Today is Cricket’s first birthday. I officially have only one kitten left (Jeremy is 9 months.). In fact, I just weighed everyone yesterday and she is officially the biggest cat in the house, one ounce bigger than Kirby and five ounces bigger than George. So… it’s not by much.

Cricket at 11 days old, the day her eyes opened.

Cricket came to me in my first orphan kitten foster litter. I was a first time foster mom, and she was a very very tiny sick little girl. All the girls in her litter had the same weird health issues. Two had passed away, not in my care thank god, I was too new to handle that. Nova was the biggest, healthiest kitten, her symptoms came on later and therefore she got on antibiotics earlier. But Cricket was struggling. You can see, in the picture of her at 11 days, she has no muscle or fat in her face, it’s shaped like a triangle, which is a sign of a kitten who is struggling. At one point, she had to be tube fed for two days.

But even with that, she was such a fighter. So much determination, she even tried to “nurse” when being tube fed. For a few weeks, I drove to Langley every day so she could receive subQ fluids. I tried to get as much food in her as possible, the vets wanted her to pee frequently. She was on antibiotics for the first 5 weeks, every time she would finish a cycle, she’d start to run a fever and become lethargic. Finally, at five and a half weeks, she finished a cycle and stayed healthy.

She spent most of her first several weeks tucked into my neck.

Then I had four rambunctious, healthy black kittens on my hands. And it was obvious we were not going to be able to let her go. So we didn’t!

She was always such a funny kitten.

She is such a love bug. She had zero fear of Kirby and George and would snuggle them whether they wanted it or not. They seemed fascinated by her. At this point, we hadn’t taken in Jeremy’s littler, they were still very patient and sweet.

George and his little sister.

So now I have the sweetest little love bug. She wants nothing more than too snuggle me. She has some orphan kitten traits, like her love of humans. She likes to suckle on my t-shirt. She puts her paws on my cheeks, or around my neck, and makes very very gentle biscuits. She “tucks” me in every night when I go to bed. She has fur like satin and will eat ANYTHING. She is what Wm calls “a garbage cat.” I am so happy we kept her and so happy she is in my life.

My little bug.