Todd & The Purple Germ

Life is quiet with the kittens. Their bellies are getting bigger Their eyes are doing well, except I found a new one tonight, so not off the hook on that one.
Of course it was just after I told Vet Tech Sue that all eyes looked fine. Then I went to the kitten box to handle the only one I hadn't picked up before she called and EWWWW, another eye to doctor.
*Sigh*
I swear I'm washing my hands every 5 minutes around here.

Todd, isolated from Torts and kittens for eating her wet food, is getting more and more friendly. I'm all he's got right now. Besides, I have that big comfy bed he gets to lay around in all day while I'm at work.

Right after my last post, I went to sit in a comfy chair.

He really likes this toy

Todd was eyeballing me from another crevasse beside a living room chair (who knew I craved crevasses in my living spaces?). So, I picked up the feathers on a stick and started playing with him. We only played for a few minutes before he came over and nudged my hand.
Then he looked up at me with a distinct expression of "love me."
So, I picked him up. He lay on my lap while I pet him and scratched his head. He purred rather loudly too.
This would be when I found out Todd drools his contentment. That's soooo special! Seriously, it's like turning on a tap.

Anyway, last night we played with the purple sperm on a rope for quite a while. At one point, he got the string wound around his back paw effectively tying the purple sperm to his foot.

Well, what would you call it?

I laughed till I cried watching him trying to get that purple thing off his foot. I laughed so hard I couldn't help him because he wouldn't let me near him. I haven't laughed like that in front of him before.
So, Todd and I may be bonding.

Out in the sunroom, Torts stays well back in the box. She too likes head scratches, but she just can't get a break from those kittens! She's not fond of me picking them up and pissing them off with the eye treatments either. Last night I went in just to say good night and she started growling as soon as I opened the door! So, I said good night from the doorway and left her alone. I get why she was mad. I make the kittens cry. I would growl... actually, I do growl when people make my kids cry and the young one is 27.
But we were friends again this afternoon and the kittens didn't cry this time. Not even the little tyke I had to really doctor.
I have a sister coming to visit this week. I may not blog much while she's here. I'll try to keep up with some photos for you though.

Animal Husbandry - it's a thing

Torts & kittens get a clean box

 After all the fuss and bother last weekend, I decided to separate Todd and Torts et al. I wanted some time for Torts to be with just her kittens and I was tired of her disappearing on them. I wanted to know she was eating well and eliminating well too.

Also, it just seemed as though Todd was annoying her more often than not. I heard hisses. Maybe she just wanted some quiet time. Todd's a little more energetic and frisky than she is right now. So, I closed the door to the sunroom and gave momma and kittens some space.
This was working well until I started to feel I had her trapped and cut off from her only buddy. That must have taken... oh... 24 hours. So, Sunday night, all day Monday and most of Tuesday, Torts had peace. Then I ruined it.

Ol' icky eye

Then I really ruined it Wednesday because I noticed one of the kittens had an icky eye. Actually, you can see it starting in the post I made Sunday night. I called in our dedicated vet tech Sue. She dropped by Wednesday after work and left eye drops. We checked all the kittens and two of them need the drops. Their eyes weren't even open and they needed eye drops! But, their eyes are open now.

Kristy, see, open eyes, but holy camoly squirmy
That's why it's out of focus
Also, LOOK at that tummy! Clearly holding
its own at the milk wagon

We also noticed that Torts' box was getting messy. So when I came home Thursday evening, I spent a couple of hours tending to the needs of cats. There was the mess Todd made on my bed (let's just leave it at that). There was the mess on the kitchen floor. There was the eye tending, box changing, litter cleaning and feeding/watering.

I didn't get dinner myself until 8 pm. In a moment of honesty here, I resented that. That seems to be the way this goes. The ups and downs happen in rapid succession. One day I'm chuckling because Todd is comfortable enough to sleep on my bed and the next I'm tired and cranky and not interested in being the caretaker of seven cats. These are high maintenance cats compared to the ones I lived with in the past.

Just after the eye drops. Eye is looking much better

 Jack and Simbah were both independent cats that caused very little trouble - ever. Simbah used to puke on the window sill fairly regularly or beside her food dish. Jack had a bad habit of worrying an ear when he was under stress, but mostly the two of them were lap warmers on a cold winter night. These cats still run away when they hear me coming.  

Why did you stop playing with me?

 Anyway, Todd is definitely getting more comfortable around here. He seems to like my bed very much when I'm not in it. He played with me for about 20 minutes last night and he clearly knows the feathers are not jumping around by themselves. He went after the stick early in the play session. When the feathers stayed still too long, he looked at me for action.
Today, I noticed he caught on to the fact that Torts was getting breakfast and he wasn't. "Too easy, " says Todd as he helped himself to her wet food before I was even out the door.
So, Torts is back in isolation with her kittens and her food. And Todd is off wet food until his excrement firms up. I heard him this afternoon when I got home from work and no body wants to hear that happening in the next room. Ewwwww. Also, probably not good for Todd.
Later I went in to tend eyes and give Torts the food she missed out on this morning.
The kittens are much stronger now and all eyes are open. Awwwwwwwww. The drops worked miraculously and

This little black one has equally black eyes.
Hard to photograph, but adorable.

everybody looks good. I might have to put a drop of food dye or something on the orange guy because I can't tell the two of them apart and all the eyes look fine.

So, here I am immersed in animal husbandry. Shirley tells me I have good intuition when it comes to their care and I hope she's right. I'm also very glad I have support through this. It's a thing for sure. It's fun and frustrating and gross and glorious. Ewwww and Awwww and WTF.
Buuuuuutttttt, those kittens are getting cuter by the day!

Alls Well in Kittenville

Everyone just finished dinner. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look they form an upside down heart!

Lost One

One of the big fellas

Today is my one-month anniversary in this house, in this city and in my new life. This is me beginning anew after several years of health challenges, meaning of life challenges and questioning my relevance on this planet.

I am full of optimism for this new life… usually. Today it’s hard. 

Friday night when I got home, Torts had moved her kittens under the bathroom sink cabinet. I’m not sure I would have found them if it wasn’t for the mewling. I had to lie on my tummy and use my phone’s light to see them. I was chagrined.

I decided to worry about THAT after dinner. By then, Torts had moved three of the kittens back to the crevasse and I was hopeful. I gave her a little more time, but then fished the last three out and barricaded the slot.

Cat conference in my bedroom.

Saturday, I noticed that mom spent a lot of time MIA (missing in action). I found her snuggled up to Todd in my bedroom. I kept checking on the kittens and they seemed content, so I left well enough alone.

However, this was the first time my complete lack of cat/kitten knowledge gave me misgivings. What if I was doing exactly the opposite of what I should be doing?  

Crevasse monkey pile

I hung out at home all day Saturday. Partly because I’m still getting settled here. I find myself moving furniture or rearranging storage because a lot of stuff simply landed during the move. Now that I’ve spent some time living here, I can organize work spaces and storage.

I kept going into the bathroom and looking at the monkey pile. Torts would roll her head back and look at me, but everything looked normal. (Actually, WTF is normal? Big hole in my knowledge there).

I took time to create a big baby box for Torts out in the sunroom. I’m starting to think about the reality of having a bunch of kittens loose in the house. I hoped Torts would move the kittens while I slept.

Big baby box waiting for the family.

Torts and Todd are feral cats. They came from the rodeo barns, I think. In any case, from what I’ve heard; which I will admit isn’t much, feral cats are hard to domesticate. It’s one of the reasons I’m being very cautious not to push myself on them. They both hide during the day when I’m around and then I hear somebody playing in the middle of the night with the little ball that has a bell in it. So I know they move around at night.

Before I went to bed, I sat down beside the crevasse to pet and talk to Torts. The little black runt of the litter was not nursing. All the kittens looked poorly groomed, but that one little guy worried me.  I managed to get a little milk into

him, so felt better about that.

That's some good reading right there.

When I got up Sunday morning and saw the crevasse empty, I was cautiously optimistic. Then I walked into the living room and saw books on the floor and the monkey pile in the bookcase. For crying out loud!

I made coffee and gave myself a few minutes to wake up. Then I went and removed the kittens from the bookcase. I was surprised Torts wasn’t with them, but not too much after Saturday. Then I looked in basket and noticed only one black one. Wait a sec! So I took all the books out of the bookcase. Nope. I went back to the crevasse and carefully examined the blankets etc. Nope.

I began to think the worst. I went through the litter box. There was a lot of poop and one large clump that was very suspicious. I did what no one should ever have to do and dissected that clump of poo. It was not a normal poo, but it was poo. Kind of hairy, oddly coagulated stuff, but again, what do I know?

I spent the next few hours trying to get Torts to join her kittens in the sunroom. You have to understand this is a very small house and I have a room blocked off. I looked everywhere

for the runt of the litter, but no joy and no noise. By now, I had most of the rooms blocked off, but after chasing Torts out of my bedroom, I couldn’t find her. 

I swear cats have the ability to go invisible. I called in the cavalry because now I was at a complete loss. I had found Torts back in the bookcase (seriously! I blocked it off!) She was fine with me cuddling her, but when I tried to take her to her kittens, she got very angry with me. I locked her in the sunroom with the big box of kittens and all the cat necessities.

When Shirley came, she sat on the floor by the box and pulled the blanket out to be able to reach the kittens. Then we went to the kitchen, warmed milk and talked for a bit. When we came back, Torts was with the kittens! Hallelujah!

Lessons ensued for me and we talked. As we sat there, Shirley found a tiny black paw caught up in the blankets that had come out of the crevasse. It effectively shut us up for a couple of minutes. We both stared at that little paw. Such a strange sight.

Torts back with her kittens in the sunroom

We talked a little about the ripple effect. This blog is in response to all the people who asked me to keep them posted. But it also means a whole bunch of people are not going to want to hear what I just said. One tiny, black kitty didn’t make it.

One person asked me to keep it real and talk about lessons I might learn. Here’s one for you. It’s heart breaking to lose a little being in your care. anger consumed me because that’s what humans do when they hurt. We get angry - even when there is nowhere to direct our anger. For me, it painted this beautiful day a dull red.

And yet, there are blessings. Shirley showed me a kitten she had in her car because it’s going to a new dwelling place after surviving *panleukopenia. When I saw that little girl, I realized the difference between a kitten we are accustomed to seeing on the internet and the ones in my sunroom. Torts kittens have closed eyes, they can’t really walk yet and they sleep 99% of the time. 

The little kitten in that cage was so frisky! And she had those big kitten eyes we all fall in love with at first sight. One of Torts kittens, one of the tortoise shells, has one eye open. LOL Soon, I will be overrun with cuteness.

But, pray for us please. I don’t know why Noir didn’t make it. Maybe he wasn’t ready to be born. Maybe he just couldn’t compete with those extra large orange guys in the litter. But, God forbid, many of the cats that came out of the barns had panleukopenia. It’s not likely. The people involved took many precautions, but pray anyway.

Safe journey little one

Also, I think Todd is beginning to warm up to me. We played for a few minutes today and he didn’t lay his ears back when I picked him up last night. Progress.

40 seconds of cuteness

I figured you'd love a little
video of the monkey pile.

Melange aux kittens

So tonight my thing was, "Who's eating all the food?" I keep putting out big bowls of food and it keeps disappearing, but I never see who's eating it. I know Todd moves around the house because I see it, but every time I look for Torts (with the exception of this morning), she's in her crevasse with six kittens attached to her belly.
Considering neither one of them comes from a home with a doting cat lady, I suspect they both think this is pretty sweet to have bowls of food just laying around waiting for a cat to eat it.
I have to say too that Torts has a "Dear God get these little parasites off me," look in her eye sometimes. So, I decided I needed to know who's eating all the food. My first plan was to fill all the food dishes, then kick Todd out of the bathroom and close the door.

Todd curled up close by to mom and kittens

Shirley gave me a recipe for a milk mixture to feed the kittens, but mentioned that Torts could benefit from it right away too. So, I mixed up some milky stuff and refilled the most recently emptied food trough and presented them both to Torts - in her face like.
The milk got a "meh," but the food made her sit up. She was trying to find a spot to put her front paw that wasn't on the back of kitten, but it just wasn't happening. She leaned in (as they say women should) and managed a couple of quick mouthfuls. Meanwhile, the kittens were complaining and stayed latched on.
I decided the problem lay in the kittens not Todd.

Torts' buffet

Off to get yet another box. This time I lined a box with soft things and took it to the problem area.
I proceeded to remove the kittens one by one and put them in the prepared container. Of course, they complained. Then I tapped the side of the food dish and ordered Torts to eat while I watched. She did! She dug right in.
Meanwhile, this gave me an excellent opportunity to photograph the babies for their fans. Torts produced two orange kittens, two black kittens and two variations of tortoise shell
(I secretly like them best; don't tell the other children).

Monkey pile of kittens (eh?)
Kitten pile of monkeys?

Once Torts had enough food, she started making a noise that sounded like my phone on vibrate on a wooden table. I actually was about to leave and check my phone when I realized it was her. She could hear her babies and she was not amused.
I however was amused AND pleased.

Torts & Todd – Day 2

As I lay me down to sleep last night, I prayed that the cats would feel safe and begin to relax. I asked that whatever angels look over animals speak to Torts in particular and let her know she is in a safe place.

Before I dozed off, I heard one hiss, but when I got up to see what was up, I found everything just as I left it. I suspect now Torts was hissing at Todd. As in, “GET AWAY FROM MY CORNER.”

Squeaky

I got up to pee around 4:30 am and in the darkness heard teeny, tiny mewling. I turned on the light and saw that Torts had two extra tiny heads. She was in a very small box, but I didn’t want to move her because I was pretty sure she

wasn’t finished the job at hand.

I went back to bed, but couldn’t sleep. It was such a small box and while I figured Torts was getting smaller with every kitten born, I wasn’t sure that was helpful. So I got up and made an executive decision to move her. By that time, she’d had another 30 to 45 minutes to get it done. Of course, it took me nine hours to have one, but I digress.

Baby Face

I moved her first into the much larger birthing box Shirley provided. Then I deliberately counted aloud as I moved each kitten – one, two… five. Congratulations Torts, 5 squirmy little kittens. I made them as comfortable as possible with extra towels etc., threw the ad-lib birthing box outside and went back to bed.

When the alarm rang rather soon after that, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Not the plan for a workday morning.
When I got up it was time to go. I took a quick peak before I left the house and there were six kittens in the box!

Todd was hiding in the living room. I left rather quickly and spent the day wondering how things were going at home.

The whole fam-damly

When I got home, I found Torts and kittens in the much larger birthing box; which couldn’t be in the crevasse Torts has taken as her turf, and Todd sitting on the cold linoleum in the crevasse. So, I threw him a towel that covered half the

space. I figured if it were important to him then he would move onto it.

Then I started the job of cleaning lunch dishes and making the muffins I started on Sunday. I worked away in the kitchen for a while and then went to see how it was going in the bathroom. For crying out loud! Torts was on the little towel and Todd was in the birthing box. Torts really, really wants to be in that crevasse. I took a moment to bring in the bedding from under the china cabinet and switched Todd out of the box because it wasnt clean. She had one kitten in there after all.

I threw another towel down beside Torts and went back to what I was doing. Every time I went to look, Torts and kittens were on the towels and Todd was blocking the entrance to the crevasse with his body.

"Lady are you nuts?
What are you doing with that clicky thing?"

Finally, after muffins, dinner, clean up and some advice from kitten expert Luc, I went into the bathroom and kicked Todd out. Then I pulled Torts and the kittens out of the crevasse, put them on the big fluffy blankets and slid them all back into the crevasse. I’m not kidding about it being a crevasse. It’s a place you reach with a broom if something drops in there.

I almost got stuck.

Finally able to relax and purr

Torts is purring loud and constantly now. She likes a head scratch and doesn’t look quite as frightened as she did last night. Todd isn’t as sure, but we had a quick hug this morning at my insistance. Mostly, I wanted to make sure he was okay. I knew by morning that Torts had kicked him out while she gave birth and he spent the night alone. I don’t think these cats spend a lot of time alone.

Noir

So, Day two. Everyone is alive and I went from no cats to eight cats in less than 12 hours. It’s still pretty quiet, except for the mewling. I imagine it will be different in a week or three. 

Saints preserve me.