Cara, at 16 weeks old, weighs barely 3 pounds. Her sister, Polly, is at a normal size for her age, which is one pound heavier. Their brother, Chester is a meaty, 2 pounds bigger. Clearly, Cara is the smallest of her litter, but why is Cara so small?

Being so small, Cara gets chilled easily.

Since Cara was just 3 weeks old, she and her littermates have been struggling with a serious upper respiratory infection. We've taken them to the Vet more times than we can count, at least once a week, if not more often. We're trying a very heavy dose of medications now, to see if we can shake this thing loose and get these kittens on the permanent road to wellness.

The latest medications for Cara and her siblings.

Cara lags behind. We've caught her vomiting up her food a few times a day, then hastily trying to eat it back up. While this is rather unpleasant to have to talk about, the fact that she's doing what she does, gives us more clues. She's having what's called, a “barium study” done using radioactive material that using x-rays, will be able to see if what Cara eats is completely passing through her digestive system or getting blocked somehow. If this doesn't tell us anything, we need to have an Ultrasound done on Cara. She can't continue vomiting like this because it will cause her serious health issues if she grows to adulthood.

With her big, green eyes, Cara is hard to resist.

Unfortunately, providing this level of care, costs money. We've been asking for donations to help Cara and her family get better and we're really thrilled many of you have offered to help. We're not where we need to be with donations, as the Vet bill just keeps growing since we can't find a cure for Cara.

Cara and her sister nap on their foster Mom.

If you'd like to make a donation to our Boo-Boo & Sniffles fund, 100% of your donation goes directly to providing care for kittens like Cara. You can make a donation HERE. Thank you!

This time of year, it's especially difficult to know there are hundreds of thousands of animals, waiting in kill shelters, hoping to find a forever home or for a rescue group to come along and save them from being euthanized.

A 5 month old kitten, sat alone in a litter pan in a stainless steel cage. His cage is small and one of so many, each containing one or more cats, just like him, hoping to get out.

He sat there for nine days. Each day was one less day he had to live. Each day the odds were going up that he would be euthanized simply because more cats were entering the shelter and they were running out of space.

These are the cats we want to rescue. The ones who can still love humans, even after being treated so poorly by them. We will make a difference in their life-for the better.

This morning, this little cat no longer has a shelter ID number, he has a name and he has a place to call home until he finds that forever home he so dearly deserves.

Please welcome our latest foster cat, MacGruber into the Kitten Associates family! MacGruber will be available for adoption AFTER December 19, 2010.