No TV, Just Life: Cats and kittens and not much else

Bad night. In the middle of the night dire rear shot me to the bathroom. Cats reaction? Yay! Playtime!

In the morning both cats are eager to go out. I have to exchange some harsh words with Silver for her to stay in while I sneak out to go shopping. First stop, petrol (relieved that it’s no longer on my account!), second stop: Vet. I get lucky and the CatCare Lady is in. I ask her how adoption of the kittens through CatCare works, I’m still not 100% sure, but I’ll take the first step and see how it works. I also ask her when the kittens should start eating food, and she advises when they weigh about 500 gr – which should be at about 5 weeks old. Ha! 5 weeks? The puniest of this lot weighed 295gr at 2 weeks! We didn’t weigh them again, but I’m sure they’re either at or over 500gr already! So, even though they don’t have a single tooth among them, yet – they’re ready! I could just mush some of the special kibble I have – special since it’s for lactating queens and her babies; but while they’re with me, I like to spoil them. So I get some tins of kitten wet food as well. The 4kg kibble is already almost finished, so I get another bag as well – those cats eat better than I do!

Next stop, groceries, then home. The ‘unpacking of the groceries’ is watched with great anticipation by both mommies – and they stalk off in a huff, when nothing is placed in their food bowls!

Speaking of which, they’ve started a new game where they overturn their bowls and cover the food with the towel I place underneath their dining-area! What’s that about?

Right, so the kittens weigh: Tabby (m) over 500 gr (my scale only goes to 500 gr): Short Sleeve (f) 470 gr, Calico (f) 470 gr and Long Sleeve (m) 440 gr. Tabby was very interested in the kibble I held to his nose and eagerly started licking it, but without teeth that’s as far as he can go. So next, I’ll experiment with some mush.

That was fun! Both mommies are highly disgusted at this atrocity of food that ONLY the kittens may eat! Short sleeve and tabby were interested and licked like champions – while I had to fight of both mommies who were adamant that food is exclusively for THEM! They attempted to steal the single mushy kibble out the baby’s mouth – and got their ears flicked as a reward! The complained bitterly at this incredible insult, jumped off the bed in a huff and sat by my feed venting their disgust. Of course the dish got stepped in, the liquid soaked their bedding which the mommy’s licked dry within seconds. Calico was not too keen … yet. When the kittens showed no further interest, I put the dish in the cupboard above the sink. Wise precaution, as I just caught Silver inspecting the sink! She’s really a clever cat, albeit very willful.

I just had some great fun with Shadow. She loves that mouse on elastic string on a stick toy – jumps, rolls, pounces, anything to play with it. I moved the scratching post to the play area, and Shadow would cling upside-down to it and work her way up like a monkey – it’s quite fun to watch! When I dangled the mouse in front of Silver she just gave me a look and turned away.

That scratching pole is really quite a simple one: I just took a 40mm PVC pipe, sawed half the diameter off at the one end, sawed an angle to the opposite end (Ok, so first I didn’t line it up with the top and had to re-do it) then stuck three strips of double-sided tape down the length of it and wrapped rope around it. Ok, so I did it in three steps – as in, stuck three strips down a third of the pipe, wrapped the rope around it, then the next third and so on. I had sawed a cleft into the top end, where I fastened the rope with a knot on the inside of the pipe, and at the bottom end I pulled the rope through two wraps and knotted that as well. I used one entire rope, which covered 1,32m of 40mm PVC pipe. If anyone wants to know exact how-to details, comment on this post and I’ll bore you with the details J.

As a mother, Silver is really bad. For example, this past hour: She’s outside frolicking or whatever leaving Shadow to settle the kittens and look after them. When they’ve all settled down and gone to sleep, she comes strolling in, announcing her arrival with loud trills then plonks herself down on top of her babies! They all start crying, she licks them till they’re quiet and when they’ve nestled in for a good feeding session – she gets up to go to her food bowl – leaving the kittens crying with their meal so rudely interrupted! Eats a few kibbles and goes outside again! Leaving poor Shadow to try and calm them and settle them down again. I don’t think Shadow has any milk left, though. They keep trying, but never stay on her. Silver behaves like the queen, making occasional guest appearances in the nursery – but leaving the real work to her lady-in-waiting! No wonder Shadow tries to follow my neighbour home every day! She really has a much sweeter temperament than Silver. I am hoping that getting spayed will have a positive effect on Silver’s nature as well. I have grown extremely fond of her, and don’t want to loose her. She may be a bad mother, willful and not very cuddly – but she is such a fascinating character! And she is attached to me as well, I would absolutely hate to have to crush her newly formed trust in humans. I don’t know if I could bear that.

Curious Calico sitting up to watch what I'm doing

The weather looks quite lovely, but the wind is quite cold. Too cold to spend time in the garden. I did take some photo’s though.

Fed some of the kittens more mushy kibbles. Tabby is quite keen, as is Long Sleeve, but neither Short Sleeve nor Calico show any interest. Trust the two males to be the first to expand their food experiences! Although it’s Short sleeve who first started purring – so far, she’s the only kitten who purrs. Her eye has cleared up nicely. I had to clean some crust out of it today again, but at least it was open. And I’m happy to say there are no more fleas nor any other parasites. Neither on kittens nor cats.

My neighbour came up for her daily visit and I showed her Shadows favourite toy – which she enthusiastically took to engage Shadow. And showed her how two of the kittens already eat mushy kibbles. Her daughter wants to come look at the kittens tomorrow – she said she’ll bring her dog to choose one of the kittens!

It’s been a pretty unproductive day for me, lazing about, playing my online game a bit and spending most of the day with the kittens – on and off. Oh, and Calico started purring as well! So, both males are first to eat, but the females are first to purr!

One other interesting observation – when left alone for a while, they are always three in a cuddle and one a way off. A different one every time – but for some reason they don’t like to bunch four together. Strange, but there you are!