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.