I present to you Cuki...and my family grows!
My wife and I have been considering getting a pet for about a month now.
I have only one daughter named Chiara who is almost 8 years old and since she arrived she has brought so much positivity into my life with her cheerfulness and smiles.
She loves animals and in particular cats and dogs and has always insisted that my wife and I get a cat or a dog.
My wife, until a few months ago, was always very determined to say no to my daughter because both she and I have very busy work schedules and because we live in an apartment and having a cat and especially a dog would not have been easy and especially because, as it should be, animal friends deserve attention and commitment.
After an exhausting work of persuasion my daughter and I managed to change my wife's mind.
Kitten or Doggie?
Once my wife's ban was lifted, the family vote began.
My daughter Chiara wanted a small dog and surprisingly my wife was also convinced to get a small dog instead of a kitten.
By the way, a friend's dog had a litter of 5 Maltese and wanted to give us one.
I love all animals but I've always had a slight preference for dogs but due to my current work schedule and limited time I was more inclined to get a kitten.
Every day during lunch the topic was always the same: Kitten or Doggie?
In the end fate chose!
There was no need to come to an agreement in the family because the choice was not made by any of us but it was fate that decided for us.
Yesterday morning my wife, my daughter and my sister were in front of my garage and while they were talking they heard a meow coming from the hood of my sister's car.
When my sister opened the hood she found a small kitten on the engine of her car.
The night before, my sister had been to the gym and upon leaving the gym she noticed kittens near her car.
It was windy that night and the temperatures weren't very high so the kitten most likely climbed into the engine area of the car to get out of the cold but couldn't get down before my sister started.
When my sister opened the hood the next morning she immediately grabbed the kitten who was very scared.
At that time I was home and my daughter called me from my wife's smartphone and said:
Daddy come out right now on the landing!.
I asked her:
But why Chiara?
Chiara answered me:
Get out now there is a surprise!
I went out on the landing of my apartment and I didn't find anyone and I immediately thought it was a joke of my daughter.
After a few seconds the elevator door opened and in my wife's arms was a small kitten (next picture).
We immediately got some milk, warmed it up and with a bottle tried to feed the kitten.
The kitten immediately started drinking the milk.
Then I found out that it's preferable not to give milk to kittens but never having had one I didn't know that....
The kitten was definitely a stray because it was dirty and had a lot of fleas and for this reason I immediately called the nearest vet to my home.
The vet was very nice because even though he was full of appointments he found a place for the little kitten by 4:30 in the afternoon.
The first visit to the vet
At 4:25pm my wife, sister, daughter and I arrived at the vet.
In the following picture is my daughter Chiara sitting in the vet's waiting room.
We've never had a cat so we didn't have a carrier and used a fish bowl to get the kitty to the vet and at the same time keep the many lice from jumping on us or other animals.
After a 40 minute wait the vet receives us and examines the kitten.
He immediately sees lice and also finds mites in the kitten's ears.
He takes a tube of a medicine and applies it to the area between the kitten's head and back.
She tells us that the kitten is a male and after taking a small health booklet she asks us the name of the cat.
Obviously my daughter decides on the name and decides to call him Cuki.
I paid and thanked the vet and scheduled the next appointment for a check-up (after 30 days).
Before going home, we first went to my sister-in-law, @zottone444's mother, who gave us a litter box that she had bought but never used, along with some special wipes for cats and sleepers, and then we went to a specialized pet store where we bought sand for the litter box, specific kibble for kittens and 6 small colored fake mice for the kitten to play with.
Back home
Back home, we immediately put water and kibble in the appropriate containers (also received as a gift from my sister-in-law) and the kitten eats its entire portion of kibble.
The scared and weak kitten of the morning already looks like another cat, more lively and with more energy :)
But the lice don't give him a break and he's constantly scratching himself.
I tried to take a picture of one of the many lice on the kitten's fur and in the following picture you can see one that I photographed on the cover the kitten was on.
I read the name of the medicine used by the vet on Cuki's health booklet: it's called Stronghold and after doing a search on the Internet I found the indication of the time needed to produce the desired effects: 1 day for cats and 3 days for dogs.
To avoid the spread of lice in the house we built a small cardboard house for the kitten with separate rooms: kitchen, bedroom and bathroom :)
Around 9:30 p.m. little Cuki, after consuming another meal went to sleep.
By Sunday morning the kitten was feeling much better and no longer scratching or seeing the lice walking, the medication had already begun to produce its beneficial effects.
The first concern
The kitten seemed to be much better than the day before but now there was another problem to solve: he hadn't peed yet and it had been almost 24 hours.
On a specialized website I read that if a cat fails to pee for more than 36 hours it can be a real and big problem and for this reason we all got a little worried.
Around 12:00 I picked up the phone to call the vet but just as I was about to dial the number my happy daughter called me and said:
*Daddy! Cuki peed!
We all breathed a sigh of relief :)
A big sleeper
In the afternoon we used a lice comb and noticed that all the lice were dead.
Well, just one more day in the cardboard house and then little Cuki can finally roam free around the house and explore his new home.
Today Cuki ate, played but most of all slept a lot, he weighs only 440 grams, he is still very small and needs a lot of sleep.
In the next photo he is sleeping in my daughter's arms who held him all afternoon without ever using her smartphone and this is the first beneficial effect that brought Cuki into my daughter's habits to my great delight.
Cuki is truly an adorable kitten and is a great cuddler.
We didn't choose this kitten but events and fate brought him to us.
He is a new addition to my family and I am glad he came to us.
My daughter is an only child and a kitten will be a company that will do her good and above all will be an opportunity to make her more responsible because a kitten is not a toy and deserves, like all living beings, the utmost respect and must be cared for in the best possible way.
Welcome Cuki!
When a family grows and increases its members is always a reason for celebration and great joy!
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So cute!
I wish happiness to all of you with the new member of the family!