Kittens, Day Two
I feel as if I had given birth to those kittens, myself: My joints are crunchy by nature; I’m as stiff as a board now from getting down on my hands and knees, and crawling around on the floor most of the day.
Still no pictures. Apart from not wanting to freak Kaylee out any more than she already is, she has the babies stowed in a place where it’s impossible to get a camera. There will be photos when the kittens are more mobile.
Oh, yeah. She’s already moved the kits out of the birthing box. She has suddenly developed a bad case of separation anxiety and needs to be within touching distance of me at all times. I tried sleeping on the floor outside the closet for a while last night to reassure her, but those crunchy knees would not allow it, and I moved to my own bed. When it became apparent that I was not coming back to the hall at 2 o’clock in the morning, Kaylee moved the kittens into the bedroom, under the foot of my bed. I pushed some towels under there to keep the babies from crawling away where I couldn’t reach them, but otherwise I’ll just leave them alone.
Other than the separation anxiety (which will probably fade over time), Kaylee seems to be doing well, herself. She’s in extreme nuzzle mode, and has been eating heartily: Half a cup of kibble and a whole can of wet food has disappeared in the last day, and I don’t think the Professor has been eating it.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:38am
New Mom Syndrome. She’ll figure it all out as she goes. She’s already figured out that the closet was just too far from Granya for comfort, and she found a solution she’s comfortable with.
The kittens were just adorable, and I’m so glad you let me come and see them. We touched life yesterday, and it touched us back. Death, too. Makes you think.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:01pm
They move them after birth to avoid predators. It’s wired into their brains, and they’ll do it doing the middle of a thunderstorm.
She’ll probably make one more move, in a week or so, and that should be the last. It will happen when they start staggering around.
If anyone doesn’t seem to be growing, there’s always Science Diet A/D super food. A small can is plenty because you can’t hand out more that a baby spoon at a time, dissolved in water to the consistency of yogurt.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:08am
I think I won’t have to worry about hand-feeding; they all seem to have put on weight since yesterday, especially Number One (who is now Peachfuzz, in honor of Wrong-Way Peter Peachfuzz of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame). I’ll try weighing them later.
Jen and I came to the conclusion last night that both Fiver (the stillborn) and Peachfuzz were born tail-first. The way they were lying in the box after birth was rather suspicious, oriented all wrong to have been born head-first. Peachfuzz was just stronger from the get-go and I happened along at just the right time to get him jump-started. I’m assuming PF is a “he” since he is so much larger than the others; we’ll have to wait and see.
Oh, yeah. I need a better name for Stripes, the tortie. As Jen pointed out, Stripes is the title of a Bill Murray movie. I am not fond of Bill Murray….
April 4th, 2007 at 8:20am
Size doesn’t help with sexing this early, give it a week. The size advantage is normally based on feeding aggression, and they aren’t strong enough to be aggressive.
Koshka is always available as a name, although it is a “cheat”.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:42am
For feeding aggression, NotDot is the leader, even if it’s the smallest. It will even try to suckle my finger if I put it near its head; the others just ignore me.
Hmm. Yes, Koshka is a good name, cheat or no. Kaylee and Koshka. Nice ring to it.
)
April 4th, 2007 at 12:38pm
By the way, Bryan, They’ve already gone mobile.
Kaylee got up for a snack, and when I went to check on the gang, found that Hamster and Koshka had decided to try to follow Mom. They’d slithered about a foot and a half from the nest and were not well pleased at being put back. They think they’re so fierce, hissing like that.
April 4th, 2007 at 5:49pm
It always amazes me that they try to be fierce from the first. Today the three tuxedos in the side yard were hopping around stiff-legged, humped and fluffed, and hissing at each other and Mrs. D who had wondered in to see what the noise was all about.
That early slithering is going to have to be reined in by Kaylee. She will teach them to stay silent and in place when she leaves.