what was i saying?

Did I not just say yesterday how winter was a time to recharge, and it was good to not have kittens? Not 10 minutes after I posted, I got an e-mail from the shelter that they had a mama cat that was right then giving birth, and they needed someone to foster her! So, tonight I picked up this beautiful little mama and her 5 itty bitties! She is very sweet, and loves attention. She is quite a good mama, keeping a close eye on her brood. I went to dinner about an hour after I got them all settled in, and when I got back, she had moved them all to where she wanted them, which was not a very comfortable place. I put them all back in their bed, and moved the bed next to where she had moved them. Hopefully she will decide it's an OK place to stay!
(note: I heard mewing a second ago, and she had moved them all back to "her" spot. I did think that might happen, so I at least padded it down with soft towels.)

Mama came to us named Lana. I am not crazy about it, and I will probably change it pretty quickly. The little ones do not have names yet, and it's a little early to tell who are boys and who are girls. Maybe in a day or two we can work on that.

I will get baby close ups tomorrow.

Without further ado, here they are.













Mama decided to move!

midwinter and still kittenless

Being kittenless is a good thing this time of year. We get the opportunity to recharge, and the feral cats outside get a chance to not be caring for kittens. If your area has a TNR program, please help with the kitten population in your area! You can contact AlleyCat allies, and get some help trapping any feral cats in your neighborhood. Then, they are taken to a local vet where they are spay/neutered, and then re-released in the same place they were caught. No more kittens! We had 2 neighborhood cats that "participated" in the program, and we have not seen any mama cats this past year. We have seen a couple of big black Tom cats, but they aren't doing any harm to our girls. : )

Here you see a picture of a couple of the Orange Tabbies from our first litter, all grown up. This is Sadie and Latte. They still live in my neighborhood, and I see them from time to time. They don't really remember me anymore, but they are certainly loved at their forever home!


Looks like Sadie gets the lions share of the food!

More good news! Gia was finally adopted! You will have to go back to September, and see her. She was the very sleek very small mama cat. Mother to Gibby, Greer and Gwendolyn, the 3 black kittens. Anyway, the former volunteer coordinator from the shelter adopted her this weekend! Yay! Another happy ending. Last I heard, she was checking things out, and seems to be adjusting well. I will of course get some pix of her to post later.
Here she is from August.

home front

Still quiet here at kitty central. I don't expect any kittens anytime soon, and who knows, with this last cold snap, we might not see any until April. Until then, Buck, Bentley, Bishop and Ripley get all of our attention, and still keep us entertained.


Ripley finds a nice cubby to lounge in


Buck surveys his domain from a high vantage point


Our friend Pepper was center stage at a recent inaugural party we attended


Bentley eagerly awaits the next kitten season


Buck, Bishop and Ripley are all drawn to the condo.

quiet on the home front

It seems quiet around here, although sometimes I swear I hear a kitten crying. It's either my imagination, or the ghost of some former foster kitten that still wants my attention.

I am still working on my never ending (it seems) job of cleaning and organizing the kitty room while it is sans kittens. The only real piece of furniture in there is a shelving unit, which we mostly use for storage, but little by little, it seems to be the home of kitty supplies. I moved almost everything to the rolling cart which is supposed to be uses for supplies, but there are too many towels, and bags of food to put in there, so they are using some shelf space.

While I was putting some loose items in plastic boxes to keep them save from jumping, shelf climbing kittens, I found a bunch of photos. Here are some of the ones I found. Hard copy photos from my very first litter, the orange tabbies! They were adorable, and being the very first litter, we fell in love with all of them. We seriously thought about adopting Dakota, but he eventually went to a local vet, who had recently lost his cat, and wanted a male orange tabby.

My scanner is on the fritz, so I took pictures of the pictures. Not too bad.


All the sleepy babies



A puddle of orange and white. From left to right, Dakota, Latte, Jack, Lilly, LT and Sadie


Quite the mellow group



LT dragging his favorite toy under the desk


LT an Dakota sharing a moment


Jack. He was the last one to be adopted


Dakota, the one we almost kept.

big day at the shelter

I popped in to the shelter yesterday to take some pix and see little Beulah, and it was a zoo! They adopted out like 5 cats while I was there! Awesome news! And, Norton was gone, and was Detroit and Cleo, and although Beulah was still there, she has been adopted!

While I was there, I ran into Ted and Martha, from 50kittens, so while we were chatting, we were pointing folks to cats we knew, to give them a little boost. Ted steered a nice lady to his former foster, Ferris, who has been around a while now, and in and out of iso, with URI symptoms, and she adopted him! Yay for Ferris. He is a sweet guy, but doesn't look like a kitten much anymore.

Here at itty bitty central, it's been relatively quiet, with no kittens. I am going to go give the kitty room a good scrubdown today, and make sure we are ready for spring, and the rush of new kittens. That being said, there is still some action going on here. Buck is still always a source of entertainment.


Buck thinks he can fit in the box



Peeking out looking for Bentley



Buck has a rough life

update

I found out yesterday that the paintballs will not be going to spay/neuter this week. I think they ran out of room. The good news is, they are already on view! Hopefully, they will all be spoken for by new years. Oh yeah, and Norton is out of sick bay, and he looks great. I think he remembered me. He tried to pull my arm into the cage when I was there yesterday!

time's up

The paintball trio will be going back to the shelter this afternoon. All 3 are healthy, and all are way over the 2.8lbs they need to be for spay/neuter. They should all be adopted soon! They have the cuteness thing down pat. If you hurry, you might be able to adopt one (or more) of them! They should go on view Thursday. What a great way to start 2009!
Here they are one last time, in random order...


Detroit


Cleo


Beulah