Sleepy Harry

Curled up on some yarn

Farewell to Harry and Scruffy

Harry and Scruffy are on their way home now, and the house here is very quiet. I'll be interested to hear how they adjust to their new surroundings and animal siblings, as my parents have a dog and two cats already, like we do. The good news with Harry and Scruffy is that it isn't really goodbye, as we'll get to see them when we go out for visits.

I've cleaned up the back room and we are transitioning Neville to our bathroom. We'll keep him in there tonight, and when we are not home for the next couple of days, and give him a chance to get acclimated to being a part of the family without his siblings around. He's sleeping on the couch next to me right now. He's had a busy day.

The kittens will be eight weeks old tomorrow, and I feel like we got them adopted out right on time to good homes. It's been a lot of work raising them this summer, but it is completely worth it! :-)

Three Sleepy Kittens

On the couch

Last Day

Tomorrow my parents arrive, and on Sunday they go home with their two kitties. That means today is the last day for the three of us to enjoy the three kittens by ourselves. And we are enjoying them! They are mischievous and hyper and full of life.

Still Fits in My Pocket

Neville is cozy!

Eating Well

Weaning is going well, finally. Everyone seems to be eating the wet food, drinking water and lapping up formula as well. I've given the kittens more freedom in the back room by leaving the gate open to their enclosure so that they can roam and run now back there. So far it seems alright, though someone had an accident and didn't use their litter box like they're supposed to. They definitely like having room to run! They're getting bigger every day - I'd like to slow that part down. Harry bushes up his tail when he hears me coming in back there; I think the noise of the door startles him. Neville and Scruffy have both started trying to climb me. I took some video yesterday of Neville climbing just about up to my waist. And I've got a nice scratch on one toe where they were wrestling with each other and my foot! Long pants and socks are helpful now.

Scruffy and Harry are with us just a few more days. They go home this Sunday with my parents. That leaves Neville, and it seems like he'll fit in here just fine. Yesterday Grace and her grandma made Neville a little quilt and pillow, and Grace has plans to train him with a cat training book she has. She's ready to have him be a permanent part of the family.

Weaning Times Two!

It appears that George and Neville have both finally figured out how to eat kitten food! I'll share some of what George's new owners shared with me first:

it is a funny thing how we got him weaned. I was eating a piece of pizza with Canadian bacon on it and he seemed really interested so my bf took a little bit and gave it to him. He took it so we got excited and went straight to the store and bought senior wet food and some kitten dry food. He didn't seem interested so we got some more Canadian bacon and scooped some wet food on it and he ate it up. After that he just started eating it and went for the dry food soaked with water. then we left a bowl with formula and he eventually started drinking that up too! we were very excited!

Just a few minutes ago, I was holding Neville and decided to try and get him to eat. I put some wet food on my finger and in the middle of a big meow, I put a mouthful of food in his mouth. Instead of spitting it out, he actually ate it this time! The he licked some more food off of my fingers, and I was able to put him down near the plate of food. He promptly started eating off of that. Hurray! George's success inspired me to try something different, and hopefully we're on the right track now with weaning Neville.

Fred is Fine

We heard from Fred's owner that he is doing great! That was good to hear. I hope George is doing well too and that the weaning is going better there than it is here. Neville shows absolutely no interest in solid food. None whatsoever. I think he was pretty hungry yesterday, as I fed him around 6:30 a.m. and then couldn't feed him again until about 5:00 p.m. It will be like that today as well. Maybe this will inspire him? We'll see. Otherwise, the three remaining kittens are doing fine and getting more and more active. They like coming out into the living room.

I've noticed that Harry likes to try and cover up the food dish after he eats by pawing at the floor. Of course this doesn't really do anything, but he does it anyway. My cat growing up did the same thing. She'd paw at the floor, sniff the dish, paw some more, sniff again. I always wondered how she decided when she was done!

And Then There Were Three

George and Fred are off to their new homes now. Fred just left, and so it feels a little bit emptier here. But as I write this, Grace is holding Neville and I can hear Scruffy and Harry in the back room. Grace is feeling a little bit sad, and this is the hard part about fostering kitties - letting them go.

Scruffy's belly

This is what I saw a few minutes ago when I went back to check on the kittens!

Last Night as a Fivesome

Tonight is the last night for all five kittens to be together; tomorrow George and Fred to go their respective new homes. I have been taking more video these past couple of days to capture them as they are right now. George still hasn't weaned, but his new family is going to take over that task. Neville hasn't either; they just don't seem ready yet regardless of what food I offer or how I offer it. The other three are completely weaned and litter box trained, and they're ready to go. Harry and Scruffy are with us for one more week, and it's looking pretty definite that Neville is here to stay.

I brought all five kittens out at once to the living room last night for a little bit. That was a big adventure for them! It didn't take them long to get brave and go exploring. In fact, Scruffy even left the room to go off to Grace's room. At one point Sumi seemed to get overwhelmed and started hissing. I think five kittens all over the place was more than he could handle.

Four in the Box

And one underneath!

Harry Drank Water

I saw Harry drinking water just a moment ago - good job Harry! I was coming in the back door and happened to glance over just as he was lapping up some water. Neville and George still show no interest in solid food, but George's new family will take over the weaning process if he doesn't make the switch in the next few days. Grace and I bought some going away presents for George and Fred today. We put the gifts in the pen with all the kittens, so that they will smell familiar when we send them off with the two kitties this Sunday. Neville is very interested in the gifts, and Fred hugged one of them!

Adoption Dates are Set

We now know when all of the kittens will be on their way to their new homes. This Sunday, George and Fred's new families will be coming to get them in the afternoon. Next weekend, my parents are coming out to get Scruffy and Harry. That leaves Neville, and so far it looks like he's going to be staying with us. Sumi isn't hissing at him all the time, and Ali...well, Ali is just Ali and wishes she was the only pet in the house, period. Jake is afraid of the kittens. ;)

So that's that. We'll have to take more photos and videos this week, while we still have all five of them together!

Final Days with Fred?

Fred drank water out of the dish this afternoon. He may have been doing this all along, but it's the first time I've seen it. It's really the last thing I've been watching for, as he's eating well and using the litter box too. So I sent his new owner an email today suggesting that he come pick up Fred this weekend. That means he may be the first to go, and while we will feel sad to say goodbye, it's good to know that he is going to a loving home and will be taken care of and loved. He sure is a sweet little kitty who seems like a happy little guy. :)

Weaning Progress

Harry and Fred ate off of the plate again today, so they are definitely making progress when it comes to weaning. That just leaves George and Neville, but I have a feeling that they to will make the switch soon. I'm still offering milk to Harry and Fred but Scruffy is pretty much done with bottles, except for the occasional milk snack.

They really like the shoebox and have taken to sleeping in it, all five of them together. It's quite sweet to see them all lumped together.

In the Box

All five kittens in the shoebox

Harry Eats

Harry ate off the plate this morning without any encouragement! You can see George too, blurry because he was running around like crazy wanting milk. ;)

New Toy

I gave the kittens a shoe box with a hinged lid to play in, and they are having a great time with it!

Cute photo

I just thought this was a cute picture.

Fred Eats

Tonight Fred ate solid food all on his own! He ate kibble that wasn't even mushy yet along with wet food. Hurray!

The Weaning Process

I'm pretty sure that the kittens will wean when they are ready, with some gentle nudges from me. Scruffy knows just what to do and has been eating off of a plate for a while now. Early this morning, I had Harry eating from my fingers and then got him to take a few kibbles from the plate as well. So those two seem to be well on their way, although I don't see them lapping water from the dish. The other three are not quite there yet, and George and Neville almost seem to clamp their little mouths shut when I offer them mushy kibbles or anything else. In fact, George finished off a bottle of milk all by himself this morning, so I'd say he's still pretty into the formula! But taking in that amount of milk, he has to be on the verge of moving to solid food. Fred too. And in Neville's case, Grace said, "He can take as long as he wants." But we'll see about that.

They are playing right now. I put a deeper container of litter in there to try and contain the litter a little bit - Scruffy in particular likes to send it flying over the edges of the blue litter box - but so far it seems to be something to play and hide in. They get in a crouch down, to surprise an unsuspecting brother. I think I need to give up my efforts to avoid messes back there and resign myself to frequent sweeping and wipe downs.

Harry, Neville and Scruffy

View of George

This is how I often see George when I go in the back room!

Hand Feeding

Fred ate about five mushy kibbles that I fed him this morning. He didn't take any off the plate, but he sort of let me feed him, so I'll take that as progress! Harry and Neville were snuggling a little bit this morning. I tried to take some pictures and will post one later. As usual, George was the first one up and meowing when I walked in there a little while ago. Scruffy is just Scruffy. :)

I wonder if the kittens heard the thunder storm last night, or noticed the lightning. If they did, I hope they weren't scared of it. It seemed to go for quite a long time.

Video - Playing and Meowing

In this video you can see how the kittens react when they realize Grace and I are there. I was trying to film them while they were playing, but as soon as they saw us they ran over to start meowing at us instead for attention and food!

Fred, George and Harry

Playtime

Scruffy, Neville and Harry this morning

Morning Nap

Status Quo

We seem to be in a holding pattern these days, waiting for the kittens to move away from the bottle and onto solid food. They are growing more and more playful all the time, and all five of them are doing very well. The litter box continues to be a place of fascination for them, particularly after I've cleaned it and put in fresh litter. They chase each other and toys now, though their gait is still a little bit wobbly. I'll try to get some video of them the next time they are running around the pen.

A Good Day

The kittens had a good day. We had a visit today from the couple that rescued our black cat and his siblings back when they were tiny kittens. They played and romped, got bathed by Grace, and then one by one they started to drift off in our laps.

Four kittens can usually polish off two bottles now, so I really need Scruffy to move to solid food exclusively and learn to drink water from a dish so that my time feeding them remains relatively easy, as I only have two bottles! Or I could buy a third bottle. The other kitties seem curious about the food dish, but so far they aren't sampling anything yet.

At one point early this morning Fred, George and harry were all peeing in the litter box at the same time. It was quite a sight! Knowing it's an accomplishment, I was proud of them. And I'm finding fewer accidents, doing less laundry, and cleaning out the litter box more often, so I know they are making excellent progress in that area. Good kitties. :)

Neville in My Pocket

Neville fits nicely in the pocket of my robe.

Geeky Food Graph

I made a chart of the daily feedings, out of my own curiosity to see the data all together. There are a few missing data points because I forgot to record a few individual feeding amounts and thus have no grand totals for those days. Still, it is interesting to see the trend. There has also been some wet food consumed this past week.

Video - Play Time

You can see the kitties lounging and playing in this video.

The Eyes They Are a Changin'

Some of the kittens' eyes are starting to change colors. They are losing the blue color and switching to whatever permanent color they'll end up with. They're growing up so fast, sniff, sniff. ;)

Still waiting for them all to sample the wet food and start moving away from the bottle. They will be five weeks old tomorrow, I think, so these next two weeks will be the time for them to really get weaned so that they can go to their new homes.

Speaking of homes, apparently Grace decided to read the blog herself and saw what I wrote about Neville. But we still haven't decided.

Playing

After their breakfast... They hadn't quite made it into the litter box yet to play.

Fred Photo

Here is Grace holding Fred this morning. So sweet!

Neville's Done It

This morning Grace found Neville in the cat box, and he had pooped! He was the only kitten that we hadn't seen use the litter box yet, so that's great news. Later, all five of them were playing in and around the litter box. Scruffy was even lying on his back in it while one of his siblings was attacking his back foot.

Scruffy went right for the wet food I put out this morning and ate all of it. I put some more out after I fed everyone. We had to switch formulas and I think everyone prefers the new milk. They all ate right away, and Harry ate quite well, which was good to see. We had been buying one brand at a local store, but we bought all that they had, so we had to go somewhere else. The other store only had this other brand so that's what we bought. It's what I fed the last batch of kittens and I actually like this brand better, but I didn't want to switch their food when they were so small. I was worried about how they might adjust to it.

They are also learning to groom themselves now, and I've seen all of them licking themselves at one time or another. They still need help from us, and today I'm going to give all of them a through cleaning.

I will try to get a new video or two up this weekend - their wrestling and antics are fun to see.

Way to Go Harry

Harry peed and pooped in the litter box this afternoon! Granted, his aim wasn't too great and he peed off the side of the box, but that's OK. He and three other kitties all used the box at the last feeding, so that leaves just one kitty to get with the program. Scruffy still seems to be the only one interested in solid food at this point, but they're still young.

Speaking of Scruffy, he was hilarious earlier today, swishing his tail and running all around. The kittens are getting faster - Grace kept putting Fred down out of the pen to watch him run. They love to wrestle with each other and bite and kick. they also like to try and jump, though they don't get very far and wind up sort of bouncing off the cardboard walls. One time George did that and flopped into the water dish on his landing.

They are doing well, growing and playing. It will be hard to let them go! But they have good homes. Don't tell Grace, but we are somewhat, slightly, possibly considering keeping Neville. Drew and I need to talk about it some more, and if a perfect home presents itself that would be fine too. Shhhhh....

Thursday Update

Fred continues to master the litter box, using it do all his business this morning! Others are using it as well, as I really needed to clean it out this afternoon. There are still accidents, but the kitties are making good progress. Fred and George ate some wet food yesterday, but no one else was interested. I left some for them today after their morning feeding, and someone ate some of it when I went back to check on them later.

They are starting to play with their toys a little bit,and they are absolutely more active. They are often awake, if not up and around, when I go in to feed them. Scruffy and George have started trying to climb my pant legs when I step into their pen.

Grace noticed that some of the kittens are able to retract their claws now. They don't it when I'm feeding them, however! My fingers, hands and wrists are full of tiny little scratches.

I weighed them just now, and here are the current figures:

Harry - 10 oz., Neville - 14 oz., Fred - 14 oz., Scruffy - 16 oz. (one pound!), and George - 14 oz. These are all rough, but it shows growth for all of them since I last weighed them nine days ago. Harry has gained about 3 oz., Neville and Fred have each gained about 5 oz., and George and Scruffy have gained about 4 oz.

Harry on Grace

Neville Eating

Litter Box Success

I saw Scruffy and George both use the litter box all on their own this morning - good going! Literally! Hopefully this will help the others catch on as well, as someone also peed right in the middle of the floor this morning while waiting his turn to be fed. They ate seven tablespoons of milk this morning, which is their biggest feeding yet. I was glad to see it, as the past couple of days they seemed to have dropped off some. Harry in particular hasn't been nursing as well - he just wants to bite the bottle instead. But he ate well this morning. I wish they'd transfer their need to bite into eating kibble, but so far they aren't very enthusiastic about that idea. I also saw two of the kitties play with toys last night. Scruffy started batting at a ball, and Neville started biting on a toy mouse. They're scampering around their pen more too, and it's funny to see one or two of them chase after a sibling. There is a great deal of wrestling going on, with lots of grabbing and biting. It's all fun to watch.

Another One Adopted

Fred has been spoken for as of yesterday! That leaves just Neville to be placed in a good home.

Not much movement on the weaning front yet. Fred, George and Harry all let me hand feed them a couple of mushy kitten kibbles yesterday, but none have eaten off the plate yet. It's a little early yet, as I believe they just turned four weeks yesterday and I read to begin weaning them at four to five weeks. I'm sure within the next couple of weeks they'll all figure it out. Same with the litter box. I'm finding messes near it, which shows that at least one or two of them have the right idea.

They are playing with each other more and more, and generally becoming more active. They still aren't playing with toys yet, but they like to wrestle with each other.

Fred is Learning

Fred had the right idea this morning where the litter box is concerned. He got in, scratched around, and then did his business... on the towel the litter sits on. Oh well - he was close! It's progress.

New Home

We got a new enclosure for the kittens today. Drew is lining it with cardboard as we found George slipped right through the metal bars! But now they have constant access to their litter box and some food and water, and I'm hoping that will help the weaning and potty processes.

Bath Time for Scruffy

Scruffy has gotten the hang of going to the bathroom after every meal. The problem is that he doesn't wait for me or the litter box, which leads to major cleaning each time I go in to check on the kitties! So he had his first real bath today, and while he didn't love it, he tolerated it fairly well. Afterwards, Grace wrapped him up snug in a towel and he settled right down with her. He is a clean kitty, for now.

Other random tidbits...I had George and Neville bottle-feeding simultaneously this afternoon. That was interesting. The kittens are having a good time wrestling with each other and biting each other anywhere they can. At one point Fred had one sibling's front paw in his mouth and they both sat there for several seconds, neither one moving. They're attempting to jump out of the tub. They can't manage it yet, but it won't be long! Of course when they miss they go toppling over and that is pretty funny to see.

I offered all of them some more wet food this afternoon but none of them took me up on my offer. They do, however, enjoy walking through the food and tracking it on the floor. Grace was looking for paw prints in the food. ;)

One Relaxed Kitten

This is Grace holding George. Doesn't he look oh so relaxed?

Fred and Neville

Video - Neville and George

I caught the kitties in a very sweet, calm moment after they'd eaten. Neville is on the left, George is on the right and Fred is in the foreground.

Video - Scruffy Eating Wet Food

Here is Scruffy trying wet food for the first time yesterday.