In order to give us some practice for being parents, we have been taking care of a kitten that we found last weekend near Kalihiwai Beach. It’s not one of the wild cats you see around the island, a local fisherman found it in his garage and was going to take it to the pound. Sonja wanted to find it a better home, and take care of it in the mean time. Even I couldn’t resist its cuteness:
We cleaned out its eyes, fed it milk with an eye-dropper, and tried to console it of its lost mother. We also got it looked at by a vet who says it’s about 6 weeks old and probably male (it’s hard to tell). It’s old enough to eat solid food, so we quickly weaned it from the milk and it also learned to use the litter-box very quickly, for which we’re grateful. We carry it around to the kitchen or the office while it eats, sleeps, and plays most of the day, then lock it in the bathroom at night. We’ve been calling it Popoki, which is “cat” in Hawaiian, but we’re thinking Kali would be better.
Let me know in a comment if you can think of a better name, or if you’re on Kauai and want to adopt him.
Don’t let Tim and Emma see this. They’ve been asking us to get them a kitten for at least the last year. I’ll bet you cannot wait until Popoki starts bringing rats and small birds to your door.
Hey, we trade Mikey, our older cat a can of tunafish for every rodent that he brings us. Even at 4 am. And he has learned to eat birds and lizards quietly outside because he can’t take my reaction to them being hunted… hope Kalihi – that’s what we call the popoki now – learns it too.