Brutus, My Newest Rescue!

by Sheila Ann @ Mama Knows Pets
(Atlanta, Georgia USA)

On Labor Day 2010, September 6th, I was driving home from work in Newnan, Georgia. I was headed towards the Whitesburg bridge, which crosses over the Chattahochee River. I have never liked that bridge, I always get a bad feeling in my stomach, ever since they built it two years ago. The little bridge never bothered me before.

The time of day was about 6:40, I had left work alittle later since I was waiting to talk to my supervisor, he gave me my 5 year company ink pen. As I was approaching the ramp near the bridge, I began to slow to 50 miles an hour, I looked to my right on the shoulder of the road in the grass and saw a tiny black and white face watching the cars ahead of me pass it by.

I pulled my car over about 10 yards away not to scare it by getting too close. I know what I had seen. I was just hoping it hadn’t already been hit and injured. I jumped out of my car, even forgetting to turn on my emergency flashers. I walked up quickly as not to scared it across the road. Cars were still passing by. As I got up to it, I could tell it was a small kitten.

I waited for 3 cars to pass before I reached for the kitten. I didn’t want the kitten to dart out into traffic. Once the cars passed, I actually ‘Meowed’ at the kitten and when I did, it fell backwards into the high grass. I reached down and parted the grass to find black fur. I pulled out the black and white kitten that ‘mewed’ at me. I spoke to it all the way back to my car.

I reached the car then tucked the kitten between my work vest and shirt, it was that small. When I sat in my car, I put on my seatbelt, placing the lapbelt underneath where the kitten was laying. I drove 15 miles home with the kitten in this position, down a curvy back road, talking to it all the way.

Before I left the bridge though, I called my husband to tell him I would be bring something home. He said “What’s that?” I said “Well, it’s black and white, maybe 3 weeks old and I’m not sure whether it is a male or female. Oh yeah, it ‘meows’ or ‘mews’ right now.” He said to me with a chuckle, “you’ve rescued another kitten, didn’t you?” I said “Yeah, I hope you don’t mind, I’m bringing it home?” He said “Not at all, BABE, Bring it home.” Then I told my son on the phone.
I also told my husband not to tell our 22 year old daughter, let me, she was in the shower. Let me tell her, have her call me back. When she called back, she sounded bored, then I told her the same about “it was black and white and ‘meowed’ or right now only ‘mewed’ and she squealed with happiness, then asked “was it a male or female?” I told her I didn’t know yet, we’ll find out when I get home.” “how far are you from home?“ she asked. By then I was off Jones Mill Road and now on the highway, about 10 minutes, I told her. “Becareful and we’ll see you when you both get here, love you bye” that is our family sign-off of the phone.

The kitten would once in a while peak it’s head out and I would rub it and speak softly to it. It was happy to be stroked on the head. When I pulled into the driveway, there stood outside, my daughter, my son and my husband all in their sleeping clothes, but very excited. My daughter was the first to reach the car but I had my car door still locked, so my son and husband all reached the car by that time. I unlocked the door and opened it. I began to unbutton my vest after, unlocking my seatbelt. As I unbutton my vest the kitten emerged. The OOOHS and AAAAHS were amazing. I even got my real first look at the kitten’s full face, that’s also when we discovered the kitten was a male. My husband’s first comment was “Mister, If you stay here you will be sniped!” since we have two female cats in our house that are not fixed.
We brought the baby kitten into the house and my husband proceeded to look at his face, it has a white line over his nose, he has a full black face and it looks as if his nose is protruding with either spectacles or glasses, or people might say he has a protruding or Roman nose. So my husband named him ‘BRUTUS’, like in Shakespeare’s Character “ET TU BRUTE” which means “you too Brutus” which for us means “now we have you too Brutus in the family”.

That same night I found him, I had to run out to the store to pick-up ‘kitten formula’ and ‘baby animal bottles’. But the problem was we gave Brutus warmed formula in the bottles, he couldn’t figure out how to suckle on the nipple. After a while, he did figure it out, but he began biting the nipples. He bit two completely through, that’s when we realized that we should try feeding him canned kitten food.

I purchased two steel kitten dishes and several kitten canned foods. We did have a concern though, for a few days going from formula to canned food, Brutus was not having any kind of bowel movements. So my daughter and I went on the computer and researched similar situations. We found a few remedies including using children’s Pedialite, Mineral Oil and Pumpkin to help. Well, I called my husband and explained to him what will help Brutus to go potty. My husband purchased Pedialite and Mineral Oil, we gave Brutus the mineral oil by mouth with a dropper and put Pedialite into his water which I also gave to him with the dropper because I was worried he wasn’t drinking enough water.

Finally the remedies worked along with the canned food. Now Brutus is eating about every 4 to 5 hours. His favorite food seems to be beef and fish. He does not like chicken at all. He is also eating some dry foods like the older girls (cats). Brutus knows when it is time to eat, as we get his bow ready, he ‘mews’ at us, then runs to the area in front of the couch where we always place his food and water dishes.

Now Brutus is starting to fit right in with the whole family. He is about seven weeks old. He plays with the older ginger cat ‘Jonezy’. My daughter’s cat ‘Bastet’ is still not happy about the new kitten. The Border Collie ‘Chaz’ is not sure yet about the playful little black and white kitten. We lost our daughter’s 10 year old rabbit Topaz two weeks ago. That was hard too.

My husband says Brutus is my cat, yet Brutus comes to “His Daddy” before he does me. As the situation happened, one night where Brutus fell asleep under the couch and I could not get him out at bedtime. So I had to wake my husband up to call for the baby, which worked, because Brutus came out and was ready for bed with “His Daddy”.

Brutus also enjoys sleeping in my daughter’s bed and sleeping in my son’s lap. He has become and “All around family cat”. Yet, Brutus still sleep on my hair, on my arm, on my pillow and in between my husband and I, but his favorite place to sleep is “His Cradle” (a shoe box that we placed him in when I first brought him home. It is placed in the corner of our bed.).

Brutus is loved, even if he was supposed to have been thrown away. When we did look him over his paws pads were scrapped up and peeling. He seemed to have had bruises. But he is fine now.
Two weeks later my husband went by the bridge and saw another kitten dead near the bridge, but it wasn’t our Brutus. He WAITED FOR ME!

Note from Adopt a Pet You Will Love: Hi there. Thanks for sharing ... sorry it took so long to put up