just by chance my wife went to a friend of a friends house and nearly trod on a little black kitten. The lady explained at the end of October she found a litter of kittens being attacked by a fox, unfortunately the mother and two of the litter perished in the attack. The lady, being a cat owner herself hand reared the three remaining kittens and are now on solids. The lady did not want to give them up to a rescue centre and would have kept them herself until she found loving homes for them. Two of them have homes to go to so we just had to have the last remaining black female. Will pick her up tomorrow and give all the love in the world. Would welcome any advice on looking after one so young, about 5 weeks we think.

Already have, she cried a bit when we said we will take the kitten.

That's lovely of you and the lady who rescued the kittens - poor little things. 5 weeks is very young to leave home - my boy Gizmo was 6 weeks when we got him - abandonded in a barn, don't know what happened to his mum. He has always been a very indepandant sort of cat and has never really played or cuddled but that might just be his nature rather than the age we got him at.
Just give your little one lots of attention and find her a nice cosy bed - perhaps put a heat mat of some sort in it and maybe a teddy to cuddle up to - we tried that with Gizmo.
Is she eating solid food now? and litter trained? it will make things a little easier if she is.
Good luck with her and post some pictures when she's settled in!

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yes on solids but i will have to take her to litter tray after meals

Oh i love it when i hear a happy ending - but am saddened to learn of the poor mum and brother/sister - I bet mum was so brave fighting for her babies - may she have found peace at rainbow bridge.

Anyway - back to the question - we took our current cat (billy) fifteen years ago from a barn, he was the only survivor - other then the mum who you could not get anywhere near. We believe bilyl was around four weeks old - and to be homent when i first saw him I was terrified that we would not be able to rear him. I was at the time working and was able to take him to work with me in a cardboard box - when we were home my OH kept him is his dressing gown pocket to keep him warm. To cut a long story short he has made the most handsome easy well natured cat loving cat we have known. The only problem he has had is that he cannot meow - and also has lost most of his teeth - this we put down to not getting the proper nuitraints from his mother. We did when we had him feed him from our finder - we used to warm up cat meat and spread it on our fingers and he would suck it off.

wishing you small kitty a long and happy life - thank you for giving him a home
regards
sue
xxx

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If cats could talk they would lie to you
http://www.lambchopsiamese.webs.com