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!