As I was walking to my swing last week, thinking of swinging in the rain (there was only a light sprinkle), I heard something that sounded odd..  A little ‘meow’, faint at first, but louder as I got closer to the pile of wood we had stacked by the barn.

I wasn’t sure what it was I was hearing at first. And as I got closer to the weeds surrounding the wood pile, I could see something black curled up in the weeds.  I could tell it was a baby something, and at first, I was worried that it was a baby raccoon or baby woodchuck..  As I stood there examining it, It accrued to me that it was a baby kitten!

I had never seen a kitten so little before!  Curled up, it was about the size of my palm, and it’s eyes weren’t even opening yet.  I did the only rational thing I could think of at the time, I called a good friend of my grandmothers who was a bit of a kitten expert, and asked her to come over and take a look.

About an hour later, she pulled up (grandkids in tow) and took a look at the kitten.  The parents of the kitten (the ones who had had a little earlier this spring) weren’t anywhere to be found, and apparently couldn’t hear the loud screams of the kitten..

With a storm on the way that night, and the parents no where in sight (and no other kittens in sight ether), we all decided that we needed to take it inside so that it would survive.

My grandmothers friend explained to me how to take care of it (feed it, bath it, etc.) and my grandmother ran quickly to the store to get a tiny baby bottle and some cat’s milk for the little baby.  (Yes, you can apparently buy dehydrated cats milk at the store!  I’m shocked!)

We managed to get it fed (which was hard to do that first day) and got it cleaned up with some baby wipes.

It took about two days to get it used to the bottle, but after two days it started to understand that there is food in there, and now it and has no problem drinking from a bottle.

On the third day, I gave it a ‘proper’ bath with a bowl of water and some dish soap.  It REALLY needed a bath by then, and afterwords it was nice and clean and a bit less smelly.

The adorable little kitten is still alive and happily starting to run around the living room, kitchen, and my room.  The three other cats in the house are scared of the new kitten and run away when it starts screaming.  But all in all, the cats have been good in making the little kitten feel welcome.

What is the name of this adorable little girl you ask?  Skunk Flower O’Leary!

The adorable stripe across her head gave me the idea of the name ‘Skunk’.  My grandmother didn’t like the name Skunk, so I told her that she could call her ‘Flower’ (the name of the skunk on Bambi).  And the O’Leary name is because the only way I can get it to stop crying and screaming it’s head off, is to sing it ‘The Irish Lullaby’ song.  So there you go!  Interesting name right?

Skunk Flower O’Leary, welcome to the family!

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