New Furbabies

We have acquired a new clutter of cuteness! Two weeks ago, the same day that we returned the previous litter, the SPCA asked us to take in another family. This one consists of a petite calico mother and her three gray tabby babies (no secret as to the colouring of their father!).

Mom, who we have nicknamed "Cali" (for Calico) is a very tiny cat, maybe one to two years old. She has very prominant calico markings on her back, and soft white fur on her stomach. Cali is protective of her brood, and stresses whenever one of them begins to cry. When we take one of of the nest she will follow us, meowing loudly, until we put it back in the nest.

Cali is very thin, and can use all the calories we can get into her. She adores the wet cat food that is the nightime staple around our house. More than once, she has been nursing her kittens in the nest and upon seeing a dish arrive with her food has made a beeline for the dish - leaving a trail of kittens behind her!! The poor little things had no idea what had happened: one minute, they were contently nursing; the next minute they were alone on the cold floor!

The kittens are now roughly three weeks old. They have not really left the nest yet, but they are active inside of it. Their eyes are wide open and they can hear us approach. Should we pick up one of the kittens, the kitten will meow very loudly (how does such a little body make so much noise??).

Going to "Forever Homes" (Day 60)

Tonight is the last night that most of the kittens will spend to us. Tomorrow we are taking the kittens back to the SPCA where they are all going to be vaccinated, and Seven and one of the kittens are being put up for adoption. We are taking four of the kittens home with us, as they we are adopting them for friends' of ours.

It has been a fantastic adventure, and we look forward to doing it again (soon!).

So, in leaving, allow us to leave you with a bunch of pictures of the kittens.

Looking up at me from the cat bed

Cute Tabby Curled Up

Orange Tabby Sleeping on Chris

"The Boys". These two kittens are going to the same home

Playing with ... something. Everything is a toy to them!

She is standing in the food bin. I don't dare remove her from there!!

Why eat of your dish when you can jump right in the container??

Another trick: when the food bin gets low, tip it over for easy access

Cuteness!!

Play 'n Nap (Day 38)

Wow - 38 days old already! The kittens are growing in leaps and bounds. They are now pretty well full-grown kittens. They can run and climb, and they are learning to jump and pounce. They nurse from time-to-time, but it usally doesn't last long. Most of the time, they fall asleep after a few minutes of nursing.

Kitten destroying my rug

Seven in general leaves them alone, but calls them just to make sure that they're okay. The kittens no longer sleep in the nest. We have found them under the bed, on a blanket, and asleep in the laundry basket.

"I promise I'll be good if you let me go!!!"

They have discovered a kitten's worst enemy - an 8-year old child!! We babysat the daughter of friends of ours, and she played with the kittens all afternoon. The poor things were poked, carried, pet, and made to do tricks. The kittens finally managed to sneak away and find a nice quiet place to nap.

"Help! I'm being abducted by an 8-year old!!"

The kittens are making friends - with Titan! More than once we have seen Titan dancing around a kitten, trying to play with it. He really is a gentle giant. Tonight, one of the kittens curled up with Titan and took a nap. We managed to snap a picture before Titan awoke and realized what was going on!!

Titan and the kitten napping

Playful Balls of Fur (Day 33)

The kittens are now playful balls of fur. They spend all of their waking hours either playing with each other or exploring their surroundings.

Kittens at play

They have mastered climbing UP things, but the DOWN part hasn't come yet. They have two ways of getting down: either they stick their claws out and let themselves slide down, or they use the "gravity" method and just hope for the best! There are frequent "thumps" as they hit the ground.

Kitten watching a napkin

Like all litters that came before them, they have discovered our shoe rack. I have no idea why, but they love to climb in the shoes and play with the laces.

"Pinned ya!!!"

Seven now lets them play out of our room, but she keeps an eye on them. If she feels that one of our other cats is getting too close (usually Titan), she will intervene and put herself between him and the kitten.

The picture of cuteness

The kittens now eat solid food as their main source of food. They have quite interesting eating methods: they often stand directly in the food dish! They make a BIG mess as they tend to spread the food all over the floor. They still nurse from Seven, but it's more of an calming and comforting action than it is a sustanance action. Seven is starting to lose interest, too, and will get up and leave if something catches her eye.

Big food mess!

They are using the litter box most of the time, as demonstrated by the kitten-sized presents.

The kittens don't always sleep in the nest now, and they tend to sleep in a big pile wherever the fall. Often, it's also wherever Seven was nursing them last. We have to be careful with the laundry basket, as the kittens have figured out how to climb the basket and sleep in it. They also tend to "play and sleep", meaning that one minute they are playing on your lap, and the next they are sound asleep. They are so cute.

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!!