Xochitl

Dedicated to my long-time friend and bro Mel ... another (very) belated BIRTHDAY dedication, August 30th...
^{(though thankfully Mel is aware of my life...)}

Dear Mel, no matter how late I may be, you know that every day I celebrate you, and wish you the best on future days ahead! Thanks always for your kind support.

I also want you to know, I had taken a photo just for you of Winston and Raya, but had later accidentally reformatted my disc before getting my most recent photos uploaded to my computer! First time I've EVER done that, too!


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I have wanted to debut my beloved Xochitl so much sooner than now... I have photos of her from since the beginning of her teeny tiny life. I have tons of photos of her all in all. I have many photos of her bottle feeding, and opening her eyes, and squiggle-walking... and everything else.

While I have bottle fed cats before, it was very briefly and under very different circumstances.
In this case, shortly after I returned from my April trip to see family in Tucson, there was a cat at the shelter who gave birth on Cinco de Mayo (or May 5th, but I remember it better, by saying "Cinco de Mayo" as it happens to be a holiday we acknowledge),...

It was super late at night so there were no employees, let alone volunteers on duty at the time, and the mother cat, proceeded to get rid of her babies one by one... the first two did not make it, and the shelter had just opened early in the morning when the employees noticed she was in the middle of giving birth and what was going on... she was nearly done doing the same thing to the 3rd kitten, who was not doing well, when they quickly separated, revived, & warmed it etc.,

The last two kittens, she seemed more keen to keep, and did not continue with this process.
They are okay to this day, though one ended up going through a lot of illnesses. He's getting better.
Neither have been adopted.

But with that 3rd kitten, well... it was brought to my home, by the 2nd day, technically the 1st FULL day, and has not left yet, (-there was really not that intention). I was in utter awe, because I have seen litters this small of course, but to see one separated out and alone, and to care for one myself at such an early age... when previously, I've only had kittens in my care for long lengths of time from 3 weeks old-- this one was DAY TWO!

I was rather overwhelmed. But day by day we did it. It was a little hit and miss at first... and it was scary, but after a couple of weeks things stabilized a lot more.

I had a lot of plans and items on my lists, for after returning from my Tucson trip, and caring for a newborn kitten round the clock had not been one of them... and certainly changed everything I had intended to do, moved everything back considerably, and crunched half of it into smaller time slots, and the other half just never ever got done.


Such is life.

For quite sometime, we were guessing she was a boy... I was anxious to have a name to call her by... so as a boy... we were calling her Oliver, as in "Oliver Twist"... but as it can be difficult to tell at that age, it turned out she was a girl, but rather than have a variation of Oliver,
we went with something completely different: Xochitl: So-cheel, which is Mayan for "flower"--

She is such a delight! She is so observant and inquisitive, and very cuddly-sweet, and while I have a feeling that my others do see me as their human mom, I feel like she sees me a bit more primitively... because she knows no differently... our relationship is different, as is my relationship is different with each of my cats.
She loves every kind of toy, not just particular ones. He eyes are so almond shaped, she has gorgeous markings, she always makes sure she knows where I am, and what I am doing, and she always seems to want to learn how to do what I am doing too- how to cook, use the computer, use the phone, clean the litter box... turn on the shower.

Anyway, from the beginning it's been an amazing experience.


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^{[ NOTE: Thank you, in advance, for any 's I may receive for this image. I am honoured and grateful that anyone would think well enough to it. So thank you from the bottom of my heart . I understand if you don't have time to comment, but thank you for any kind comments, too.
It's important to know this NOW, as I may NOT be able to do individual thank-you's for 's, or in case I cannot respond to each comment, either. Thanks for understanding.
And, if you just came to view, I appreciate that, too.
]}


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