Today's focus will be one of my aforementioned special-needs kittens, the first one to join the Cleveland Kitty Cottage: Deuce LoveNugget Cleveland, who happens to think he's Rambo.

Deuce was one of a litter of four to be born to a stray who commandeered my shed. I was feeding first the mother, later the kittens, too, and regularly changing a litter box placed in the shed for their use. The kittens were mostly afraid of me and ran to hide in various locations in the shed whenever I opened the door. Therefore, I hadn't worked up any huge attachment to any of them other than just to enjoy watching them through my office window as they played outside.

One fateful Saturday afternoon when I opened the shed to clean the litter box, I noticed one of the kittens wedged TIGHTLY beneath the opened door of a cabinet in there. I keep the door propped open so that kitties have access to beds I have made for them with towels and blankies on the cabinet shelves. The trapped kitten was barely moving and emitted only a feeble meow as I freed him. I laid him on a blanket, and he didn't move at all other than to meow faintly occasionally.

I called my wonderful neighbor, Elly, for help and then the Doctors Douglas, Mike and Britt, who operate Douglas Vet Clinic in Salem. They are closed Saturday afternoons, but Dr. Britt met me at the clinic. Both Elly and I were very much afraid the little guy wouldn't survive. Lying as he had been, pressed so tightly against the concrete floor, he had scraped off his whiskers and facial fur, and he was also hypothermic. Dr. Britt gave him a warming bath and a steroid shot, then kept him at the clinic over the weekend ~ for free I should add.

Monday I was able to bring him home for TLC here. I named him Deuce because he was getting a second chance. At the time, he weighed less than a pound, and I had to get up every three hours to feed him milk replacement and whatever canned food I could get him to eat. When I was at school, Elly took care of him.


As he picked up weight and strength, his Rambo tendencies began to emerge.:) He is a persistently playful bundle of energy now, but also a loving, purring cuddler who loves to snuggle with his new mommy and pester his big brother Joey for attention.


On his first follow-up visit to Dr. Britt, she couldn't believe he was the same kitten she had seen just a couple of weeks before. The initial fear was that he had sustained enough brain trauma that he might be blind, but thanks be to God, he is now healthy and happy. Well, mostly healthy: He is, at this moment, recovering from an upper respiratory infection. Again, Dr. Britt ~ and amoxicillin ~ saved the day. :)

My wish is happy endings for all little animals. I know I can't save them all, but I'll do what I can!