It is a frigid landscape that covers Virginia each winter. But that wasn’t the only thing one woman shockingly discovered that a layer of ice had enveloped. For five tiny newborn kittens she stumbled across born on the streets, the ice covered their little bodies like a death shroud. There was no mother cat found anywhere near the abandoned babes. No one to warm up their delicate and fragile bodies.
Amazed they were still alive, she quickly scooped up the mini popsicles and set about thawing them to try to save their lives.
Soon they were no longer covered in ice, but wrapped with love and warmth in foster care.
She reached out to a local cat rescue who in turn contacted a woman they knew would happily accept the family of needy kittens. Plans were set in motion to deliver them to the experienced foster home of @fosterkittenacademy. After all, it takes a village!
And once settled, they were introduced to their social media family.
Yesterday, a lady found 5 newborns who were all covered in ice. Thanks to @loudoun_cat_coalition who got in touch and facilitated the transfer. I met the lady half way between our homes (she’s an hour out), and collected these little beebs!
They were clearly born yesterday, as they were still sticky and yellow from birth, their cords are not dried, and they had a meconium poop. Good news is, everyone warmed up nicely, they’ve all now been cleaned up, and they are feisty little things!
I *believe* we have two boys (left side of collage) and three girls (right side of collage).
With the overwhelming number of kittens born each year, these babies were given a unique and adorable name theme. And with that, the “poppin bottles” babies were officially given monikers.
Although the ice had melted and they only had access to a milk bar, these sweeties are perfect “on the rocks”.
So welcome to the happy hour kiddo’s, the “poppin bottles” babies! Introducing Morgan (F), Hennessy (F), Jager (M), Jameson (M) and Kahlua (F).
They were warmed up in the incubator and bottle fed every 3 hours to keep them alive, not an easy task. But their foster mom was up to it and doted on her new fosters.
It was about a week later that their eyeballs began peeking out.
But then, as it usually is with abandoned street kittens, the health of Kahlua and Jager took a turn for the worse. The first indicator that shows something is wrong is their poops. In fact, side note. NEVER ask a fosterer to do one of those “show me the 6th photo on your phone”. Because you may not like the image!
All Kahlua would like is for her and her brother, Jäger, to feel better. That’s at the top of my list too. With three different medications I think we may get their little tummies back to normal 🤞🏻
Happily, their stomachs eventually settled, bathroom breaks became normal and they could focus on being playful and adorable kittens.
The kids lazed around with their perfect potato bodies and enjoyed being “milk drunk” after feedings. Little ears wiggled and fuzzy butts rolled around without a care in the world.
Their bodies had thawed, allowing their warm and snuggly souls to emerge.
The Foster Kitten Academy supporters were also happy to lap up all the cute photos and videos shared as the kittens grew. And boy do they enjoy the body heat of humans! As they were regularly seen sitting on laps. Occasionally a shoulder too!
But time passes quickly and before long, it was time for them to find their forever homes.
It was about 2.5 months later when the final happy update on the “poppin bottle” ice babies was shared.
“Thankfully all five babies absolutely thrived, despite two of them having very stubborn bacterial infections of the gut that kept me very busy for the first few weeks of their lives 😅 who doesn’t want to spend Christmas bathing 5 babies and cleaning poopy bedding every 2 hours?!
They have grown like weeds since the day they were born, and have been such a joy to care for. I will miss having these sweet babies around. As always – I feel like we hit the jackpot with adopters 🥳
Kahlua & Hennessy are going to be together forever in their new home, and there’s no doubt they are going to be so happy with their new mum & dad. A perfect match all round 💜
Little baby Jäger, my special boy, is heading to a home with a big brother. [He’s] a gorgeous house panther named Hamilton who is also an AWLA alum! His mum better plan her funeral now because one look at that cute face and you’re dead 💀 💙
And as I shared last week – Morgan & Jameson also went together. They had their initial adoption fall through last minute. but it’s okay because it allowed them to meet their new dad. They were picked up on Sunday and I just know that they are going to live happily ever after in their new home.
Thank you to everyone for following along on their journey, and for the support through the exhausting times at the beginning!
Now to deep clean and impatiently wait for the next batch” 🙃 #poppinbottlebabies
