from the files
April 30, 2006 l Leave a Comment
As the kittens were growing up, I journaled about the experience and occasionally gave little progress reports. I’ll have to post the whole thing online sometimes. This entry I wrote when the kittens were just over two months old:
As for the kittens: they are sleek, soft, and marvelously robust. I shudder to think what would have happened were they born strays. They have been so socialized to people, that they are amazingly well behaved and affectionate. During the day, when Scully is out and about in the house, and they’re gated in my room, if no one’s in the bedroom with them, they’ll cry and cry and cry some more. Imagine a chorus of four tiny kitten’s pathetically meowing - kind of hard to ignore. All they need is a quick snuggle, a pat in the head, and they’re good to go. Yeah, so they’re hyper, and they get into everything, and they dirty the litterbox really fast, it’s like Jeannie said, “I think we’re getting a glimpse of heaven when we raise kittens. It might be a heaven in which the angels have ripped wings, and there’s a little accident under the Pearly Gates, but heaven, nevertheless!”
Anderson has now been renamed Schilling and been adopted by a lovely couple, who will be taking him home at 12 weeks. He is by far the largest kitten, and the most talkative - you can carry on entire conversations with him. He’s a real teddy bear though, craves any and all affection, and will be purring like a motor with only the slightest TLC.
Steph in contrast, is the smallest, and is turning into quite the wee princess. She’s petite, and likes to sit straight with her tail curled around her feet, like a cat model. Her meow is more like a little chirp, and she’ll use it indiscriminately if she feels she’s being ignored. But she’s also very adventurous, and the most outgoing of any of the kittens. She was the first to get to the second shelf in my closet, the first to figure out the litterbox, the first to try the raw food, and the first to scale the baby gate all the way to the top (she stopped doing that, after she figured out she couldn’t get down). She’s royalty, and she knows it, and she’s going to be an interesting cat someday…
Miko….what can I say about Miko? She’s absolutely living up to her name. She’s disappeared on us twice now, hard to spot because of her dark fur, and we’ve found her up in the most obscure and out of the way places (and sound asleep, the little bugger). Yes, she is quite the “little monkey”, and climbs everything. Furniture, me, litterbox, me, shelves, me. She’s also the spunkiest and will try to pick a fight with anything that moves, which is mostly her brothers. She’s long and lithe, and her markings are so unique, that I think she is just going to be a gorgeous cat someday.
Finally, there’s PJ. The Peej-meister. Peej-erific. He inherited his mom’s very square chin, and it’s always reminded me of a little lion. PJ is a total mix of all his siblings. He’s as sweet and cuddly as Anderson, as whiny as Steph, and as rambunctious as Miko. He gets along with his brother and sisters equally well, but seems to share a special bond with Miko. They’re are the one’s typically playing and wrestling together, but when PJ is upset, Miko is the first one to comfort him (she’s licked his head before). PJ is, of course, stunningly adorable, the Gerber baby of kittens. He’s the one baby I’m having a hard time envisioning grown up, ’cause he’s such a cute little baby. But I have no doubts he’s going to make a superb cat companion for someone.
It’s amazing how some things never change. We haven’t seen Anderson in a long while, of course, but the kittens have become essentially larger (well, not so much in Steph’s case) versions of their baby-selves. Stephanie the princess. Miko the monkey. PJ the hottie.
And what about Scully?
I’m pleased to say that she no longer fits the description of the newly-rescued “starving, flea-infested, very pregnant kitty”:
Since taking her in, and having her kittens, Scully has really metomorphasized into a beautiful cat (though completely camera shy *grrr*). Her coat is soft and shiny, she’s put on weight, and has settled in to the house like she’s been here forever. She’s still skittish around people, especially men, but my dad was able to pet her for a few minutes the other night, which is a major accomplishment for her. She’s relaxed, she’s playful, she wants lovin’ all the time. A far cry from the tiny, terrified, scruffy thing I brought home. People who don’t know Scully’s history, would likely never suspect it. She has become sociable, snuggly, and even more playful than her kiddos. She is a delight to have around, even though there are some quirks we may never be rid of…
After initially eating dry food, we switched Scully and the kittens over to a raw/canned combo diet. Scully wasn’t to eager to give up on her precious dry food, and managed to find where I’d been hiding the bag. Pulling a classic move that many starved kitties will do, she gorged herself…and promptly threw it back up. That, I felt, was the defining moment as a cat owner: I’d had a cat vomit on my rug. I was in the club.
loving the macro
April 25, 2006 l 3 Comments
PJ has been depriving poor Hannah of her beauty sleep. I can’t blame the guy for having a little cabin fever - he’s been cooped up in that room for nearly a week. But between playing with rattley, noisy toys, licking her arms, and yes, crying loudly, Hannah has gotten barely a wink of sleep these past few nights.
The thing is, she doesn’t want The Boy to be alone all night long, so we’ve worked out a system in which Stephen, Hannah, and I rotate sleeping in her room. The things we do for love.
In other news, he didn’t eat his breakfast today. I add hot water to the mix to warm the food up: the girls like their meals on watery side, but I think Mr. Peejmeister prefers his food to be semi-solid, more like the consistency of canned food. I made the mistake of a watery breakfast today, and he protested. Picky-Picky, indeed.
peaceful coexistence
April 24, 2006 l Leave a Comment
We thought it would take PJ a week or so to warm up to us. But it didn’t take him long at all to settle in, and he is just as vocal and affectionate as his sisters, perhaps even moreso. He loooves lovin’, and Hannah loves her boy.
The only issue we’ve had is in regards to switching him over to a raw diet. His resistance wasn’t really a surprise, considering he’s been eating 9 Lives; it took the other cats over a week before they started eating raw. PJ, aka Picky-Picky, looked as though he might hold out even longer, but this morning he ate nearly half his breakfast, and there was much rejoicing (it might have helped that there were bits of 9 Lives sprinkled on top)
His shoulders don’t seem to be much of a problem anymore. Perhaps he was just stressed from the move and didn’t appreciate rough handling near his scruff. At any rate, he’ll be seeing the vet on the 5th to get a complete check-over, and then we can work on introducing him to the rest of the family.
