A few days into Lockdown, we heard some meowing sounds coming from one of the guest rooms. On entering, we found two of the tiniest little kittens I have ever seen. One of the kittens was really skinny and had a kind of an underbite. I don't know much about mothers abandoning their babies, but my gut told me this little one was never going to survive, but why the the mom abandoned both - I don't know. Not knowing much about how to raise baby kittens, we immediately took them under our wing. Thank goodness for google. Having no nearby access to kitten formula we made our own and luckily I found some syringes stashed away. I don't know if I would have committed to this task had I known it was going to be like having a newborn baby again - well worse - instead of feeding every 3 hours, it was every 2 hours - but very worth it. Candy sucked at the syringe really well, but sadly Cassey never could. I had to pretty much force feed her. About 10 days after we found them, we said a sad goodbye to Cassey. I'm not going to take all the credit here for rearing Candy. The children helped during the day, and took her everywhere with them. Our biggest helper though, was Calli, our Old English Sheepdog. She took on the mommy role to Candy, and did all the things a human mommy can't do. I believe Calli was the real hero in rearing our kitten. Candy went everywhere with us in the early days, even on 3 hours hikes. I can't blame her for staring blankly at us when she gets reprimanded for stealing food off the table. Of course she thinks she's human. Although, she may have a real identity crises as her favourite resting spot is on somebody's shoulder. She must have been watching too much TV, as there are definitely no parrots to be seen anywhere nearby. Come to think of it though, because she was brought up with dogs as her only friends, I will never forget the first time she climbed a tree. All the dogs stopped dead in their tracks and stared at this new friend of theirs, seeming to wonder what the heck this dog was doing climbing up a tree. They have either accepted her as is, or maybe they are in denial about her being a cat. Any other cat that comes near them get a good chasing.
I'm starting to believe less and less in coincidences, and more in everything happens as it should. I mentioned in "about us," that we brought with us "almost all our pets." We have 2 cats we had to leave behind in Bloemfontein. Whenever we are away, Granny Lorna steps in and looks after them, well more than that, loves and nurtures them. Their names are Sparkles and Mia. We got them in 2011. Sadly, while we've been away Mia became very ill, and due to the illness her organs failed. We decided to have her put down. I think Candy knew this would happen and that's why she came into our lives. We hope to try and bring Sparkles home as soon as we can.
I'm starting to believe less and less in coincidences, and more in everything happens as it should. I mentioned in "about us," that we brought with us "almost all our pets." We have 2 cats we had to leave behind in Bloemfontein. Whenever we are away, Granny Lorna steps in and looks after them, well more than that, loves and nurtures them. Their names are Sparkles and Mia. We got them in 2011. Sadly, while we've been away Mia became very ill, and due to the illness her organs failed. We decided to have her put down. I think Candy knew this would happen and that's why she came into our lives. We hope to try and bring Sparkles home as soon as we can.