So, first Kennebec starts “nursing” on the fleece cat bed…
then Fianna joins in…
and then Agata…
then lastly, Stompers the Mouth decides he’ll take a piece of that!
Stompers and the Floof.
“Am sleepin’. You go ‘way.”
Monsieur Floofypants.
I love getting pictures of Stomps with the bigger cats. (Ignore that litter box in the background.)
Kennebec got halfway up the cedar scratching post and rethought his position.
Stompers always looks so AMUSED.
So, I’ve probably mentioned a few times that all the fosters get morning and evening snacks in the form of canned food. They all get to know the routine pretty well, and when the Taters hear me moving around the upstairs giving the ‘Maters their snack and scooping litter boxes, they start getting wound up. Stompers is especially vocal, and when I open the door to their room, Stompers comes stomping out. Sometimes Kennebec does, too. I have to herd them back into the room and listen to them HOWL at top volume while I’m putting their snack on the plate.
I wouldn’t want y’all to miss out, so here you go – a completely unedited video. Probably a rock concert would do less damage to your eardrums. Turn your sound WAY UP to get the full experience.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sweet girl. She sure does put up with a lot!
Dingwall Scotty, in a reflective mood.
“Let me tell you SOMETHING, lady!”
Oh, Scotty. You always have something to say, don’t you?
So, after a few days of spending the entire day in Fred’s room and the evenings with the babies, Brandywine decided that she had had ENOUGH. She howled and dug at the door until I gave in and took her back to her babies. I’ve seen clear evidence that she knows how to make the babies back off when she wants to, so I’m not too worried about her. We also moved a bigger cat tree back into the foster room so she can jump up onto that if she needs time away from them.
I know the wounds on her back look nasty, but they’ve improved a lot. I’m putting ointment on them, and they aren’t bothering her. What I’m trying to say is that they look a lot worse than they are.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Old Man Spanky wonders if it’s time for HIS snack (he gets two extra snacks a day, too. He can certainly use some fattening up.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Previously
2011: No entry.
2010: Kittens… and a bucket of squash!
2009: No entry.
2008: I’m off to take Kara and her babies to the vet to be spayed and neutered.
2007: Happiest! Cat! Ever!
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
You’re right about Brandywine’s burns! There is plenty of healthy white skin around the wounds and there is no infection. Thanks for taking such good care of her — she’s such a skinny thing and such a good mama. In case you haven’t noticed, my heart goes out for her… although the wee little suckling kittens come a close second!
The demanding kittens video was hilarious once I turned my volume down. It reminded me of this video!
The little orange one in that video looks like a bigger Stompers!
That is exactly what I thought!! “They have a little Stompers, too!”
Oh, that video of crying kittens got my (former) mama cat’s attention! She did not like that those kittens were crying, and started meowing and rubbing her face on my laptop. They stopped crying, so it must have worked. 🙂
Too cute! 🙂
Awww, sweet! When I was playing the video on my computer, Tommy came over and stared at my speaker. 🙂
I snickered and LOL at that video! Also, before I read your caption on the picture with Brandywine’s wounds, I thought, “They look so much better!” 🙂
I swear…I would steal Stompers and Floof if I could. My heart be still! 🙂
I’m too lazy to search, but has Spanky been tested for his thyroid? Our old cat had an overactive thyroid and was skinnier and skinnier for the last couple of years of her life. There was just no way to fatten her up no matter how much she ate. But she seemed happy enough until right at the end. He’s still my favourite.
He has! He’s been tested for everything under the sun, but he’s healthy as an almost-16 year-old can be, and happy, too. 🙂
Much as I adore the kittens — and beautiful Brandywine — a Spanky pin-up always makes my day. He’s so obviously well loved and cared for.
That happened to one of my elder kitties. She would lose .x lbs a month.
Love the video! My cats did not think kittens crying was the least bit amusing however! They thought sure I had been sneaking kittens in here when they weren’t looking. Poor Squeaker, the mama’s boy got this look of horror on his face and noe he’s at the other end of the sofa with his back to me, ignoring me! LOL!
whose adorable ‘tocks are in the Kennebec-climbing-scratcher pic?
Those would be the ‘tocks of one Sir Stomps-a-Lot!
I think they are Stompers! I thought the same thing!! LOOK AT THAT KITTEN BUTTTTTT!!!!
Like others, I have cats who did NOT appreciate the howling babies! Buddy and Gravy came out of their “it’s-so-hot-we’ve-melted-into-nothingness” hiding spots to stare up at me with wide, disapproving eyes. They’ve dealt with fosters before and do not like other kittens in their space!
And now they’re all melty again. Too hot to worry about babies invading their home, I guess.
But how cute are those ‘Taters? They are VERY cute. Very.
Gravy! LOL Fabulous!!!
WOW. That is a loud crowd! I know it’s been said before, but I’m not sure I’d get anything done if I had such gorgeous babies sharing my home!
Norman came running during the video, but the look on his face merely said “It’s snackin’ time?? Excellent!” And then he stuck his face into my breakfast. 😉
I could use some advice about Norman. Like Spanky, he’s on the skinny old man side of life. He’s hungry all of the time (which I’m not sure is emotional from being a stray or physical… the vet has tested him and says he’s fine, but could stand to lose a bit of weight). I’ve tried instituting “Snackin’ Time” where Norm gets fed extra behind closed doors. He gets SO wound up that he eats way too fast. More often than not, the snack reappears on the floor five minutes later (if you know what I mean). How on earth do you make a cat slow down when eating?
PS— There are only five Taters eating from the snack plate at the end of the video. Who’s missing? (And why are you depriving him of his snack????)
Oh dear Lord… the vet said Norman could stand to GAIN weight. If I tried getting him to lose weight, he’d eat my right arm while I slept.
Have you tried a slow feed bowl? They kinda look like a bundt pan.
Kelly, what I tried to keep one of my cats from hoovering up all their food was to spread it out on a larger plate, so they had to pause between bites and move around a bit. Maybe that would help?
have you had his stool tested?? When my Em was losing weight one vet said that roundworm eggs can lay dormant for years and re infest later in life during times of stress or weight loss.
All good suggestions that I will look into with Norman. Thank you! According to the paperwork, he lost three pounds during his time at the shelter which was attributed to stress and his teeth (which were fixed while he was there). He HAS put about a pound back on, but with the way he eats I would think it should be more.
My cat Felix came over and put his paws up on the desk (he’s a long cat) to inquire whether I was going to do anything about those poor starving kittens. I had to reassure him that I knew the ending of this one!
WOW, did the kitten-cry video get my cats attention! One of them even left the room!
So cute and funny!
Early this morning I watched the “Snackin’ Time” video on my Droid. My kitty CJ comes running over and SMACKS the phone out of my hand. He then smacked the phone a few more times, said “MEH” and marched out of the room. Hmmmm – I guess he doesn’t want any little brothers or sisters.
Oh my!
LOL!! best response I’ve ever heard of to kitten videos.
HA! He’s made his feelings clear on the matter. 🙂
my cats are snoozing in their spots and didn’t come at all, which surprised me. they usually come running when they hear kitty videos. hmm. the howling reminded me of my own Luna. She is part siamese (and part howler monkey) and howls me awake at 5 looking for food. I shut her out but then she just tries to dig her way under the carpeted doorjam- or launches herself at the doorknob trying to open it. her last home with my niece had levered knobs, so she figured that is her best bet of getting in.
sigh
thank goodness Sweetums is trained to be silent and when I say sleep if she’s headbutting me, she flops over and snuggles until I get up. took me 4 yrs to get her to that point- she also fetches, stays and once growled at the doorbell ringing!lol.
since i’ve only had Luna for a yr, it’s gonna take forever! she does know ‘stay’ now. just not ‘sleep’. grumble
One of my cats knows to wait till the alarm goes off (she is only 1 yr old)…now the others…the older ones…that’s another story. Do you know what it is like to wake up to your nose being licked and then a cat flopping on its side onto your face? Why?????
why yes I do!! lol!
Sweetums used to nudge me with her wet nose and whap me with her paw occasionally and Luna will resort to licking my forehead if I ignore her crying
Yup, me too
Yes, we know what it’s like! Philo waits until the alarm goes off the first time in the morning and we hit snooze. Then he comes and perches on my husband or myself. If we ignore him, we get patted on the nose, or chin, or whatever part of the face he can reach.
“part howler monkey”….hahahahhahaha
yep. it fits her.
one of these days, I’ll turn the camera on. she gets really loud
OMG! I love the video – that’s my house every morning! But mine also bang the door and the board across the bottom of it in protest that Jinx and Trixie get fed first. Then when I *finally* let them out, they holler and run around my legs until I start singing their “Good Morning to You” song and pet each one, then they calm down and start to purr, because they know food is next.
Now I have to video my crew’s screaming routine, before Tippy (and now maybe Samantha, too) go off to their new home Saturday. *Happy sniff*
Kiss kiss and kitties treats to the Spankster!
Would that be the “Good Morning To You” song we used to sing in Vacation Bible School when I was a kid?
Good morning to you
Good morning to you
We’re all in our places
With bright shining faces
And this is the way
We start a new day
Of course, you could modify it to say “With sweet furry faces.” 🙂
I learned that song at church youth group camp, except the words were:
Good morning to you
Good morning to you
You look kind of sleepy
In fact you look creepy
Is that any way, to start out the day?
Maybe that’s the teenager version of the VBS song!
LOL, I hadn’t heard that one before, although I attended a church camp in Oklahoma for five summers in a row, and we learned some truly awful songs! (I’m looking over, my dead dog Rover…)
That’s the song, though I couldn’t remember the rest of the lyrics to save me, so I usually just repeat the chorus over and over! :0
My mother used to sing that to me when I was a kid! But for whatever reason, I hear it in the voices of the Little Rascals when I try to remember. Perhaps they did it too?
I hit submit before I mentioned (and I really should mention) that my mother sounds nothing like Alfalfa when she sings. 😉
No one who reads your blog has EVER seen a litter box. EVER. 😀
The next picture down cracked me up, Kennebec’s being mooned by Stompers, LOL.
Yeah, I played that video, and my guys were all “aw man, she’s gone an gotten another one?? Geez…”.
Yes my girl Kya came off her perch to check out what was all the crying about..she does this all the time when I have kitty videos, even tries to push her head under the laptop to see where the babies are hiding. She would have been a good mommy.
Same with my cat Calpurnia.
Wow! I don’t have cats to come running but I was surprised my daughter didn’t LOL. It was adorable but loud. They sound like those squeaky wheezy toys you squeeze for babies so they laugh and laugh. Too cute.
I love the picture of Brandywine surrounded by all those kittens! It kills me how she’s got the very top of her head poking out, like she’s trying to say “I’ve been buried like this for AGES. Send help!”
I refer to that as her “Halp. Me.” face. 🙂
She looks like she’s drowning in kittens!
(Not a bad way to go.)
How much longer will she be nursing the kittens??
The rug nursing was too dang precious. Just want to cuddle them all.
Amen
Awww, Spanky. Yep, looks like the oldster should be getting some high calorie kitten food. He is still gorgeous though.
Has someone been stealing your pictures? I couldn’t figure out why this post looked slightly different and then I realized it was the watermarks. Do we need to kick some booty or sic Stompers on them? Maybe I just missed it…
I was curious about the same thing. It’s actually a good idea she does it, with the amount of people she’s getting here now.
I’ll answer this more completely in tomorrow’s post (I meant to in today’s, but totally flaked!), but there’s been no one incident, just a bunch of small ones. 🙂
That is what I was thinking. Like “I can has cheezeburger”, “cuteOverload” etc. Don’t blame you!!
This is my first time commenting on ANY blog, but I just had to say that I’ve been following Love & Hisses (LOVE LOVE LOVE the name) ever since Emmy appeared on Cute Overload–so about three months ago, I guess? I am now so hooked that it is literally what I look forward to most in the mornings. And the reason I’m commenting today is because my weekends now seem so empty because there is no new Love & Hisses entry to read in the mornings. Can’t believe I’d ever look forward to Monday mornings, but because of Love & Hisses, I do now!
BTW, I had wanted to comment on the discussion about the best cat fountains. I’ve bought a bunch of them over the years before I finally found this about six months ago: http://www.amazon.com/Hagen-Design-Drinking-Fountain-Original/dp/B004L4XR3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341242918&sr=8-1&keywords=cat+fountain . It is by far the best one I’ve ever tried, and not much more expensive than some of the cheapest ones for sale at Petco and the like.
Charlene, I usually post kitten pictures on the weekends if you need a kitten fix! kittyblog.net
Oh good! Thanks so much. I’ll definitely check that out on the weekends. Frequent “kitty fix” breaks are the only way I manage to get work done. I know that probably sounds illogical to most of humankind, but I think the people who read this blog and comment understand how that works.
That’s the one we’re using now, too! I have to refill it every morning so it doesn’t run dry – I need to get a second one set up somewhere in the house, I suppose. 🙂
And thanks for reading!!!
I too started reading Love & Hisses about a few months ago. I came over from The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee! I can’t get enough of kittens and I look forward to my work week starting so I can get all the updates from the weekend…I have 4 orange/white 2 year old girls who I found under our shed in our back yard in Oct 2009. They were about a week old and abandoned. Our local shelter would not take them but gave us bottles. We had never had or been owned by a cat so it was a real eye-opener for us. Now, I can’t imagine life without them 🙂 I would be a bad foster Mom. None of the kitties would ever leave 🙂 Thanks for all you do!!
Is there a Tater missing? There’s only 5 kitties eating, one orange tabby short and I’s knows Stompers (Cicero) is there as is Floof (Russet).. so, Norland or Kennebec is missing? Or, as it is Monday, I could just be ‘missing’… (that would not surprise me at all)…. Hope all is well.
Thinking out loud.. maybe since whiskers weren’t on the menu, Norland opted out?
Norland and Floof know what the routine is, and sometimes they opt to take part in snackin’ time, and sometimes they don’t. When I shot the video, Norland was nowhere to be found!
LOVE the video! I find it impossible to explain how LOUD kittens are when waiting for their food! I am now sharing the video so my friends and family know what it sounds like at my house 🙂
Oh. My. GAWD! How can something THAT small be THAT FRICKIN’ LOUD????
LOL@Stompers. Yup, he is ALL BOY!! and so willing to show it off
Dingwall Scotty’s eyes look amazing in that one photo! Like shimmering opals.
LOL
… and then suddenly it was very quiet.
My ears, my ears!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!
I’m wondering same regarding photos copyright watermark. Oh, did you get your “good” camera back?
I DID get my good camera back! 🙂
Love the video – I had no idea Sir Stompers was so much smaller than the rest. He makes up for it in voice and character!
And speaking of love….have I said yet this week that I love Ms. Brandywine? What a good mama!
And a sweetie to people to boot! Wish I were able to offer her a home.
Snorgles to her and to Mr. Spanky!
Meant to mention – my vet and I have an ongoing debate on whether my 18 year old tortie is deaf or not.
I played the snacking video….to absolutely no reaction from Cagney.
Guess we have the answer!
I hope you wear earplugs during snackin’ time!! And Stompers is certainly small but mighty – or maybe small but noisy!
I didn’t get to see the video until I got home. Philo looked around for the starving kittens, and Maggie promptly came over and bit my arm (her standard response to unfamiliar or loud noises).
Just now got a chance to watch the video – boy those kittens are loud! So loud, my 11 year old cat got up and ran! My 12 year old cat looked alarmed at first, then just had to see where the kittens were! She’s quite the video watcher (squirrel videos are her favorite) and I knew she would love this! Stompers looked like he was in Land of the Giants! (Giant kittens, that is!) Thanks for all you do, Robyn – love this blog!!!
Spanky looks like he’s losing weight… is he OK?
I’m visiting my parents right now and when I played that video on my laptop my dad yelled up the stairs “what in the hell are you doing up there?!”
I wonder if they will be so chatty later on in their lives.
ok – I confess – I did not read the 82 previous comments, so if someone already mentioned this, I swear I’m not being a copy-cat. I think you should have saved the video of snack time for the 4th, since those babies sound like a bunch of Saturn Missles going off. Too funny they are. And the ear floof and whiskers right smack in front of the lens? Adorable!
i turned the volume way up on the video – my cats (6 and 8) were super confused and giving me the look of “WHY ARE THERE BABY KITTENS HIDDEN SOMEWHERE!!! WE DO NOT APPROVE!” – thanks for the laugh!