Pomelo's incredible rescue story is absolutely everything.

Feral mama Pomelo has experienced more loss in her life than we can imagine.

Being feral with rare type B blood meant she got pregnant and gave birth over and over again to kittens who would die within the first week.

Pomelo's blood type creates a condition called Neonatal Isoerythrolysis. This causes antibodies in her milk to attack and kill the red blood cells in her newborn kittens.

She was pregnant again when we trapped her, and we promised her this time everything would be different.

Thankfully, we can save Neonatal Isoerythrolysis kittens by testing them as they're born, and separating kittens with different blood types from their mom for their first 24 hours to prevent them from nursing. We had a lot of anxiety and unknowns about being able to pull this off, knowing how fearful our feral mama Pomelo was around humans, and how many possible complications we might face.

Pomelo was astonishingly brave as she went into labor, and gave birth to seven beautiful kittens, with one sadly stillborn. We were able to successfully test all seven kittens, which confirmed none of them would have survived in the wild.

As heartbreaking as it was, we knew we had to keep the kittens in an incubator and bottle feed them every two hours to keep them safe. We gave them blood serum injections to try to provide some of the antibodies they weren't going to get from their mom. We felt terrible every minute of those 24 hours.

And then, finally...

We held our breaths as we reunited the kittens with their mama, hoping she would accept them, hoping she still had milk for them, and hoping they would figure out how to latch.

We will never forget those moments, and the relief that swept over us as one by one, they latched and began to nurse. Pomelo was still so scared, exhausted and overwhelmed, but she almost instantly began to care for them.

As the kittens grew up, Pomelo's fear gave way to joy. She LOVED playing with them, snuggling with them, and watching their shenanigans from her ledge by the window.

Today, Pomelo and her adorable babies have all been spayed and neutered, and her cycle of pregnancy and loss has ended. Her kittens will never have to experience the hardships she has survived.

And the best part is...

Pomelo has been adopted by a wonderful family who fell in love with her when she first arrived, and wanted to make sure she would never have to be alone again. They applied to adopt her with two of her babies, and the three of them will get to be together forever while Pomelo continues to heal her heart and learn to trust humans.

Pomelo, Ava and Apple will be going home on Friday around noon. Follow them on their new adventures at:
Pom Pom, Alma, Peazu & Ava
  / pom_pom_alma_peazu_ava  
   / @terrifictortiesnfriends9880  

Watch Pomelo give birth for the last time, and learn more about Neonatal Isoerythrolysis:
   • Feral rescue cat Pomelo gives birth f...  

Fall in love on our 24/7 rescue livestream: TinyKittens.com/live

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