Watching the babies move was awesome. Then I heard a meow and thought “IT’S COMING FROM INSIDE THE WOMB!” before I remembered there are other cats in the house that could’ve made that noise. heh.
That meowing in the Emmy’s-belly video was Miz Poo. She picks up a toy somewhere in the house and then she travels the entire house, howling, until she finds one of her humans, whereupon she drops the toy at our feet and then expects to be praised. Here’s a video I made of it when we lived in our previous house:
She is SO proud of herself!
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Why can’t da Corbs jump? Did I miss something due to my sporadic blog-reading ways?
The muscles in Corbie’s back end are not as developed as they should be. If you see him, he looks normal from the “waist” forward, but his back end is very thin. One vet had no idea why it would be (blood work showed that there’d been some damage to the muscles; skeletally, he’s perfect), and the other vet suggested that it could be due to his being born to a mother who had FIV. We tried different supplements to build up the muscles. None of them seemed to do anything but make him nervous if we tried to pet him (he’d think we were trying to give him a pill), so we took him off of everything. He’s not getting worse, and he might be a little bit better – we encourage him to climb and to stand up (putting treats in a location that he has to stand on his back legs to get to them). It doesn’t interfere with his ability to get around at all, thankfully!
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What’s on the list of “best reasons to adopt a black cat?” I’ve got a beautiful black cat & I’m curious. I can reincorporate it into a list of “why my black cat is awesome.”
The top ten reasons to adopt a black cat:
1. We are always sleek, stylish and elegant.
2. You’ll never lose us in a snowstorm.
3. You’ll save money on our Halloween costumes.
4. Statistically speaking, we are friendlier than other cats.
5. We are happier because we look thinner!
6. In many cultures, black cats are good luck.
7. We can be slimming when draped over your lap.
8. We can easily accessorize our collars because everything goes well with black.
9. We are always appropriately dressed at cocktail parties.
10. We take the longest to get adopted and need your help the most!
I did a Google search on “best reasons to adopt a black cat” and came upon that list, which I cut and pasted into a document, added some pictures, and voila! The perfect list.
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Are you familiar with the adorable Murkin and his various foster kitten friends on his very own YouTube channel? It’s here.
“Murkin goes to WAR with the kittens” is my current favorite.
I had never seen those – that is FANTASTIC! You’ve got to love a dog who’s that good with little kittens.
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That is such an awesome story, and that is one beautiful cat!
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It appears Everett is a gravity cat.
Indeed he is!!
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Don’t you just want to kiss on Emmy’s belly??? However, I am sure she would smack the snot outta ya! LOL.
If I even thought about kissing her belly, I suspect she’d hook one of her claws in my eyeball. Fred kissed her on top of the head the other day, and she hissed at him. Twice!
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Have you seen this?
I had not! Very neat.
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I must be incredibly slow on the uptake because the fact that Emmy’s name is an award too just dawned on me. Is that what started this whole thing and it just went over my head? I’m not a skimmah I swear but menopause/medication brain is not what it used to be. Not on the finer points anyway!
Actually, I decided that I liked the name Emmy because it was a good, simple, strong name and then someone pointed out that it was the name of an award, and with the Oscars coming up, maybe that should be the naming theme, awards. So really, the name came first and then the theme came second. I think. It’s been what, a week? It’s kind of fuzzy now, honestly. 🙂
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I suspect you will love this video.
You are correct! That is just too adorable.
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Mama Emmy and her babies are doing just fine. It got really warm in their room, so I ended up turning the air on for a few hours last night to make it more comfortable for them. Emmy is bound and determined that they’re staying in the wooden box, and so in the wooden box they’ll stay for at least another day before we try to move them.
Every time I go into the room, those babies are eating. Emmy eats everything I bring her, which is good – she’s got to provide food for the little monsters, after all.
I’m intending to get a picture of each of the kittens’ faces, but don’t want to stress Emmy out, so haven’t done that yet, maybe later today. They all seem to be healthy and vigorous and in good shape, which is good! Right now, for identification purposes, I’m calling them “the dark one”, “stumpy (the one with the half tail)” and the two stripey ones. Once I get a closer look at each of them, I may have different nicknames for them!
Little stumpy the half-tailed kitten. Look at that little half-tail! Cutest thing ever, right?
Look at the little flailing legs!
The Noms, nomming. THE NOMMING-NEES! (Oh, I slay me.)
Little stumpy half-tail, little stripey legs, little adorable claws. Yep, I’d say this one is my favorite.
The dark one. LOOK at the little claws! Yep, this one is definitely my favorite.
Awfully dark, this one. Almost black, I’m thinking, but Fred disagrees. It’s so hard to tell at hours old what they’re going to look like, I know. My prediction: this one’s going to grow up to be beautiful. I know, it’s a stretch that I’d make such a wild prediction, but mark my words. Beeyootiful.
The dark one from another angle. Love the stripes. Maybe it’ll be a dark gray tabby?
Little kitty mosh pit.
TOES.
Bellied up to the milk bar. I love how that one on the right has Emmy’s tail flung around her like a mink stole. (Psst! That’s my favorite kitten!)
Left to right: the dark one, little stumpy, and the two stripey-pantses.
Such a good, patient mama. Hey Emmy, you think you might like to settle down somewhere more comfy?
“NO. Emmy is perfectly comfy right here. Where’s my food? You go away. But scritch under my chin first.”
Toes and tails and stripes, oh I am dead from the cute.
That’s little stumpy.
Snoozin’ babies.
Amazing, aren’t they?
(I expect I’ll be posting at least short posts this weekend with pictures because I’m sure there will be roughly one million pictures snapped this weekend. LOVE digital cameras!)
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Corbie, alert. He looks around… he listens… he thinks.
“But… they’re not more beautiful than ME… Right, Mom?”
“…RIGHT?”
That’s right, Corbie. You’re still the fairest of them all.
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Previously
2011: Alice, Alice, Alice.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Best picture of Spanky, EVER.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Corbie you are the best… 😀
Loving the new Kittens too – Hope that guy with the little tail turns out to be ok…
If you are thinking Manx Syndrome, I’m pretty sure Stumpy will be spared that… the kittens worst affected by that condition have no tails at all or even a concave area where their tails should be!
Thank you so much for all the fabulous pictures!!! I think I am partial to the dark one. I am interested to see how his face turns out.
No, Corbie…NO ONE is fairer (is that a word?) than you! MUAH!
Oh Corbs, you’re still gorgeous! It’s just that for the next couple of months, the stripey kittens upstairs are going to get more attention than you. I hope you understand!!
More reasons to adopt a black cat (found on various websites)….
1.You can’t tell if they’re dirty and their teeth always look white.
2.Black cats are excellent hide-and-seek-players.
3.You never need to purchase Halloween decorations.
4.A lint-brush isn’t required before leaving for a black-tie event.
5.Black cats match every decor.
6.They are a great accessory to any outfit.
7.They don’t care what color YOU are.
8.The neighborhood goth kids will think you’re really cool.
Oh, Emmy and the Nominees… I am incoherently squeeing over the little stripey perfection. I adore the photo of the little one perched on mama’s chest. How did you know that my 10-year-old daughter specifically requested photos of the baby toes? You made her happy before she left for school this morning 🙂
And just when I thought I couldn’t possibly see any more cute, I clicked on the link that took me to a baby photo of the Corbs… swoon!
There is just nothing cuter than baby toes. Unless it’s striped baby legs, or their little toothless mouths. I just love everything about them. 🙂
Smooshed up baby faces? Those totally fearsome baby claws? The dark one throwing a paw around the shoulders of the stumpy one? Dead from the swoon.
You are so.lucky Robyn. All those fresh squeezed kittens? I hate you. But in a good way. Is it me, or are they big for newborns? Or is Emmy just small?
Corbie *smooch*
I was about to ask the same! They do look big! Chunky Monkeys!
Emmy’s a small cat – I think the kittens are about the same size as previous newborn kittens I’ve had. I haven’t weighed them yet because I didn’t want to push Emmy, but she let me pick up and hold a kitten this morning, so I’m thinking I’ll weigh them at some point today.
I, too, was going to write that they looked awfully mature for one-day-olds! And Corbie does indeed look concerned — fear not, o handsome one!
I wouldn’t be surprised, actually, if you find they’re an ounce or two heavier than usual, just because there’s only four of them. More room while in the womb and now a bit less of a fight for Mom’s attention and space at the milk bar than if there were, say, six. Emmy being so petite though could counteract that…
Oh, newborn kittens! I was hoping there would be a ginger one (they’re my only weakness…), but brown tabbies are fine, too, I guess. 🙂
DYING from the cute. Just DYING. Love little baby stripey furry bundles!!
AWWW!! so neat, glad she’s not TOO hissy/growly and she let you pick one of them up. Love love love those little feet pics, as well as the milk bar! Must be terribly hard, except for the gen pop to love on and feed and scoop after, to stay out of that room!
Our tortie loves to carry a mouse, a certain kind of toy mouse, around and mew loudly like Miz Poo. She is so proud of her ‘catch’. Sometimes it is such a keening that the mouse has to disappear for a little bit. She also doesn’t have much use for other cats, altho since the barn cat moved inside she doesn’t growl at the youngest cat any more–the former barn cat is alpha cat contender and hisses at the tortie on sight! The puzzlement is almost comical. They don’t carry it beyond occasional growling or hissing, thankfully.
Does your tortie like to do it in the middle of the night? Miz Poo goes through stages where she does it all night long and after the 5th hour of it, we’re both yelling “Miz POO! You are a brilliant huntress! PLEASE STOP!” 🙂
My little girl just makes lots of loud noises (chirps, trills, etc) any time she enters a room….like she is announcing her presence. And…she even does it at 2:30 am, 3:00 am, 3:30 am…etc…when she comes into the bedroom and jumps up on the bed. CUZ…you MIGHT be awake and if you know she is there you would CERTAINLY want to give her scritches!
My late great torbie Madame Einstein also needed to loudly announce her arrival in the bed at all times of the night. She would not stop talking until I’d wake up enough to pet her head and tell her to lay down… then right down in the crook of my knees and off to sleep.
…while you stared at the ceiling trying to get back to sleep!! 🙂
One of my three kitties does that meowing-while-carrying-a-toy thing. It is only two mice of the same design with which he does it, we have dozens of other toys, but only these two will work for him! He is crazy loud, and our house is very open so it seems even louder! I always love the concerned and quizzical looks on the faces of visitors when he does it for them. He also likes to do it right after we go to bed, so my husband now hides the mice before we go. It’s so sweet of him to bring his “kills” to me where ever I am in the house! So funny!
Our elderly rescue kitty, Piggy loves to get a toy in the middle of the night and yowl about it, so does his buddy Eric (they are a bonded pair, for over a decade). We have about the same reaction, “you guys are wonderful, now go the f… to sleep lol”
Stay safe with those storms!
Emmy and the babies are adorable — Emmy is such a good mama, and I’m impressed that she’ll let you scritch under her chin!
My tortie, Harley, carries toys around, too, and frequently sits outside my bedroom door and loudly meows. She doesn’t howl, she just meows. So I say, “Come on in, Harley-Barley!” over and over, and eventually she usually does. I didn’t realize that this was a tortie trait!
Also a dilute tortie trait, though for “meows” I would substitute “howls.” The way my otherwise sanguine girl howls when she’s parading around with certain toys, I wouldn’t blame my neighbors for considering me a cat torturer supreme. Sometimes even I have to get up and make sure she isn’t popping her kitty clogs.
Yes! My dilute tortie does the same thing!
Congrats on the beautiful new kittens, and I hope everything goes well with them. Don’t blame you for being smitten with little Stumpy…. future permanent resident perhaps?
While I’m here, my 2 cents worth on black cats. My Stormy is a beautiful long haired, solid black tom cat, and from day-one has been the most laid back & loving cat you could imagine. He has absolutely no bad habits and has always had a very gentle way about him. My other cats ( 5 of them ) are all females and tolerate each other to a point, but without exception they all LOVE Stormy. One of them (Rainbow) became so obssessed with him that she rarely lets him out of her sight. This has been going on for over 12 years now & he’s always tolerated it, which is quite amazing to me.
I’ve had similar experiences with other black cats & haven’t met one that wasn’t a lover. It’s really sad that they get overlooked so often. People really don’t know what they’re missing.
Norman became my first black cat ever when we adopted him at 11 years old. He has been such a phenomenal addition to the family… a complete love, very attentive, and gentle. His presence has seemed to unite the cat population here. The other cats like him when they don’t care for each other. I told my husband (who is less of a cat lover than a lovely human being who tolerates the cats for my sake) that adopting Norman was one of the smarter decisions we ever made… and he completely agreed. I imagine there will be more black cats for us in the future.
Oh those kittens!! 🙂
They are utterly adorable.
Chiming in on the black cat thing- my black tomcat, Percy, is totally laid back and one of the calmest, sweetest cats I’ve ever known. He loves his tortie sister, and would dearly love to gain the love of his orange tabby sister Pandora, but Pandora is none too keen on her brother getting in her space. He’s a bit skittish around new people (especially if they are loud), but it never lasts long.
Man, I wish I could go home and cuddle all my cats instead of having to work 🙂
Looks like Emmy may have been a hussy with mother nature…I do believe she gave birth to squirrels 🙂
Naw… almost all bebbeh kittens look like squirrels…. or rats! 😉
And yet, somehow, we squeeeeee with joy whenever we see them. Some people even pass out!
[THUD]
Thanks for all the wonderful pictures of the kittens, Robyn! Sorry, but I’m all obsessed with them and am completely ignoring all your other cats!
Maybe the dark one will look like Smokey Joe over at 50 kittens! He was one seriously cool looking kitten!!
And maybe it’s just the angle, but one of the stripey-pantsied ones looks more stripey on the body than the other. I certainly hope so for your sake! Just imagine the confusion if they are identical:
“I think Bulwer-Lytton isn’t gaining as much weight as the others, Fred”
“I thought that was Pritzker.”
“Stop spitting on me! Pritzker is the one with the stumpy tail.”
“Now you stop spitting on me!! Prometheus then. Damn you and your kitten naming pools! These have got to be the worst kitten names ever!!”
Here’s a photo of Smoky Joem renamed Theo, when he was a little older. Still a really cool looking kitten!!
My female calico does the whole catch and carry thing. She does it with her harness though! (where we live has rules about all cats being licensed, and when they’re outside they wear harnesses with all their info on it). She’ll carry the harness around, drop it and howl all night if she could. We have to hide the harness from her, other wise she’ll do it every night. Her sister doesn’t do it, which is odd. She’s more of a tortie-calico then her sister, so that makes me wonder what her parents looked like, and if they are part tortie.
Also baby kitties make me just squee with delight. So cute!
I’d like to ask how many maids Miz Poo had to kill to get that duster.
If its a he storm kitty, you could call him Wizard, Gandolf, Dumbledore or even Oz ….the Great and Powerful Kittah
Awesome baby pictures! Oh so cute, stripey pants, tiny paws, little claws, all so cute!!!
Star calls loudly in the middle of the night, not that she’s carrying anything, she just all the sudden has the urge to call. If I answer her, she calls once or twice more, then either comes to me or quiets down. It usually freaks Leo out when she does it, but I know it’s not because of him since she’s done it since way before he arrived.
Corbes! Kittens or not, you’re still adorable!
Some authorities say that calling can result from senility – the cat ‘forgets’ where everyone is and cries out for reassurance. I’ve had cats call without the toy in mouth, but too young for being senile, so it isn’t just that.
My most typical caller was a dilute tortie, but I think all my cats have called every so often.
We have a youngish cat (she’ll be 5 years old in a month or so) who howls over her “prey” (usually a stuffed animal of some kind) and has been doing it for a few years, so I agree, the claim that it is related to senility seems faulty. She’s a tiny, pretty polydactyl brown tabby and a total weirdo. Our other cat (middle-aged gray tux) rarely calls for us, and when he does, it’s not really a howl — more his normal talking voice. We used to have an elderly tortie-and-white too, just like Miz Poo, and she never did it.
Anyway, that behavior fascinates me. I’m always so curious what is going on in their heads.
thanks for posting that you’re safe and sound! was worried when I saw on yahoo about a tornado in northern Alabama.
Here in West Ohio it has been milder than thought, thankfully.