Stormy/Cinder/Goblin (and Toby) [6]

Julie says: Once Toby was a big, healthy boy, I nursed another tiny, sick kitten back to health. I originally named him Stormy because, with his black-and-gray mottled fur, he looked like a storm cloud. My sister renamed him Cinder. We never did settle. Sometimes I called him Goblin because he was so ugly. Pick your fave. He was a boy. And from the start, Toby was as hostile towards Stormy as Cally had been towards him.

Like Toby, Stormy also came from my friend Michelle. She was dealing with two stray mother cats with litters, but one of the mothers died. She put both litters on the surviving mother cat, but Stormy was so small, he couldn't compete for the milk. He needed to be hand fed. He was five weeks old, but he was the runt of the litter - very small, very weak. I fed him the kitten milk, but he had constant diarrhea. I had to give him a bath two times a day. As soon as I could, I got him eating soft cat food and then his digestive tract was much better. His eyes were also constantly gooped up, sometimes glued shut with gunk. I kept washing them clean and they gradually got better.

Eventually Stormy gained strength and began to roll on his back and bat at my fingers playfully. After he could eat by himself, I returned him to Michelle and he reintegrated with his cat family. She found a forever home for him with a family in Jackson, Michigan, a father with two boys. I don't know what they named him.