What’s a Scratch Baby?

Theo is my scratch baby. I heard my older daughter refer to him as that one day. I asked “WTH is a scratch baby”. She replied, “he’s a kitten made from scratch, so you know everything about him…a scratch baby!” It stuck. Theo was born during Covid. My daughter adopted his mom. She was an older kitten. No one knew she was pregnant until it was time to have her fixed. My daughter asked me to help her and mom. I was a little scared but figured it couldn’t be too much harder than raising a human baby. Theo was born a little over a month later. The experience of meeting him right after he was born and helping his mom (Kiki) raise him was one of the best I’ve ever had. Being so young, Kiki wasn’t the greatest mom, but that’s OK because it gave me the chance to learn A LOT about caring for kittens. Theo was just two hours old in this pic.