Introducing Buddy

We have a new addition to the family and his name is Buddy! And just like every cat that we have ever owned (with the exception of Mikey whom I purchased circa 1996) we did not seek out this cat.  He found us, well,  in a round about way.

My brother, Brad drives a truck for a pallet shop.  And several of the men that work there, including my brother, have a soft spot for all the feral cats that hang out around the yard of the shop where they build/repair the pallets. These guys have been feeding these cats for years. And quite a few of them have gone home with the guys as pets.  In fact, my brother's cat is one that he rescued from work.

Many times there will be a sick kitten in the liter that the mom abandons and the kitten will die.  Other times, the kitten will be attacked by another animal and will die.  My brother and the other guys are used to finding deceased kittens and it's sad for them - these big burly guys are teddy bears on the inside.

Anyway, in September , my brother noticed a little black kitten that looked horrible. He felt bad for it and decided to get it and take it to the vet.  The kitten had an eye infection and herpes around it's mouth and according to the vet was roughly 7 or 8 weeks old,  The meds to clear these up needed to be administered twice a day and my brother didn't feel like he could take care of it with his work schedule so he asked me to look after it.

I agreed and we  brought it to our back porch where Dan and I started taking care of the poor little guy.  The first night he did not move out of the cat carrier. He ate some kitten food the next morning and we began to give him his meds twice a day as instructed.  

Around the 3rd or 4th day we noticed the cat had diarrhea and his rear end didn't look right.  I'm not going to go into the details but this cat was a mess! Back to the vet for another medication he went and Dan and I started giving this kitten a bath because it was filthy (and by filthy I mean constantly covered in poop. Sorry to be so gross.) At one point, we were giving him baths twice a day.  He hated them but he needed them.  

He was very sweet tempered and mild mannered but we were worried those first few weeks that he wasn't going to get better.  But thankfully the diarrhea finally stopped and his rear end healed up and back to the vet he went to be tested for feline leukemia and to get a rabies shot.  

Our other cat was not too pleased with the addition of the new cat but she is adjusting well.  This kitten is scared of her and leaves her alone.  But he is getting braver and more curious by the day and we are all smitten with this little cat.  Here are a few pictures of him:

This is the first picture I took of him when my brother brought him to us on September 30th. He was a mess!

And here he is now that he is fully recovered:

Such a cutie!

We struggled with what to name him. Dan wanted him to have a human name (something along the lines of Doug)  and Sarah wanted him to have a cat name (she suggested Booty since he had so many problems with his butt but I thought that was gross). I think Buddy is a good compromise.  It's both a human name and a cat type nickname so it works.