Four Kitten Update

Diego is helping me with this blog as I write though some of his text needs a little editing. He is also very interested in pens, so I think we have the makings of a literate kitty here. Anyway, it’s official: we’re keeping both Diego and Charlie. Our landlord is letting us keep a pair and we signed the adoption certificate for them this past Sunday. Our cats are now bona fide.

We’re having a great deal of fun having them around the house. I’ve never had a cat before. Since I’ve been a cat lover since at least age 6, this is quite a joy for me. I’ve always lived in a situation where people were allergic, cats weren’t wanted, or cats weren’t allowed.

We saw Diego and Charlie’s sister this evening. She’s grown quite a bit, though is much smaller than her big brothers, and is feisty as ever. The interesting thing is that she’s developing a grey undercoat to her black fur, coming in across her back especially. She’s also getting a grey coon tail pattern contrasting with the black.

Up in Woodland, Louie, the orange kitten we adopted out a month ago, is doing very well in his new home. His family loves him dearly and think he’s going to grow up to be a huge cat.

Kitten Typography

Disclaimer: I am NOT a cat person…. but Numenius says we’re working on me.

I took the kittens into work today at the request of my coworkers. (Also at work today were a riparian brush rabbit and a wood rat, but no dogs, unlike most days.) The kittens are tired out after a long day of playing.

We have fenced them into the bathroom so we could go in and out without their escaping. They figured out how to climb the fence within, oh, about five minutes (see right). This business of keeping them enclosed is pointless.

My head is full of photo captions to shots I wasn’t able to take: kitten on tandem. Kitten in telescope. Kitten under rocking chair. Kitten in Kinko’s box. Kitten on algebra book with tampon. Kitten(s) in, or on, REI paper bag. Kitten wrestling with clean laundry. Kitten looking longingly outside through the screen before being pounced on by sibling.

I think we’ve found homes for them, or at the very least, backup homes in case they’re unclaimed. I’m feeling optimistic.

Cuatro Gatitos

Our adventures in kitty fosterhood went well today. John our landlord graciously took the mother cat still in the have-a-heart trap to the vet to be spayed; he likes the idea of having a cat around to deal with the rodents (who indeed get plentiful at times. There’s a crop of corn growing now which will shelter lots of rats.) Pica caught another of the kittens this morning, and it turned out there were two kittens, not one, in the trap. So all four kittens were accounted for and came to spend the afternoon and evening in the kitty nursery a.k.a. our bathroom. It looks like the kittens are about five weeks old.

We have lots of thanks for people. Virginia for kindly hosting the kittens over the weekend while we go birding around the Salton Sea; John for the trip to the vet with the mother; and Deanna, Sue, Carrie and other coworkers of Pica’s for providing lots of veterinary advice.

In the fine tradition of cat blogging (alas one of its finest practitioners , Kevin Drum, in February gave up the practice to move on to loftier blogging digs), here’s a photo of the two orange kitties.

Catching Cats

This evening as I came home I saw that the feral cat had not two but four kittens—two black and two light ginger, everyone hanging out in the carport. The mother raced off and I was able to pick up one of the black kittens by the scruff. It’s now in our bathroom, complete with the litter I ran out to get and kitten food.

I set the have-a-heart trap for one, I hoped, or more of the other kittens. They’re easily seduced by tuna. Not ten minutes later, a big ruckus took Numenius outside. We’ve caught the mother and another one of her kittens.

I called my vet friend who said to cover the trap and wait till morning. No sense in getting clawed to pieces trying to get the kitten out of there. Then the key is to round up the other two.

I have to say this has all been a bit more stressful than I would have liked. We’re getting ready to go on a birding trip to Southern California this weekend and I find myself suddenly in charge of five cats…