Walk-about kittens!

It has come – the day of kitten wandering! When I put them down next to my bed, they immediately proceeded to go walk-about! When I came to bed, it was kittens wandering everywhere – and mommies helplessly trilling in their midst! They had wandered under the bed and out the other side. Just before going to sleep, I plonked each one back in their nest, the mommies following. Ten minutes later mommies call in distress – kittens are back under the bed where mommies can’t follow! Interesting times!

Pre six am wake up call – which I ignored. So Silver went ballistic – as in: pretends to be a bullet shooting through my room! By the time I get up there’s bits of fur everywhere! I let Silver out. She doesn’t stay long, and once she’s back – since Shadow is making no move to go for a turn, I close the door. It doesn’t take long for Silver to decide that the kittens are no longer easy to manage and she’d prefer to get out. Nope! Door stays closed. Half-way through my coffee I look in on them – to find both mommies perched on the edge of my bed looking down on the frolicking, cavorting kittens!

They are almost 4 weeks old. Two have started purring, baby teeth have come in and they evidently eliminate voluntarily (as in: pee without stimulation). I think it is time to introduce them to a litter box. Golly, ain’t I the lucky one!

I’ve just re-read some of the articles on kitten development first few weeks – and they all agree that the mother will be practically inseperable from her kittens the first couple of weeks – only leaving them once weaning begins. Ha! Meet Silver, Rabenmutter! She barely spends any time WITH her kittens! And Shadow is not much better these days – which I think may be linked to her milk drying up. Seriously, Belinda was a much, much better mother!

Back at home the gardener was there. He’d put up the last roll of fencing and cleaned out the rockery. I’m afraid I didn’t have the time to inspect and look. The kittens are no longer wobbling about, but striding confidently everywhere! Both mothers were sitting by the door awaiting my arrival – but neither went running outside. Instead we all went into the bedroom to look for the kittens (Notice the difference? Not to look at but to look for them?). They are happy and doing well.

I took out the litter box and both cats followed me downstairs for an outdoor frolick. My neighbour and the gardener came up to play with the kittens, I’ve had to cut her visit short, as I had a host of chores to take care of. As I picked the garbage bag out of the bin, I saw it had torn – so instead of filling it with the paper-waste in my lounge, I carried it straight out. Then I put the bedding into the washing machine and set that. And then I packed away the laundry.

I placed two towels on the floor in the bedroom and put the flower pot tray in the center, filled with potting soil – it’s low enough for the kittens to easily access and big enough for them to experiment. Well, about that: remember how the females showed no interest in food? Yeah, they both climbed into the litter box and enthusiastically tried eating the potting soil!

Both mommies want lots of attention, and I think that may be the key to keeping Silver. The kittens spend a lot of time under the bed – I don’t know why – but Silver wriggles under there as well to join them, so at least they are getting fed.

In between fussing over the cats I’m cleaning the bathroom floor, vacuuming – I vacuumed my bedroom as well. The Cats were out, but the kittens were looking at this with big eyes. One even tried to play with it – I’m glad to say they don’t go bananas at the sound.

Cooked dinner, ate, bathed and it was half past nine already! Last chore of the day: putting up barriers to keep the kittens out of the lounge and out of the kitchen! I thought about just locking them all into the bedroom – but that would mean the cats’ litterbox would have to go into the bedroom as well, and that’s not going to work. Even if I put newspaper all around on the the floor, the carpet will still end up with some splash or more. So, instead, I put up barricades to keep the lot out of lounge and kitchen. I thought about closing off the spare room as well – but decided to leave that space for the mommies to escape, as there are some high places the kittens can not get to. Yet.

I had forgotten my USB Stick, with this document, at work – I was rather glad, since I really did not have much time to write and post. And I didn’t even get time to even consider further cat furniture.