We had some bad weather here yesterday and some tornadoes touched down, but nothing really even came close to Crooked Acres. We just got some wind and rain. Fred leaves work early on Fridays most of the time, so he was home by 11. If we’d needed to take shelter, we would have put Emmy and her babies in a carrier and brought them downstairs into the closet. Fred’s pretty good at nape-ing cats, so he would have been responsible for getting Emmy moved.
And really, on a side note: Emmy is scared, but she’s not mean – when she’s cornered, her number one goal is to get away, not to attack, so I think it might have been a struggle to get her into the carrier, but not impossible.
Despite our intentions of just leaving Emmy and her kittens in the box with no bedding, since that was how she apparently preferred it, I noticed that her kittens were having problems gaining purchase on the smooth wood floor of the box. And then Fred went up, and her kittens were laying there like little frogs, and he worried that it might not be good for their limbs. So he grabbed a pink pad, put it in front of the box, laid the kittens on it one by one, and then pulled Emmy out of the box (which she didn’t like, but he managed to do it without stressing her too much), and then slid the pad into the box. She didn’t react by pushing the pad out of the box or anything, so it must be acceptable to her – and the kittens have a much easier time moving around.
We went up this morning and got a face shot of each of the kittens and weighed them all. We did it quickly because the kittens were yelling and Emmy was growling, but at least I finally (after two WHOLE days!) got face pictures of each of them.
This is Stumpy (obviously a nickname for the time being!). Stumpy weighed 4 3/8 ounces. Fred thinks Stumpy is a girl, but don’t take that to the bank, it could change.
This is Stripey1. Stripey1 weighed 4 1/2 ounces. Fred couldn’t tell whether Stripey1 is a boy or a girl.
This is Stripey2. Stripey2 weighed 4 7/8 ounces, and we don’t know whether it’s a boy or a girl.
This is Charcoal. Charcoal’s the biggest at 5 1/4 ounces. Fred says Charcoal is “possibly” a boy. We’ll see!
Now, here are Stripey1 and Stripey2 side by side for comparison purposes:
The differences I see: the dark marks on either side of their noses – S1 has shorter dark marks and S2 has longer, curved marks. The middle of S1’s “M” comes down further. Fred pointed out that S1’s “M” has a big round dark circle above it.
Those are the differences I’m seeing – y’all feel free to chime in, here! Obviously it’s easy for me to tell Charcoal and Stumpy apart, but I want to be able to tell the other two apart as well – which, I am sure, will become easier as time goes by.
After the kittens were cruelly weighed and had their pictures taken (which took about 20 second each), they were returned to their mama, who curled protectively around them.
I’m sorry, what’s that? You’d like MORE pictures? Well, if you insist!
The happy family.
“I HAZ A COMPLAINT!”
“I SAY! I HAZ A COMPLAINT AND MY COMPLAINT IS THAT YOU ARE HOLDING ME AND YOU SMELL LIKE A SMELLY HUMAN, YUCK!”
Stripey2 was a bit calmer about being held.
The tiny, delicate little whiskers slay me.
Not bothered, was our little Stripey2. Not bothered in the slightest.
SUCH a good mama!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tommy likes to make sure Elwood stays clean.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: Like I say to Fred, every single day, how could you possibly see that face and not think he’s the MOST gorgeous boy in all the land?
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: That, my friends, is a powerful stench.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
I think my teeth AND gums have just melted from all the cute!
I’m loving Charcoal A LOT!! 🙂
Take care
x
Charcoal is Fred’s current favorite, too! 🙂
I still think she/he will look like Smoky Joe over at 50 Kittens!
What a stunner!
I’m glad Emmy and the kittens are on a soft surface at last. Good work you two!
He is mine, also!
Jealous – Again!!! What lovely little kittens they are Robyn!!
Love Mum too – Seems the kittens have inherited her lovely stripes!
AUGH. So cute!
Stripey 1&2 also have different shaped noses? Or at least the pigmentation is heavier on #2.
I agree, Sarah. One has what looks like a completely black nose, while the other Stripey has more pink
OMG. I can’t comment. I have died from the cute.
Maybe Mama Emmy didn’t want to make a mess on something soft? (Did she MAKE a mess? I didn’t see any mess! Birthing is messy business!) And now that the messiness is over, she’s willing to have the pad?
Thanks for posting such great pictures. So so so cute.
That’s what I was thinking, that maybe she wanted to give birth in the box and then move them over to the kennel, which is soft and comfy and dark. But she didn’t move them, and she seems to be okay where they are, so we’ve decided that she’s the boss. I know there are blood stains on the bottom of the box, but for the most part this seems to have been a pretty clean birthing process!
It AMAZES me how these creatures just KNOW these things!! How to give birth and care for their children. Those idiots on Sixteen and Pregnant could take a few lessons from Emmy and Maggie!!
HA – Emmy and Maggie should team up for a reality show, they could sweep in and show those teenagers how it’s done! 🙂
*incoherent from cuteness overload*!
Oh my goodness, the babies are so cute! I wish I had little baby kittens to snuggle — er, admire from afar so as not to tick of their mama.
Oops, I mean “off”. 😛
She is really surprisingly relaxed about me touching her babies. She’s actually growled at Fred way more than she’s growled at me, and can I just say that in a house where Fred is ALWAYS the preferred human when it comes to mama cats, that kind of warms my heart? 😀
Yes.
They look like little cheetahs at that age! Tell Emmy she’s doing an outstanding job keeping her kittens fed.
So incredibly adorable! And you and Fred are so good with them.
Glad to hear you were unaffected by the storms, I worry even though that’s probably silly.
And on another happy note, my three foster feleuk kittens are now seven months old, were spayed last week, and have gone to live at the shelter and make new friends until perhaps someone falls in love with them and takes them home!
Yay, Teughcats, I’m glad to hear that your babies are doing so well!
I so needed to see these sweet little babies. We lost a wonderful kitty in the blogosphere yesterday and my heart is just broken. These sweet babies make my heart feel a bit better.
Kittens really do make everything better! I’m so sorry for your heartbreak. 🙁 ::hugs::
🙂
My mum always insisted you could tell the sex of a kitten just by the shape of its head. The girls have delicate small heads while the boys are more bulbous.
I could never tell the difference.
Anyhoo, they’re all beautiful!
Huh, maybe when they’re older–tomcats get those jowly things. But at baby kitten age, they all look the same to me.
I’m with you, NotEmily! It’s very hard to tell, especially the first few days!
Hello, new to your website through Dorian. I have had the pleasure of seeing babies moving around in momma’s tummy – amazing, isn’t it? I used to breed and show strictly Siamese for a number of years. It takes quite a bit of studying when you have 5 look-alikes really but I did pick out the differences in Stripey 1 and 2 before reading your comments. They are all beautiful babies, looking wonderfully healthy. I might point out that it is not so much a cool place that the babies and mom are in, but be careful of drafts. I used to use a cardboard box just long enough for mom to stretch and push in, that was already set up with a soft padding inside a doubled over pillow case which was a perfect size. The side was cut down so mom could get out but babies could not. A heating pad was always on LOW. We then clothes-pinned a towel up the sides and partially over the top for protection. At about 3 weeks, the babies were clamouring about and if mom decided they could, then a very small litter was also set up as well as the introduction to baby food. I miss that but it was wonderful at the time. Incidentally, if you hold the tail up from the body, a dot and a dash should tell you it is a girl but 2 dots is usually boy. Yours were much larger than mine – girls, usually 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 ozs. and boys up to 2-3/4 ozs. BEAUTIFUL WEE TABBIES. They will love being in your hand, belly up while you tickle their tums and kiss them.
Thanks, Jean! Fred’s usually pretty good at telling the sex of tiny kittens, but he’s reluctant to handle them too much because it makes him nervous since they’re so little, so maybe we’ll do better in a few days. 🙂 I bet it was super difficult to tell your Siamese kittens apart, aren’t they usually born all white, or am I wrong about that?
Little Charcoal is going to grow up to be SUCH a stunner, I can feel it! They’re all so sweet though. I wish I could be there to give them tons of kisses, so you’re just going to have to give them extra kisses from all of us that can’t be there!
I agree! I think she/he will look like this!
I agree. Robyn, you MUST put in the adoption contract that adult pictures are mandatory! We really must he what he ends up looking like!
Ahhhhhh. (Big sigh of delight.) 🙂
Wheee….!!! Such gorgeous babies and a lovely mama… (and I’m so happy to see them on the pretty pink pad too!!!) 🙂
Yay… yay… yay…!!!
Oh. Mah. SQUEEEE.
/thunk.
(that’s the sound of my head hitting the keyboard.)
Emmy is looking so pretty — and contented — in pink. How lucky is she to have fetched up at Crooked Acres? Thank you, Robyn, for the Saturday update, and thanks to you and Fred for the weigh-in and close-ups. The babies are darlings. Meanwhile, here’s hoping that the two remaining Peppers have met some nice people today.
I agree with Kerry, pink is very becoming to Emmy. Hurrah to Fred for solving the slippery surface issue for the kittens. It’s so great to have little bitty kittens again to follow.
Charcoal haz complaint already? Oh I can see this one is going to be trouble! 😉
Feel free to post tushie shots and see if we continue help you sex the kits.
And just so you all know, I have new babies on my blog too…
I’ll see if I can. It’s hard to focus on an area so small though, heh.
I am so far behind in my blog-reading that I missed your new babies! Headed over there right now!!!
Oh, so teeeeeeny! <3
Connie’s got wee sweet adorable babykitties too! Go on over and say hi!
and now I have major web traffic!!! I do appreciate it 🙂
Is it a trick of the light or do I see a difference in the stripe on the outside of the eyes on the twin stripies?
Oh my gosh are they adorable! I wonder if the sound of all these heads exploding from the cute is disturbing to Emmy…
LOL! She’s such a good mama that she doesn’t let it bother her, I’m sure!!
Thanks for the kitten pics, Robyn! They are simply tiny, lovely and adorable!
It also seems they’re a bit smaller than Maggie’s six last year. That makes perfect sense since Emmy wasn’t getting food so regularly.
I’m very glad the kittens are healthy, Emmy is healthym everyone is gorgeous and the tornadoes all missed Crooked Acres!!!
I simply cannot find a coherent thing to say after 2 days of looking at baby pictures. Scientific proof that kittens turn your brain to mush, I guess. Charcoal is quite the advanced kitty… perfecting the model-moment pose already. He’s managed to show toe-beans, fearsome baby claws, tiny little tail, smooshed up baby face, and toothless gums all in the same shot? And he haz complaint??!!?! He must be my favorite. (But don’t tell Stumpy or the Stripeys, because they’re my favorite too). Great job, Mama Emmy!
My guess is that Charcoal is a male, simply because we have noticed over time that most larger litters (more than two) seem to contain at least one kitten whose obvious destiny if it makes it to adulthood is to be the “biggest, baddest, tom in the barnyard!” Now pet kitties don’t need to be the biggest, baddest, anything – but nature still tends to work the old fashioned way. Once in awhile, you also get a larger female kitten (especially in breeds like Main Coons or Norwegian Forest Cats) though that doesn’t seem to happen as often. Norwegian Forest cats also sometimes get “giant” kitten syndrome, with one baby much heavier than the others (or an entire litter that is heavy and needs a c section). We retired our breeding queen because she kept miscarrying full sized (but undeveloped) kittens a couple of weeks early and once heartbreakingly lost a litter of full sized kittens whose lungs were not quite ready to breath at two weeks early.
My guess in this case, is that Forest cats in the wild, in Norway; may have been scaling up to catch larger game and sometimes the Mothers are able to have the kittens full term on their own. If it is a good adaptation, the large female kitten grows up to have even larger babies, but with people now breeding the cats, the C sections increase the numbers.
Anyway, you do realize you have now “named” two of the babies, as “Stumpy” and especially “Charcoal” are both going to be hard habits to break.
Kittens! Eeeps!!