Garfield ~The Chronicles of a Rescued Kitten

Dear readers, this week's post will deviate from my usual Maxie-centric semi-humorous postings. Fret not, though, as our favorite princess will still be featured somewhat in this week's installment of the Diary of a Cat's Slave. Just be forewarned that this post may take on a somewhat more serious tone than usual...

For those not in the know, I volunteer at an animal (dog) shelter called 2nd Chance (formerly known as Paws Mission but forced to rename ourselves due to conflict of "brand" with PAWS). Three weeks ago, we held an adoption drive at The Bee Restaurant & Bar, Jaya One. Instead of getting our pups adopted, we ended up rescuing a ginger tom kitten that I nicknamed Garfield. The poor little tyke was a tragic victim of a traffic accident, and couldn't use his hind legs AND was bleeding through his nose when we found him.

Dragging his hind legs

Blood-stained nose

To add to our complications, the little fella was mostly feral and objected vehemently to being manhandled by us and meowed up a storm. We finally got him to a vet, who kindly rehabilitated Garfield over the weekend. Unfortunately, she didn't have an x-ray machine, so I had to take Garfield to another vet for a scan...poor guy was terrified in the waiting room that was dog-filled!

Let me out! Get me away from here!

As luck would have it, kittens heal fast, and there was minimal pelvic fracture and some lung contusion, which explained the nose-bleeding, I was thankful to hear that as I was afraid of the worst: lung puncture from a broken rib.

Garfield was sent back to the vet for another week of observation before she pronounced him ready for fostering. I took on the job because although we all found him at the same time during the adoption drive, I consider him my first rescue and had a bit of responsibility to him even though I swore never to foster again; mostly due to the "fun" feeling of bereavement after letting your foster animals go to their new homes.

He was very scared of everything, and I kept him in my guest room in a cage. He was to have enforced cage rest for the better part of a month and another check-up by the vet before he can be pronounced healthy and ready for adoption. Thankfully, he wasn't permanently disabled and can walk, just with an awkward gait.

First day at home

Day 4 or so, looking a lot better!

Once a day, I'll let him out of the cage to roam around in the room to get some exercise. Didn't want to let him to get too crazy, after all, the vet said cage rest.

When I let him out, Garfield will run to a corner of the room and hide from me, and run away when I approached him. When I eventually managed to touch him and pet him, he started climbing all over me with cheek rubs and head butts, purring all the time. You can tell the little kitten is very loving, but is confused because he's not quite used to humans and doesn't quite know what to make of me. Everytime I go in, the scene repeats, hiding first until I manage to pet him, then clinging to me in the middle of the room.

You can see how scrawny he is

Some of the cat toys that Maxie grew bored of

Sometimes he's clingy, sometimes he's scared

Well, to ensure a smooth transition of adding a kitty to the household, I kept Garfield and cage with the door closed in the guest room. Maxie hears the meows but ignores them. Sometimes she will sniff at me after I've gone into the room to handle the kitten. She takes a lot of interest in his litter box whenever I bring it out for cleaning.

 

"You're bringing home ANOTHER kitten?" grouses Darth Puissant

I let them peek at each other very briefly through the door a few times, and after a few days I felt it was time to let them meet...closely supervised, of course! 

First "face-to-face"

Sniff sniff

"Uncle James, why is she smelling me? Do I stink?"

I actually have no idea what Maxie is up to in this pic...

Eating "together"

It took a few more sessions before I was willing to go to the next step. Actually, I was advised not to let the two cats interact physically, for fear of the play getting too rough and re-injuring the kitten. But I couldn't stand the mama cat meowing outside the door when I'm in with the kitten, and the kitten meowing inside the room when I'm out with the big one.

So, when I couldn't take it anymore, I let Maxie into the kitten's room, closed the door and let Garfield out. I was poised to take action to separate them if any unwanted events were to unfold. After the first few minutes, it was clear that they weren't destined for "hate at first touch", thankfully, and so I was able to snap a few quick pictures before stopping play. Didn't want to physically stress the kitten out too much.

The obligatory circling around

Maxie actually wasn't quite sure what to do with Garfield

But Garfield loves Maxie!

Trying to get more of his scent...

Garfield doesn't respect "grooming time"

I am happy to report that the two felines seem pretty fine with each other, though Maxie was a little at a loss of what to make of him at first. Garfield is obviously more used to the company of cats than humans, as he took to her very quickly, and was even the one to instigate play. At one point he was chasing Maxie around, poor kitty. However, Garfield still isn't fully healed, and he tumbled and upended himself. Maxie, not meaning any harm, put a paw on him and at this point I cut short the games and put him back in the cage before they accidentally hurt him together.

As you can see, Garfield is still quite scrawny. He's not putting on a lot of weight but he has been dewormed and eat 3 meals a day. He has just recently started accepting kibbles (softened in water) so with any luck, a more balanced kitten diet would make him gain some weight. When I let them interact and put food down, Maxie went to eat from his bowl (it used to be her food bowl) first, but if Garfield ambled over to share a bite, she would politely back off and let the kitten eat it. Such a good kitty, my Maxie!

I would like to take this chance to tell everybody that all of you can perform some kind of kindness to an animal. If you cannot adopt, you can foster. If not foster, you can sponsor. If not sponsor, you can donate. If you can't donate, you can volunteer. Or at the very least, you can spread the message of not being cruel to animals. They are living beings too and deserve their chance at a good life. Also, if you intend to rescue an animal, remember that you are responsible for it. Please do not be a vigilante rescuer who "rescues" an animal only to dump it at shelters. That is not doing a good deed, that is lying to yourself because you are not taking responsibility for your rescued animal and putting on additional workloads on the shoulders of already strained volunteers and/or shelter workers.

Special thanks to my personal cat advisor, the lovely Katie, for entertaining my questions on how to care for Garfield and bearing with my incessant complaints.  ^^