Kitty Rescue!

To take a break from posts dealing with insurance claims and flood waters (by the way, it rained again last night and my husband's car flooded again! Not that it matters at this point), I will tell the tale (tail?) of the three kittens under our house. The were abandoned by their feral mom after being disturbed by our gardeners. It was a bitterly cold night and they sat under our house mewing, mewing, mewing. The sound traveled right through our large floor furnace and echoed in the house. Finally I could stand it no longer and we pried the skirts off the house (we screw wooden "skirts" to the house to cover the crawl spaces in winter to make the house a little more energy efficient) and peered under with a flashlight. The poor kittens were crawling in 3 different directions and making a racket! I grabbed the only one close by and made the hubby (poor guy) crawl under and retrieve the other two. They were dirty, hungry, and flea-ridden. One was a runt and was mewing piteously; he was so cold and actually had scabbing from flea bites since fleas prey on weaker animals. I turned up the heat and placed them in a lined basket in warm spot, but I had no way to feed them. I soaked brad in milk and tried to get them to suck the milk that way, but only the black kitten could figure it out (the minute he got something in his tummy, he shut up. Silence. No more mewing). Meanwhile I had sent the hubby to the pharmacy for droppers and baby formula. We heated the formula up and fed everyone - ah, the blessed silence! Let me tell you, hungry kittens are incredibly loud. Once the kittens were fed the dropped off to sleep in a furry heap. We ended up keeping them overnight (they slept in a bucket with a hot water bottle and a heater nearby) before giving them to my parents. My parents run a sort of cat rescue operation accidentally - they live on a long winding road and unwanted cats are often dropped there. I think they have like 7 cats. Ok, that's 10 now, thanks to me.
I gave the kittens a bath before I presented them to their adoptive parents and I read that 50-50 apple cider vinegar will kill fleas. I am here to tell you that that is a lie. I think one flea died during that traumatic bath-time and it had underlying health conditions.
However, my mom swears that lavender oil will cure them all.

Do you know any natural flea products? It has to be natural. My mom does not like chemicals. Seriously. She doesn't ever use bleach and she is wary of rubbing alcohol, so this has to be mild!

Anyway, I was glad we got the kittens out when we did because that night was bitterly cold - followed by torrents of rain the next day!

Aren't they cute?