He was alive, though. They named him Stuart Little. The kitten was terribly dehydrated, losing hair, and had badly infected eyes.

This small litter of kittens was found in terrible shape. They were nearly killed by their flea infestation, their eyes were badly infected and their mother was malnourished and semi-feral. The cats were in dire need of some human assistance. A Good Samaritan brought the kittens in to the Fabulous Felines NWA cat rescue to get help. It looked like all of them would make a recovery… except for one.

He was the runt, and he was in bad shape.

All of the kittens were sick, but beneath the pile of litter mates was a still, unmoving form

It was the runt. The rescuers thought he was dead.

He weighed just under 3oz, while his litter mates were about 9oz. He was 2-3 weeks old and weighed less than a newborn.

They cleaned his eyes with warm saline and began to tube feed Stuart (Chapstick tube for size).

Within a week of his rescue, his weight doubled. Not only that, but he began looking like a cat… and not a tiny mouse.

Stuart next to one of his litter mates, who were massive in comparison.

Stuart’s feral mom was very stressed and wouldn’t feed the babies, so this surrogate mother named Bessie gladly stepped in.

Bessie made sure that Stuart was getting enough to eat.

Stuart had loving litter mates, but also some great foster brothers and sisters as well. (His brother is sitting directly behind him.)

At 6 weeks old, Stuart was getting more cat-like, but his body still needed to catch up with his head.

He began following Bessie’s lead and began eating solid food.

Another Chapstick picture to show his growth.

At 8 weeks, he was finally up to 1lb.

At 12 weeks-old and still a little shy of the 2lb milestone.

As it turns out, Stuart had beautiful flame point Siamese markings.

His brother Gravy was happy to still have him around.

And after a long and tiring journey, Stuart found a forever home.

Even though Stuart started out in a much worse condition compared to his siblings Gravy, Biscuit, Omelette, Oatmeal, Pancake, and Pop Tart (he managed to get away with a non-breakfast food name), he ended up making a marvelous recovery thanks to his fighting spirit and kind hearted rescue workers. There are more neglected and homeless kitties in the world than you realize. What the people at Fabulous Felines and other rescues do to help these animals is truly touching.

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