My neighbor Svitlana is an animal whisperer. You know them. They just have a way with animals. Animals in need seem to gravitate to her. In September I saw her while I was out walking, and she told me about a neighborhood cat that had kittens in a planter box. She was feeding the momma and watching out for the four babies.
I told my husband Jeff about it and kind of asked/ told him I wanted to take in one of the kittens. We already have two cats outdoors, Fancy and Wally. We’ve sworn off having any more indoor cats. But this litter was born outside. They would be naturally outside cats.
Last Sunday I went by to meet the kittens. They were quite skittish and following the mother cat who was slowly weaning them. Svitlana was feeding the kittens a mixture of pate and dry food. Svitlana with all her skills was not able to catch any kitten for me to take home. She and the momma cat were both having trouble letting them go.
On Tuesday evening, I was outside feeding Fancy and Wally when I heard mewing coming from our shed. It was definitely a kitten mew. I called Svitlana. She came running over.
Apparently on Monday night two of the kittens had wandered. One returned, but one was missing. She had worried all night long about this baby. She came prepared with a can of cat food, salmon flavored with a high stink value.
Sure enough, little Mishka was in our shed. She found us! I exclaimed. Svitlana brought the momma cat over to see her baby while I set up our back porch with a litter box. We placed little Mishka in a crate, and she was happily purring. Mishka is the name that Svitlana was calling her. It’s a term of endearment in Russian meaning “little bear.” Svitlana is Ukrainian.
Since last week was the celebration of St. Frances, I took her to church to be blessed by Madre Annie.
I took her to our vet on Monday. She is 3.5 lbs and healthy, approximately 10 weeks old. She will live on the “cat-io” for another month or so before I let her out into the wild. Mishka has found a soft place to land.
We keep hoping that the Cat Distribution System will send a cat our way…lucky you, and lucky Mishka.