You might have noticed a new furry creature in our family pics recently. We’d like to introduce you to our new family member. Shuri, meet our Pig Friendly Community; PFC, meet Shuri. Shuri found us. As in, she came to our back door, and asked if we had an extra couch for her to crash on for awhile. We are happy to say there was ZERO hesitation. Mom screamed, “There’s a kitten in the backyard!” We swooped outside, grabbed the small, fuzzy body, and spirited her straight upstairs to Apollo’s food and water.
She was a raggedy Itty-Bitty (which is, coincidently, her spy name–Miss Itty-Bitty, just like Apollo is Professor Striped Pants), and she was mostly bones. When we put her in front of the food, she proceeded to eat and didn’t stop for more than 15 minutes. Riley tried to lure her to the water and put a drop of water on his finger and made the questionable decision to put that watery finger between the kitten and her new food. Not surprisingly, the kitten bit his finger thinking it was food. The teeny, tiny wonder, however, purred like a steam engine the ENTIRE time. She was so loud, you could hear her in the hallway.
That evening we took her to the vet. She weighed less than 1 1/2 pounds, she had an upper respiratory infection, and she had something suspicious going on with her eyes. Since she was feral, no one knew her history, we were advised to quarantine her for 10 days in case she had rabies. At this point in the vet exam, Riley blanched noticeably (see above reference to his kitten bite), and while his eyes turned watery, Mom had to assure him that the Universe would not send us a kitten with rabies.
We left the vet an hour later, laden with meds and kitten food and a kitten with a new name: Shuri. You might have noticed that Asher’s favorite movie, and Marvel character, is Black Panther. After the vet assured us that our new kitten was indeed feral and not lost, we claimed her as ours and Asher named her after T’Challa’s super smart and sassy little sister. Well done, Asher, as Shuri is now Apollo’s super smart and sassy little sister.
Fast forward two weeks. Shuri is out of quarantine (sans rabies, naturally), she’s moved into Tessa’s room (after Apollo made it clear he wasn’t interested in his little sis moving into Asher and Riley’s room–don’t ask), and she’s doing wonderfully. So, please, PFC, help us welcome Miss Itty-Bitty to the home of Four Fantastic Pigs, and stay tuned to see how the little girl does when she’s introduced to the world. (Slowly but surely.)
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