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Vicky Stein’s Monster
@vicky.science

All my kittens are off to amazing homes and I'm devastated/thrilled. I have send-off kitten pics, but I need you to admire this chart with me first. This is weigh-ins for 3 months, and an actual visualization of my peace of mind as they grew from stick-of-butter size to FOUR POUNDS of adorable chaos

Vicky Stein’s Monster
@vicky.science

THIS is where we started. Mama Tootsie Roll delivered to my house in a cardboard box, smatterings of fleas, babies with wet umbilical cords. And me, totally unprepared to be in charge of these many precious lives

Vicky Stein’s Monster
@vicky.science

I was weighing them 5-6 times per day, trying to make sure they were gaining appropriately. Tootsie and I held hands for hours on the floor of the bathroom while we both fretted over the babies. I don't know what I did to earn her trust but we were in it together from the start

Vicky Stein’s Monster
@vicky.science

Eventually, their eyes opened! Their ears, too, unfurling. This guy started dropping weight as mama Tootsie fought mastitis (with the help of antibiotics, warm compresses, and of all things, cabbage!) so he was bottle-fed three or four times a day for a week.

Vicky Stein’s Monster
@vicky.science

Tootsie was such a champion. The aforementioned cabbage was supposed to help bring down her inflammation, so despite my deep skepticism and the vet's total disinterest in demonstrating what he meant by "put cabbage on her," well, I did my best. And she, being a perfect angel, let me.

Vicky Stein’s Monster
@vicky.science

I think it was the antibiotics that helped the most, but we did cabbage her! Because the vet said so and I was willing to do just about anything to get her comfortable. I guess she was, too, because despite knowing me only a week and a half, she *let* me wrap her infected mammary in cabbages