The Kittens

Why have I put off writing about these two new additions for so long?  Most likely because, although cats are my favorite animal, four is too many for this household.  I want to cut down on the cans of cat food we have to buy and serve up and I'd like to live in a house with less hair on the floor to sweep up.  I'd determined that two was the ideal number, but realistically decided that we'd end up with three.  Arby, bless his dear soul, is almost twenty and so is sweet Multi-pass.  Both are currently doing well, but their time here on Earth is coming to an end.  Then we would only have Max and Poom -- both five years old.  My plan was to add in another Siamese-type to the group when we were down to just two.  So much for plans.

I visited my friend, Dorothea, in mid-May.  When I arrived, she was holding a tiny kitten to her chest and feeding it milk replacer from a syringe.  "I was thinking about you,"  she said.  This is because there were five more in a crate in the bathtub and she was already thinking about new homes for them.  They'd been born in between bales of hay stacked on a pallet on a nearby farm.  Dorothea's husband bought the hay and the entire pallet -- along with the kittens (but no Mama) -- had been delivered. They were about two weeks old and Dorothea brought them inside and got right to work saving their lives.  And then I walked in the door.

When she first asked me if I'd be interested in taking one, I immediately told her I was sorry, I couldn't.   I was downsizing.  I had too many cats.  Too much hair on the floor.  And so on.  But Dorothea is a dear friend and I was in a position to help her by taking at least one of these kittens.  So I soon changed my answer to a reluctant "Yes, I'll take one,".  However, I already knew in a certain part of my brain that if I got any kittens at all, two might not be better for me, but would definitely be better for them.

Here are my two on the afternoon I brought them home.  TimTom is on the left and Hecuba on the right.  They were loaded with fleas, so I called my vet and, amazingly, they were able to see them early the next morning.  The staff loved these bundles of flea-infested cuteness and after the vet checked them over, she and two assistants bathed them in kitten flea shampoo and picked and combed out the fleas for over half an hour.  The tub was black with them and I don't know how that many could have found enough skin to stand upon on such tiny hosts.  TimTom and Hecuba were not delighted with all of this, but put up with everything fairly well.  Hecuba only bit her bather once.

Hecuba not enjoying her spa treatment

TimTom wishing he were somewhere else

Using tweezers to remove fleas

Back home again:  Relieved, very clean and no fleas

Four weeks have now passed.  The kittens growth is rocketing along and those wobbly bundles of fluff are now scampering around on ever-longer lean legs.  They're also growing into those enormous ears.         

                                                                                                                 

Lovely Hecuba

Selfie (that's my ear and bathrobe) with Kittens

Arby's pretty cool with the little brats

Poom's tail about to be attacked

The "new" cat tree (from the garage)

Little Rulers of the Universe

The older resident cats are, in varying degrees, adjusting to the newcomers.  Of all of them, Arby is the most accepting.  I'd worried that he would suffer from jealousy, but he mostly just regally ignores him.  Multi-pass, the other old kitty, is also taking them in stride.  The youngest cats, Poom and Max are having the hardest time.  Poom comes inside, but hisses and yowls if they approach him.  Max is very upset and won't even come in the house anymore.  I feed him on the porch rail and he spends time with me when I work outside.  Things will gradually re-align and work out with my six-cat population.  And me?  I'm also becoming re-aligned myself as I open countless cans of cat food and sweep hair off the floor.  I've found that not only did these little ones need me; I also needed them.  So we're in a good place.