Little Tempest

Meet Tempest

Born 01/04/2017 This little kitty was found behind my house in a 7ft drain after a huge storm. Most likely washed out from the flood waters flushing out the drains. No other kittens or a mumma was found. Tempest was screaming his little heart out which alerted me to his presence. I quickly checked out the situation and grabbed the longest stick I could find. Which happened to be a fruit picker. I climbed over the fence and into the massive drain and grabbed the little kitty off the pile of debris amid the flood water. Poor little kitten was covered in faeces, mud and fleas. He was very emaciated with a huge stomach full of intestinal parasites. I rushed little kitty to the vet who confirmed he was a stray and initially classified Tempest as a girl.

After being bathed and treated for all parasites little Tempest slept for 13hrs straight. Poor thing!

He was also not weaned so I had to feed him a small amount of dry biscuits soaked in formula to become mush every few hours and made sure he knew how to poop by himself (which took 2 days).

After a week I took Tempest back to the vet for further examinations and to give a temporary vaccine for FIV as my other cat is positive. They are being kept separate...for now. That was when I got the most surprising news. Little girlie was actually a male pesudohemaphrodite. What that means is Tempest has ovitestes, being a mixture of both testes and ovaries. As the testes and testosterone is dominant, little Tempest will be registered male. He has no penis and a small non-functioning uterus all of which will be removed via spay. I'm hoping Tempest will not need any corrective surgery for urination.

As for health, Tempest is now clear of all parasites, is slowly building up his tiny kidneys and has put on so much weight. He's become a happy, healthy little kitty.  My husband and I decided to keep the little critter, which means a fair bit of preparation before he can be introduced to Storm, my adult cat. This means keeping them separated for a few months until all vaccines have been done and kitty is protected against FIV. Storm is such a gentle and loving cat that has been neutered and has little risk of passing on the disease as he never bites. Not even when playing rough with my dog Matty. Tempest and Storm are already playing patty cake under the small hole between the door and the floor, so they should get along nicely when they can finally meet.

 Happy foster fail for me :)