goin' with the flow

The Homies are coasting. Everyone is gaining weight, all are over the one pound mark, and all are pooping normal. Yes indeed, the poop is a good indicator of any issues that are brewing. Mama Sierra had some issues the other day, diarrhea and vomiting. She vomited on the new clean towel I had just put down, then she walked over to her food bowl, and puked right in it. She is back to normal now though.

The itty bitties are chow hounds these days. They go through 3 cans of food a day now! Sierra might eat a little of it, but she likes the crunchies mostly, so they are splitting 3 cans between the 5 of them. They are growing fast. I can hear the elephants regularly now. They romp hard already, and it is only gonna get louder.


Dinner time at itty bitty central

Having a visitor tomorrow, so I will rush home to make sure the room is as clean and "fresh" as it can be. They do seem to be better at hitting the box now. I haven't seen anything on the floor today, and only one place yesterday. Hopefully, those days of missing are behind us.

Got some good play shots, I think. Sage is the first one to do the "Catzilla" to her sister. Haven't seen that since the 3 black kittens, Mia's 3. Makes me laugh. Unfortunately, they were too fast, and too close to get that shot.


Halicy takes advantage of a prone Kelsey.


Dot. Something a little scary about that face.


Hogan takes a quick bath.


Sage eyes the ball. The chair rungs seem to be a kitten favorite place to play.


Kelsey looks a little wild eyed.

5 weeks monday

The Homies are all growing like weeds. I know, I haven't blogged since the 24th, but things have been hectic for me. I spent a good amount of time in the kitty room today, twice, just to make up for lost time!



It does make me laugh, when kittens get tired. The just plop down where they are, and sleep. These guys are a little older than that, but when sleep comes over them, their eyelids get heavy, and they look for a place to crash. Kelsey was the first one to go tonight. She went right for the bed when she got sleepy. She has scared me twice, she sleeps so hard. I have felt it necessary to give her a nudge 2 times to make sure she was alright!




After Kelsey, Hogan hit the bed. He sat up for a while, but crashed soon enough. Then it was Halicy, who nursed for a while, but when Mama got up, she made a beeline over to Kelsey, and snuggled up close to her.



Dot was nursing too, and climbed onto my leg after this picture, but I put her in with the others. Only took seconds for her to crash. Sage was the last one to fall. She was determined to get to mama for a bedtime snack first.




Sage isn't ready for bed just yet.

mere mortals

It's true. The Homies have lost their super powers. They no longer posses the ability to scale tall people by climbing up their pants legs. They got their nails clipped today.

Kelsey and Halicy climb aboard.

You may not know that kittens are born unable to retract their claws. These guys actually turned 4 weeks old yesterday, and although they can retract their claws now, they they enjoy bearing them, and using them to get as close to your face as possible. I had just about enough snags in my shirts, so snip snip, all 50 front claws have been snipped off to a blunt tip.

Kittens are also all born with blue eyes. I would have expected these guys eyes to start to change by now, but looking at this picture of Sage, her eyes are still pretty bright blue. Maybe they will stay that way. Hard to say, and Sierra's eyes are so bright green, but depending on the light in the room, they can look a sort of aqua blue color. That would be nice to see some blue eyes in this litter.

Blue eyes?

All seems well with the Homies. The weights range from a tiny little 13.5 oz, (Halicy) to a huge, 1lb., 2.5oz (Hogan). Everyone is gaining nicely, although some more than others. There was a time when Halicy and Kelsey were the smallest, but I thought there was something wrong with the scale today when I realized that Kelsey is almost as big as Hogan. She is over 1lb already! Of course, she always has her face in a bowl of food, so it stands to reason.


Hogan is Mr. Photogenic.


I saw Ted and Martha, from 50kittens.com today, at a volunteer appreciation night at the shelter, and we were talking about the Bottle Rockets, and the Homies, and what they are doing now. They said the Rockets were interested in toys, and they were surprised at that. Tonight, Kelsey was quite entertaining with the ball with the bell in it. She was having a good old time playing. I think the Rockets are about a week older, so it seems to me like they are right on target.




Kelsey play time.



Kelsey was totally out when I snapped this shot.



Hogan climbs Mt. Towels.



Dot hangs in the scale bowl...


and climbs onto my lap.


I did without a flash to catch Sierra with her eyes open.

weekend

Not much going on over the weekend at itty bitty central. Sierra and the babies are doing fine. Sierra actually could use a bath, but she is her normal, patient self, watching out for the itty bitties, and bumping up against me for attention. The little ones have mastered eating canned food out of the bowl. Not even mixing it with formula anymore, and they gobble it down. Mamas are better at tough love than I am. I keep giving them the bottle until they go off to college.


Kelsey bellies up to the food bowl.

We had some visitors Saturday who wanted to come see the little ones. Of course, they were all won over by the preciousness of them. We are already working on their "Shelter Training." If you don't know what that means, I will explain. As soon as the itty bitties see someone come in, they run to them, and climb on them. When they are in shelter cages, with all the other cats that are on view, they see someone come in, and they immediately stick their paws out, and try to get their attention. This of course gets the prospective kitten adopter to look more closely at the cuteness that is dripping from these itty bitties that were trained specifically for this purpose. Once they spend a few moments with these kittens, all of the others will fade to the background, and the trained kittens get adopted first. This is our goal. None of our fosters will languish in a shelter! They will know how to work the crowd!


Kelsey plans a sneak attack.


Halicy always looks a little bewildered.


I don't think anyone will be able to resist these itty bitties. They are beautiful, and they will be well trained by the time they go back for adoption, when they are 2 1/2 lbs. Yep, plenty of time to refine the training!



Time for some Smackdown!


Dot in the middle of the fray.


Sierra is her usual patient self.


Sage licks her chops, waiting for someone to come into her territory.

Oh, I almost forgot! Check out the Bottle Rockets! They are doing great over at 50kittens.com.

the usual suspects

All is quite on the Homie front. The homesteaders are enjoying the attention, and not sharing the playtime with the Bottle Rockets. Sierra loves to be brushed, and she needs it after the Homesteaders 3 weeks of nursing. We cut some knots out, and brushed her to a high gloss.

I did some more cleaning of my office. Something still smelled, um, let's say "off", so I started to do a little rooting around and found a dried up splat of poop under a small stool in the corner. I soaked it down with Natures Miracle, and scraped it up with a putty knife that happened to be handy. No more offensive odor. I had no idea the Rockets could even get under that thing!


Dot is squawking about something...again!



Sage is becoming my favorite. She is so sweet. OK, they all are.


Puddle of kittens.


The Homies have their own Smackdown. (Kelsey and Halicy)


Kelsey plans a sneak attack.


Hogan looks over Mama's back.

The Homies are full of pi** and vinegar, so all is well in Itty Bitty Central. Of course, they haven't quite gotten the litterbox thing down either, so I will take my Natures Miracle, and hit that room next.

rockets have left the building

Yes, it's true. The Bottle Rockets went back to their former foster home, since Ted and Martha got back from vacation. Of course, they got them just in time to take Arnie to the vet. His stools kept going from loose, to really loose, to semi loose, but yesterday they went to liquid. I really thought he was going to level out, but wasn't gonna happen, so I put the call in for a vet appointment. Hopefully, he has some meds now, and will start to feel better. Don't worry, you can still follow their progress at 50K. They will be blogging about the rockets until they go back to the shelter, and are up for adoption.

The Homies are all doing fine. I spent a lot of time with them this evening, brushing Sierra, and just hanging out with them. Joy has been spending more time with them than I have, since I seemed to have had my hands full with the Rockets, so it was nice to get a good 45 minutes in there with them. They are getting personalities now, for sure. Sage spent most of the time hanging off of my shirt, even after they all figured out I no longer had a bottle. Kelsey and Hogan were eating canned food, straight out of the can, no formula mixed in with it. Sierra is doing a good job weaning them.


3 for Play.


Sage.


Kelsey


Halicy


Dot and Hogan. Dot looks like something out of the movie Beatlejuice with that tongue hanging out.


I think I was a bit overwhelmed with all the kittens, but I do miss Arnie and Caddo. I hope they are sleeping well tonight.

tough love

I am trying to be a good mama cat. I am trying to ignore the pleas for the bottle. I realized yesterday that Sierra is already weaning the Homesteaders. I have left some canned food in a bowl in there for them, and I add some of the leftover formula to it and mix it in, thinking Sierra was probably eating it. I saw Sage eating it, so I know I am behind schedule with the Rockets. Last night I left a bowl of said mixture, and this morning, there was less than when I put it there. Good news!

The bad news is Arnie still has the squirts, and they are worse. AND, he has decided he likes privacy when he poops. That means under my desk, or behind the stereo stand...and it is nasty. I think it's time for the vet. He is still gaining, and playing, so I am not too worried about him yet. I have now blocked off every nook and cranny in my office, and put the litter box under a chair, so hopefully Arnie will decide that will be fine.

I need to spend some more time with the Homesteaders tomorrow. I noticed they were a little skittish to noise, and fast moves. I think it's time to get the neighborhood kids to come play.


Hogan, looking rather stoic.


Sierra looks as tired as me.


Nuf said.


What happened to Halicy's neck?


Kelsey.


Dot.

sleep? what's that?

My lack of sleep is catching up with me. I am still keeping up with the Rockets, but I am feeling rather zombie like at times. I did get a little nap in this evening, so i feel a bit better.

The Rockets seem to be doing OK. Arnie gained again today, so I feel good about that, but he still has some runny poop issues. Caddo lost a tiny bit, but is still a little constipated. He also has seemed to lose his memory of how to suckle. He now wants to chew the nipple. He gets so much air in his belly, and he has to be burped for a long time or else he vomits, and milk comes out of his nose. (we've all been there, right?) So, he is going to be learning to drink out of a bowl sooner than later.

The Rockets seem to be doing the same thing they always do.

The Homesteaders are doing fine. Joy managed to get a decent picture of Kelsey, so I am posting it here. They still want all of my attention as soon as I walk in the room, and I assume they did the same thing to Joy when she spent some time in there with them. We already have a friend that wants to adopt one of the Homies. Dot has been spoken for! I have warned said friend that Dot is a real noisy one, but she said good! We will see if we are still friends after Dot goes to live with them. LOL!


Dot, actually not screaming.


Kelsey, being cute.

All in all, we are getting along just fine. Maybe I can get another nap in tomorrow, and I will feel even better!

progress

I have been worried about the Rockets, because Caddo had not pooped in a couple of days, and Arnie has not been eating well, and had lost some weight. Well, today Arnie gained some weight back, and Caddo pooped! (We talk about poop a lot around here, so get used to it!) Well, he cried, and cried, and then I had to give him a little "help" if you will...and he pooped out something that was as hard as a rock. Poor little guy. Hopefully the rest of what's in there will be easier to deal with.





Another little bit of progress, Arnie ate, and liked, a little bit of canned food mixed with formula. Granted, I had to put it in his mouth with a syringe, but he liked it, and ate 4 or 5 "servings" of it. Caddo is not convinced just yet, but he did give it a try.
They both look like they are doing OK to me.



In the homestead, we are still trying to get used to the whole litter box thing. I took this beautiful photo of Halicy...right after she peed in the floor. Oh well...Nature's Miracle.




Everybody into the pool?

It's hard to get good pix of the Homesteaders because as soon as I go in and sit down, they ALL come screaming, and looking for a bottle. I have been supplementing them, since Halicy was losing weight, but man, they are relentless, and Sierra is almost as bad. She is so starved for attention, she head butted my camera just as I was taking a picture tonight. I did get a couple of good pictures though, and they are still just as cute.
I couldn't get a picture of Kelsey, since she was clinging to my shirt and screaming the whole time I was in the room.


Dot


Halicy


Hogan


Sage