So this little cutie made his appearance almost a week ago. Last Saturday morning I woke up to get ready to go do Easter stuff with Andrew's family (he was working, so this was a solo trip) and I kept hearing a pitiful but strong 'mew, mew.' I could tell it was near the house, but at first I brushed it off thinking it was a bird. I went to Chelsea, visited, ate, hunted Easter eggs, had a great time and returned home to get ready to go to Outback for my shift. The 'mewing' was still there! It was obviously under the floor in the kitchen and the bedroom.
This is the back side of our trailer. The red circle shows a crawl space for workers to be able to get underneath the house if necessary. The mewing wouldn't stop, so I walked around back to check it out. The door to this crawl space was open!
Sunday was Easter. Andrew had to work, I had family stuff, we went off to do our seperate things, all the while the poor baby was just meowing away under the house. After a fun time at my Mom's house we came back and tried calling him again. No luck, but he was still alive and still there. At this point I'd pretty much accepted that we couldn't reach him and he was going to die under the house. Andrew thought otherwise. He decided he would go through the crawl space and try to reach the baby. He is much braver than me!
On the top is the door going in, and the bottom is the space under the house. He put on long sleeves, gloves and headed in. I was worried something would happen to him. I would sacrifice the kitten to keep Andrew safe, but he wasn't as worried as I was. If he was he sure hid it well. He went in, took a broom with him and started knocking around the insulation. Luck was with him because after a minute the kitten plopped out and onto the ground! However, he was still out of reach and the pipes under the house blocked Andrew from getting any closer. I figured, "Great, we're so close but can't reach him." The kitten was lost and confused and not coming to our voices. Smart thinking Andrew used to broom to sweep him over within reach, we pulled him out and sweet baby was free!!
I have never been more proud, impressed or in love with Andrew after seeing this. My heart melted in a whole new way. He was a little shaken, very dirty, but never more handsome in my eyes. I am so proud and thankful for the way he handled it. He was brave when I was not.
We got some kitten milk for the baby, started feeding him and realized that although he may have been stuck in insulation under the house for 36 hours, but he was not a weakling!! After a vet check and a clean bill of health we knew he was 4 ounces, about 3 weeks old, male and generally healthy. We don't know why the mother cat moved him or what may have happened to any siblings. I'm glad there was only one though!
We have agreed for now that we aren't positively keeping him, but we aren't saying no. He has a minimum of 4 weeks before he could be fully weaned, litter box trained and rehomed. We will take care of him in that time frame and make our decision then. I have a feeling that he won't be going anywhere though. I told Andrew it was up to him, he told me it was my decision. After the work he did to rescue him, and the bonding I am doing while bottle feeding, I think it'd be hard to let him go. He recognizes my voice and wakes up from a dead sleep if he hears me talking. It's so cute. He definitely knows who mom is!! That boy just wants to be held, loved on and fed. He's a sweet little thing.
So that is the story of how Rico came to us. Quite a harrowing experience for such a young guy, but it has not affected him one bit. If anything he is probably more loving because of it. He definitely gets plenty of attention! (we won't talk about how the existing pets are handling it, but they're coming around.)
I'll close with a couple of pictures of our newest cuddler. He's a great sleeping partner, except that he's pretty small and easy to roll over on!!
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