Okay, I did a bunch of research on cubs, stray kittens, and babies in general cuz I kinda wanted this to have accurate info. That being said, this is a fic about animated kids movie about talking animals, so there are many unrealistic aspects. Anyways, here's a little side note: don't actually give stray kittens milk! They need kitten formula.
-

Meena immediately took charge with the infant, which the other two were grateful for seeing as neither of them had any idea what to do with a baby. The normally timid elephant actually had a lot of experience with infants when her neighbor polar bear had had twins and needed a babysitter. The first order of business was making sure the baby's core temperature was warm enough. One of the first things Meena did was remove and swaddle the child in her own hoodie, hoping the warmth it had absorbed her body would help the infant. Next, she carried the child to Ash's bathroom and let the sink run until the water turned warm. Ash and Johnny were in the door way at this point, watching Meena prep the baby for a bath.

Johnny was the first to hesitantly offer to help. He knew nothing about working with babies and was honestly scared of hurting the tiny cub. But if someone as large and strong as Meena could carry around the tiny infant without fear, Johnny figured he could at least try to be helpful.

Meena ordered him over and he shuffled up next to her waiting to be told what to do. Ash followed after a moment at stood up of her stool she used to reach her sink. Her apartment hadn't exactly been designed for an animal as small as her.

Both the rocker and rebel watched intensely as Meena unwrapped the infant, revealing a squirming, dirty, little tiger cub. The cub had short, fuzzy, striped fur and was so young its eyes weren't open and it didn't have teeth yet. Meena gasped in horror when she saw the throughly soiled diaper the infant was in. She changed the cub out of the filthy diaper as Ash jumped down and darted out to the kitchen. A moment later, the porcupine returned with as many paper towel rolls and tissue boxes as she could find.

"Yeah, I don't have baby wipes. Sorry." Ash smiled sheepishly as she pushed what she could find up on the sink counter. Meena smiled gratefully as she took some tissue and started cleaning the infant as gently as possible.

The elephant instructed Johnny on how to properly hold the cub so his head was supposed and his body was under the warm stream of running water. Johnny was stiff with anxiety and he put all his focus on holding the baby right, internally fretting. "Guys... this really bad." He heard himself say. "I mean, even if Meena knows what she's doin', we still don't 'ave any of the right stuff to take care of a baby. No wipes, formula, bottles..." Johnny's eyes flickered over to the trash bin where the soiled diaper was disposed of. "And no diapers."

"And we don't really have any outside help. Even if we could call a hospital, it's not great weather for ambulance driving." Ash shrugged as nodded towards a window. Her sighed heavily before straightening up on her stool next to Meena. "Okay, yeah, this is less than ideal. Like, waaay less than ideal! But it still better than if the little guy had been left out all night!" The porcupine mustered a smile at the infant. "We just have to hold out til the roads clear up and we can get help. We'll manage."

Meena smiled warmly as Ash spoke, but Johnny was was still uncomforted. "With wot supplies, though? Obviously we have to keep 'im 'ere, but that does change the fact that ya don't own baby stuff." He shrugged helplessly, still very panicked by the hold situation.

Meena's smile fell and her ears pulled a little closer to her face as her nerves acted up, but she still managed to speak. "W-well, you can make a diaper out of clean cotton-"

"On it!" The words had barely left the elephant's mouth before Ash jumped off her stool and dashed to her room. After rooting around for a minute, she pull and large, freshly washed cotton T-shirt out off a pile of laundry she hadn't bothered putting away. She thanked her past self profusely for actually doing laundry yesterday as she fished some scissors out of her side table drawer and cut up the large T-shirt into two square cloth pieces. Satisfied with her handiwork, Ash went back to the bathroom where she found Meena drying the cub off in a fluffy towel. Thinking quickly, Ash ducked over to a drawer under her sink and rummaged around. She caught sight of Johnny watching her curiously and for half a second reconsidered her idea. But the porcupine shook the doubts from her head and decided the gorilla could just deal. With that thought, Ash shamelessly pulled out one of her heavy day pads and used it to line the bottom of one of the cotton square.

"Boom, we've got diapers!" Ash proudly presented the makeshift diaper before turning back and digging out another pad for the other piece of cotton. "And! I even went grocery shopping yesterday, so I've got a whole jug of milk for Tiny here!" Ash finished the other diaper and turned smugly towards the others, mostly Johnny since he had been the most doubtful. She smiled widely at the pleasantly surprised gorilla. "How's that, Mr. Gloomy-pants?"

Johnny was in a bit of awe of the porcupine's quick thinking and up beat attitude. Meena giggled softly at Ash's attics as she took one of the makeshift diapers and tied it up on the freshly cleaned infant.

The baby, who had been squirming and gurgling complaints up until now, had found his lungs and started making his grievances known. Loudly. Ash covered her ears and Johnny winced as he watched Meena try to soothe the infant. "Ya' think he's hungry?" Johnny suggested from his spot next to the sink, trying to be helpful.

Meena nodded. "We need to figure out some way of feeding him!" She all but shouted over the baby's wails.

Ash's eyes lite up and she ran back to her kitchen. She dove under her kitchen sink searching. Johnny followed in and moment later. "Uhh... what are ya' doin'?" He cocked an eyebrow at the porcupine's form rummaging around under her sink.

"I'm looking for rubber cleaning glove." Ash called from under the sink, which did nothing to aid the gorilla's confusion. She continued after a moment. "I think if we cut a hole in one of the figures, we could use that for Tiny to drink out of-"

"Why dan't we just use this?" Johnny's voice cut Ash off and made her crawl back from under her sink to look at what he was referring to. Her eyes landed on one of her water bottles in Johnny's hand. It was a small, plastic bottle with a flip-up rubber tip.

Ash blinked at the item, amazed she hadn't thought of that. "Okay, yeah, that's a better idea." She muttered sheepishly. She took the bottle and wash it twice before letting Johnny fill it with milk. He ran it under hot water while Ash went back to check on Meena.

After detouring in to her bedroom, Ash came to the living room where Meena was sat with the baby once again swaddled in her hoodie. Ash pushed a blanket from her room at the elephant and demanded Meena put her hoodie back on. The little apartment proved to be surprisingly well insulated, but the cold winter air was still finding ways of seeping in.

Meena wrapped the child in the blanket and handed him to Ash as she pulled on her hoodie.

Johnny entered a minute later and found Ash looking decidedly uncomfortable holding the wriggling cub that was a third her size. As soon as Ash saw Johnny she motioned him over and handed out the infant to him.

Once Meena was properly re-hoodied, she turned and saw Johnny with a water bottle full of warm milk in one hand and a very unhappy infant squirming in the other arm. He appeared to be very unsure of himself, like he knew he was suppose to feed the baby, but didn't seem at all sure as to how to do it. The gorilla looked at Meena with pleading eyes before she took the baby from him and smiled.

"Okay, so for cubs, you feed then stomach down..." Meena sat back on the couch as she took the bottle from Johnny and started explaining the feeding process. She unwrapped and turned the baby so his stomach was resting on thigh and she was supporting his chest and neck with one hand. Contrary to her concerns, the cub latched on the the water bottle quickly and drank eagerly. Ash and Johnny sat on either side of Meena and watched over her shoulders with interest and awe.

It was a sweet scene, but Meena eventually got fed up with the other two's constant hovering. The elephant couldn't figure out how the other two teenagers were scared of holding the baby but were fine hovering over herself and watching her every move. Meena decided the other two just needed a little push to get over their obvious nervousness. Ash was leaning so far she was practically on Meena's lap as well, so when it was convenient, Meena shifted and carefully dispensed the infant on Ash's lap. The larger quickly took Ash's hands and show showed the shocked porcupine how the hold the infant and bottle before said porcupine could protest. After of few minutes of stiff, internal panic, Ash started to relax with the baby in her arms. A small smile forming on the rocker's face.

Johnny on the other hand looked very uncomfortable with the baby no longer being in Meena's secure hold. Meena rolled her eyes when she glanced his way. She'd deal with him next.

Once the baby seemed uninterested with the remaining milk in the bottle, Meena went to fetch an old dish rag to use as a burp cloth. With her trunk, she tossed the cloth over a distracted Johnny's shoulder before taking the baby from Ash. Johnny gave the cloth a confused looked that was quickly replaced with a look of panic when Meena handed him the cub. The gorilla straighten up and put his hands up in mock surrender. "Wha-ah-um, I-I don't really think I should take 'im..." He gave Meena an uneasy smiled and tried to ramble his way out of taking the cub, saying the youngster preferred Meena to him anyway. The elephant was not deterred by this and gently pushed the infant into Johnny's arms so that the tiny cub was propped up against his shoulder.

"You were fine with bathing him." Ash almost chuckled. She knew she had probably looked strange with an infant that was almost too big for her to hold, but somehow Ash was sure the former gang member looked even more out of place holding the little cub against a burp rag.

"Yeah, but... Meena was doin' all the real work." Johnny answered feebly, still tense with the baby in his hold.

"You'll be fine." Meena stated as firmly as her timid nature would allow. She stood over Johnny long enough to ensure the cub was being held and burped correctly before turning to leave the room. "Ash, can I get you me help with something?" The elephant gave a quick glance towards the living room, ignoring Johnny's silent pleading for her not to leave in favor of looking at Ash. The porcupine hopped off her couch to follow Meena back to the kitchen.

Once there, Meena helped Ash pull out an old cooler and the two filled it with ice packs from the freezer and the milk jug. Meena was loading the whole colder back into the fridge when she heard Ash joke behind her. "Hey, if we ever get worried about it getting warm, we could stick it outside." Ash was sat on her counter and jabbed a thumb at the snow build up outside her kitchen window.

Meena looked out the window with apprehension. She struggled internally for a moment before giving Ash a worrying look. "Hey, Ash? You... you don't think she'd go back out there, right? To look for him, I mean?"

Ash cocked her head casually. "Who ya talking 'bout?"

"The mother." Meena all but whispered from her spot next to the fridge. She was looking at Ash with fretting eyes. "You don't think she might'ave... I don't know, felt bad and went back for him?" Ash's eyes went wide and they both stared out the window for a long moment. Meena thought for a moment longer before she made up her mind and sighed. "I-I'll be right back."

"Meena, wait!" Ash stopped her friend from leaving and hopped off her counter. "If you go out there and don't find anyone, then what? You can't go looking around for her in this weather. And we can't just keep going in and out to check if she's there, the apartment'll freeze." Ash reasoned sounded as she paced towards Meena. "I've got a better idea."

-
Idk why, but the though of Johnny or Ash having to hold a baby their not use to amuses me! Also, so help me, I could not find the right gosh darn words to describe the stinkin' water bottle rubber bit! I rewrote that bit a dozen times! Hope you guys liked this. Feedback is greatly appreciated