09/06/2026
🧡 GHANDI UPDATE: HE MADE IT THROUGH NIGHT ONE 🧡
Ghandi made it through his first night.
We have received your donations and we cannot thank you enough!
For a kitten as sick as he is, that alone is something worth celebrating. But today, he gave us a few more little victories too.
When Ghandi came into care, he weighed just 1.5 pounds.
He was malnourished and severely dehydrated. His ears were full of mites. He was battling a nasty respiratory infection that had taken over his tiny body. His eyes were so swollen and irritated that right now, we still don’t know how much—if anything—he can see.
And as if all of that wasn’t enough, Ghandi had been shot with a paintball gun.
Those are only the problems we can see with the naked eye. As we get him stabilized, we’re still watching closely for anything else his little body may be dealing with.
But apparently, Ghandi didn’t get the memo that he’s supposed to give up.
Because this morning, the scale gave us our first measurable victory:
Yesterday: 1.5 pounds.
Today: 1.6 pounds.
One tenth of a pound in one day.
It might not sound like much, but when you’re starting with a malnourished, dehydrated kitten this tiny and this sick, we’re celebrating every single ounce.
Right now, his respiratory infection has him so congested that he can’t smell his food. Because he can’t smell it, he isn’t reliably eating on his own, so he’s being syringe-fed small amounts frequently throughout the day.
He’s also receiving multiple medications, fluids, eye care and supportive treatments around the clock.
Somehow, of everything we’re putting him through, his steam treatments have become one of his favorite things.
His other favorite is a very well-worn fuzzy bed with a heating pad safely zipped inside the lining. It’s warm, it’s cozy, and Ghandi has officially claimed it as his.
But our favorite development isn’t something we can measure on a scale.
Ghandi found his purr.
Those purrs are new.
Right now, Ghandi can’t rely on his nose to know when someone is near him. He can hardly see—if he can see at all.
So he listens.
He listens for his foster mom moving around.
When he hears her, he calls for her.
And when she comes to him, he has started greeting her with those new little purrs.
This is the same woman who keeps showing up with medications, fluids, syringes of food, eye treatments and all sorts of other things he’d probably prefer she stop doing.
And he purrs for her anyway.
Considering what another human being did to him before he reached safety, there is something incredibly special about watching him decide that a person can also mean comfort.
Someone taught Ghandi that humans could hurt him.
Now he’s learning that when he calls for one, someone can come.
And she does.
Every time.
His foster mom also works night shift. She worked her regular job all night, came home and stayed awake throughout the day caring for Ghandi—feeding him, giving fluids and medications, doing his steam treatments, cleaning his eyes, keeping him warm and responding when he called.
Then she went back to work her regular night shift.
Because there really isn’t a convenient time to keep a kitten this sick alive.
And this is something people don’t always see about foster-based rescue.
There isn’t a staffed facility where a foster can drop off a medically fragile kitten when they’re tired. There isn’t automatically another shift walking through the door to take over.
When a kitten like Ghandi comes into a foster-based rescue, his care comes home with someone.
The alarms for medications come home.
The syringe feedings come home.
The fluids come home.
The steam treatments, laundry, eye cleaning, weight checks and constant monitoring come home.
And sometimes that means working all night, staying awake all day to keep a kitten going, and then heading right back to work.
There is no clocking out from a kitten this sick.
That’s also why donations matter so much.
When you donate to Ghandi’s care, you’re not simply contributing toward a veterinary bill.
You’re helping provide the medications, fluids, food, syringes, supplies, diagnostics and supportive care that allow a foster home to become a tiny around-the-clock care unit for however long he needs it.
Ghandi is still extremely sick.
We don’t know yet what his vision will ultimately look like. We don’t know how quickly his respiratory infection will respond. And we don’t know whether there are other medical problems waiting to reveal themselves as his body gets stronger.
There are no guarantees with this little guy.
But after his first day, here’s what we do know:
He made it through the night.
He went from 1.5 pounds to 1.6 pounds.
His belly has food in it.
He’s receiving fluids and medications.
He’s warm in his ridiculously fuzzy heated bed.
He’s listening for his foster mom.
He’s calling for her.
And perhaps our favorite little victory of all—
he’s purring. 🧡
Yesterday, he was 1.5 pounds of a very sick kitten who had already experienced far more cruelty than he ever deserved!
