April 22nd 2018 was a very memorable day for two female cats. Chloe, a 5-year-old feral gave birth to her last litter ever. This included tiny Tortie Aura, born with a cleft palate and an immeasurable will to survive.
Photo: Facebook Auradorable; (L to R) Aura, Chloe and tabby cousin
The story starts with Chloe, one of the last fertile females in a feral colony of over 200 cats to be trapped by TinyKittens in British Columbia, Canada.
This colony, named The Happy Cat Forest is what started their project in 2015 and has staggering numbers attached: 242 cats are in the colony, 8 are currently in TinyKittens care, 114 have been adopted out and a whopping 91% have been sterilized! Nice work; it’s not an easy task!
Photo: Tinykittens.com; Smartypants Chloe avoiding the traps!
At Chloe’s age, the team at TinyKittens estimates that she could have been pregnant up to 15 times!!!
When Chloe was finally caught, she was pregnant again and they discovered that sadly, she has kidney disease. Left untreated in the wild and continuously giving birth, she would have repeated the cycle until her kidney’s failed and she passed away. This would leave any of her offspring to fend for themselves against the unknown dangers of feral living.
But she was fortunate. Rescuers tended to the feral mama who eventually even started to enjoy belly rubs. Her loving personality began to show and quickly earned the love and attention from staff and volunteers.
Photo: Tinykittens.com; Chloe
So under the attentive watch of her new caregivers, Chloe gave birth for the last time to 5 darling little kittens.
When the babies were about 6 hours old, they noticed that one was a bit different. Little Aura was having trouble latching onto mama to feed and had LOST weight in the short time, very worrisome for neonates!
https://www.facebook.com/Auradorable/videos/1543751475733158/
Examining her more closely, they discovered the cleft palate within her mouth. She had large holes between the top of her mouth and her nasal passage making it impossible for her to latch onto Chloe and nurse.
Without the ability to eat, she would not survive through the night. Newborns can’t open their eyes for about 10 days so the little baby cried as she couldn’t see and was very hungry; poor girl.
Photo: Instagram TinyKittens; Aura’s cleft palate today
The team lept into action and began to administer food through a feeding tube. This can be very dangerous and they spent the entire evening on high alert, praying for Aura to pull through.
With the rising sun came a huge sigh of relief.
Aura had proven that she has the fighting spirit to conquer obstacles even at less than a day old!
Photo: Facebook Auradorable
Her fight was not over though.
With a newborn kitten, it is very important that they gain weight regularly and get the proper nutrients. To provide Aura with this, she had to be tube fed by hand every 2-3 hours! After a bit of a fuss initially, she began happily accepting the meals without opposition or complication.
When she is older and her adult teeth come in around 4-6 months of age, she will have surgery to repair the cleft palate. Until then, she will require special care.
Fortunately, her amazing will to live has gained her quite a following on social media. She now has her very own Facebook page, is a regular on the TinyKittens Instagram feed and a YouTube playlist that focuses just on her!
TinyKittens is happy to share her milestones and even some honest hardships as the story of Aura, who they’ve dubbed “Auradorable”, progresses.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjvX9xbFvE8/?taken-by=tinykittenshq
On June 21st they were excited to announce that Aura had FINALLY eaten kibble on her own, which is a huge step for her.
At 2 months old, they were also able to get Aura to drink using a rabbit water bottle the day prior. Due to her condition, they explain this will “greatly reduces her nasal passages being flooded when she drinks water, like they do when she tries to drink water from a bowl.“
Aura is a loving and playful kitten now learning how to “cat” from some other helpful…and famous…felines at the shelter. You may remember the story of Grandpa Mason; the senior cat with a terminal kidney disease who lives to help foster kittens? Well he is right there alongside Aura showing her the (sisal) ropes!
She does have to visit the vet quite often to ensure she continues to thrive, but doesn’t seem to mind the trip since she was able to book a window seat!
Photo: Instagram TinyKittens; Aura’s travel backpack with a view!
The happy mama and baby are loving the indoor life now where they can be safe and showered with cuddles, from humans and other rescues alike. You can even view their furbulous new lives on the live cameras that TinyKitten has set up yourself!
https://www.facebook.com/tinykittens/videos/1983978688343652/
As with many animal rescue organizations, TinyKittens is a non-profit run by fosters and volunteers that always need our support. If you are interested in donating to their cause, please visit their website here to learn more information.
PALATE, not “palette.” :-}
LOL I suppose that’s what happens when an artsy person writes! =) Thanks; it’s fixed now.
Very well written Jesscat. You are a pawsome member!
Shelly is just wonderful with those kittens. She did a great job with Aura. Thank you for this GREAT article.
Amazing!
i have been following Cole and Marm for lots of year’s as you supported TNR then i found TK after but we have learnt heaps and seen more as i help out my good friend that has a very small TNR she always owned cats but didn’t know heaps …. i’ve owned cats and knew a bit more !!! TK have shown us a few thing we didn’t know !!!! our TNR was as large as 28 cats and kittens (not very big in most TNR circles) only 3 were friendly at the time we have managed to down the number to 9 now with only 1 female left to be caught …..we have rehomed many lost a lot and loved them all !!! all i can say is a big thank you for doing what you do and supporting so many others too !!! oh and Cole is my favorite … but don’t tell Marm!!
Awesome!!! 28 cats is still a HUGE undertaking =) Be proud of your accomplishments!
The numbers show you’re doing an AMAZING job. Just think how much suffering you have prevented!!
My sister & I learn a lot from TK and from the Kitten Lady.
Thank you for all you do.
Yay! Aura!
Watching TinyKittens lives and tracking their FB pages taught me a lot about cats, their health, births, growing up etc. They show uncensored animal rescue reality, which is humbling and very informative. Shelly, TK founder, puts a lot of effort, time, money, tech knowledge – all her resources – in helping animals and educating people about that matter. They have my respect.
And of course I love Chloe, Grandpaw Mason, Cassidy, Evolene.. Ah ♥
🙂
hi JessiCat The FB link in this article isn’t working. In the past few days TK changed Aura’s facebook URL to https://www.facebook.com/pg/Auracuda/posts/?ref=page_internal
It’s got “Auracuda” in it instead of “Auradorable” so now it matches her Instagram page.
Love your articles.
Thank you! Saw she changed it so updated now here too =)