I Feel a Hiatus Coming On

I've learned to listen to myself when I start to feel the least bit stressed about blogging.

So I'll take a little time off, tend to the Grables, and let you know when they're ready for adoption.

Once they finally started eating, they thought it would be a good idea to get the sniffles, so they'll be here for a bit yet.

I hope you'll check back now and then! Shouldn't be too long.

Thanks for following my dear little dear ones. We all appreciate you, each and every one.

What is it, Boy?? What's in There?

Oh, it's Gilda! Git her, Rufus!!

A Room With a View

Me personally? I prefer the view indoors.

Change of Venue!

Just when I commented that the videos were starting to look a little too much alike, lo and behold the babies graduated to the living room!

I'm able to close a couple of doors to limit access to the back of the house. It's where I spend most of my time anyway - kitchen, t.v. room, kitten/office room. The living and dining rooms are generally off-limits, due in part to the fascination that some of the youngin's have with light-colored puffy rugs. And by 'fascination' I mean - well, let's just say that the one I have now is not the original. {Ahem.}

The result is that excursions to the living and dining rooms require constant supervision. (At least in my brain they do.) But really, this is only an issue with the real teeny tinies. The Grables are older now and so well-behaved. No problem at all.

"So let's mix things up a little, kittens!"

Sisters Times Two

Honestly, sometimes I think that my posts are so similar that I risk redundancy. But it's a risk I'm willing to take. It's what I'm fortunate to see day after day and it never for a minute gets old.

And so...



Rosie and Minnie - of course - Gilda in the foreground and Mimi trying very hard to engage Rosemary in a rousing game of Patty-Cake.

Now a little back story. When I brought the Grables home on December 20th, it was assumed (how silly) that they'd be short-timers. Gilda was already at 2 pounds and the others had only 3-4 ounces to gain before they could all be scheduled for surgery.

Well.. under the heading of "You-never-know-what-to-expect-with-these-foster-babies-even-if-you-think-you-do", they all decided right away that they would eat nothing. Nothing.

I tried endless brands of cat food from fancy to Friskies; canned and kibble; even the old stand-by Gerber chicken for babies. Human babies. They ate nothing.

They all lost weight. I resorted to syringe feeding and supplemental sub-q fluids. Still, they wouldn't eat. They lost more weight.

The magic elixir finally came in the form of sauteed boneless chicken tenders. Yes, I had to slave over a hot stove to get these guys to eat, but boy did they eat!

Rufus, who had always been the smallest, was so excited that his little tail puffed way up like a Christmas tree and he snarled and spit lest a sibling grab even a tiny morsel of this long-awaited feast! Eureka! I'd found it.

This discovery was made a couple of weeks ago, and since then they've dined on four or five substantial sized packages of chicken tenders, they've fattened up to their original size and then some, and learned to eat regular cat food like good little babies. Thank the heavens above.

I had scheduled them for surgery next week, but Mimi has developed a little bit of a runny eye, so we'll wait until it resolves. I want to send them all in together and am in no hurry. It's the slow season for kittens and I'm so much enjoying having the Grables around. Gilda is really quite huge as foster kittens go - rapidly approaching the 3 pound mark. Imagine! Three pounds!

So that's the story to date. I think there'll be a couple more weeks of The Grables and The Girls. To heck with redundancy!

Addendum - Have I ever mentioned that Rosie has asthma? I just watched this video again and realized that you can hear her breathing. It's so 'normal' to me that I forget that it's not.

Snow Day

We're slackin'.

"It's Cold Outside, Mimi. Come Here and Snuggle."

At Last! At Long Last

So many of you have asked after Iris and requested some updated photos. As much as I'd have loved to oblige, she's been even more elusive since the big floor refinishing project a few months back.

Iris has always been timid and easily spooked, but the upheaval - however temporary - of the life she'd settled into caused her to regress and she's not yet back to her 'normal'.

She divides her time between two big, squishy beds. The nice heated one in the kitchen is a favorite. It's situated right next to the basement door so she can quickly scoot to her 'safer' spot, another bed down the stairs.

She spends her time alternating between the two. She's not at all unhappy, just especially cautious. If I move a little too quickly in the kitchen, down the stairs she goes until she feels safe again.

I've tried a few times to get some photos of her in the kitchen, but the visage of me creeping up on her with the camera is not one that she approves of, and I don't want to subject her to anything that makes her the least bit tense.

So when I spied little Rufus with her today, I knew I had to try. I didn't dare get too close, and the photos are a little blurry, but I was so happy to be able to once again memorialize my beautiful, blue-eyed Iris.

I do love her so.

Very Wise Words of Wisdom

“Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake.

Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Winsome (Sleepy) Mimi

Go Gilda! Go Gilda!

Miss Mimi (making a cameo appearance) is slightly more - shall we say 'understated'.

Lovey Dovey

Don't be concerned. She's not concerned. She only looks a little concerned. Doesn't she?

She hasn't a care in the world. Other than how best to distract her siblings from the lunch counter.

My Big Sweet Lug of a Tiny Man

The sound you hear is one that I often wake up to in the wee hours of the night. Tiny sleeps right next to me, and I swear he purrs all night long.

I love my giant guy so much.

xoxoxo

The Return (Again) of a Classic, and a Blog Address Update

Here we go again! Kittens playing under and around the bathroom door. It's a ritual in these here parts and I hope you haven't tired of it. I could watch them for hours on end. Truth be told, I have.

I can't tell you which kitten is which, other than it's Rufus, Gilda and Mimi. I can tell them apart when they're side by side, or sitting still. Rufus is the tiniest and has a little bit darker coat; Gilda is the largest, and her fur is a little longer; Mimi's features are more delicate and petite.

But when they're in a pack and in motion, it's a challenge. I gave up trying. It's pointless.

Here goes!! Let the games begin!



Silliness. Kittens are so utterly, wonderfully predictable.

As for the blog address update, I've shortened the domain name to www.pitterpatsofbabycats.com, deleting '.blogspot'. You should be automatically re-directed, but to eliminate the possibility of problems, you may want to revise your bookmark or link if you have one. I'd hate like heck to lose you!

Rufus, You Goofus

Looks like Minnie's getting a little facial massage. It also looks like the masseur is the one getting r-e-a-l-l-y relaxed.

: )

It's a Litter!!

It's true! I have multiple kittens who are actually, really related to each other! It's been ages and ages.

Regular readers know that I have a mushy soft spot for singletons, and for the last quite a while, I've brought home little else. A pair here and a pair there, but mostly blended families made up of little lone kittens.

I can't wait for you to meet the Grables, so let's do it!

Miriam "Mimi"

Gilda

Rufus

and Lovey.