This morning, Prayer Boy the runt of the litter- the little white boy slipped away. The kittens all have pneumonia and URI and the swelling on their heads were a result of their eyes being crusted over so severely. Once warm compresses were gently pressed to the swelling-within seconds, the pressure released and pus started pouring out. Prayer Boy had two swellings and although he rallied after supportive fluids, antibiotics and gentle compresses, he was to far debilated to rally long.

I have moved the kittens and the queen from the closet into the main cat room. The nesting box there is larger and the queen has been ignoring the litter for the better part of last night, mainly because Prayer Boy was slipping away and she knew it. Once I took him out of the box and put him inside a carrier and in the bedroom, she returned to her remaining kittens. I did a thorough check of her today and she is grossly underweight and wormy as hell. She only has two viable nipples, I thought she had four- but there are three kittens who have survived so I will be supplement feeding them every four hours to take the load off her. I started her on worming medicine this morning- Panacur that I got from the vet.

She is a tough mother and has already beaten the pound out of two of my cats that simply came upstairs to see what was going on. We have put the door up at the bottom of the stairs to prevent more altercations- so now there are only seven cats upstairs- Onions and her family in one room and the two feral black kittens across the way.

I wish I had the money right now to get Onions spayed but I don’t. I will be talking to the owner later and I hope my temper doesn’t get away from me. These kittens, as cute as they are are suffering so early in their world and they should have NEVER been born!