Dexter was my first attempt at raising a kitten without a mama. I was lucky to be able to foster him from a local shelter when he was about 4 weeks old. They supplied me with instructions and all the stuff, like kitten milk, bottles and food.
I had to bottle feed him with kitten milk formula. But that didn't work out to well. I had watched how it was done but couldn't master the technique. I then went to the eye dropper method to squirt the stuff in. That worked until I was able to mix the milk with wet food. As you can see in the pictures he has some food around his snout.
Luckily for me he loved to eat and gave me no trouble. And once he started eating the Science-diet dry food, he picked it up a notch and went zooming around the room.
He was still the property of the shelter so I had to bring him in for the Vet to checked out periodically. He had been given a flea bath before I got him but that didn't do the job because he still had some. He was scratching and so was I. Shelter told me to give him a flea bath. I did twice with Dawn dish soap. He still was scratching.
At the time I had brothers Larry and Curly so I called their vet up and she told me Dexter was old enough to use something like frontline to kill the fleas. Some hours after using it I combed 13 dead and dieing fleas out of the little long haired bugger.
When I brought him in for his shelter visit I got bawled out for giving him the frontline. Saying he was too young and going to my own vet. But it did the trick with no more fleas on Dexter and the house. I also got embarrassed when the vet asked about Dexter's brown nose. I said it seems to have gotten darker. She started examining it and found out it was encrusted food that made it look brown. After she scraped it off there was a pretty pink nose.
Anyway things worked out and Dexter grew into a handsome long haired independent minded cat.
You did well. He grew from a bewildered kitten to a handsome, relaxed photo star. ;-)
He may have looked bewildered but Dexter was a confident cat from the beginning. :-)
Regardless of the hiccups you done a great job look at this cute fluff ball now @manorvillemike
Like the ugly duckling....
What a sweet kitten it was.
And now is a hairy mannequin.
He was adorable with so much energy.
Oh my God! He was so handsome and still is. He had beautiful blue eyes. I think all cats are born with blue eyes and then the color changes with the time. Lovely photos :D
He should have been a girl he's so pretty. Thanks for the resteem @hanen. :-)
He was so tiny and now became a big good guy 😍
He is very good when asleep. :-)
Those tiny legs and paws when he was little - adorable!!
He's a handsome big boy now. And his name is awesome as well. :)
Thanks to @hanen I saw this post on my feed! :D
The women who found him brought him to the shelter in a Dexter shoe box, so they gave him the name Dexter and I kept it. Thanks for stopping by @nikolina and thanks for the resteem. :-)
What a cute kitten! It always amazes me how most kittens start with deep blue eyes, and then take on different colors. He's certainly a very handsome fellow, as an adult!
=^..^=
The long haired cats are hard to resist.
Thanks so much for partaking in#dailypetphotography!Please follow @dpet for upcoming events.
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Thanks @dpet
Oh my goodness!! He was so so cute and now he is so so handsome! I'm glad you gave him a loving forever home!!
Never do that again, could never give up a foster.
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I love Dexter!!! The kitten is cute, but the "man" version is to die for, with those massive paws. Great photos of a great feline, as we have come to expect of @manorvillemike!
Yes he is a chick magnet for sure. :-) He really isn't that big. All the fuzz makes him look bigger.
Wonderful story. Thank you for rescuing Dexter.
Never much of a cat person but I see so many cat lovers on Steemit I think I could be swayed. Lol
I didn't have my first cat until I was 40. :-)