Phil was struggling to survive. But all he really needed was a mother’s love and warmth.
Two kittens, one gray and one tricolor, were brought to the Nashville Cat Rescue shelter . They had been found under a house, with no mother nearby. Only a week old, they needed 24-hour care.
Phil was particularly weak
If the lives of the two kittens were in danger, the case of Phil , the gray one, was particularly alarming. Even more frail than his sister, his chances of surviving were very low. “ After a few days on a bottle, Phil wasn’t doing well, and he and Rory were extremely underweight, ” Becca and Nathan , the babies’ foster parents, told Love Meow .
Faced with this critical situation, the host family then tried an experiment. They had a cat at home who was already nursing 3 babies, and were hoping that she would accept 2 more.
Rory fed on mother’s milk, and Phil on her love
Luckily, the nursing mother immediately agreed to adopt the two kittens. Rory ate much better as a result. As for Phil , still too weak, he was barely suckling. On the other hand, he was very soothed by the licks and the warmth of his new mother’s body. He loved to snuggle up against her stomach and fall asleep that way.
Phil was fed with a tube for a few days. “ After feeding him through a tube for a week, we managed to get him to eat a little from a bottle. We alternated tube and bottle feeding for another week or so, while still allowing him some nursing time with the mother cat. ” During these one-on-one sessions with his mother, Phil soaked up all the love he could, and it gave him the strength to fight and continue growing.
A few weeks later, all the efforts invested by the foster family and the adoptive mother paid off. Phil ‘s life is assured, even though he is half the size of his sister.
He is a very cuddly and happy kitten, who has a lot of love to spare. He will bring happiness to his future adoptive family.