turned up pregnant, that’s when he or she, left her out in the streets of the city!

Mama gave birth to her litter of kittens about 6 weeks ago (judging from her babies) under someone’s back porch just down the road from where I live. Now you need to understand that being a house cat, mama Pumpkin-spice (as I’ve named her), had no idea how to fend for herself, to find food and clean water. Being an indoor cat, she was provided all that she needed. Unable to forage, unable to hunt - and with 7 babies inside of her who were struggling to be nourished in their womb - mama was slowly starving to death. Even after the kittens had been born, she continued to go without food while her litter nursed, while she, a loving mother, continued to feed her babies so they would hopefully survive.

Eventually, the soft and tiny meows of the babies, brought Mama Pumpkin and her babies to the attention of the person living in the house. By this time, mama was nothing but skin and bones, weak from not eating and overwhelmed by 7 kittens who needed to be cared for. Drastic steps were needed if Mama and her kittens were to survive - and so, the woman whose porch mama and the kittens were under, reached out to her neighbors and to online and this is how I came into the picture. On a warm afternoon only three weeks ago, These little Angels of God and their mama were brought to me

Habitats were set up in my living room for Mama and her babies - clean bedding, fresh food and water were set up....As I lifted Mama up into my arms, I hugged her and stroked her fur and spoke soft words of comfort, letting her know that her babies and she were now safe and I made a promise to her as tears ran down my face, that I would do all I could, to help her regain her strength and health and keep her 7 little babies safe and warm!

For the first couple of days, I kept Mama Pumpkin and the kittens together in the habitat, not sure how far along they had been weaned. When I saw that they could eat and were eating solids, I separated mama and the babies into adjacent habitats and began feedings of the kittens three times a day with a thin gruel mixture of wet kitten food and KMR (kitten milk replacement) while at night they would get a bowl of KMR and a bowl of Purina Kitten chow dry. Mama was being fed also a thin gruel of regular wet pate cat food, mixed with KMR 2nd stage along with dry kibble. I did not keep mama and her babies totally separate, but did so mainly at meal times and for periods throughout the day to give mama some rest as the kittens wanted to keep nursing and I needed to get mama’s weight and strength up. Because she was so tired and week, she wasn’t able to keep her babies as clean as possible and so, I found myself stepping into her shoes and I would have to clean them at least a couple times a day. Getting them to use the litter box was the easy part, getting them to stop playing in it and their own poo, was another challenge altogether! We did have a bit of vomiting and diarrhea from the kittens for a few days - but, both are under control now and the kittens are all quite healthy and well fed. They’ve been de-wormed and given kitten size doses of flea medicine, and I love to watch them romp and play about.

We have play time of course, when I let a couple of the kittens out of their habitat at a time to run and play and explore in my living room (to them it’s the whole of the world LOL) - and we also get snuggles and lovies and more lovies to let them know that not all humans are bad to animals! And Mama too, is gaining weight and becoming stronger every single day! In the evenings, when I do a complete cleaning of their habitats, I put the kittens in with mama for the evening and mama has once more started caring for her babies, cleaning them and snuggling with them. And of course, Mama Pumpkin gets her time out to explore - but mostly, she likes for me to hold her or to lay in my lap while we watch television and I pet her.

I’m currently working on getting mama and the kittens into a program through Animal Friends of Western Pennsylvania which is called Foster-to-Surrender. Once we can get them seen by a vet through Animal friends, they become part of their family in which all of their medical needs are taken care of and Animal Friends will cover the cost of supplies such as food and litter and cleaning supplies. Because I have cats of my own - Mama and the kittens must stay in the habitats with limited  free time, until all have been tested for FLV and FIV, etc. I will continue to foster them until Animal Friends believes that they are healthy enough and old enough to be spayed and or neutered and can be put up for adoption. Until they’re fully enrolled all costs for the care and upkeep, comes either from my pocket - or from donations!

Here is where I need to thank those people who live in my neighborhood and in the surrounding neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, as well as the two wonderful ladies who got me involved; Cat Lady Christine and Cat Lady Lindsey. I need to Thank my Angel on Earth (Karen) for her kindness above and beyond and her tremendous donations! And to all of Carrick Pennsylvania who has helped me and continues to be Angels sent from Heaven to help these fur-babies to live and thrive! Without all of them and others who donate, I wouldn’t be able to Foster - The lives of Mama Pumpkin and her 7 little babies (Ginger-spice, Mace-spice, Cinnamon-spice, Nutmeg-spice, Pepper-spice, Allspice, and Karen-spice) have all been saved by an entire community of caring and loving people! And I know that there is a special place in Heaven for each!

Thank you All!

Would you like to donate from our Amazon Kitty wish list?

Click onto the button

God Bless!