​​​Cricket is a sweet kitty who was abandoned on the streets of Waterbury at just 8 months old. She kept returning to the steps of the home where she once lived. But she was met with cruel kids throwing sticks and rocks at her to make her go away. Thankfully one of our volunteers was able to gain her trust and rescue her. 

Unfortunately, by the time she was rescued she was sick, and just to complicate things, she was pregnant! She had a very high fever and was not eating. At just 6 pounds she was a skeleton with a pregnant belly. Because of her pregnancy we could only use one antibiotic for her. Due to her poor health, she went into labor prematurely. Her first kitten was breach and still born. We took her for an emergency C-section but the 3 kittens inside her sadly did not survive. We now turned our focus to saving Cricket who was critically ill and not likely to survive herself. She was not eating and very weak. She had a fever, was severely anemic, her liver was shutting down and she had fluid in her chest that made it difficult for her to breathe. The vet admitted that her survival was a long shot. But we saw a spark in her eye that inspired us to try as hard as we could to support her and give her a chance to pull through.
Cricket came back to the sanctuary so that she could get the 24 hour care she needed. I took her back to the vet almost daily continuing to run blood work and hope for a positive change. I was giving her several daily medications, sub-Q fluids and was syringe feeding her around the clock. She was too weak to stand or even hold her head up on her own. Her fever finally broke and then her body temperature fell too low which created a whole new set of problems. We put her in a small crate with a heating pad. She was struggling and had no improvement for several days; we began to lose hope. Everyone we knew was praying for this little girl.  I brought her back to our vet for another check up. She was limp and her breathing was labored, I fully expected that  I was going to have to let her go. But we have the best vet in the world, and he still saw hope. He changed her medications and told us to keep trying for a few more days and see if the new meds would help her. So, I kept trying!
Then one afternoon I came in to feed her and she was holding up her head! I couldn’t believe it! Each day after that she continued to have small improvements. Eventually she began to eat on her own and I felt some cautious relief. Cricket proved to be a fighter and a miracle kitty. After 3 long and stress filled weeks of around-the-clock intensive care at our sanctuary, many trips to the vet for updated bloodwork and medications, she pulled through and is now thriving. She now weighs in at 12 pounds!  She surprised us all, especially our vet!