Weekly Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr Roundup.
That’s one way to pin down a kitten, Canasta.
Banana for scale! (Whist)
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Watching the kittens play… and Uno apparently scared herself! (Look at that floofy little tail!)
Canasta’s all “May I help you, lady?” (The other 3 kittens were sound asleep behind me.)
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3 minutes of kitten antics. 4 weeks old, and places to GO. And yes, I could spend all day in here watching them play!
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(Permanent resident) Alice wants some turkey! She’d actually prefer ham (it’s her sandwich meat of choice), but when there’s no ham to be had, turkey will suit her. Newt’s just trying to figure out what Alice is so excited about.
Banana for scale. (Pinochle.)
Good night innernets.
How it started/how it’s going. (February 28th vs. March 28th.)
Banana for scale! (Uno)
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Uno’s in my lap, Canasta’s talking… and the rest of the kittens are OUT cold.
If you look closely, you can see that Rummy’s eyes are already starting to change color. Right on schedule!
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Identifying kittens (for anyone who doesn’t already know who’s who.) I didn’t realize ’til afterward, but Uno isn’t in the video because she was sitting in my lap, and I didn’t think to get a shot of her. I was clearly distracted (and excited) by Slapjack showing off his peeing skills!
(Permanent resident) Archie has a case of the Mondays.
Whist and the blue, blue, blue, blue eyes.
Good night innernets.
Guilty little faces.
“It’s time for you to hush up, kid.”
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Uno has a sleepy. (Uno’s not the only one who sits in my lap – they all do at this point – but she was the first one to do it, and she’s usually the first one in my lap.)
If Pinochle’s belly doesn’t need poking, I don’t know what does!
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Mama’s got the tabbies. All the tabbies were at the milk bar, and all the tuxies were in my lap or next to me. (And then two of the tuxies went over the milk bar and I’m not sure what Uno wanted, but ultimately – after the video ended – she did end up at the milk bar, too!) Please enjoy the fascinating view of my hand, and the flailing of the camera near the beginning.
(Permanent resident) Alice Mo the calico loves a sunny day nearly as much as she loves her daddy. (Yo.) Actually, I think the list goes: #1: Daddy #2: Ham #3 Sunny days
“YEAH, they’re eating AGAIN.”
To answer the questions: the kittens will likely start eating solid food anytime now. When there’s a mother present and everyone is thriving, I keep Mama fed and let the kittens decide when they want to make that next step. They’re all over the room now, they can (and have) been over where the food is located, and when the lightbulb goes on over their little heads they’ll start eating. I’m not worried and you shouldn’t be either. Canasta is now 8 pounds, 12 ounces – that means she’s lost about 4 pounds since the day before the kittens were born. That also means that she still weighs 10 ounces more than she did when we got her. She’s gonna get thinner – mamas always do – and when the kittens are weaned, she’ll gain weight back. How much she eats every day varies (when I see that her plate is empty, I bring her another can of food), but she’s eating between 6-8 cans most days.
Good night innernets. (Whist)
“GIVE MAMA A KISS!”
“I sees you, innernets.” (Rummy)
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It’s BOOPing time! BOOPing Slapjack, Pinochle and a very sleepy Uno.
“Shhh, I’m hiding from Mama. I don’t want another bath!” (Fizzbin)
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3 minutes in the kitten room. They’re SO mobile now!
5 of 7 permanent residents are present in this picture – must be dinner time! Back past the table is the fabulously floofy Khal, to the right giving me the Resting Archie Face is Archie, that ornj hunk in the middle of the pic is Newt, and over there on the left are Charlie and Jake, doing the move we refer to as “the mind meld,” wherein they get so excited at the idea of food that they press their heads together. (Alice was standing behind me, and Dewey doesn’t join in on dinner time until the others have eaten and moved along. Also, he hates having his picture taken, which is why you rarely see him.)
“Who, me? Eating litter*? I’d never!” Rummy’s eyes kill me.
*It’s normal at this age. She’ll outgrow it. We use non-clumping litter.
Good night innernets. (Pinochle.)
Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
From Wikipedia: “Rabbit rabbit rabbit” is a superstition found in Britain and North America wherein a person says or repeats the words “rabbit”, “rabbits” and/or “white rabbits” aloud upon waking on the first day of a month, to ensure good luck for the rest of it.
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Throw back Thursday: All this talk about when the kittens will start eating on their own made me think of former foster Andouille (he’s now Andre and he and his sister Beignet – now Bella – and their sister Jessie can be seen on Facebook at @kayskittykisses ) from 2017. When he was 18 days old, that tiny boy came out of his crate, tottered over to the plate of canned food, and started eating. He did it so confidently that it obviously wasn’t the first time he’d eaten off that plate. I’ve never had a kitten show the slightest bit of interest in food at that age – and his mama Nola was doing a great job of keeping him fed. He clearly felt it was just time to feed himself! I was and still am totally amazed.
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The earlier video of Andre/Andouille from 2017 reminded me of this one. He was perfectly fine toddling along, got into the crate just fine… and then he did this big, over-the-top pratfall out of nowhere. It still makes me laugh.
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The earlier video of Andre/Andouille’s pratfall made me think of another favorite – this is Bert Macklin from 2016 (he was one of the Fakers litter). I titled this “First Day with the legs,” and I think that’s still the perfect title for it.
(Permanent resident) The Magnificent Khal is coming in for a snuggle.
“Watching you, lady. WATCHING. YOU.” Her serious little face KILLLLLLS ME.
Good night innernets. (Whist)
I love this picture because you can actually see all their faces! Can you believe they’re 5 weeks old? Amazing!
These little muffins are 5 weeks old today! This is what they look like now – mini cats! Lastborn kitten Fizzbin continues to be the biggest kitten by a sizable margin, and firstborn kitten Uno is the smallest. Here’s a list of their weights with their newborn weights in parentheses.
Uno: 1 lb 4.2 oz (4.1 oz)
Slapjack: 1 lb 6.7 oz (4.8 oz)
Pinochle: 1 lb 4.5 oz (4.4 oz)
Whist: 1 lb 6 oz (4.3 oz)
Rummy: 1 lb 4.7 oz (4.1 oz)
Fizzbin: 1 lb 8.8 oz (4.8 oz)
This morning, Canasta is at 8 pounds 5 ounces, which brings her nearly back to where she was when we got her. The kittens are all now eating on their own in addition to nursing (the kittens will nurse as long as Canasta allows them to, and given that she regularly wakes them up to nurse, I don’t see her cutting them off anytime soon.)
In the past week the kittens have mastered the litter box, mostly learned how to run across the room without falling over, are climbing, playing with toys, and have started eating canned and dry food. Given the state of the foster room, they might need to meet the vacuum cleaner this week!
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Whist and Rummy are checking out the water bowl… and I have a lap full of kittens. When Canasta starts coming over to be petted and then realizes I have kittens in my lap and then BACKS UP and sits down, all “No, I’m good,” I die. She’s no dummy!
BLEP. Last night I was sitting on the couch with Canasta and Slapjack climbed up my leg and into my lap, and fell asleep there. Then I died from the cute.
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Hanging out in the kitten room… and Uno is bellied up to the food bowl!
(Permanent resident) Dewey from a couple of years ago. Dewey absolutely hates the camera, and it’s hard to get pictures of him. Which is a shame, because: look what a good-looking boy he is!
Pinochle loves his mama.
Good night innernets. (Fizzbin)
Fizzbin’s got places to GO.
Pinochle’s got the crazy eyes.
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Slapjack’s in my lap giving me – and himself – a bath. (Pardon the blurriness. Obviously I thought this was cute enough to share anyway.)
You’re not too old for a Mama bath, Fizzbin.
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Fizzbin’s having good dreams.
(Permanent resident) Jake’s ignoring Earl the Skwerl in that window feeder. He knows he can’t get Earl, so he’s not gonna be bothered to get excited.
The milk bar is still in function, if you were curious. (Canasta’s not in any hurry to wean them.)
Good night innernets. (Slapjack)
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Previously
2020: No entry.
2019: If that’s not a pile o’ smug, I don’t know what is.
2018: Brian Boitano sure likes to show off his fabulous extra thumb.
2017: “Nola,” I said. “I have made many safe and comfy places for you to have your babies. I mean, NO PRESSURE, NOLA, WHENEVER YOU WANT TO HAVE THEM, there are places that are safe and will contain your babies.”
2016: Stinkerbelle.
2015: Not. A. CARE.
2014: I love how Angelo is 100% sure that his presence on the bed is desired, and Dennis’s face tells another story.
2013: “I wish I hadn’t looked.”
2012: Also, they like to bite… everything.
2011: It’s exhausting to be a wee bebbeh kitten, is what I’m saying.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: The chicks react to worms by grabbing one of them and then running wildly around the pen so that the other chicks think she’s got something really good and start chasing her around to get it from her.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.