I’m leaving here in a little while to go pick up the Noms at the spay and neuter clinic. As I mentioned yesterday, they had literally NEVER been confined in a carrier, and never been in a car. I was really worried about how they’d act. Once I got them in the carriers (I put two in each carrier), they were mostly puzzled. At one point, Razzie lost her stumpy little mind and raced around the carrier trying to figure out how to get out. She only did that twice, and finally gave up and snuggled up with Logie. Hardly a peep out of any of them on the drive (it’s a half hour drive from here to the clinic), and once we were inside the clinic they were scared but not terrified, and curious about the other people.
Newbery, having climbed into the hammock with Sugarbutt, considers his next move.
::chomp::
“THAT IS MY PAW AND THAT HURT, YOU LITTLE MONSTER ::HISSSSSSSS::!” said Sugarbutt.
“And also ::GROWL::” said Sugarbutt.
Newbery pondered and pondered the error of his ways.
“That was wrong, to bite his paw,” thought Newbery. “But… it looks so TASTY.”
“::nibble::” said Newbery.
“Wasn’t me,” said Newbery when Sugarbutt fixed him with a glare.
Norland and Russet keep an eye on the feather toy.
Double checking to see if there’s any snack left (there wasn’t).
“You shall pet me, woman.”
“Hallo, I am floofy.”
Kennebec hanging out in his cat tree perch.
“Am watching you, lady.” That’s Agata, and part of Fianna. I love how both girls have all four white paws.
Agata and Kennebec discussing who the boss is.
Agata and Kennebec scuffling in the back, and Russet and Norland scuffling in the front.
Kennebec reminds me SO much of Sugarbutt when he was tiny.
Agata trying to get up into the wall basket without using the steps.
Pretty miss Maxi is keeping an eye on YOU.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: Miss Dorfy has gone to her forever home in… (drumroll) St. Louis!
2010: No entry.
2009: “Who, me?”
2008: Kara’s all “Really? We’re still doing this, seven weeks later? REALLY? Are you KIDDING me?”
2007: Speaking of Maxi and Newt, I have to say – they are some tiny, tiny cats.
2006: No entry.
2005: If I could just bottle that energy.
Agata wasn’t trying to lift herself up into the wall basket! She was doing yoga!
(her tippy toes are killing dead with the cute!)
I also love the photoessay on the state of Newbery-Sugarbutt relations! Why Sug is putting up with that little reprobate, I’ll never know.
I’m glad the Noms’ surgeries went well and am very glad Norland and Russett have had no complications!
Onward and Upward!
YOu are right about those tippy-toes! That belly distracted me and I didn’t see them at first!!!
I, too, loved the Newbery/Sugie interplay. “Wasn’t me.” Hee.
Also, tiny dancer Agata: awwwww.
I bet he is putting up with him because it is much more effort to get up and move and find somewhere else as comfy as he is now.
Agata’s belly in the second to the last picture! BUAHHHHHHH…… 🙂
I’m still absolutely enchanted by Russett. Why, he looks like Gates McFadden in Star Trek: the Next Generation.
As a kitten.
Perhaps it’s my love of all things senior that draws me to Norland. He always looks grumpy and bossy (in a “Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!” sort of way)
Sir Sugarpants snuggling with a kitten? Swoon. I don’t care if it’s involuntary on his part, there’s just something so attractive about a man who’s good with kids 😉
And on Penny-watch… How in the heck do you know if a cat is pregnant or simply faking it? She has a rounded belly bulge (and not a bit of fat on her anywhere else). She walks a little low to the ground and appears to sway a bit while doing it. I *think* I might have felt a kitten bulge last night, but I’m so inexperienced it might just be her gall bladder or something (if cats even have gall bladders). If she’s game-playing, she’s a master. It got her out of the shelter and will get some lucky family a fabulous cat. My son has already asked to keep her.
Oh, and thank Miss Maxi for keeping an eye on me. I’m known for causing trouble and need Outside Mama to keep me in line.
You’re asking the wrong person on this topic, Kelly – after all, I had Maura for weeks and weeks, and it wasn’t ’til I took her to the vet for her diarrhea issue and the vet was like “I don’lat feel any kittens, and I should be able to by now…” that we realized she was faking it. She was a bigger-boned cat, though.
Also, way back when I was taking Maxi to the vet to be spayed, Fred was dead positive that she was already pregnant again because he SWORE he could feel a kitten’s head. Turned out that was probably her liver. 🙂
However, I’m going to post the question in Friday’s post (and of course maybe other commenters will pipe in here) and we’ll see if we can get some words of wisdom!
Thanks, Robyn. Penny is so tiny when you discount her belly (only weighed 9 pounds at the vet last week with her excess middle). Most of the time she just feels solid there, but I have felt a couple bumps that seem to disappear when I try to touch them again. I knew I should have gone to vet school 😉
New reality show! Penny can star in “I didn’t know I was pregnant”, the feline version! Or… “I was faking a pregnancy to get the gooshy food and the pampering”!
It isn’t easy (to tell if a cat is pregnant). Cats are designed to hide that oh so well because they need to hunt right up until they give birth.
Xrays will only work if the kittens are far enough along that their bones are strong enough to show up on an x-ray… they don’t when they are really young. Ultrasounds can see beating hearts, but they are even more expensive then xrays. When there is only one kit, it can be downright near impossible to tell.
Feeling around at different times of the day will help. Feeling around another cat will help you understand what you are feeling.
Then there is the fact that the pregnancy can stop and the cat can re-absorb the kittens, so there is a possibility that the kitty isn’t faking, but isn’t going to give birth.
Re-absorb??? Wow… learn something new every day! I did try feeling up the boy cats for comparison, but only Norman obliged. It’s certainly a different feel, but then again he’s a boy. I appreciate the information. Thanks!
How on earth do you find the strength to take those babies to Petsmart? I adore the Noms and I’ll miss them terribly! On that note, that’s why I don’t foster, I’d never get rid of any! (says the lady with 14 cats……)
Cause if you don’t take back the old ones, they don’t give you new ones..
ROFLMAO
And the prize for internetting today goes to… Connie!
(I read this in Bill Cosby’s voice, which makes it even more hilarious than it already was.)
Thank you, thank you very much (ala Elvis – I’ll be here every night, please tip your waitress)
We just got a new cat and we’re picturing him growing up to look pretty much exactly like Sugarbutt! I love how the kitten is ATTENTIVE to the hissing, but not running-away-scared by it!
Ha, yes – “I hear what you’re saying, and I understand your point.”!
Thanks for this dose of orange kitties. Scrilla hasn’t been doing any better, unfortunately. We have consultations scheduled Monday at UGA for the neurology and oncology departments. I’ve been nothing but positive around him but my god it’s hard. I cried all the way to work this morning. I really, really needed that dose of orange kittens!
Oh, poor Scrilla. I’m sorry. *hugs*
UGA is great! I took my Baal there for one of the worst cases of FUS my vet had ever seen. They took great care of him (and me). He even went back a couple of years later for a follow-up because they had made him part of a case study. Hugs and best wishes to Scrilla!
Awww, Rachael, I’m keeping you and Scrilla in my thoughts!
(((Rachael)))
Thanks guys :):)
I’m so sorry. I hope you get better news soon.
Oh I’m so sorry! I hope Scrilla gets better soon!
Hugs to the Noms!!! Hope they survive the carriage ride with aplomb!
Yay for these ginger and tabby sweeties! Take care
x
Question for you guys with lots of kitten knowledge: When do you worry about the wrestling kittens do? We have one kitten from one litter, and two new kittens we’re fostering this week, and they’ve started playing with each other (after 3 days) but my 9 year old son is very concerned they’re hurting each other. (They’re not – it’s that playful “pounce, roll, flip, release, chase and your turn to pounce now” thing) but I was trying to explain when he should try and separate them (they stay in his room at night cause the permanents aren’t thrilled yet) and it’s really hard to explain when the flat ears no holds barred play looks so real! I’m assuming that they’ll actually try and get away when it’s real and/or cry, but I don’t really know when to intervene myself! The two new babies, are a couple of weeks older but seem bigger than the one singleton, part of that cause they’ve got Maine Coon in them and they’re MUCH floofier! But they’re not mean and I honestly don’t think any of them want to hurt each other.
The playing is a vital part of their development, but it’s very sweet of your son to be concerned about them! I think kittens are like toddlers: they’re pretty resilient and very rarely actually hurt each other.
In fact, I would guess that their playing actually teaches them how NOT to hurt each other, by learning their limits.
Noelegy is right, the playing with each other is very important to their development. The only time I ever intervene is if a much bigger kitten keeps chasing and pinning down a smaller kitten and the smaller kitten is clearly not having a good time.
But most of the time, kittens will kick and scream and squeal like they’re being tortured and if you separate them, the tortured kitten looks at you like “Why’d you do THAT?”
Maybe you could find a bunch of clips of kittens play fighting on Youtube and show him that it’s normal behavior. It used to make me nervous too since the cats I grew up pretty much ignored each other.
Agata kills me. That’s my favorite feline coloring.
I step in when there is hissing or spitting. But you need to watch to make sure you don’t have a kitten who hisses or spits instead of squeals..
I also trim claws frequently. Don’t want one of those ending up in an eyeball (or in my leg)
LOVE that pink kitten feeder…what a great idea. 🙂
I am forming a special attachment to Kennebec. I think it’s because I grew up next to the Kennebec river!
I love the name, it sounds really Maine-y to me. I’m thinking I need to name a litter of kittens after counties in Maine. 🙂
I theenk Norland ees my favoreet in thees batch of keetens. He ees GRUMPTASTIC!
I love the Tater names (and the Taters too)! And I’ve learned that there are other potatoes besides white, red and russet! You would think, as much as I watch food and cooking channels, that this would not be new to me… 🙂
So let me go ahead and suggest “The ‘Maters” for the next litter. With the number of heirloom tomatoes out there, you could name a litter of 6 or 8 easily!
Maters… I love it! Made me LOL before I could get my next cup o’coffee… I’m awake now ~ a good one!
I love this idea!!
I remember thumbing through one of my gardener grandmother’s seed catalogs as a kid and my mind being absolutely BLOWN by the fact that there were blue potatoes!
http://www.heirloomtomatoes.bizland.com/varieties.htm
Some of these are rather hilarious. I am picturing a kitten named Banana Legs or Dingwall Scotty.
The name “Dingwall Scotty” makes me want to have another KID, forget about kittens…
And off topic mostly, but the other day my son said something and I corrected his pronunciation. He said, “Whatever. You say ‘tomato,’ I say ‘potato.'” He had no idea why I was laughing so hard.
Big Boy, Mr. Stripey, Tumbling Tom…
Haven’t read the whole post yet ’cause I can’t get past the HALF HOUR DRIVE??!!?? I’ve never had a cat who would shut the f— up for one second when in the car. I probably would have killed a cat if I had to drive with them for 30 minutes.
When I moved last fall (slightly more than a two hour drive) somehow I managed to get my parents to take two of my cats in their car and my boyfriend to take the other two in his car. Tee-hee.
(I did, however, have the litter boxes in my car and it was a warm day, so I didn’t get out of torture completely…)
I’m finding that putting the carriers in the back seat with a towel over the top tends to keep them pretty quiet. Not always, and I know it wouldn’t stop Miz Poo from howling, but more often than not, it works!
When we moved last summer, we had a full month between closing the house that we sold and closing the house that we bought. The kids, the cat, and I ended up spending a month in Florida with my parents…. 900+ miles away (the husband was on temporary duty in Alaska, how convenient). I count myself as blessed by Ceiling Cat that Simba was an excellent traveler. He complained for about 15 minutes at the beginning of the ride, but then settled in and hung out with us. He ultimately decided that that little tray table between the driver and passenger captains chairs was made for cats, as he spent 90% of the drive sitting there with a paw on my thigh as I drove. It’s a trip that I never would have tried with the late, great Einstein. My eardrums (as well as several of my limbs) would have been punctured in a matter of minutes.
I am DYING at the thought of him sitting there with his paw on your thigh, supervising the driving!
My sister’s Sphynx actually LIKES to ride in the car. She once took him on a road trip from Indiana to South Texas. She puts a cat bed in the front seat for him, with blankets, and folds down one of the back seats (which opens up to the trunk) where he can go use his litter box in the trunk. I accompanied her back up to Indiana, and Harry (yes, that is his name) rode in my lap for a long time, wrapped up in his blanket and happy as a clam.
She now lives in central Texas, where the climate is much more to Harry’s liking!
P.S. She loves the reactions she gets when she goes through drive-throughs and Harry sticks his alien little gremlin face out the window.
Ha! I went through exactly one drive thru with Simba along for the ride. He tried to leave the car and go through the window into McDonalds. We got out for our food for the rest of the trip.
Did he push the imaginary brake with his paw when he thought you were driving too fast?? 😉
No, but he did sink his claws into my leg if I took a turn too fast 😉
Funny you should say that about the imaginary brake. My oldest just signed up for driver’s ed this summer and I was remembering how my mother press the imaginary brake on the passenger side while I learned to drive.
January 1969 my family moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Tampa, Florida — 469 miles/8 hours. My parents were in the lead vehicle; I drove my younger sister and her black house cat in my ’68 Mustang. “Caesar’s” litter box was positioned on floor of rear seating area. As I recall, he sat calmly on back seat, floor, and possibly my sister’s lap the entire trip without drama!
Caesar back-story: I found him as a kitty in the “woods” just outside when I was driving in to our Atlanta subdivision. Exited the car, grabbed and brought him home. He lived a good, spoiled, long life.
I have seven cats and I take all of them in to see the vet for annual check up time. He is 40-50 minutes away depending on traffic.
Aww, I love Russet! I love a fluffy kitten.
Oh and I love to read all the posts from the past, and it reminds me how much I loved the Spice Girls! They were (and probably still are) so cute! And Dorothy too, she was my favorite! (I’ll break my exclamation point key if I continue talking, so I’ll shut up now.)
Oh, the Spice Girls were a particularly pretty little litter, I love seeing their pictures again. And I’ve enjoyed seeing Dorothy’s pics from last year, too. 🙂
Newberry is such a brat but I lubs him! He and Agata have a home in my screensaver folder now.
Speaking of cute kitties, who is the person who was making the new blog and could someone post a link please?
That’s me, Holly. But right now, it’s just a Facebook page with the intention of starting a blog. My kids have one more week of school (which is the craziest week of the year, isn’t it?), my daughter’s birthday is tomorrow and my husband is overseas, so I’m a bit behind at the moment. My plan is to get it started right after school gets out. I will link to it as soon as it’s ready.
The quick Penny update is that my foster “mama” might not be pregnant after all. The vet couldn’t tell for certain. We’re in a wait-and-see pattern since she needs to be in quarantine anyway. Sometimes I think I feel kittens, others I’m not sure if she’s faking. But she is an absolutely gorgeous kitty (inside and out) and there will be pictures online as soon as I can manage it.
Kelly-I thought it was you. No rush. I DO know how the last week of school can be crazy because my kids just got out. I don’t do Facebook but I have been reading here about Penny. Best wishes 🙂
I’ve got an old blog.. 🙂 but it is full of kittens
Connie-If you want to direct me to a link I will check it out. I don’t do Facebook though.
Robyn, I thought of you:
http://lolcats.icanhascheezburger.com/2012/06/06/funny-cat-pictures-drop-it-and-back-out-slowly/
Wow – I hope that’s a hotel room and not a one-room apartment, as it appears. Bed, TV, computer, and chairs all in one room indicates (to me) a studio apartment, and the thought of living in one room with at least 20 cats is giving me hives.
I don’t see any cooking or bathroom facilities, though, so hopefully it’s maybe the room of a grown living-at-home person who just happened to get all the cats in there at once…
Kennebec looks like he is talking on the phone in that picture with the cat toy, “Hello?! Customer service? I haz a COMPLAINT.”
I had a feeling they would do just fine.. so glad they did.
totally LOVE that photo of Agata the ballerina.
Wow reading your travel stories reminded me of mine last fall. I moved back from Long Island to Utah with all my animals. 7 Cats, 2 dogs, 2 parakeets, 2 rats, & 2 ferrets. 2220 miles. I drove all that way with the animals in the back of my truck pulling a uhaul trailer. Let me tell you what a job that was! It was my youngest daughter and I. Every night we would unload the animals into whatever animal friendly hotel we found, check each one over, made sure their crates were clean. Give them fresh food and water, clean out the crates if needed. THEN we could relax for a few moments before we took the dogs for a long walk and THEN we could feed ourselves! Fortunately all my animals are good travelers and love new experiences. Each evening it was so funny to watch the cats come out of their crates. They would peek out, take a big sniff, walk around the room inspecting each corner, find the cat box, food and water, then flop on the bed. It was pretty amazing. I guess they were just happy that I was with them and as long as I was there it’s home. (the birds, rats & ferrets were like “whatevs”)
oh I forgot to say that it took me five days…
I drove from SoCal to Houston, TX in four days a few years back with three cats. My brother built a cage into the back of a Geo Storm. There was lots of room for cuddly beds, a small litter box and food and water. They mostly ignored the food and water, but did use the litter box on occasion (thank the gods it was winter). Once we’d stop for the evening I’d get the cats from the car to the room and let them out to run around, eat, drink, poop. Then we’d (my mum and I, she drove the moving truck) would go for dinner while the cats went berserk (they did every time they were let loose). By the time we got back to the room the cats were calmed down and we could all go to sleep.
I guess we Debra (Deborahs) are a tiny bit crazy to be driving 10 kajillion animals cross country! LOL
I think it’s just because we love our babies and they have complete trust in us that they travel so easily.
want an orange floofy boy.
That Newberry Sugarbutt series has to be one of the best! Seriously made me laugh!
All that orange goodness! Wow, and the white pawed accents.. I’m loving them!
Have you ever considered naming a group after types of coffee? they have the energy of a double espresso!
I hadn’t thought of that – I like the idea, especially with as wild as they get. They’re naturally caffeinated! 🙂
Falling in love with Kennebec. I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of potatoes either. Those sweet orange boys all remind me of sweet potatoes. The fries and chips rock!
Why is it that “Sweet” never once occurred to me as a name for them? That would have been perfect! 🙂
Floofy kittens just kill me with the cute. Vladimir was about the same size Russet and Norland are when I got him last year (he was stuck up a tree in the park and so skinny you could feel all his ribs). He’s 9 months old now, about 11 pounds and still growing (!) and is hilariously and magnificently floofy. (All I have handy is a crappy instagram photo, but I feel compelled to show him off: http://instagr.am/p/JnaBcwm9ms/ – he has even more crazy white belly floof now than in the picture.)