Friday Kitten Blogging
Kittening Is Hard Work
Yawwwnnn….
[Editor: Property wakes from a nap and prepares to takes another. Their eyes are slightly open when they crawl around.]
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17 comments
this is bad. very bad. i live within driving distance. i don’t have any kittens.
my present dog thinks he is a cat. a few years ago, he helped me raise a litter of orphaned kittens [someone had left them in a box in the street]. there are now 3 cats living in this area who think they are dogs. also, we occasionally go to visit them. how many people take their dog to visit other people’s cats? how many people have cats who eagerly await visits from their foster-dog?
Property obviously needs plenty of nap time or will be too tired to enjoy the main sleep.. I forget – is Property a he or she?
Friday Ark #136…
We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….? Do link to the…
Oh no! *suffers from the kitten effect* I’m melting from the absolute adorable cuteness of this photo!
Well, obviously, Hipparchia, a Cynic would own a dog, although I have always felt that cats had a much more cynical philosophy than dogs. Dogs tend to be Stoics is my experience. It will be a couple of months before the kittens can go anywhere their momma doesn’t want them to go.
Jams, Ringo is not happy with my touching the kittens, so I haven’t “sexed” them yet. I’m going to be forced to move them soon, as she has not figured out that this needs to be done and the space she chose is becoming too small.
I meant to say this last night but got distracted by Bill Moyers (it’s all ellroon’s fault): the Tax Day Kittens are visibly growing from week to week. At this rate, Ringo will soon be a shadow of her former self. (Not really.) 🙂
Jaspenelle, welcome. The joy of a good momma cat is that she takes care of all of the hard work and the rest of us just get to enjoy the new life. Not that hand-raising isn’t rewarding, but there’s no time to relax until they are grown.
If Income is a tom, which I suspect from the size difference, but haven’t confirmed, he will tower over his momma. Ringo is maintaining her weight pretty well, which is not true of the ferals who generally get very gaunt when nursing.
Our Bebe was a feral cat who had been rescued not long after she gave birth to her first litter (when more or less a kitten herself!) Her kittens suckled the life out of her – by the time we got her she was a bag of bones
Ringo is two years old and fully mature, which is a major plus on the nutrition front, as many first litters are by not fully grown ferals and the process really stunts their growth as they are sacrificing minerals and vitamins they need to feed their kittens.
Can you make these kittens not feral by handling them when the mother is not around? Can you get the feral cats fixed? (A friend of mine had about 30 ferals cats about his property. His wife was going bonkers.)
I forgot to say these are adorable. Love the black, grey and white variations.
[sigh… ] i am going to have to be a stoic about this and resist temptation. we actually like to consider ourselves an eclectic household: one dog, one cat, one human [and some mice living in the walls]. further blurring of the cynic-stoic lines: the dog thinks he’s a cat and the cat thinks he’s a dog. and with the advent of summer, we may all become a bit more cynic-al.
the resident dog would welcome the addition of a kitten to the household, but the resident cat is also the resident curmudgeon and most decidedly would not. when the kittens were living here, he alternated between resigned and grumpy.
Ellroon, I do “trap, neuter, release” with the feral cats in the area. You can get a “live trap”, usually from the local animal control people, and you trap the cats. You then need to get them neutered and released back to the original area. Feral cats are territorial and will protect their area from intruders. If you simply trap, the problem never gets better because new strays will come in. I have a few females that are too smart for traps, but by using this method I have managed to stabilize the population at a dozen from five dozen. Cat society is matriarchal, so the females are the important members to trap. Whether it’s lions or feral house cats, the males are inconsequential when it comes to hunting or protecting the territory.
Yes, Anya got color and I got gray scale. Oh, these kitten will be domesticated, but their mother doesn’t tolerate much contact until they are mobile with their eyes open. In a month she will be ready to be rid of them and start weening. Ringo was a feral kitten who decided she liked people and cars. I brought her inside because she wouldn’t stay away from engine blocks or driveways.
Yes, Hipparchia, some cats don’t like other cats and pushing it is not a good idea.
*sigh* Sooooo gorgeous!
My resident Queen Slut mama cat just brought her litter (approx. 5 wks old) out into the sunshine for the first time today. I tried all week to trap her ass (she’s starting to wean), and she just turned up a lip at me and strolled on by.
The kittens are all fat and furry and gorgeous, but I haven’t been able to get close enough to snap a picture yet — she knows exactly what I’m up to, and she is very not amused.
Got 2 ferals from The Myrtles done, also got a lovely new round of “cat-scratch fever” rash from the very “tame” “Miss Sissy” who turned out to be a neutered male “MISTER Sissy” and decided after the rabies shot and the buzz-cut on his crotch (couldn’t ascertain if he/she had been fixed yet or not) that he hated my guts, popped a blood vessel in my arm and raked me a few good times. Yay.
There’s a gorgeous little black boy teenaged cat recovering from his anaesthesia hangover in a carrier in the back of my truck, and in the morning he goes back to the town recycling center. Sweet little fella. Was aiming for that calico hussy, but she is still too slick for me. Any tips on herding/corralling ornery mama cats, Bryan? These hussies are the bane of my existence. It’s one thing to get the sperm donors, it’s a whole other world to get the wombs-on-legs.
The honest truth is if I ever figure out how to capture either the Lone Ranger or Tonto I’ll let you in on the trick, because they are my current producers. I’m holding steady, but only because the fleas are sucking the life out of everything I can’t catch.
Oh, those are cute little babies. Kittens are so much fun!
Not for a new momma cat who worries about everything, just for the rest of us.