I’m feeling very judged right now by Mary.
Mary the cutie.
Laura the cutie.
Caroline takes Willie for a tour around the room. I think she keeps hoping the kittens will spot the food and belly up.
Albert in my lap.
Charles and Caroline grooming each other.
Albert hanging out with Pa.
Willie in the crate, judging me. These kittens, SO judgmental.
These kittens certainly do like their Pa, and the feeling is mutual.
Mary, out cold.
Maybe the crate is the Judgement Zone.
He’s such a flirt.
Delightfully stripey (and sleepy) Albert.
So last week, once Mary started venturing out of the crate, it wasn’t long before both the girls were out of the crate constantly. The boys would come out and go back in. Caroline was BESIDE herself, not understanding what was going on. I put a couple of short (flat) boxes up across the doorway so that the kittens wouldn’t accidentally venture out into the hallway, and Charles and Caroline were SUPER confused and a little freaked out by them for some reason. They were tall enough to stop the kittens, but Charles and Caroline could just hop over them. They went in and out and in and out, and when I wasn’t present, they pushed the boxes out of the way. I put them back. The next thing I knew, Charles had picked up a kitten and carried it into the hallway. When she heard the kitten crying, Caroline came running and told him off, and he carried it back into the room. I don’t know, there was just SOMETHING about those boxes that they didn’t like. So I took the boxes away and they calmed down.
That night, we were watching TV and I heard a kitten crying a few times, but thought nothing of it. When we went upstairs at bed time, Caroline had moved 3 of the kittens into Fred’s room, under the bed. I moved them back to the foster room, we closed them all in for the night, and all was fine.
Saturday, after seeing a kitten wander into the hallway, I thought I’d put a couple of boxes of litter in the doorway to block it since I didn’t like the idea of kittens wandering. Once again, Charles and Caroline went a little wild – leaping over the boxes, coming into the room, out of the room, back and forth. They’d take turns picking up a kitten and carrying it into the hallway then leaving it there. So I finally gave up, threw up my hands, and moved the boxes.
We had bad weather Saturday afternoon, and Caroline started moving the kittens into Fred’s room. I moved them back, she moved them again. I put her in the foster room with them and shut the door, she meowed sadly. Finally, I was like “The worst thing that could happen is that she’ll take them into Fred’s room, a kitten wanders off and gets lost, and we hear it crying, and go rescue it. I’m not fighting with this mother cat any more! If she wants them in Fred’s room, they can go into Fred’s room!” So while we were watching a movie Saturday night, she moved them into Fred’s room. At bed time, we moved them back, I bottle fed the babies, and we shut them all in for the night.
Yesterday, they stayed in the foster room for the better part of the morning, and then Caroline started moving them. She eventually moved three of them, and when I heard one crying in the foster room, I went to investigate. Since Caroline was under Fred’s bed with the three kittens nursing, I moved the other two, and they bellied up to the milk bar, too. They stayed in Fred’s room until bed time, and so now I imagine she’ll move them at some point this morning. Or not! Who knows?
(In a perfect world, yes, I would keep Charles, Caroline and the kittens confined to the foster room, but Charles and Caroline have had the run of the upstairs for a month now, and there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle unless I want to be driven absolutely mad by the howls from the foster room.)
I set up litter boxes for the kittens in the foster room, who could not possibly be less interested in them, but since the kittens will be in Fred’s room during the day, I guess I need to set up a couple in there too. The kittens will hopefully start showing interest in using those litter boxes in the next week or so.
These kittens are SO absolutely over-the-top adorable and sweet. Fred, who hasn’t spent any real time with them (I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past that he finds them boring at this age), was surprised when he sat down on the floor of the foster room and two of them immediately climbed into his lap and rolled around. Teresa came by to meet them all, and the kittens didn’t hesitate to climb into her lap either – Charles and Caroline had no problem with her handling their babies, either. They’re one friendly little family!
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We’re going to be dogsitting for friends for a couple of weeks; they have an elderly (12 years old) Dachshund they don’t want to board, so they asked if we’d dogsit. Yesterday they brought him over to spend the day and night as a trial run to see how it goes. We decided to confine him to the front living room, downstairs hallway, and computer room so that the cats could have space to get away from him (and to keep him away from the litter boxes and the cat food.)
Percy (the Dachshund) met Archie, who was not impressed.
The cats aren’t exactly fans of this new development, but since the dog is smaller than they are, they weren’t particularly worried about him either.
Jake, however? Not a fan.
The visit went fine (we figured it would), and while we were TOLD that all this elderly dog does is sleep, that was NOT our experience. That dog did NOT stop moving for longer than a few minutes at a time. I think that when he comes back next week, it’ll take a day or two to get into the routine of things, and then hopefully he’ll relax. He certainly doesn’t act like he’s 12 years old!
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Previously
2018: No entry.
2017: No entry.
2016: “Oh lord, where did all these children come from?”
2015: “Bring it over HERE, lady!”
2014: I love how Ferdinand is first on the scene, both times, to investigate what’s going on.
2013: “Stop harassing me. I did some mathematic equations, realized exactly how those babies are planning to exit their current domicile, and I decided I’m NEVER going to give birth. Go away.”
2012: I think it’s safe to say that Emmy is pretty much over one Fred Anderson.
2011: That cat tree is leaning rather dangerously under the weight of Elwood (aka “Ellie Belly”), but he doesn’t care.
2010: No entry.
2009: No entry.
2008: “The chickens are here!” he said.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.