Cyrano Sells Out

This morning the human was on her own as 3 crazy kittens ran all over the house (AreToo started down the basement stairs). Where was Cyrrie? In the bedroom, eating the kittens' food!

Sweet! 

And good... 

AreToo and Angel being sweet and good... 

Banshee is much prettier than this, but at least you can see her emerald eyes, and the gorgeous colors in her fur... Our faerie cat! 

Circus City

Tonight they all escaped, to the horror of everyone except the human and Cyrrie. The human decided to cache them in the bathtub as they were caught, and then closed the bathroom door... For the first time in days she cleaned their litter box in peace. She swept the floor with no one riding on the broom. Then she FancyFeasted the natives, put more FF in the bedroom, and returned the foster kittens to their assigned location... ("AreToo" was the only one who actually made it out of the tub, but closing the door was definitely a good idea...)

Really And Truly True

Cats herding cats, or, more properly, kittens herding kittens! They are now up to 3-on-1 escape attempts, which usually means that the human thwarts 1 kitten, while 2 escape. As the human catches 1 little miscreant, Cyrrie tracks the other, making it easy for the human to get him, too. This has happened 3 times today!

Scary! 

"AreToo"... 

"Angel" and "Mitten"... 

Kersplash

This morning the human went in to take some more marketing pics. "Mitten" was on the bed - got some cute shots of him - "Angel" was on the corner of the bed - he was going to be next - but only gradually did "AreToo" 's location come into focus... Some days ago, tired of unhooking them from the lace curtains, the human had tucked the curtains up behind the dressers. "AreTo" had navigated himself to the drape of a curtain, and was sleeping in it, hammock-style. Except that he was waking up, and the curtain was starting to slip, all very slow motion, but still faster than the human. Before she could catch him, "AreToo" had landed half in the water bowl, and had to have his little butt dried off. (You are too all wet...)

Dealing With Multiple Escape Attempts

Everytime the human opens the bedroom door, there is now at least one kitten waiting and ready to make a desperate dash down the hall... At some point, though, they stop to look more closely at - something - and then they get nabbed!

They Understand Every Word

The human was holding little "AreToo", aka "Spitfire", who was benignly teething on her... Then she said, You guys are growing so fast - in a couple of days you won't be cute anymore! Chomp!!

Variation On Old Movie Disease

As the human tried to sleep with the kittens this morning, she was reminded of a scene from the movie Dragonslayer - where the baby dragons were crawling over the dead princess, munching...!

Sleeping in style... 

Sun and shadow... 

The ever popular octopus... 

One of our irises (the rain had knocked it over)... 

From The I Ask You File

Why is it that whenever the human cleans their box and puts in a nice new layer of litter, the first thing the kittens do is either lay in it or play in it...?

Plagues

This morning there were ants - tiny ones - lots of tiny ones - in our kitchen and dining room. Our human got weird, and vacuumed for about 2 hours... We think a much bigger problem is the current plague of kittens!

Privilige Or Insult?

When the human comes out of the bedroom after feeding the babies their baby food, she let's Cyrrie lick the spoon...

Kittengate

Tomorrow was going to be a play date for the kittens - reunite them all and introduce them to new humans... It was supposed to happen, in the language of the ALA's PR campaign, "at your library". But there has been a pre-emptive strike by shadowy administrators claiming it would violate OSHA regulations. Here! Where a dog used to go to mass (and wander around the altar)... So: not only evicted, banned!

AMs

Most mornings, the human gets up off the coach and goes into the bedroom, to "sleep" for an hour or so with the kittens... Of course, sleep is not exactly what happens - it's more a matter of being walked on, nibbled (chomped), and then there's the deafening roar of a kitten who's purring right up against your ear...

Close Encounters Of The Kitten Kind

Earlier today, while the human was multi-tasking, i.e., taking the old water out of the bedroom, fending off

kittens

on one side and cats and

kittens

on the other, all the while gently closing the door, suddenly the door comes to a stop. Looking down, the human sees a kitten-sized stoppage, in fact, a kitten ("Mitten") half in and half out of the bedroom... On the outside of the door are Cloud, Cyrrie and Lucy. So the human puts down the water bowl, and... watches. And everybody is amazingly cool. Then the human picks up the kitten, and says, Say Hi! Say Bye! and returns him to the bedroom.

Sequel: Return of the Pod Kittens 

The Hand That Feeds You

And changes your water and cleans your kitty litter... What's worse than biting that hand? Teething on it - first the nibbles, then the chomp!

Parting Admonitions

Buddy, No ambushing Petunnia. Cyrrie, No irritating Cloud (you know what you're doing even if your human does not). Petunnia and Cloud, No over-reacting. Lucy, No over-eating. Banshee, No gacking. And "Kittens"! Have fun, little guys...

Gang of Three... 

"Mitten" through the looking glass... 

"Spitfire" looking not spitfirey... 

"Angel" looking angelic... 

These tulips start out white with the tiniest piping of red... 

Our Japonica (maybe it's Japonica, maybe not)... 

Our poppies... 

To Do List

1. Food and meds, etc.
2. Search and rescue mission for toys - when the guest kittens were first in the bedroom, toys were distilling out of thin air. Now there are huge quantities lost under the bed and dresser, and bored kittens looking for something to play with...
3. Re-kittenproof - they've finally made the jump from the bed to a dresser-top!

Aside

Given their health problems, I really believe that most or all of these little guys would have died if they had not been captured.

Needs A New "Name"

These 3 are doing very well now - lively, looking good, eating! Which brings me back to "Angel" - this morning he used language this human has never heard before from cats - or kittens! He smacked at "Spitfire" twice - who - good on him - ignored the little monster completely and kept eating. "Mitten" however again ran under the bed and stayed for the duration... Time for separate plates, I guess, at least for the little "A" boy.

" "Angel" "

Little "Spitfire", the sick one who is here, seems better today - much more active, and, best of all, he ate...! Little "Angel" - the formerly sick one - the runt! - while he was eating - growled so loudly at this brothers that "Spitfire" just sat back and waited, while "Mitten" ran under the bed...

One of the giant economy size kittens... 

Tech Note

When I realized I could post pics from work but not from home, I was brilliant. I turned off the computer, turned it on again, and, magic...! Brilliant!!

Sigh...

Fostering ups and downs: Now that little "Angel" is well on the road to recovery, we have 2 more sick kittens, 1 in each household - same symptoms - and hopefully little "Tinky" and little "Spitfire" will follow in Angel's paw prints... But still it was back to the vetz, and now we're looking forward to at least 10 more days of meds. Hopefully the next kitten post will have good news again....

Tummy

When the human gave "Angel" his special breakfast just now, he did a good but not great job of eating. But when she picked him up and felt his not so little tummy, she realized that it must have been his second breakfast...

Hi, there, Big Eyes... 

Metamorphosis

The guest kittens have had a very strange effect on Cloud. All her life she's been tiny and light - a little bit of volume with hardly any substance. Everytime her human picked her up (many times a day) she would say, I can't believe how "dinky" you are... Suddenly Cloud is much much bigger and heavier. How did she do it?

From When They Were Six

"Angel" is the outer right face, all chipmunk colored...

Look What She Found

Cloud still doing her part in the kitten war on xmas...

Another Kittening

That is, another kittening... The kittens pulled the bedroom lamp down again, and this time they managed to detach the beanie baby bat that was velcroed to the base. (Note to human: Duh...!)
Plus, "Angel" update: He's feeling so feisty he has to be tea-towelled to be medicated!

But -

I do have one question... Even with a reduced population of kittens, I find myself asking, What is my worst nightmare? The fact that they are now teething? Or, the fact that they now want out!! (PS, Angel - whoops, I mean "Angel" - continues to improve....)

Dratitude!

I tried last night, this morning and just now to put up pictures, and all I get is that nasty little red x... But I'm too tired to try to troubleshoot it tonight.

Shelter Update

The gang of six got broken up this morning, when 3 kittens went back home with Jennifer, their original foster human. The remaining guest guys, including the sickly "Angel", seemed very sad... (But physically Angel is doing much better.)

Meltdown

What a day. After doing pretty well yesterday, "Angel" backslid, and so we went back to the clinic. After the FeLV scare, the news was good: "Angel" responded well to some special food, and Dr. Kelly thinks it may have been a low blood sugar thing... And when the human got home tonight, "Angel" was active and even eating crunchies again.... On the other hand, a lamp in the bedroom was overturned, and 2, count them 2, kittens were missing! (It was the ocelot twins.) Were they sick? Coming down like "Angel" did?? Eventually, after prolonged panic and searching of a very small room, they surfaced - and the human began to understand just who it was knocked over the lamp! OK, all's well. But not! Next it was necessary to FF the regulars, and everyone showed but Banshee. But the human was still mostly ok - Banshee had been spending time in the attic, but her fav places were well known, so, no problem. Problem. When the human went upstairs, Banshee was no where to be found. So: Get the flashlight, search the corners, etc. Nothing. And then the panic really starts. Banshee! Asthmatic!! Take a can of FF upstairs, pop the top, nothing. Eventually the human becomes shrill, if you know what we mean. Cats and kittens are starting to notice. Then we have what can only be an angelic intervention - tell your guardian angel to get together with, etc. Banshee appears, obviously very freaked-out, but, as far as the human can tell, not sick and not injured. After prolonged sweet-talk, Banshee lets herself be carried downstairs, and, eventually, consents to consume a rather large quantity of FF. But she's still freaked and it shows. Eventually the human begins to understand - in the course or her original original panic - sick "Angel" - she realizes Banshee may well have eyeballed "Angel" as the human toted her out to the vetz. Much additional sweet-talking will be required. And more FF. And c-nip. And feathers. But the human is so so happy to have her beautiful Bansh back!!!

Poor Baby

On top of all his other problems, Angel had to have a bath...

5 out of 6 - Angel, the sick one, is far left, not quite being smothered by... someone. 

Desperately Needed:

WD40, or similar... The bedroom door, which has probably not been used since we had our previous guest litter (1995?), has developed a Sqweeeeeeeeeeee.... It is an excellent sqweee in its way - very suitable for hauntings, etc., i.e., very high pitched, very painful to listen to. Or so the human thinks. Cats - and kittens - and kittens - don't seem to notice!

Another great pic... 

Not All Bribes Are Food

The human is letting cats - and (big) kittens - up into the attic, where they love to hang out. There's a bed up there with lots of blankies; there's this spot where a blankie fell off the bed and landed under a garment bag to make a way cool little nest; there's even a dresser with cushions where you can look right out the window at the neighbor's roof!

Fierce little guys...