- The other gals volunteered first to do poop duty
and I've just kept quiet
'cause I knew some feeding would come down the pipelines,
which is 10 times more cuter than poop.
(laughing)
- Hi. - Hi Hannah.
- [Chantel] Hello. - Hello hello hello.
- [Devin] Yay.
- Thank you for having us here.
- Yeah, I'm so excited.
My name is Hannah Shaw
and I am a professional animal rescuer and human educator
with a special focus in tiny kittens.
I've been involved in animal advocacy
since I was very young, since I was a kid,
but I never knew that kittens needed our help.
Excuse me!
10 years ago, I found a kitten that was up in a tree top
and I had no idea what to do.
I climbed up into this tree and picked her up
and she was so so so tiny and I stuck her in my bra,
shimmied back down the tree and then was like,
"What the heck do I do next?"
That cat is my cat Coco who I still have
so you can meet her today,
but it opened my eyes completely to the world of kittens
and the great need there is for more resources for them.
- [Devin] I'm already in love with all these animals.
- [Chantel] I know.
- How can you not be? - Right?
- So how many kittens do you think you've rescued
in your 10 years of doing this?
- Oh my gosh, I wish that I had counted.
I have no idea, I would guess close to a thousand now,
but hundreds for sure.
- What's the most amount of kittens can you foster at once?
- I'm a big believer in having healthy boundaries
and so I think a lot of people are like,
"Do you have like 50 kittens in your home?"
and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, if I had 50 kittens in my home,
"first of all, it would smell really bad,
"and it would be difficult to do well" so I take on
the most vulnerable kittens that I can and for me,
that can be anywhere from six to 12 kittens at a time.
- So you're gonna be putting us to work
for the next 48 hours, yes?
- Yeah, I'm excited!
All hands on deck.
- What sort of things are you gonna be showing us how to do?
- So I'm going to show you guys how to take care of kittens
of different ages and different needs,
so you'll learn about bottle babies,
weaned kittens, special needs kittens.
Newborn kittens are one of the most at risk
and misunderstood populations.
They are extremely vulnerable in animal shelters.
I was living in North Carolina at a time when
there were still a lot of animal shelters
that used gas chambers and it was absolutely horrible.
I would go into the shelters and just weep
and get out as many kittens as I possibly could.
Kittens who are under eight weeks old are not adoptable
so they're not adoption candidates.
They are very very likely to be euthanized
in an animal shelter, especially if they are unweaned,
they're not able to feed themselves.
Animal shelters are not there over night
to be able to provide the care that these kittens need.
You're always gonna be feeding them,
helping them go to the bathroom, making sure they're clean,
and then giving them, if they're older, playtime,
or if they're younger, a warm place to basically incubate.
So I'll just show you guys different ages of kittens
and how you do their care.
- Wait, what's the youngest kitten you have?
- Right now, the youngest kitten I have here is 12 days old.
Most of the kittens we get are a couple hours old
when they get here so teeny tiny kittens.
- Most of them are only hours old?
- Yeah, yeah, we try to take on the youngest.
- Is that before they even have hair?
- If they're premature, they can be born with less hair,
but most kitten are born, they have their fur,
their eyes are closed, their ears are folded,
they can't regulate their body temperature,
that's why you'll see, I have them in incubators
when they're zero to three weeks old,
they literally are like in an easy bake oven,
just like cooking and gettin' nice and toasty
so that when they come out
they're like a perfect little loaf.
- Can you tell us what the difference is between this room
and then the other room that we'll go see?
- Yeah, my dream for the longest time was to have a house
that has baby nurseries in it.
We have a neo-nat and that room
is more like a treatment area honestly,
because the neo-nats we get in,
they don't run, they don't play, they're little babies.
Their only job is to stay warm and stay alive
until they're old enough to transition into this room.
We have Sage who is a little white kitten
who had an eye infection when we got him.
Then we have Basil who is the teeny tiny guy.
He is a very little man and he's little black kitten
with a white diamond on his chest
and then we have Peppermint
and Peppermint is a black and white kitten
also with a fabulous mustache.
Then we have our three week old kitten, Flower.
Flower is a three week old black and white kitten
with a cute little mustache and a goatee.
Flower was found outside without a mom
and I actually don't know where she came from,
which is a big frustration for me
because I like to be able to go
and sterilize the colonies where they're from
so we're not getting any more kittens in from there.
This is the fun room, so this is like kitten Disneyland
and it's our socialization room
so kittens come in here once they are over a month old
and are healthy enough to be in
a general population environment,
learning how to be a micro panther
and learning all of the skills
that they'll need to do to be able to be a cat
that can be adopted into a home.
We have Penelope.
She is a beautiful gray tabby kitten.
She's about seven and a half weeks old,
and then we have her sister Petunia.
Petunia is a brown tabby kitten.
Penelope and Petunia were found in an RV park.
- Do you bond with these kittens?
- Yeah, so it's natural to bond with the kittens, of course.
The whole point of this, for me,
is being really strategic in saving lives.
My goal is to save as many lives as I can.
When I say goodbye, I know that it's opening up a space
for me to say hello to someone else
and there's always someone else waiting.
But I would love to have your help today
'cause you know it does take a village to do this work
and ideally to feel empowered that this is something
that you could do in the future,
even if you don't run out of here and go sign up to foster,
that if you find a kitten,
you have the tools to be able to help them.
- Yay Hannah, we're back. - We're back!
- Yay, we couldn't wait.
- So I have some work for you guys today.
- Really? - You ready?
- Sure.
- Okay, so the kittens did really great over night
which is awesome.
Their weights are all going up,
they look really good, except Sage and Basil
did have a little bit of a poopslosion in here.
This morning we're gonna be cleaning them up
and cleaning up their incubator.
We got a little bit pooped up too.
- [Devin] Ooh.
- [Hannah] Oh wow, oh wow, he's like,
"My brother pooped on me!"
(laughing)
And then Basil is like, "I didn't know do it, he did it."
We're gonna give them a bath.
- [Chantel] Yes.
- And I'll show you guys how to do that safely.
You totally can bathe kittens,
but you have to do it in a very cautious way.
- [Chantel] Okay.
- Okay, so who's gonna help me with bathing?
- Me!
- So while Fred gets to bathe the cute little babies,
I'm cleaning up poop.
- Okay, so we're gonna wash the babies.
One important thing is you wanna always do it
really really quickly because they can't control
their own body temperature.
They can catch a chill so quickly, so warm water,
and try to keep it under a minute for each kitten.
- Okay.
- And then using something that's safe,
so I use a fragrance free natural baby shampoo.
- Ooh, that's a smell for sure.
Putting this in the laundry basket.
Now I disinfect.
- [Hannah] Let's do Sage.
- So do I get a towel ready?
- Yeah, so you're gonna receive the kittens
and help them get dry nice and quickly
and I am just going to quickly rinse him from the neck down.
We never wanna get their head.
It's okay.
He's like, "What the heck's goin' on?"
- [Freddie] What if there is poop on their head?
- [Hannah] So we will wash his head separately.
- [Freddie] Oh okay.
- [Hannah] Oh, a little massage.
So I'm just washing his little butt,
and washing his little feet.
You're gonna look so fresh and clean.
- We got poops all up in here.
There's the poopies.
They really got poop everywhere, even on this ledge
since they keep coming up to say hi.
- So you ready?
- Yes.
- Here you go, and then you can just really
try to get him nice and dry.
- Okay.
- [Hannah] So he has a little bit of crusty poopies
on his head, see right there?
So I'm just gonna--
- [Freddie] Oh, so you use a little--
- [Hannah] Yeah, I use like a cotton pad
just to spot clean him because we don't wanna--
- Submerge his head.
- Yeah, you would never wanna submerge a kitten.
- No.
- Right now it's just me a Flower, me and Flo.
You're a cutie, thank you for your moral support.
It's both minimal, yet everywhere.
Think we're poop free.
- You fresh and clean baby.
- So then you can actually use a toothbrush to back comb.
There's a way to just create more air
so that he dries faster.
He kind of looks like a little rat.
- Yeah.
- He's so pink.
Wow, okay let's see if your bedding is ready.
Is it clean?
- [Chantel] It's finished.
- [Hannah] Oh good, he's ready to go into his warm spot.
There you go, so now he will just go back in there
and get warm.
- The other gals volunteered first to do poop duty
and I've just kept quiet 'cause I knew some feeding
would come down the pipeline, so now I'm on feeding duty,
which is 10 times more cuter than poop.
(laughing)
- Poop's part of the job, Devin.
- It is part of the job.
- [Hannah] So we're going to wake up Peppermint
and what we can do is you can actually wake her up
by toothbrushing her.
- I would love that.
All right baby girl.
- [Hannah] So this is kind of like momma waking her up.
- [Devin] Oh hi, oh hi.
- Oh, she's like, "You don't gotta tell me twice."
- [Devin] Oh hi, time to eat, now time to weigh you.
- Okay, we gotta pee her first.
- [Devin] Pee her first.
- So, your first time peeing a kitten,
you are not out of pee and poop duty.
- [Devin] I mean, she could still poop on me.
- [Hannah] She could still poop on you.
- Which would be the most ironic, right?
- How should I, is there an art to it?
- He went in the litter box, so you luck out,
you do not have to stimulate her.
- I don't have to stimulate you, girl.
- But she's a tricky one to feed.
I like to hold 'em where I can see what's going on
and then just rub in a circular motion.
- Okay.
- Just be careful because the boys spray very far.
Is she peeing?
- We're making noises, oh yeah.
- Oh yeah there you go!
- Yeah, oh you're going a lot.
(cat meowing)
- [Hannah] There you go.
- Yeah buddy, I can't say anyone's ever done this for me.
(laughing)
But we all pee.
- [Hannah] They have a lot of opinions about being peed.
(cat meowing) - Yeah.
- I always tare the scale, make sure it says zero,
then you can stick her in the bin,
and she is 178 grams.
- Yay Peppermint!
- That's awesome.
- He's 217. - He's 217.
- 217. - Good job, baby.
- Every kitten has a different way that they like to eat
and she is definitely very tactile.
She likes to hold your hand or hold onto the bottle.
Just be very careful, the biggest thing I will say is
do not squeeze the bottle at all.
Stick it in her mouth and she will control the flow.
So you're going to take your left hand and just practice
holding his head with one finger on his throat.
So with her, you wanna just kind of help guide
her arms at first away from the bottle,
otherwise she will make it difficult to feed her.
- [Freddie] Okay.
- [Hannah] Don't be sad if she doesn't get it right away.
It's okay, it's a total art form.
With your right hand, you're going to stick that
into his mouth and then invert it.
- [Freddie] She's a little wiggle worm.
- [Hannah] Here, let's just, she's not easy to feed.
And then this, you're gonna stick into her mouth
and then put it upwards, there we go.
- [Chantel] Oh yeah, oh yeah
and you feel their little throat.
- Nice!
See how his little ears are twitching?
- [Chantel] Yeah.
- That is the tell tale sign that he has latched.
So just try to really really hold her in place
with your right hand and you can do that like this.
- [Freddie] Okay.
- [Hannah] Like over hand, yup.
And then with this hand,
(Freddie laughing)
here, I'll help you, I know, she's hard.
- Here you go.
Yeah, okay, that's good!
- [Freddie] She's so hard!
- [Hannah] So I'll show you, I'll show you, so--
- [Freddie] She's a little strong baby.
- [Hannah] I hold her and don't let her get away,
just hold her there and then--
- [Freddie] Once she starts.
- [Hannah] Yeah. - [Freddie] Ah.
- [Hannah] So here.
- I think I'm gonna cry.
- All right, so--
- I believe in you.
- [Freddie] Hold--
- [Hannah] She's trying to nurse on your finger already.
- [Freddie] Now she's nursing on my finger.
- [Hannah] Okay, so just get it in there,
and there we go, yeah.
So just keep this pointed upward.
- [Freddie] Okay.
Yay! - [Hannah] There we go.
- [Devin] Yay Flo, oh my god, those little paws.
- So she was 264 to start, so let's see how she did.
Oh wow, she's 277.
- 77, wow.
- That was a very big meal.
- [Hannah] 181.
- [Devin] Okay. - [Hannah] Okay.
- Very good girlfriend.
- There you go, girl.
- 221. - Okay, 221, that perfect.
And then she's got her little milk mustache, so--
- Should we clean her with the little towel?
- [Hannah] Yup, don't forget the most important step.
- [Chantel] Oh yeah, the important boop.
- [Hannah] There you go.
- Yeah.
- So all of the bottle babies ate.
- [All] Yay. - [Freddie] Love it.
- Writing a book has been a dream of mine
ever since I started doing work with kittens.
There's only so much that I can say in a five minute video
or in a social post.
Tiny But Mighty is a book that has everything
from rescue to adoption, how do you do the work
of helping kittens and then how we can all do something
to get involved, even if you don't plan on rescuing kittens
you can still see tons of cute pictures,
like the cutest photos of my babies,
as well as read a lot of fun stories.
I have a book coming out for children
and it is called Kitten Lady's Big Book of Little Kittens.
So this book is really to spark a curiosity
about animal welfare in children.
It has information even about things
that guardians and kids can do together to help cats.
Every time I read it, I have a huge smile on my face
so it's for kids four plus, but I'm in my thirties
and I think it's great, so I think anybody could enjoy
the Big Book of Little Kittens.
- [Devin] I wanna read it.
Well it wouldn't be a trip to the Kitten Lady,
if we didn't know how to make these
cute little kitten crowns,
(laughing)
that are on the cover of Hannah's book.
- A couple years ago I started making
little hats and crowns for my babies.
I know that in rescue sometimes people think
it's very sad and like Sarah McLachlan starts playing
in the background and everybody's crying.
I try to break that image and be like,
"No, this is fun, it's joyful" and how better to show
that it's fun and joyful than with little paper crowns.
So today, we'll make some crowns
for all the babies in the nursery.
So I'll just show you guys really fast.
It's actually extremely easy.
I popped this one together in like 30 seconds.
Get your cameras ready,
because this is only gonna last for a moment.
(laughing)
- Go, wow!
There we go, good job!
There we go, she's a queen.
Penelope is totally happy and chill,
she'll like, "Okay."
Good job!
Okay, and obviously never make a kitten wear a crown
if they don't wanna wear a crown.
(upbeat music)
- So Hannah thank you so much for letting us
come into your nursery and teaching us so many things.
I've been a fan of your work for a really long time
so this has been really really special
so thank you so much.
- Oh thank you, thank you thank you.
It's been really fun having you guys here
and you all are naturals at kitten care.
(laughing)
- Thank you.
- Really, you are master butt wipers now.
- [Freddie] Yeah.
- [Hannah] You are all equipped to bottle feed
and you even can make your little paper crowns now,
so I hope to see you guys fostering in the future,
and I know Flower has appreciated
all of your snuggles and kisses.
- Oh my gosh. - Yay.
- What a cutie, little feets.
(upbeat music)