Winnie the Winner

“Winnie came to me as a foster baby at 3 weeks old with her two brothers,
Binx and Salem, having been left at a vets with their mother who was sadly not producing milk.

They were all 130g-170g which is half the weight they should have been at their age, with a nasty flea and worm burden that was treated quickly. They were all being bottle fed every 3 hours through the day and night and initially seemed to be doing well. Sadly after two weeks of fighting, Salem and Binx went rapidly downhill, off their food and both passed away within 24 hours of each other with very few clues as to why. Winnie was always stronger than her brothers but we initially worried that their illnesses could be contagious or congenital so the careful watch began. I stayed up with Winnie through the night, checking on her every two hours – even though she was 5 weeks old by then and only needed feeding every 5 hours and could begin weaning! Watching Winnie eat became my favourite thing to do and eat she did! While still only half of her expected weight, she was gaining the grams every single day and fighting hard.

Now a singleton, she spent a lot of time being held and cuddled and would always seek me out whenever I was near. As she grew, she became more and more affectionate and started to spend most of her time perched on my shoulder! Both myself and my partner were absolutely besotted with her – in fact, one evening when he got home from work, he greeted her with a “hey gorgeous!” and a kiss on her nose before even looking at me – and she was on my shoulder at the time! It was around this time I started thinking I might just foster fail with her as the thought of letting her go got harder and harder every day. Thankfully, we don’t have to!

Now, our little winner is 11 weeks old and has been successfully integrated with our small family – Myself, Ben and our two other foster fails, Rocket and Groot. Merry Christmas to us!”