Zhang Zian and Lu Yi Yun stared at the bucket in Snowy's hands.
"You have a Crucian Carp? It's fresh? "he asked suspiciously.
"Uh-huh!" Snowy nodded proudly. "Super fresh! I just fished it out! "
Zhang Zian took the bucket from her and opened the lid. There was a huge Crucian Carp inside. It wasn't dead yet and couldn't be any fresher.
"Wow! You've helped me a lot! I was so worried about you! " He quickly put the lid back on to prevent the fish from jumping out. "Snowy, you know how to fish? No wonder you're an outdoor streamer. "
"No, I don't have that kind of patience. An elder caught it and I asked for it," Snowy explained. Snowy waved her hand and clarified, "He's still fishing. If you need more, I can send it over."
Zhang Zian pondered for a moment. "Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Before the third or fifth day of the Chinese New Year, there shouldn't be any fish sellers in the market. I might have to trouble you."
"It's okay. I'm happy to be of help." Snowy smiled. "You're welcome, Mr. Store Manager. Go make the soup. The kittens are still waiting for milk, right?"
Zhang Zian asked Lu Yi Yun to play with Snowy while he carried the fish to the second floor. After a little preparation, he started making soup.
There were no customers anyway, so Lu Yi Yun brought Snowy to see the kittens.
"Wow! They're so cute! "
Snowy exclaimed when she saw the 11 kittens snuggling up to the mothers.
The delivery rooms of the two mothers were adjacent to each other. The more she looked at them, the cuter they were.
It took time to make the fish soup. The mothers wouldn't be able to drink milk immediately after drinking the soup. Lu Yi Yun followed Zhang Zian's instructions and boiled the hot water to make the goat milk powder. She also added children's vitamins and calcium gluconate oral solution. Then, she let it cool down naturally. When it cooled down to 40 degrees Celsius, she used a straw to suck milk and picked up the skinny kittens to feed them one by one.
"Can I try it too?" Snowy asked eagerly.
"Sure." After Lu Yi Yun fed one kitten, she passed the straw to Snowy and taught her how to do it.
Snowy picked up a little kitten. "Be good, Sister Snowy is going to feed you!"
The mother wasn't familiar with Snowy. It stood up from its nest and looked at her cautiously, as if it was going to snatch the kitten back from her at any time.
However, its chest was already aching from the sucking of the cubs, but it still could not provide enough milk.
The other kittens who hadn't opened their eyes cried even louder when they lost their mother.
Seeing that Snowy didn't want to hurt the cubs, it lay back down with relief, letting the cubs continue to suck on its chest.
Lu Yi Yun corrected Snowy's wrong posture and said, "Snowy, you've never fed milk to a kitten before, right? Don't let it face up, make it lie on its stomach. Hold its belly with your hands and raise its head slightly, otherwise it will choke. "
Little Snow did as he was told.
"Also, only drip one drop on its tongue at a time, no more," Lu Yi Yun reminded.
Just like fishing, it was a very patient job. Each of the 11 kittens had to be fed drop by drop, and those who didn't have enough patience would get bored very quickly.
Although Snowy was impatient with fishing, she was very focused on feeding the kittens. She didn't find it annoying at all. She even asked, "I think it's good to feed them one by one. They also put in children's vitamins and calcium gluconate. It's very nutritious. Why do they have to feed them with crucian carp soup?"
"It's very simple. Because it's better for the kittens to grow up on their mother's milk. Kittens that rely on artificial feeding have a higher mortality rate. Even when they grow up, they will be thinner than cats of the same age," Zhang Zian said.
Wearing heat-resistant gloves for barbecue, Zhang Zian came over with a pot of warm crucian carp soup. The soup, stewed with goat milk powder, was a tempting milky white. Two pieces of crucian carp were looming in the soup. Although there was no extra seasoning, it was slightly fishy, but it was very suitable for cats.
"Oh, I see." Little Snow understood.
The two female cats ate canned fish every day, but since it was fresh Crucian carp soup, it tasted better. They came out of their nests, lowered their heads, and drank the soup, eating the tender fish meat.
"Also, the kittens need to be fed every three hours for the first two weeks. If you feed 11 kittens manually, then you can't do anything else. You'll just have to feed the kittens here all day," Zhang Zian said.
Snowy finished feeding one kitten and was about to put it down when Zhang Zian pointed at a tissue and reminded her, "Wipe its mouth clean, then gently pat its side."
She rubbed the side of the kitten, and after a while, it opened its mouth and let out a milky burp.
"You have to burp after feeding it, or else it will inflate, just like a human baby," he explained.
"Oh." Snowy finally understood.
The two female cats quickly finished the Crucian carp, and even drank a lot of the soup. One of them ran to the litter box in the corner to defecate, then returned to the cat nest.
Lu Yi Yun saw that Snowy was responsible for feeding the kittens, so she picked up the litter box and went out to change the litter box.
After a while, she came back in a panic with the litter box. The litter box was still the same.
"Mr. Store Manager, bad … bad news!"
"What's wrong?" Zhang Zian asked.
"This cat seems to have diarrhea!" Lu Yi Yun anxiously pointed at the feces buried in the litter box for Zhang Zian to see.
Zhang Zian took a look and comforted her, "Don't worry, it's not diarrhea. It's just soft poop. Most female cats are like this when they're feeding their kittens. Look carefully —"
He pointed at one of the female cats and asked Lu Yi Yun and Snowy to pay attention.
The female cat was full and licked the kittens' fur from head to toe. When it reached the buttocks, it even licked the kittens' excretory organs.
The kittens were stimulated, and their excretory organs swelled slightly, squeezing out urine and feces.
Without hesitation, the mother swallowed the cub's urine and feces in one bite. Then, it licked the other cub and swallowed all the excrement into its stomach.
Snowy said, "… I thought only dogs would eat … eat … eat poop …"
She was so shocked that she stuttered. She worriedly thought of Snowball. If Snowball ate its own poop and then kissed her, it would be slightly … disgusting.
It was Lu Yi Yun's first time seeing something like this, and she also thought of her own pet, Jasmine.
"This is a special situation at a special time." Zhang Zian smiled. "When kittens are just born, they can't defecate on their own. They need the mother to stimulate them, or else they'll suffocate. After the female cat ate the kittens' excrement, it will release soft poop on its own. It'll be fine after this period, so don't worry. "
"Okay." Snowy and Lu Yi Yun let out a sigh of relief.
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