8 weeks old

This precious, fluffy girl is officially 8 weeks old!  I never knew how my life would change when my mom called me saying there was a pet emergency at their house involving a feral cat that appeared to be having trouble after giving birth.  She had been dumped there earlier this year and had already given birth to her second litter (the first litter only had one kitten too).  My parents did what they could to help the mother, but in the end, she didn't make it.  She left behind this little kitten that I estimated to be born on September 1st.  I didn't intend to keep her, but when I realized she needed help, I decided I had to do everything I could to save her.  So on September 6th, I brought her home.  I was so focused on keeping her alive that I wasn't even considering keeping her and didn't intend to think about that until she made it to 8 weeks old.  But I started to notice that my husband really really liked her and then I quickly fell in love.  Arien is now old enough to go to her forever home, but she's found it already here with us.  😊  

The past 7 weeks of hand raising this little girl have been so awesome, and I am SO glad I did it!  She has SO much to learn still, but she is happy and healthy.  She's alive.  It definitely wasn't always easy with lots of lost sleep and tears along the way.  I want to take this moment to express some frustrations that I haven't talked about yet.  I love Arien, and I love that she gets a happy ending to her story, but for so many kittens, that isn't the case.  Lots of people talk about spaying and neutering pets and yes, that is important.  But there are so many feral cats that aren't getting spayed and neutered whose babies often die or they live and increase the feral cat population.  Feral cats often deal with illnesses, wounds from heated fights, and getting pregnant starting when they are far too young.  However, this doesn't have to be their fate.  There are programs already in place to help feral cats by spaying/neutering and giving vaccinations so they can live peacefully in the community.  If you know feral cats are living around you, please take the few minutes it takes to trap them and get them the help they need so there are less unwanted kittens left to suffer.