On Thursday, when I took the kittens for their testing and rabies shot, I told Fred that if he wanted to, he could introduce Livia to the rest of the house, and see how that went. He reported that it went fairly well, with some hissing on her part and from some of the permanent residents. Of course, once Livia realized that there was a rest of the house to explore, she didn’t have much desire to spend all day in the upstairs with her kittens, so from Thursday on she’d climb over the barrier at the end of the hallway and check out the rest of the house.
I think she got a little overwhelmed, and she pretty quickly took a dislike to Alice and to Miz Poo. She mostly glared at them, didn’t really try to start anything, until Sunday morning when she’d had ENOUGH of Miz Poo, and did some hissing and smacking. She didn’t actually make contact with Miz Poo, but going after Miz Poo is a HUGE no-no in this house. It’d be like someone slapping your wheelchair-bound 98 year-old grandmother. NOT ALLOWED. So we shooed Livia back upstairs and discussed our options. I didn’t want to shut her back in the foster room with all of those kittens, so what we ended up doing was putting the baby gates up at the bottom of the stairway. (When we had Kintaro (Fred’s sister’s cat) here for three weeks, we talked about putting a screen door up at the bottom of the stairs. The problem is that we can’t permanently mount anything there, because we are forever moving furniture upstairs and then back down again. I think what we’re going to do is make a screen door that can hang from hooks when we need it, and then be stored in the closet when we don’t.)
A little while later, after Fred found Adriana trying to squeeze through the space at the top of the bottom baby gate (we “stack” them to block the whole doorway), he suggested that we move the bottom baby gate up just enough for the kittens to squeeze through but not enough for Livia to squeeze under. We tried that, and all 7 kittens came out into the downstairs and raced around like wild things. Eventually they all went back upstairs, one by one, until Silvio was the only one left downstairs.
Silvio, it seems, had NO intention of ever going back upstairs again. There are new (to him) TOYS downstairs, there are cat beds everywhere, and by mid-afternoon he was curled in a cat bed with Stefan. It was utterly adorable. He is one confident little man, and I only saw his tail floofed once or twice.
So for now, I guess we’ll keep the baby gates up at the bottom of the stairs during the day so that the kittens can roam. I was worried that Livia would be freaked out by not being able to get to her babies, but she doesn’t seem at all concerned. She gets her last vaccination today, so we’re just waiting for room to open up at Petsmart for her. I believe she’d be just fine in a home with other cats, just maybe not TWELVE other cats.
Most of the pictures this week will be of the kittens still upstairs (I’ve got a lot of pics in the queue), but here’s one I couldn’t wait to share (some of you already saw it on Facebook last night, but here it is again!)
Silvio and Stefan. Twoo wuv.
Six sleepy kittens on Fred’s bed (Meadow is the missing kitten.)
It appears that Carmela and Tony don’t wake up happy.
Sweet Miss Melfi.
Tired Tony.
Pretty Paulie.
Five of the seven. Melfi’s smile over there on the far right is killing me dead.
At this point, I know that when I see this look on a kitten’s face, it can only mean one thing: there’s a yawn on the way.
Like I said.
“YOWza! Now THAT was a yawn!”
Livia and the Ears of Annoyance.
Carmela would like to know just what I think I’m doing.
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When he’s not snuggling with kittens, Stefan likes to be the head Office Cat in Charge. He spends a large portion of the day curled up on this blanket in Fred’s office.
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Previously
2012: No entry.
2011: No entry.
2010: “I was restin’ my eyes, lady.”
2009: He might not be paying attention to me, but he still doesn’t like it when I leave!
2008: If I could knit, I’d knit a duster-type coat with big pockets in it, so I could load a cat or kitten into each pocket and they could keep me warm all winter long!
2007: “I vant to be alone.”
2006: No entry.
2005: I think Mister Boogers thinks he’s Sugarbutt’s Momma. He’s always grooming him like crazy.