Help Save a Tiny Kitten's Life

This fundraiser is helping to save the life of a very tiny, special little kitten!

Three weeks ago, we rescued a newborn kitten from a bad situation. This little one was born very prematurely, weighing only 40 grams (a newborn kitten should be 100). She was also born with a severe cleft palate. The odds were stacked against this little one, and it wasn’t expected that she would make it through the night. This little one may have been tiny, but she was mighty, and we knew we had to give her a fighting chance!

Fast forward 3 weeks later, through many long nights of no sleep and a lot of tube feeding, and this little one is still here and thriving! We’ve never seen such a small kitten with such a big, strong will to live. We have promised this little one that as long as she is willing to fight, we will be there right by her side to help her.

Due to this little one’s cleft palate, she has to be exclusively tube-fed, as eating anything by mouth would cause her to aspirate and ultimately not survive. Fear not, there is a surgical option available to fix her cleft palate! The difficult part is that this surgery cannot be done until she is between 4-6 months of age, and it is most often done by a dental specialist at a specialty hospital, which comes at a steep cost.

While tube feeding right now is easy, things are soon to get much trickier as this little one grows sharp teeth that can chew through the tube. We have methods in place to be able to safely tube-feed her for these next few weeks, but the goal would be to have a vet place an esophagostomy tube around 8 weeks old. This would allow her to safely get all the nutrition she needs until surgery can happen.

After surgery, this little one should be able to eat and thrive like any kitten, but she has a long road to go until she can get to that point.

Some may ask why we are going to such extremes to help this little one. Some have already suggested that we euthanize her due to the expensive and extensive care needs. While we understand that many rescues would have opted for euthanasia, we firmly believe all cats and kittens deserve a chance. This little one is full of love and life. She wants a chance. Who are we to deny her that? We can’t and we won’t. So yes, while we know the odds aren’t in her favor, we have to try. But we need your help to make it possible!

While the exact costs of her future care are unknown, we know it will be thousands of dollars between feeding tube placements, specialist appointments, diagnostics, advanced imaging, dental surgery to repair the cleft, and possible periods of hospitalization until healed.

Your donation of even just $5 can help us to be able to get this little one all the care that she needs to save her life!

With the proper care and a tiny miracle like her, her future is bright!