Nikki Martinez is a Las Vegas-native who loves fostering and taking care of kittens in her spare time. She first got into fostering a few years ago after finding a baby kitten in the middle of the street.
“[The kitten] ran in front of my car. When I got out to look at her, I could see that she was sick,” she said. “I picked her up and I took her to the vet and nursed her back to health, and that was the very first kitten I ever fostered.”
She was able to nurse the kitten back to health, and the feline is now living with her aunt and uncle in California. Hooked by this experience, Nikki has been fostering kittens ever since!
Last month, Nikki received an unusual message on her Instagram account:
“Last night while I was in California I received a message from a sweet girl […] Her neighbor was out walking her dogs when one approached a bush. She followed the dog to the bush,” she explained in a post. “When she looked up she saw three newborn kittens with their placenta and umbilical cords still attached. No mama in sight.”
The kittens were only a few hours old and had already gone stiff from the cold when they were found.
The woman’s neighbor followed Nikki on Instagram and knew she was the perfect person to call for help. Meanwhile, people in the neighborhood desperately tried to find the kittens’ mother, but they were not successful in doing so.
“Traps were set in the area to catch her, and many other cats were trapped and neutered, but she was never found,” Nikki said. “I think she was either too young to know how to care for them, or she was too sick to be able to care for them”
Nikki got the kittens when they were one day old, and she recalled that they “smelled like death.” She had never fostered kittens this young before, and her job would be even harder since they did not have a mother.
“I have had a few their size that were a little older and malnourished, but never this young without a mother,” she said.
Determined to help the kittens survive, Nikki woke up every two hours in order to feed them.
One kitten, whom she named Bagels, needed some extra help. She wasn’t responding well to feeding, so Nikki had to tube-feed her instead.
Installing the feeding tube is both difficult and dangerous, and it is typically only done by a veterinarian.
“It is critical that the tube is not placed in their lungs,” Nikki wrote, “because they can aspirate, and you can essentially drown/kill them.”
Though this was scary for Nikki, Bagels and her siblings have started to thrive under her care!
The kittens have earned the nickname “The Carb Kitties” because each has the name of a treat that is full of carbs!
Spud is the male kitten, and he was the first of them to eat solid food.
“Oh, to be as fat and happy as Spud,” Nikki wrote.
Then there’s Pancake, a little kitten known for her soft face and beautiful eyes.
Even little Bagels is thriving!
Thanks to Nikki’s love and affection, the Carb Kitties are now healthy at six weeks of age. Two of the three of them have even been adopted into loving homes!
“Since they were bottle-fed, they are very affectionate with people. They love to climb in my lap and snuggle,” Nikki said. “They are very sweet.”
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