Marty, a Las Vegas woman who showed compassion a week ago, discovered the three newborn kittens. The kittens were lying in bushes and shivering, and the mother cat was nowhere to be seen.
That’s when one of the neighbors turned to Nikki Martinez, an experienced animal advocate, for help.
“Marti was out for a walk with her dogs when one of them became interested in some nearby bushes,” she said. ” Upon following her, she discovered three newborn kittens still bound by their umbilical cords,” Nikki explained.
Nikki was away at the time, but she instructed the woman to care for the babies until her return the next day. Marty rushed to the supermarket the next day to buy baby food and other necessities. When she returned home, she began feeding the kittens, and the following day, she took them to work with her to give them a bottle every few hours.
” It was very chilly during the night, and when she found them, they were freezing and stiff.”
Nikki took the babies, after which they surveyed the neighborhood, hoping to find the mother cat, but she was nowhere to be found. Nikki then contacted Trap Neuter Return, an organization dedicated to rescuing stray cats on the east side of Las Vegas.
The kittens were relatively weak; they had been born no more than 24 hours ago. “They didn’t get any mother’s milk necessary for immunity. It’s just a miracle they stayed alive,” Nikki says.
“If it’s good for them, I’ll give them everything I have.”
Nikki built a cozy bed with several heat sources to keep the babies warm and started feeding them every two hours. Cookie, Potato, and Bun were the names given to these fur balls.
When Bun, the tiniest of the brood, weighed only 90 grams on the third day of her life, she abruptly stopped eating, even though the other cubs were gaining muscle and strength. Bun could not bring herself to eat even a tiny bite.
“I tried to feed her until two in the morning, but it was useless. My heart was aching, and I felt so powerless,” Nikki recalls.
A kitten that age cannot go without food for long. Nikki and her husband knew they needed to find a way to feed the baby. The following day, they hooked the kitten up to artificial electricity.
Nikki’s husband is a nurse certified in the neonatal intensive care unit (humans). Both husband and wife went to veterinary school.
Fortunately, they were able to resurrect Boone.
As a result of all these emergency measures, the kitten went on the mend.
As of today, the little girl already weighs 121 grams.
“In total, there are about 250,000 homeless animals in Las Vegas. Compared to Los Angeles, which has a population of three million, that’s very small.” ” It’s not just cats living on the streets, but producing offspring in the same place,” Nikki explains.
“It’s a serious problem. You don’t want to stay away from stray cats. Call your local animal shelter or rescue organization, buy traps, capture them all, and bring them to the vet for spaying and neutering.”