Meet Cosette

Cosette at four weeks old. She was close to death, and needed a lot
of care to recover.

  

 About a month after we moved into our house, I was driving to school and as luck would have it, saw two cats and a tiny gray kitten in the middle of the road. I waited for them to cross, and then kept driving, because I figured they belonged to one of the neighboring farms. Something made me stop again though, and as I looked back in the mirror, I saw that the two adult cats had run into some nearby bushes, but the kitten had wondered back on the road.


I decided to get out and scare the kitten off the road, but surprisingly, she was not scared of me. In fact, she waddled right up to me, which is strange for the semi-feral cats in our parts. Upon looking at her, I saw that she had a terrible cold, which can be life-threatening for kittens. Her eyes were plastered shut with discharge, and her nose was full of mucous. Her breath was raspy, and I knew I had no choice but to take her to the vet. It was getting cold out, and she would die if I left her there.


I sat her on my lap, hoping she was not rabid, and she purred the entire time I held her. I made a quick stop at my parents' house to find a cage, and the only thing I came across was an antique wooden  Coca-Cola box. I figured my mom wouldn't care when she found out what it was for. 


I decided to name her "Cosette", since it means "little thing" in French; we call her "cozy" for short. The vet confirmed that she was only four weeks old. Kittens should not be away from their mothers until at least eight weeks, but she luckily took to solid food very quickly.


Bringing her back to health was no easy effort, and she did end up losing sight in one eye. My regular vet was on vacation when I found Cosette, and she needed immediate medical attention, so I took her to a different vet. The first antibiotic she was prescribed actually made her eyes swell up worse, so I had to go back and try a different one. Luckily, the second one worked wonders, but her one eye had already become inflamed, causing the membrane to fuse it permanently shut. 


She required oral antibiotics twice a day, eye-drops three times a day, and nightly steam-baths, to open up her nasal passages. We even placed a tiny dot of Vick's on her nose, and it seemed to help. I didn't think the poor thing was going to make it, but she recovered with a vengeance. Now, she is the spunkiest, most playful kitten I've ever seen. I would even consider her a holy terror. She bosses all the dogs around, and gets around fine with one eye. My vet may try to open her bad eye when I get her spayed, but I'm not sure I want to take the risk of the eye getting infected by opening it. 


She also eats everything in site; I have never known a cat who eats peanut butter, mangos, blueberries, corn, pizza crust, dog food, vegetables, and crackers. She is a little miracle, and I thought I'd share her story with y'all.