Little Pearl (Mini Pearl!) was a drop off. The step father of a member of our gaming group had found a little singleton kitten, approximately five weeks old, and brought her to us.
She was underweight and cold to the touch when we got her, having just survived her first snow.
We put her on a warming blanket immediately, and treated the infection with Amoxicillin and Terramycin. When we got her to the vet, they gave us a ten day supply, which we used without seeing much in the way of improvement. We checked back in with the vet and they said to let the sickness run its course unless she started displaying signs of labored (open mouthed) breathing.
We did as instructed, enhancing her care to include two steam bath treatments (I sat with Pearl on my lap, oil heater on high, and hot water running in the shower. Two of those, fifteen minutes in length over successive days and it seemed to help dislodge some of the buildup.
When she started to feel better, we introduced her to Bash and Finn (two six month old cats we had taken in), and the trio formed an impromptu pack, with Pearl serving as Alpha, despite being significantly younger and smaller than her larger packmates.
Jennifer and I spent quality time with them as they ate dinner (I did not linger over their breakfast) and spent a few hours each evening with them, getting them used to people, socializing in general, snuggling, etc.
The boys have caught their ride on the adoption van but Pearl is still a little sniffly so we continue to monitor her progress, but we have no doubt that when we update this post again, it will be to share the good news that she’s off on her quest to find her Forever People!
Update: We lost one, and I’m not sure why. Pearl still had some lingering upper respiratory stuff going on, but she seemed to be holding her own and getting slowly better.
I went to bed one night and the next morning…she was gone. 🙁 We gave her a final resting place next to my girl Patches, because they were both feisty. We’ll miss you, Mini Pearl…