kittens Archives - Page 5 of 5

November 13, 2018September 14, 2019

Unsolicited Kitten Advice

I met a nice woman on Nextdoor (the app where you learn just how awful most of the people in your neighborhood are) who was looking for some equipment for the new kitten she is adopting. So, I messaged her offering her some things and tipping her off about the great pet-stuff selection at Marshalls (seriously, if you are looking for cat scratchers or pet beds, go there!). She was bringing home a little 6-7 week-old kitten from a litter that someone rescued and raised until they were big enough to go to homes. So nice!

When she came by, I asked if she would mind if I gave her some unsolicited kitten advice and now, I have new kitten protocol on the brain. So, I’m sharing my top “do’s and don’ts” on bringing new kittens home with you guys to get it off my mind.

You’re welcome.

*Caveat: I am NOT a new kitten expert and none of my new kitten advice is groundbreaking info.

Keep your new kitten in a restricted space. Your new kitten doesn’t need free-range of your house and neither of you are going to be happy about it if you start off that way. Set up an area with all the things your kitten needs: food, water, litter box, bed, a few toys. My kittens liked sleeping in their travel crate when they first came home. Having it out and easy to get to was helpful when they were going to the vet every couple weeks.
Play with your kittens in their “room” and when you bring them out into the rest of the house, keep them with you. After Anabel and Sally were pooped out from playing, I would bring them out to cuddle and nap on me while I watched tv (they like watching golf).
Hold and touch your kittens a lot. Touch their paws, their tummies, their faces. Be gentle but persistent.
Keep an eye on them when the are using the box. When Anabel and Sally first came home, they couldn’t clean themselves. So, I would use a wet washcloth and give them the momma cat treatment. Clean kittens = happy kittens and happy pet parents.
You can use a wet washcloth to keep their face and paws clean too (maybe not the same one that you just used to clean their bum). Go ahead and give then a full wipe down, it’s an easy cat-bath.
Trim their nails! They will be fussy, but if you start when they are little bitty, they will quickly get used to it. Do it weekly. You will be so much happier in the long run.
People fingers are not toys. Do not play with your kitten using your fingers instead of a toy. If you do, you are teaching them that you are for pouncing, attacking, and biting. Pulling a toy mouse around by the tail = good playing. Teaching your kitten to chase your finger = bad playing.
As your kittens grow you can start expanding their “area” slowly. Even after they had free-run of the house, we still put Anabel and Sally in their room when we weren’t home and at night. Eventually they let us know that the gate we were using wasn’t fooling anyone, but it at least gave me a sense of comfort to think that they were in a controlled area when I wasn’t there to supervise their shenanigans.

I’m very excited for my neighbor and so happy for this poor kitten to have a good home. I hope that they will have many happy years together!

November 6, 2018November 6, 2018

Six -Month-Old Kittens

Anabel and Sally turned six months old yesterday! I threw a huge party with cake and a bouncy house and pony rides. Just kidding. I’m not that crazy…yet.

They were just seven weeks old when I brought them home and now, they are nearly grown up kitties, I can ‘t believe how fast the time has gone.

They were so wobbly when they first came home. Climbing into the litter box was a big challenge. These days they fly from one end of the house to the other in two or three bounds.

The internet says that a six-month-old kitten will be about half the size/weight of the cat as an adult. Yikes! Sally is already huge. We haven’t been back to the vet since they got fixed, but he is probably close to 10 pounds. Oh man, we’re in trouble!

They are still growing into their ears (and their paws). Their cat coats are coming in and they just keep getting fluffier every day. For a while there they had lost their kitten fluff and were starting to look like short haired cats. With very hairy feet. However, Anabel is pretty much all fluff these days. Sally has a beautiful plume for a tail. He is still sort-of sleek on top, but the fur on his back is getting noticeably longer and I think that once his undercoat comes in, he will be as fluffy as the best of them.

I am especially thrilled that they keep getting sweeter as they are growing up. Sally comes running when I come home from the gym and Anabel will spend hours and hours sitting on Mr. Man’s lap when he gets home from work.

Happy half-birthday my sweet fluffy loves.

October 30, 2018October 29, 2018

Ticked Tabbies and You

Mr. Man and I are firm believers that brown tabbies are the best cats (even though brown tabby is a color and not a breed and probably doesn’t really have anything to do with a cat’s “personality”). And even though our kittens are brown tabbies, their coats are very different from our previous cats.

Every cat that I have had has been a brown tabby. My childhood cat, Tailer, was a classic tabby with big swirly stripes on his sides. Our precious Emma was a perfect Mackerel tabby, she had distinct, symmetrical stripes. Clementine was a mackerel tabby with a Maine Coon style coat (she never got huge like a Maine Coon though).

Sally and Anabel both are not as distinctly striped as our previous cats. They have the classic tabby “M” on their foreheads and are clearly striped on their legs and head. As their coats are starting to come in the stripes on the sides of their bodies are developing, but if you look at them from the back, you don’t really notice their stripes at all. What you notice more, especially on Anabel is more just salt-and-peppery speckles.

Because Mr. Man and I are obsessed with our sweet kittens we spend a lot of time examining their cuteness and researching various kitten things. One evening, after an extensive conversation about their markings, I started researching. It turns out there is something called a “ticked” or agouti tabby. Ticked tabbies may not have a defined stripe pattern on their body, but each individual hair is striped. Agouti refers to the gene variation that produces the banded hair pattern. Our other cats would have a dark hair with a light tip or the other way around, but on Anabel and Sally their hairs have alternating light and dark bands all the way along (I tried to take a picture). Ah ha! We have ticked tabbies! That is much nicer than thinking that we have poorly striped tabbies.

True ticked tabbies’ coats have a sandy appearance and no noticeable stripes at all. Apparently, this is a common “color” on Abyssinians (which our kittens very clearly aren’t). I also noticed that the squirrel that startled me when I was on my way to the laundry room earlier has a ticked coat. So apparently this genetic mutation is not exclusive to cats. Just thought you’d like to know!

October 23, 2018October 23, 2018

The Incredible Shrinking Chair

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:

look at how much space the kittens have to sprawl out

This was on August 19:

September 28:

all piled up but only taking up half the seat

And this is today:

Its crazy how this chair just keeps getting smaller, don’t you agree?

October 16, 2018October 14, 2018

Sally and the Baby

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.

Anabel hanging out. Sally looking for belly rubs.

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.

October 9, 2018October 7, 2018

Kittens on the Kitchen Counter

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.

Sally wants to help make pumpkin cheesecake

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.

October 2, 2018September 30, 2018

Anabel and Sally – The Fix is in!

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.

September 25, 2018September 25, 2018

Anabel and Sally Climbing the Walls

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:

Anabel on top of a rack of magazines. Sally wonders how she got up there. Mr. Man wonders why I have a rack of old San Francisco Ballet programs lying around.

Sally beats Anabel to the seat of the wicker barrel chair. Anabel decides that she must destroy the offending chair.

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.

September 18, 2018September 17, 2018

Welcome Home Kittens!

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!).

September 11, 2018September 14, 2019

Welcome to Kitten Tuesdays!

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).