Life in South America: Rescued babies!

This is Pedro at 3 weeks.

(We read on the internet on how to tell how old they were.)

This is Mimi at 3 weeks.

This is them trying to get out of their box because they want to eat.

THERE ARE OTHER PICS WHEN THEY ARE OLDER, AT THE END OF THE POST

So, if you know us at all you know that Rich and I are suckers for cats. We have two in the States and they are currently living with people who are kindly taking care of them for us. Weeeell, we are learning that the treatment of animals in Ecuador is not the same as in the states. About our 4th week here in Bucay we came across 5 three week old kittens abandoned in a drain pipe close to a major road. We were beside ourselves with wonder about where was the mom, why were they here, how long had they been there, etc. We came back later in the day because we just couldn't bare the thought of them still being there and we knew it was going to rain that night and they would all die. Well, to make a long story short, several other people took three of the kittens before we got back...the strongest, healthiest ones, and left the two runts. It was almost dark and although we were living with a host family (we didn't know if they liked cats or not), we just couldn't leave these two little kittens there to die. So, we didn't ask permission, we got a cardboard box and brought them home....I seriously thought they died the first night because I didn't hear a peep out of them all night, and I was scared to check them in the morning. But, nope, when I peeked in they started going full force with their little kitten meows, desperate for some food and love. So, we found a vet, got some kitten food (we were very lucky that there even was a vet; there is one vet in the area of 20,000 people), and started feeding them with an eye dropper. Over time we graduated to a baby bottle, and now, 9 weeks later, our babies are eating hard food on their own and are very independent and have crazy amounts of energy! They were a TON of work, they had parasites twice that we had to get rid of (not fun and I'll save you the details), and one almost died on us one night. But, they survived and are our little darlings....of course, we don't need four cats (two in the states and two here), so if you'd like to have your own rescued Ecuadorian kitten, let us know! But, I don't really know if I could give them up....maybe : )