Fabulous Felines NWA, of Bentonville, Arkansas is an all volunteer cat rescue group that fosters cats and kittens in their homes. They have monthly adoption events and also place cats through Petfinder listings and Facebook.
In August, Fabulous Felines rescued Stuart Little, a kitten so tiny he reminded them of a little mouse. Stuart was rescued along with the rest of his family, and the weak little fellow was so small and so still his rescuers at first did not think he was alive. After receiving round-the-clock care, Stuart recovered from infection and began to thrive.
He is now a healthy and beautiful little kitty and he has found his forever home.
Fabulous Felines NWA shared Stuart Little’s story at Imgur in the captioned captioned photos found below. A slideshow with the photos follows at the bottom of the post.
Reddit user sup_moniker posted a the before-and-after photo of Stuart Little seen above, and wrote:
“His whole litter was brought to a cat rescue in August. Apparently he was naturally smaller than the others but also severely malnourished and almost dead. At first they thought he had some kind of genetic dwarfism, but it’s been a few months and he seems fine other than being very small.”
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Day One. Stuart Little and his brothers and sisters were crawling with fleas and had terribly infected eyes. When a good Samaritan brought them to Fabulous Felines NWA cat rescue, Stuart Little wasn’t moving and we thought he had already died. This photo was taken after we carefully cleaned each kitten and placed them on a heated towel to recover.
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Stuart was motionless at the bottom of the pile of kittens, shockingly dehydrated, losing hair, and with eyes so infected and swollen with green pus, we thought he would be blind if he survived at all. But we had to at least try.
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We gently soaked his eyes open with warm saline so they could be cleaned and medicated. Poor Stuart was emaciated and lethargic. For perspective, newborn kittens usually weigh around 3.5 ounces… Stuart Little weighed less than that (just under 3 ounces) when he was brought to us at the age of 2 or 3 weeks. His litter mates weighed about 9 ounces each.
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Day Two. Stuart’s eyes have somewhat improved, and he can crawl. He can suckle small amounts of formula on his own, but our volunteer continues to tube feed him until he is stronger.
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Day Six. Stuart Little pictured next to a ChapStick for scale. His face and head are still very bald. He almost got named “Mr. Magoo”! One of our volunteers jokingly remarked that Fabulous Felines NWA has branched out into mouse rescue too, not just cats!
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Day 12: Fur is returning to Stuart’s face and head. His weight doubled within a week of his rescue, and he’s finally starting to look like a cat, not a mouse!
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Day 12: Stuart is growing, growing, growing, and rapidly catching up to his litter mates!
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Bottle feeding kittens for weeks on end while trying to hold down steady employment can be daunting, so Stuart Little’s human foster mom got some help from a loving feline surrogate named Bessie. Stuart Little is about 5 weeks old in this photo.
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Stuart Little is about 5 weeks old in this photo and hasn’t grown into his ears just yet.
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At five weeks old, Stuart Little’s white fur began to thicken and he started to develop faint orange points on his ears and paws.
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Stuart Little had a cadre of litter mates to play with, plus this gentle foster brother from another litter. This summer we saw the most “bottle babies” we have ever seen at Fabulous Felines NWA and went through hundreds of dollars worth of kitten formula and nursing supplies.
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Age 5 weeks. Pictured are Stuart Little, his litter mate Gravy behind him, and a foster brother behind Gravy.
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Age 5 weeks, with brother Gravy and surrogate mom Bessie.
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Age 6 weeks. Stuart Little’s body still hasn’t caught up to his head yet.
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Age 6 weeks. Not quite big enough to be a parrot, but working on his shoulder-perching pose, just in case he is ever called on by a pirate captain.
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Age 6 weeks. Still growing into those ears!
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Eating solid food with surrogate mom Bessie.
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About 8 weeks old, pictured with a ChapStick again to show how he’s grown in over a month since the last time he was pictured with a ChapStick.
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About 8 weeks old.
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About 8 weeks old and up to 1 lb.
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Stuart Little is about 12 weeks old in this photo and still shy of the 2-lb milestone.
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Stuart Little turned out to have flame point Siamese markings – quite a different look compared to the half-bald rodent-sized white kitten he was!
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Stuart Little is about 3 months old in this photo and still only 2 lbs, but in good health. His brothers and sisters are starting to get adopted after their spay or neuter surgeries.
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Here is Stuart with his big brother Gravy. (The others in the litter were Biscuit, Omelette, Oatmeal, Pancake, and Pop Tart – only Stuart Little escaped without a breakfast food name.)
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Brother Gravy affectionately grooms Stuart Little’s face.
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About four months old in mid-December, Stuart Little has recently found his forever home, thanks to the dedication and passion of the volunteers at Fabulous Felines NWA and the supporters who made it possible.
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Wherever you are, please support your local low-cost spay and neuter clinic (or if you don’t have a “local” one, then lobby to establish one nearby!)
que historia mas hermosa y conmovedora. Gracias por rescatar a este divino gatito!! Amo a mis dos gatitos Eddie y Kora y me da tanto gusto saber que otros gatitos hallan un nicho seguro y protector!!
He’s gorgeous! I’m very glad it worked out for him and he’s found a home.
so adorable. Much appreciated human dad’s gesture. Very touching!! <3
Fabulous Felines is a wonderful group of volunteers! They have worked so very hard helping the cats in NW Arkansas! They are purrfectly pawsome!
que historia mas hermosa y conmovedora. Gracias por rescatar a este divino gatito!! Amo a mis dos gatitos Eddie y Kora y me da tanto gusto saber que otros gatitos hallan un nicho seguro y protector!!
He’s gorgeous! I’m very glad it worked out for him and he’s found a home.
so adorable. Much appreciated human dad’s gesture. Very touching!! <3
Fabulous Felines is a wonderful group of volunteers! They have worked so very hard helping the cats in NW Arkansas! They are purrfectly pawsome!