I guess the animal and the human world's aren't too different.
One of the barn cats my sister has taken in and started feeding had a litter of kittens this past month. She was practically a kitten herself, but none the less managed to have about five offspring. She carried one off pretty early. Later we heard it mewing in our barn and my father found it on top of his work shed. I'm pretty sure she left it for dead. We put it back with the rest of the litter, but I guess we were just playing god cause she moved them again and left the poor thing one more time. I dont know if it just was too small and she didn't think it would survive, or it just got the short straw and she could only keep four comfortably.
It reminded me of when I was in grade school.
One of the cats we had at the time had a litter, and one was most definitely a runt. It also had some sort of muscle/leg problem. I guess she knew it wouldn't survive later and left it for dead. I heard it at the time, and decided to take it under my wing. I kept it in my room in a little blanket, and fed it about every 2 hours with a baby bottle. I even had a little 'exercise' routine, thinking my efforts would help it to grow strong. One day I came home from school, went to get the bottle and picked her up. She died that moment in my hands. My mother said she waited till I got home so she could say goodbye. It was traumatic for a kid.
So, this time I vowed to stay out of it. Even when my sister brought it in out of the freezing cold this morning with it whining louder than ever. But of course when she got out the 'skim' milk to feed it, i snickered and mentioned that 'skim milk would be like water to them.' She didn't understand so, while i was trying to pretend i wasn't interested in what was going on i found an eyedropper and some condensed milk and hinted at their use. It worked, the little thing ate until its little belly was huge! It was so cute, ahem, i mean i dont know what happened....
We took it to the shelter this evening. Maybe it'll be a nice little christmas gift for some nice kid.
