Kittens Help Make the Bed

Changing bed sheets is a pain, but I had help today.  The kittens love playing on the bed.  You wouldn't believe how much litter they save between their toes to leave like presents on my sheets. I brush it off every night and it's back the next night.

Like I said yesterday, the room is just one big playground.

 This is my help changing the sheets.

 Who needs stairs when you can just climb up the side?


 There was a mysterious lump under the top sheet as I was making the bed.


 



 

He found his way out.

This little one was watching the silly antics of his siblings from the best seat in the house - the back of the chair.

I am so fed up with Blogger!!!  They did a "new and improved" version a couple weeks ago.  Since then, I can't always put text next to the photo.  It's under the picture below it.  I can't put the photos in the right order.  I can't get things to look right on the page.  What I type in the "draft" box isn't anything like it is after I click on "publish."  It's so frustrating!  Why can't we just enter things the way it will look on the blog?   Anyway, I'm sorry.  The caption about the kitten climbing up the side of the bed will NOT go by the picture and I don't know how or what to do.  Is anyone else having this problem with Blogger?  I'm using a template and not designing from scratch. 

Gotta go play with kittens and get my blood pressure down.

Elsa's Kittens At 7 Weeks

I can't believe it's been three weeks since my last blog.  I've been busy, frazzled, and exhausted.  Mom moved to an assisted living facility 100 miles away last Thursday.  The facility is "back home," and she knows some of the other residents.  Unless you've been through this, you can't imagine how much is involved in settling legal matters, moving details, and just sorting and packing up only what she needed.  She's moving from 3000 sq. ft. to 500 sq ft.  Realistically, an 82 year old woman who embroiders quilt blocks, watches TV, and plays her piano doesn't need more than a living room, bedroom, kitchenette, and one bathroom, not three.  My sister, Sue, and I did the packing.  The hard part was letting mom help.  She couldn't remember what was in a box, even though it was labeled, and would open and unpack it.  She wanted ALL of her clothes.  The woman could wear a different outfit every day, throw them away, and be set for a year.  Clothes we hadn't seen her wear in 10 years were suddenly her favorite clothes in the world that she wore all the time.  Even pre-Alzheimers is a bitch.

Okay, now to kittens.  Besides having Elsa's eight orange kittens, I split a litter of six orphaned kittens with another foster mom, Jen.  There's an area in downtown St. Louis called Tent City, where tents were set up for homeless people.  The city decided to closed it down, and animal control set about finding rescue groups to take the animals.  This litter did have a mom, but she was so feral, they couldn't trap her.  The kittens are about a week younger than Elsa's.

I met Jen and the six kittens at the vets a week ago.  The kittens tested negative for feline leukemia and aids.  The tech's made sure we knew that the calico and gray/white ones were not happy campers - evident by the hissing, spitting, biting and clawing from the carrier.  Great.  I told Jen if she took the black one and two others, I'd take the two spitters and one other.  They spent the first five days at my house in a large crate calming down.  The third day, I could put a washcloth over them and pick them up with just a little hissing and spitting.  Day four we were cuddling and reading together.  Day six, I put them in with Elsa and crew.  By the end of that first day in Elsa's room, the new kids went from shy, scared hissers to playing with the orange gang, eating with them and even nursing on Elsa.  It just made me all warm and fuzzy inside.  

 This is a gray and white tabby boy.  He was one of the spitters and was half hiding when introduced to Elsa's room.  Not that I blame him.  The orange kids are very active and intimidating.

This black and tan tortie is a little girl and is the friendliest of the three.  She's a sweetie.

This beautiful calico is a girl and also one of the spitters.  All three are very friendly now and are playing with all their new brothers and sisters in the room.

They don't have names, yet.  I like to know more about their personality before I name them.

 Isn't she just adorable?

It's hard to get good pictures of black cats where they don't look scared to death.

 The kittens are getting so big.  Three are tentatively spoken for.  Two of the buffs and the fluffy orange.  The fluffy buff in front is one spoken for and his new mom has named him Julius.

 Nothing is safe in the room.

King of the Hill

This used to be a wastebasket.  The lid kept cats and kittens from getting into it.  Now, it's a cave.  I have the lid secured so it won't trap anyone inside.

 Everything is a toy or playground equipment.

I had to add an additional litter box.  Eight kittens produce a considerable amount of pee and poop.

I prefer to use storage boxes as litter boxes.  They're larger, taller, and have square corners that a scoop fits into.  John cuts out the doors for me.

I also added some new beds.  I'll get some new covers made for them soon.  Much easier to wash a cover than the whole bed.



The current arrangement in the nursery.  The cardboard box is their baby box and home for the first four weeks. I cut some of the top off, turned it upside down, and put a bed in it.

The box is also a nice step onto the shelves.  What was I thinking???

 The tortie is sleeping with her head on the calico's back.

 This is the playground.  Everything is climbed on, jumped off of, or used as a way of getting to something higher.

The round orange and blue things are track-ball toys.  At three weeks old, the kittens figured out how they worked and how to play with them.

This is 8 of the 11 kittens in the bedroom and nursery closet. World leaders could learn something from kittens about getting along together.  The other three kittens are sleeping on the shelves on piles of my "clean" sheets and towels.

Elsa's kittens will be ready for adoption in two weeks!  The new three will be ready in three weeks.

Elsa's Kittens at Four Weeks

The little rugrats are growing so fast.  Four weeks old yesterday.  My camera says I've taken 288 photos in two days.   It was hard picking 15 or so.  I tried to get a good mix of different activities and poses.  I never got the velcro collars on them, so I still don't know who is who, except for the longer haired ones.  Everyone is gaining weight and getting bigger, but some are bigger than others.  So far, the girls are bigger than the boys.  One of the girls has white feet and a white chest.

The standard nursing shot and all eight are there.  Soon, only Elsa's head will be visible.

 He managed to crawl up the side of the box I put them in after meds.  They're so big, they don't all fit in it, anymore.

 

 They've been eating some dry and canned food for a few days.  And they're starting to drink water from a dish.  I had a taller water bowl for Elsa, but switched to a shallow one so the babies didn't take a header and drown.

This is a milestone when the kittens learn to use a litter box.  I'm a very proud mama.

 

Deb, at Just Cats, has a page of cats in windows.  I'm going to start a Sleeping Kitten page.  There's just nothing cuter than a sleeping kitten.

 Mama was eating, and the kitten just curled up and used her tail for a pillow.

 This one had fun playing with my PJ pants leg.

The towel I use to cover the top of the box is now a ladder to climb.  The door to the box is below the bottom kitten, just out of camera range.  The kitten got a running start and jumped up onto the towel  like it was a velcro wall.

One of these days, I'll get reacquainted with my sewing machine.  Between the kittens, other fosters, everyday life, and my mom, it's a little busy and tense around here.

Annabelle And Her Kittens

Another foster mom, Julie, took in a mom and her four babies last week.  She named the mom Annabelle.  The shelter had an orphan kitten just a few days older than Annabelle's kittens and put it with them to see if Annabelle would accept it, and she did.  Julie sent a great photo tonight of the family.

Annabelle and her kittens - plus one.

From the left are:

Cassie  (she is an orphan that was placed with mama)

Bree

Delilah  (she's the one looking up)

Cameron  (I think he's a boy, if not, her name will be Cammie)

Devon  (aka - Tank, he's the largest one)

 

Julie is loving having the kittens.  We all do.  How can you not love the kittens.  I told Julie that I'm a sucker for the Russian Blue type, which would be Delilah, the lighter gray one on her back.  I loaned Julie a digital scale, and she reported that they are all gaining weight every day.  These cuties are about three weeks old.  Our kittens can be adopted just after they're nine weeks old.  So, you all have five to six weeks to pick a couple of Elsa's or Annabelle's kittens.  Order early and beat the rush.

Introducing Tasha and Wally

These are my two new fosters, Tasha, a female dark and tan tortie, and Wally, a male orange tabby.  They're siblings and were adopted from Cheri five years ago and were dumped last week at the Chesterfield animal shelter.  Because they have a microchip that was registered to Heartland, we were called.  Cheri is overly filled and I said I would take them.  We have no paperwork from their past five years, but they seem very well taken care of, not thin and neglected.  Tasha is a little shy at first, but after just a few days, she comes over to be petted and leans into my hand for more head rubs.  I can easily pick her up and hold her.

They almost didn't survive kittenhood.  They were dumped on a street in front of a church as kittens.  There were four of them. It was mid winter, the road was icy, and all four kittens were frozen to the street.  One of the kittens was run over and killed because it couldn't move.  The other three were rescued, but when they were picked up, part of their skin and fur came off because it was frozen to the street. They were nursed back to health, and all three were adopted.  That was five years ago.

Wally is more friendly, will jump on my lap for petting and head rubs, and is.....well, Wally's a goofball.  He loves to play - especially with a catnip toy I made.  He's a laid-back, sweet, playful, cuddly boy.

 "What do we have here?!"

"I don't know, but I think I like it!"

 "Okay, that was fun,  Did I do something silly?"

 Wally is back to his slightly more dignified self.  Isn't he beautiful?

Tasha is a very beautiful cat, too.  I love torties. It's hard to tell if she's black or dark brown with the tan.

After Wally got done playing with the catnip toy, Tasha tried it, but it didn't do much for her.  Some cats are just not affected by catnip.

 I told Cheri I'd have Wally jumping in my lap by the third night, and Tasha a few nights after.  Wally took two nights.  Tasha will just be a couple more nights.

They've already been spayed and neutered.  We'll have them retested for feline leukemia and aids, and vaccinated in a couple weeks, and then they'll be ready for adoption.