Litter Box Presents (Day 29)

Only the parents of a clutter of kittens could be so excited to see the first little "present" in the kittens' litter box! I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that at least one of the kittens had discovered the joy of digging and burying. :)



Another impressive first today: the little orange kitten managed to climb up the couch to come see us. He dug his little claws in and grappled up the side of the couch until he was next to us. I wonder if he felt the same elation that Edmund Hillary felt when he was the first to scale Mt. Everest!



There was a major catfight in our house yesterday. Seven took Ceres growling as an agressive act, and went after her. You know all those cartoons that you see where two cats are fighting, and they look like a big ball of fur with paws swiping out? Well, that's entirely accurate! I had to reach into the "blender" to seperate the girls, earning me four large scratches and several smaller ones on my hands. At least none of the cats were injured.... not that it's any consolation!

It was necessary to replace the kitten's food dish with a larger plastic container. There was no way that five kittens and Seven were able to eat from the little dish that the SPCA gave us. It's amazing that all the kittens always want to eat at the SAME TIME. We joked about getting them a trough, but settled on lending them one of our food saver containers.

Adventures Galore! (Day 28)

The kittens have been having adventures galore!

"The missing piece must be around here somewhere..."

We have been grinding up kitten kibble for them and mixing it with water to give them a nice "paste" that they can eat as they ease themselves from nursing to solid food. We have been doing this several times a day to ensure that they get the nutrition that they need. We can't say we've had much success as they seem to spend more time walking through the food than eating it. Last night, we heard a mysterious crunching noise. Upon peering down, we noticed that the kittens were eating Seven's dry kibble directly from her dish! The silly kittens seem to have completely bypassed the wet-food stage and are eating hard kibble. It is rather rare that they would be eating it this young, but not much we can do about it.

Can't say that we're impressed - they would have saved us a lot of work if they'd just TOLD us that they wanted to move directly to dry kibble!

Chameleon

Seven is now contending with kittens that are active and won't stay still. She now nurses them wherever she can - in the hallway, on the bathroom floor, or on a pile of laundry! We have to be very careful when we pick our piles of laundry to put them in the washer - apparently laundry is a very good place for a kitten to nap.

Napping on our laundry

Seven has become more and more agressive, to the point that we have to keep her in our room as much as possible. She takes any outward sign of agression by our cats as a war call. Often the kittens will approach Titan, who was sleeping, and play around him until his awakens. However, as soon as he hisses or growls, Seven comes out and goes for blood. Poor Titan! After all, the kittens were the ones that disturbed HIS nap!!

The black kitten helping me bake

The kittens spend most of their time out of the nest, and will fall asleep almost anywhere. For example, as I type this, I have a kitten that is curled up next to me. They sleep very soundly and can frighten you because they take a minute to rouse when you pick them up (for a few seconds, it's as if they were dead).

Dead to the world!!

They have yet to master the litter box ... or take any interest in it whatsoever. We purchased litter that is non-toxic so that they don't get sick trying to taste it. Eventually they will figure out that the litter does not belong in their mouthes, but rather serves a purpose for the OTHER END of their little bodies. :)

"Nobody here but us laundry!"

Confused Kittens (Day 25)

The kittens are confused! Yesterday, they ate their first "real" food. To make their food, we pulverize some hard kitten food in the blender, and then mix it with water to form a paste. This makes it easier to switch them to straight kibble in a few weeks.

Today, the got their first litterbox. It's an old pie pan that has about 1/2" of litter in it.

The kittens seem to be very confused.... they walked through the food and ate the litter! Sigh...

The kittens are all over our house now, and seem to spill out of our room as soon as the door is opened. They follow our feet around and try to climb the furniture.

Question: what is the most common noise that is heard in a household of kittens?? No, the answer is not "meow". The answer is "thump". They "thump" when the fall off something - which is very frequently!! Yesterday, one of them fell down the back of the couch, hitting the radiator on the way down. Fortunately, kittens are made out of rubber -othewise they wouldn't last long!!

Proximity Alarm (Day 22)

The kittens seem to now be outfitted with a proximity alarm. The farther away from the nest they go, the louder their meows get! We were awoken this morning at 6am by a wayward kitten calling for mom to come get it. It suffices to say that at 6am, we were ALL rooting for Seven to hurry up and get that kitten back to the nest!



This evening the kittens came out of our room for the first time. They follow us around like a gaggle of geese, chasing our feet. Seven lets this go on for a few minutes and they proceeds to pick the kittens up and carry them back to the nest. A few minutes later.... here come the kittens again! This went on three or four times before the kittens got tuckered out and fell asleep.



Pretty soon when we open our bedroom door after coming home from work, Seven won't be the only one waiting to get out! Titan seems to be curious about the kittens, but once he has had the chance to smell them for a few minutes, he will hiss and walk away. He is learning a very hard lesson: do NOT get between Seven and her kittens! She has attacked him more than once for being too close to her kittens (by her estimation, of course). Poor Titan - he's a really gentle monster and is just curious as to the little balls of fur wandering around our house.



The other two girls have spent the better part of the last four weeks on top of our fridge. "Misery loves company" seems to be their motto. The only bonus that they can see to this entire debacle is that they have a front-seat view of what's in our fridge. :)

The Kitten Shuffle (Day 21)

What exactly is the "Kitten Shuffle", you ask? It is the manner of walking that we adopt once the kittens start exploring. As they have not quite understood that we are bigger and it hurts to be stepped on, they haven't starting avoiding our huge feet. In order to ensure that we don't accidentally injure a kitten, we adopt the Kitten Shuffle: whenever we are near the kittens, we shuffle our feet around the floor to avoid stepping on them. I'm sure our neighbours downstairs wonder where we learned to walk. :)

The kittens are 3 weeks old today and they spend a large part of their waking day away from the nest. Seven is not too impressed with this and she keeps an eye on them whenever they're out. If they stray too far by her opinion, she will corral them back into the nest.

The kittens eyes are now a brilliant blue, and will stay this way for 1-2 weeks before changing to their final colour. They weigh on average 345 grams (a little over 3/4 lb) except for our plump buff tabby, who is on the cusp of a pound (439 grams).

We have put aside a pie pan that will act as the kitten's first litte box. We will likely introduce it sometime this week. Funny pictures to follow. :)

We're Free!! (Day 16)

Not much has happened in the last week. The kittens have been moving around more in the basket, but as soon as we took them out Seven would come and drag them back to the nest.

Today, however, we witnessed the kittens leaving the nest. It was as if the floodgates opened and kittens spilled out everywhere. At first, Seven tried to usher them back into the nest, but she gave up once she realized that the kittens wanted to explore. They don't venture far from the nest, but they do come out frequently just to see if the scenery has changed. :)


They are growing like bad weeks, weighing an average of 290 grams (a little over 10 ounces). Of course, this average is offset by the buff tabby who nows weighs an astonishing 374 grams (over 13 ounces).

It's all downhill now.... before long we'll have a whole clutter of kittens underfoot!

Let the Adventures Begin! (Day 9)

ageThe eyes of the 9-day old kittens are now fully open, and they can't get enough of their new surroundings. On occasion, they wander out of the basket, but Seven is quick to get them and bring them back to safety.

Mom returning the kitten to the nest

Their rate of weigh gain is fantastic. The little orange tabby has almost tripled his birth weight! They spend a lot of time feeding, and afterwards their tummies are full and plump. Seven always ensures that they have a bath after their feeding.

Bath Time!!

The kittens are starting to look more like "kittens" - they are getting larger and their features are starting to become more proportional to their bodies.

Aww... how adorable!!!

Their hearing is now starting to kick in, and they can probably hear us come into the room (or mom come in to give them a snack).

Can you resist this face??

Eyes Opening (Day 6)

The kittens' eyes have started to open! The little buff tabby's eyes have opened in the corners, and the rest of his eyes should soon follow. The other's haven't yet followed suit, but I'm sure it won't be long. According to literature, their eyes should be completely open around days 9-14.

Seven now tries to spend the minimum amount of time necessary. She returns to the nest to feed and clean the kittens, but will nap in another room (preferably somewhere that she can torment my other three cats!!). When the kittens start to make noises, she will come back to the nest, making little chirping noises to let them know that she's there.

The kittens are starting to gain a lot of weight. The little caramel kitten now weighs 241 grams (more then a half a pound!!).

Umbilical Cord Loss (Day 4)

The kitten's umbilical cords have started to fall off. When we looked in the basket this afternoon, there were two little umbilical cords just laying on the sheet.

Seven is now spending quite a bit of time away from the nest. As soon as we open the door to the room, she is right there to be let out. The kittens don't even seem to notice that she's gone, as they're busy sleeping in a big pile.

The one little tabby that we were concerned about seems to have gained some weight since yesterday, which is very reassuring. We will continue to keep weighing all of the kittens, but the danger has hopefully passed.

The little carmel kitten is gaining a huge amount of weight. He is by far the fatest kitten, weighing an average of 40% more than the other kittens. He reminds me of our cat, Titan. Titan is a big ol' buff tabby who weighs almost 17 pounds. The little kitten is the same colour and seems to be on record as wanting to be Titan's weight!

This afternoon, we found one of the kittens wandering around outside of the basket. They seem to be getting a little more mobile by the day.

Movin' Around (Day 3)

The kittens are now getting more and more mobile. They can crawl around the basket, and have no problem getting to their "nipple". They are at the point now that they will meow and fight to get to a nipple. Nevermind that there are 6 nipples and only five of them - they all seem to want the same one!

It is amazing how such little bodies can make so much noise. They can easily be heard on the other side of our appartment if they are not happy. More than once, I have been roused from my sleep by the sound of uncontent kittens fighting over a nipple.

All of the kittens are gaining weight except for one. She has only gained about 4 grams since birth - about a fifth of what she should have gained. Hopefully she gains more weight in the next few days, otherwise we may need to evaluate supplementing her feeding to get her to gain some weight. Sometimes kittens just fail to thrive and don't make it, for reasons unknown to us. We have our fingers crossed that this isn't the case with this little one, and we'll do everything we can to help her.

Little balls of fur (Day 2)

The kittens are now soft little balls of fur, capable of moving a little around their cage. When they sleep, they all sleep in a big pile in the centre of the basket. They are expert nursers, and can find their "nipple" by scent.

Their eyes are not yet open, and won't be for another week or so. They can't hear, either. They know when mom is around because she purrs so that they can feel the vibration.

Seven has started spending a little more time away from the nest. She now goes to just outside of our room - far enough to get some alone time, but close enough to hear the kittens' calls.

Sometimes, she doesn't want us handing the kittens too much (especially near dinner time!). This picture shows Seven going to pick up a kitten that had strayed.

Newborns (Day 1)

It has now been almost 24 hours since the kittens have been born, so we can tell enough about them to write a little description.

Kitten #1 is an orange tabby. Preliminary inspection indicates that it's a "he".

Kitten #2, #3, and #4 are all grey tabbies. They are so difficult to tell apart!

Kitten #5 is completly black. Sex is undermined.

The kittens now make a lot of mewing noise, and can crawl a little in the basket.

Their fur is all dry and very soft. Seven doesn't let them out of her sight for long, and will come out of the basket if she thinks that we've been holding them too long. Should we put the kittens down on the ground, Seven will pick them up and carry them back to the nest.

The kittens weigh about 160 grams today. A 15 gram increase from yesterday (about a 10% weight gain).

Birth (Day 0)

Welcome to my Blog!

We are foster parents to cats. Yup - we take cats into our home for a prescribed amount of time, and then hand them back to our local SPCA.

Our latest feline was a beautiful tabby cat that we named "Seven". Why Seven? Because she is polydactyl - she has seven toes on each of her two front paws.

Seven arrived to us on Thursday March 22nd. She was very pregnant and ready to give birth any day.

On Sunday April 1st, we went out in the afternoon. Upon arriving home, we heard little mews coming from our bathroom - Seven had given birth to three little kittens under our bathtub. Of all the places in the house, she chose under the tub where it is cold, dark, and dirty.

We promptly started moving her and her kittens to the basket that we had prepared for her. One at a time, we carefully picked up the kittens and carried them to the basket. While moving the second kitten from the tub, we passed Seven heading in the other direction - a kitten in her mouth! She apparently was trying to move them back.

Once we settled Seven as her three kittens into their new home, we made some dinner and lounged around. I went back into the bedroom to do a "paw check"... four... eight... twelve... sixteen.... twenty... uh oh.... Seven had given birth to a fourth kitten. Once again we left them alone, only to find a fifth kitten a few hours later. Fortunately for us (and her!) that was the last. She cleaned them up, and settled down to nurse them to sleep.