we went around and under all the dumpsters. and around and through the marsh behind the mini-mall. (in search of siblings, mom, clues as to how he got there etc). The best bet is that he crawled through the one dumpster that Stop And Shop (major grocery store chain out here) uses to dump their bad food. And I mean BAD! We saw bad meat and spilling over onto the ground, bad veggies etc, this stuff is sent through a shoot right from the store into the dumpster and a kitten could easily, on a quiet night find himself walking through the shoot and land himself smack inside the huge supermarket with no way out! That dumpster was packed full of stinky meats and god knows how many litters of kittens have been hauled away still inside... ugh.
So what was likely impacted under his tongue was a collection of leaves, sticks, and infection. I would like to know what that whitey colored thingy is! I am sure jan has tossed it by now but looks like meat gristle.
so to all you cat lovers out there, when you do your grocery shopping at night, take a swing through the back, see if there are cats in need of real food to prevent them from going into trash compactors! Put down anything you can to stave off their death another day... (waaaaaa!) I feel really bad about the destiny of his family...