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Apparently my dining room chairs are shrinking! Well, maybe not all of them, but the one that the kittens like to hang out on is definitely getting smaller.
Here is a picture from July 22:
This was on August 19:
September 28:
And this is today:
Its crazy how this chair just keeps getting smaller, don’t you agree?
My friend who is responsible for Anabel and Sally coming to live with us came to visit. I love getting together with her and getting to show the kittens off to her. This time she brought her sweet 15-month-old daughter with her. This precious little girl is walking and went to work exploring our little house. Even though she has pets at her house, she was very interested in the kitten’s equipment (especially their litter boxes). Her mom and I were doing our best to keep up with her (and find something as entertaining for her as the litter boxes) and the kittens wanted to help.
Our previous cat Emma would disappear every time anyone came over. And Clementine, who loved to show off her fluffy tail, would make herself scarce anytime there were small humans around. She didn’t even like when the neighbor kids would play outside. Anabel and Sally are so much friendlier than our other cats were, but they really surprised us with these visitors. They are so friendly! SO friendly! As in, they got up from their naps to greet our guests. And they didn’t run away when they saw the small person. They both hung out during the whole visit.
Sally in particular really blew my mind. He wasn’t just hanging out in a stand-offish cat way, Sally was very interested in the baby. He would follow her around the house and walk right next to her. He does the same thing to Mr. Man, standing and walking next to his legs to encourage him to go where Sally wants him to (this usually involves dinner or belly rubs). I’m sure that he is probably some sort of herding cat.
But like I said, I have not had experience with cats who are interested in, much less not afraid of small people. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. I mean, she is a beautiful little cabbage patch doll of a person, but still. It was something else. I hope that they will come visit again soon and that this time I remember to take photos.
I’ve mentioned before that the kittens are everywhere and getting into everything in our house. Unfortunately, their new favorite spot is the kitchen counter.
I had hoped that they might just not become interested in it. Emma and even Clementine always left the kitchen counter alone. But Anabel and especially Sally are VERY interested in the kitchen counter, the kitchen sink, and anything sitting on or in those places.
My favorite way to store fresh, store-bought herbs is in a vase of water on the counter. Try it! It works really well for parsley especially. When it’s not too hot and you change the water regularly, stuff will last for a week. And the bonus is that you get a happy splash of fresh greenery in your kitchen. So, the other day when I bought a bunch of parsley for shrimp risotto night, I just put it in a vase on the counter like I usually do. I forgot that these are unusual times.
My darling Sally seems to really have something against fresh greenery. That, combined with his bourgeoning leaping prowess, meant that he was incessantly on the counter getting after the parsley. The fastest way to get him down was to pull a stem out and use it to lure him onto the floor where he would chase after and attack it until he got bored and went back for a fresh sprig. Anabel really likes to play “attack the parsley” as well. As far as cat toys go, it’s not too bad. Mr. Man looked it up and parsley is not dangerous for cats (unlike pretty much most any houseplant and several types of cut flowers). And, a bunch is under a dollar. That is days’ and days’ worth of kitten entertainment on a budget.
I think that the parsley unfortunately turned them on to the fascinating world of the kitchen counter and now I can’t keep them off it! They like to supervise when I’m doing dishes. And don’t think that Sally let’s me put his wet food in a dish and then put it on the floor. He is right there the second that I crack the can. Even Anabel, who most days can’t even be bothered to get up when it’s meal time, has gotten into the eating on the counter act.
I tell you what, I know that I judge people who can’t control their dogs or children. And here I am with kittens running amok in my kitchen. What’s the saying about casting stones? Yes, that rock smarts when you have to throw one at yourself too. Hopefully, if I remember to keep the parsley in the fridge, they will grow out of it/get bored with that part of the house…eventually.
As I mentioned last week, my kittens had their kitten making equipment “fixed”. Even though it was scary to subject my little loves to surgical procedures, I am very glad that we did it. All of us are going to be happier living without the things that come along with cat hormones.
Drop off was between 7-7:30am. The vet gave me strict instructions that they weren’t to have any food after midnight. Since these kittens are used to a middle-of-the-night snack, they were very ready for breakfast, which they weren’t going to get either. I was glad to drop them off right at 7:00 so that I could escape my guilt of their being hungry.
The doc called later that morning to let me know that they were both out of surgery, awake, and playful. He also let me know that Anabel’s equipment had been nearly ready to go into business, so I think we got this taken care of just in time!
When I picked them up, I got a whole long list of instructions: use this recycled paper litter, pain meds for Anabel every 12 hours, wait an hour after getting home before feeding, only feed them half the usual amount then wait another hour, have them wear the cone anytime that they aren’t going to be supervised, minimize jumping and rough play (ok…um, is that possible?).
They were quiet in the car the whole way home. When I opened the carrier, they took a while to make their exit. It reminded me of the first time that I brought them home. Sally came out first of course, he had to say “hello” and check out the new litter box situation. Eventually Anabel joined us and we all hung out in the sunroom for a while.
Anabel was very in to the new litter. I kept hoping someone was going to take care of business, but they just wanted to play with it. Part of the interest was that we also switched from our fancy top-loading litter boxes to a regular litter pan to minimize jumping. The low-sided pan with this new stuff in it was a playground.
After everyone settled in a bit, I put out their breakfast (so it was 2pm, whatever). It was clear that Sally was feeling his procedure. They slept under the futon in the office rather than in the bed with us that night. But by the next morning Sally was back to his friendly, lovey self.
Ok, did I tell you about having them wear their cones? Oh yeah, that went well. And by well, I mean not well at all.
The morning of day two post-op: Anabel wants to lick her incision. Because it’s itchy. So, I put the cone on her like I’m supposed to. Then she gets all riled up. Then Sally starts teasing her. So, he gets the cone too. I let Mr. Man know what’s going on and I’m off to the gym. When I come home, Mr. Man is not happy. Apparently, they went even more nuts; there was crashing and thrashing and freaking out. So much for that.
Also, about the not jumping thing. Total fail. They were back up in the window over the fireplace and everywhere else they wanted to go the very next day.
Despite our poor observance to the doc’s instructions, everyone is healing nicely, and we are pretty much back to our usual program now. Anabel’s incision is pretty healed up, now we just have to wait to see how long it takes for her tummy fur to grow back.
Kittens sure grow up fast! In these past few months it seems like they reach a new milestone on a daily basis. Its been fascinating to watch them develop literally before my eyes. I mean, there have been days when they wouldn’t be able to do something in the morning but they had mastered it by 5:00pm. Most of these “accomplishments” involve them being able to climb or jump onto something bigger and higher.
For example:
After about a month, it was time to give them full-time access to the whole house.
Up to that point, we were keeping them in the sunroom, then in the sunroom and office. I would bring them into the front room under close supervision only. We also practiced wearing their collars, which would make them nuts. The day that I decided that they were big enough to have free reign of the house was the day that they needed to start wearing their collars full time. They were so excited about exploring everything that they forgot to be annoyed by the bells.
These guys still are very good at getting underfoot, but the bells give us a little warning. It creates a sort-of background music when they are running amok in the house – hunting stuffed mice, attacking empty paper towel tubes, hiding loose change and hairbands, and attempting to destroy any other random things they can get their paws on.
Of course Anabel decided to climb the fireplace screen because there’s got to be something interesting inside the fireplace, right? Good thing that these kittens are so tolerant of being handled because I am not tolerant of her white feet being black (yuck!) and we had some washing up to do after that adventure. Sally followed her in there the next day. Luck for him, his feet are black, so I never really knew how dirty he got. Currently the fireplace has this attractive barricade system.
It was a big day when Anabel made the leap to the window over the fireplace. This was Clementine’s favorite place and we knew that the kittens would love it there once they discovered it. There were a few oopsies before Anabel made it, but she is a determined and fearless girl. Once she had established her cool, new spot, Sally had to figure out how to get himself up there too. Now they can help me keep an eye on the neighbors (in-between naps).
This morning I dropped the kittens off at the vet to get fixed! I’ve never had to do this before, the last ones had already had that done before they came home to us. I just hope that the doc doesn’t accidently remove any of their sweetness when he’s in there.
My kittens, Anabel and Sally, were so little when I brought them home. Would you look at those baby blue eyes!
They were still wobbly on their feet and getting over the side of the kitten-sized litter box was a big leap.
I would sit on the floor and play with them. They could just barely jump up on my legs, usually not without claws and climbing. Eventually (after 10 minutes) they would get tired and snuggle in for a nap. When was the last time that you sat cross-legged on the floor for more than 5 minutes? The kitten needle claws were nothing compared to what my hips and back had to say about sitting on the floor so much. Ouch!
I was nervous when I took them to the vet that first week. And he was a little stern with me about having such teeny kittens. You normally would never take kitten from their mother at seven weeks. But they were orphans. The kitten foster lady who had rescued their whole litter (there were seven of them!) did an amazing job at not just keeping them alive but socializing them to be friendly and sweet. She could see that crazy cat lady twinkle in my eyes and knew that I would take good care of them (it probably didn’t hurt that my friend runs the rescue organization that helps her find homes for all of the kittens that she does such a good job of raising).
They were both just barely around 1.5 pounds at that first vet visit, no wonder they seemed to teeny!
I am so happy that I got litter-mates and I feel so lucky that they were so well socialized. They have been friendly and sweet and tolerant from day one. I sure feel some pressure to make sure that they stay that way (so far so good!).
This past June, I brought home two new seven-week-old baby kittens, a brother and sister. Within the previous ten months my husband, Mr. Man, and I had to put down our two beloved cats, Clementine (15 years) and Emma (18 years) and Mr. Man was VERY against the idea of any more pets. But have you ever heard that saying that a cat is the soul of the home?
I’ve been crazy about cats ever since I was a little girl. We didn’t have any animals when I was little, little, but my aunt had this wonderful, big, black tom cat named Sebastian. Now, Sebastian was not interested in me in the least, but I sure thought he was wonderful and would do whatever I could to get my hands on him. Of course I had those cute kitten posters all over my walls. And the year that Santa brought me the my dream bicycle (banana seat and the basket with the plastic daisies on it) the only thing that I needed to make my life complete was a kitten to put in the basket. On my eleventh birthday, this beautiful little brown tabby kitten walked in our front door. And that is how you know that dreams come true. Even my dad couldn’t deny me this treasure. Tailer (we named him for his happy tail) was a friendly guy who was a wonderful addition to our family.
My adult life as a crazy cat lady is a testament to the power of suggestion.
I hadn’t really been thinking about cats or pets and then one night, out of nowhere, Mr. Man busts out with, “you know, you really need a cat.” I do? Hmmm…you know what, I think he’s right! I DO need a cat! And we got Emma. From the moment that she came into our lives, I have been obsessed.
I’ll tell you all about Emma and Clementine another day.
Long story short: I was daydreaming. I told my dear friend who does animal rescue all about the kittens that I had imagined and then waited. Around mid-June she started sending me photos. And there was the kitten that I had imagined who I was going to name Anabel! Now the other kitten needed to be an all brown tabby (the best flavor of kitty). Anabel just so happened to have a brother who was brown tabby. “No boy cats!” said Mr. Man, also, “I get to name the other cat.” My friend said there were options, so I went to meet the kittens. Anabel was just adorable. And so was her brother. He was the sweetest, little love bug. And they loved each other. And I brought them both home.
Mr. Man was mad about the boy kitten for about .1 of a second (because who can be mad about a sweet baby kitten). The only problem was the name that he had picked out: Sally. Fortunately, Mr. Man remembered a scene from The Godfather, where Robert Duvall says to Abe Vigoda, “can’t do it Sally.” So our little Sally’s full name is Salvatore Tessio (even though he’s growing up to be more of a Clemenza if you ask me).
Every day these kittens do something new and delightful and I’m sure that the world will be a better place if I tell you all about it. The good news is that I will only torture you with the kitten report on Tuesdays and I will endeavor to stick to a 500 word count (roughly).