Dreaming of a White… Birthday?

I have to admit, I’ve never seen snow on my birthday before. I was born in Ohio, and I lived in Maryland and Arkansas. I had the opportunity, but never in my life has it happened. It’s kind of a shock, and I’m not sure what I think.

There has been so much snow that we’ve been unable to leave the house for 2 days. Just today, I drove in the snow for the first time.  It was a little tough to get through, and a little slippery, but I drove slowly and it was ok. I had a private lesson at the yarn shop and someone dropped off a big bag of things she just wanted me to finish for her – at my hourly rate! It was worth leaving the house today.

It was nice to just get out and knit while the kitchen renovation was going on. They made some real progress before I left. Check this out:

And by the time I got home, it looked like this:

Pretty marked improvement, no? I should point out that the contractors on this job came out to our house on the 2 days we were snowed in. I told them not to risk their lives driving in that weather just to work on our kitchen, but they were here (a little late on one day, but they made it), and they worked. Best contractors ever. They have a few hours of work left to do, so they are coming back tomorrow. Seriously dedicated people, these guys.

On Monday our countertops will be installed, and on Tuesday our gas cooktop and the sink will be hooked up. At that point we will have a fully functioning kitchen again!

Another good thing about these contractors is that they are good with the cats. One of them has 4 cats of his own, so he gets it. He also has 2 dogs he rescued. The guys were very happy when Wesley wanted to lie in the middle of the work zone because they got to pet him. The guys thought Duck was cute when he explored the demoed kitchen. The lead contractor even got Serra to let him pet her. I let the little kittens roam the living room/office area right outside of their room, and the contractors actually enjoyed watching them. It turns out, one of the guys knows how to knit as well. Is it too good to be true?

I realized recently that I will have the chance here on my blog to chronicle a foster kitten growing up. This excites me more than I expected. The best part is that here, I have an audience who is completely willing to look at all the adorable pictures that I take of my newly acquired feline son.

Duck has a habit of taking a drink out of my glass. He seems to really like my tea.

He’s also good with the other, littler foster kittens. These are some buddy shots of Duck with Edward:

Is this not the cutest?

And we can’t forget Lambie, Duck’s poor sister who is stuck here. She had a spay appointment for the day that the huge snowfall started. We couldn’t get out, so she couldn’t make her appointment. I have to reschedule when the shelter gets back in working order. In the meantime, Lamb is pretty sure that she’s part of the family. She sleeps with me, and she loves the toys I make for her. Ok, I don’t exactly make them for her, but Lamb loves to steal my swatches from my knitting projects. I’m sending them with her to the shelter so she will have them in her new home.

Lamb carries these swatches with her everywhere, and she growls when other cats get too close while she is playing with them. Maybe I should be spending my remaining time with Lamb making her toys so that she will have them long past her adoption. I really will miss her. Doesn’t anyone I know want a sweet, beautiful black kitten? She gives kisses…

Cuties to Tide You Over

First things first: Alice is still alive. In fact, she’s started gaining weight – she’s up 25% from where she was when I left for Houston. That is pretty cool. However, you should get a load of her next to Jacob – the difference is staggering. He is about 2.5 times her weight.

It’s hard to believe these are litter mates.

The Twilight kittens have made it to another defining moment in kitten development: they’ve pulled all the toilet paper off the roll. I am so proud! It seems odd to say that, but I had a brief concern that the little ones wouldn’t be alive at this point, so I take my miracles where I can get them. The TP destruction just means that they are getting mischievous and looking for things to do.

Little Duck and Lamb are still as cute as ever. I think I can actually see them growing right before my eyes. Look at them:

I worried that Duck would be lonely while we were out of town last week, but he seems to be handling us traveling just fine. Serra, on the other hand, freaked out. For the first time in her life, Serra chose to pee in something other than her litter box – she used our (thankfully not yet packed) suitcase. I doused it with tons of Nature’s Miracle, and later tonight after I finish packing I am going to take my wet vac to the thing. I may have lost a suitcase.

The thing to remember here is, despite popular belief, it was not anger at us that drove Serra’s new choice of litter box. Barring a medical problem, it was most likely stress. When we take the suitcase out of the closet, it means that we are going to leave her and she has no idea when we are coming back. Serra’s very attached to me, so I am not surprised in the least that my absence makes her anxious. My guess is that she figured I couldn’t leave the house without that bag, so she soiled it to make me stay. Or maybe she just marked it so I would remember that I belong to her and I should come home soon.

There is a saying: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” I am not sure who the true originator of this quote is – it’s been attributed to a few different people. In any case, I think a modified version of this statement makes sense when trying to interpret cat behavior: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by anxiety. Thinking about it that way will help you not get mad at the poor cat; rather, you’ll tend to feel a little more sorry for her than anything else. I know that there are plenty of people who just won’t see it that way, but I think it says more about those people than the cat. Personally, I’d rather not make up a reason to be mad at a creature (or person for that matter) when I don’t have to be. Anger takes too much energy for that.

I’ll give you another example of a commonly misinterpreted behavior: biting. Many believe that when a cat bites you, she’s just being mean. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You are way bigger than any cat – that alone can be intimidating. Maybe you unknowingly touched the cat in a place that hurt her. Or maybe she is redirecting her anxiety about environmental stresses (other cats, moving, new people in the house…) at you, a person who just happens to be in the way. In all of those cases, it isn’t anger, it’s stress. Having endured extreme stress on occasion, I understand what it’s like to have too much on your plate. Heck, I’d bite too if I weren’t afraid of catching something. In any case, I feel sorry for a cat that feels so backed into a corner that she has to bite me.

Those are my words of wisdom for this week. Who knows, maybe they’ll change the way you see life.

Edit: I always seem to speak too soon. I went in to visit the kittens tonight, and Alice was dead. It couldn’t have been more than an hour ago since she wasn’t cold yet and rigor mortis still hasn’t set in. At least it didn’t happen with the sitter.

Stepping into a New Stage

The bottle-feeders have reached 19 days of age without incident. I mean, sure, they nearly killed me with their demanding feeding schedule, but on the whole I am glad to have had them. Really, who wouldn’t want all this cute improving her home?

I really love this stage of kitten development. They don’t need to be fed on an unreasonable schedule anymore, and they are starting to develop into kittens I can identify with. Cashmere, for example is the happiest kitten ever. I love the way she purrs after each meal.

(That would be Lanolin crying in the background. She had already been fed, but she likes the attention and couldn’t stand to see me holding <gasp!> someone else)

Today I let the kittens roam on the  carpet after their lunch. I steamed it a few days ago, so now I feel reasonably confident that the little ones aren’t being exposed to anything that would hurt them. I think they liked their new found freedom, but at the same time it’s a little scary. I love how they call me the whole time they are roaming, only growing quiet when they realize that mommy is right in front of them.

It’s fascinating to watch the kittens doing anything for the first time – there is a lot for them to learn. Flax, for example, was so busy sniffing the carpet that he really didn’t move much. The girls all tried their little legs, wandering around looking for the familiar. I am guessing that on the next outing they will be a little more likely to explore the new smells and objects they encounter.

As cute and wonderful as the little ones are, I have to let them go tomorrow. I am splitting them up into pairs for some of the other foster parents. Apparently, I am the only one foolish enough to take more than a pair of the little ones on at a time. I hope they make their new parents as happy as they made me. Yea, kittens!

Moving too fast

The world is moving to fast for me. I kept thinking that I had plenty of time to do things, but when I started scheduling all the last get-togethers with my friends and trying to make plans to see and do all the things I need to before I leave San Francisco, I realized that I am not going to be home for much of the remaining time we have here. We have practically 2 solid weeks of travel coming up, mostly business trips for Michael. One of them happens to be in Florida, so we will go see Lane and Jen when we get there. Another trip is to Denver, the same week we are closing on the house (just like we planned). It just feels overwhelming right now. I just thought there was more time. I think I lost  a lot of it due to sickness. Gotta love air travel.

I mentioned in my last post 2 things I needed to do that were the most pressing. I have done neither. To be fair, the Wesley thing resolved itself. I believe that he might have been lonely since the kittens and his parents went away. Every time he got the chance, Wesley hung out in Michael’s or my lap for the first few days after we got home from the house hunting trip. It wasn’t long before the little guy was himself again. The car thing will have to wait until I get home and am <gasp!> foster kitten-less.

We brought Carrot home the day we got back. I called her new mother the next day and arranged her adoption and Carrot was spayed on Tuesday (yesterday). Tomorrow, my sweet Carrot will leave my home for the couple who was meant to have her all along. I kept her tonight because the poor thing hadn’t yet recovered from the anesthesia. Her eyes were dilated and she freaked out around my cats. Carrot couldn’t walk a straight line, and she would lie down next to her toys so she didn’t topple when she reached for them. About 10:00pm she started to become the Carrot I know and love. She jumped onto my lap and rested her head on my heart. I think it must be her way of saying “thank you for taking care of me.” She’s going to be just fine in her new family. Despite the pull I’ve felt to adopt just one more before I leave, I know it just isn’t meant to be. <sob>

I do have the other 4 kittens to distract me from my grief. The boys have all made weight, so I am taking them back to the shelter every day to try to get them adopted. Esme is about 170g away from being ready herself. The only problem: she has ringworm. At least I think it is. It glows under the black light, but other foster parents who looked at it thought it could be chin acne. It really is presenting unusually – there is no fur loss, but there are a lot of dark, crusty scabs like pimples on her chin. Either way, I washed her and they boys with Malaseb and lyme/sulfur dip to hopefully stop the spread of the fungus. I have a suspicion about how they caught it.

It seems a certain Carrot doesn’t understand that she is not a baby and can’t play with the little ones.

The little ones do look great, though. Ernest is fluffy and handsome. Emo has the same fluff and sweet personality as Ernest. Esme still steals her daddy’s heart. And Widget is action man! He really knows his way around a kitten toy.

Over the weeked I had a spinning party. Only 3 of us from the spinning class I took last summer could make it, but we had a great time. As a result of the party, I got custody of this:

(a drum carder) which turns this:

(loose fiber)

Into these (kindly modeled by Carrot, who went all kid-in-a-candy-store on me):

(fiber batts)

which turn into this when I spin them:

I haven’t yet had time to make any more fiber batts, but I have to transfer custody of the drum carder to Naomi while I am out of town, so I had better get to it soon. It’s just that I’ve been busy.

Later that night I went to a party for a friend from my knit group, Celia. She was celebrating her birthday with her father, Jack. I learned that Jack was the Poet Laureate for San Francisco not long ago. That’s kind of cool in my book.

And finally, I finished the dishcloths for my contest winners. The pictures aren’t in the best focus, but you can look anyway. Which ones will you get, Sara and Anne-Catherine? You’ll never know until you open your mail…

Here are the Ravelry links in case anyone wants the patterns:

Kitty Love

Moon Gazing

All Tangled

The reason you came here anyway

In all honesty, I have very little to say at the moment. Life has been kind of quiet right now, which I really appreciate. Kitten season is winding down. When I went in to ask for more, I was informed that there were no more kittens for me to have. I have been doing a lot of knitting for Christmas things, and I believe that it should all go well (famous last words).

I know the reason you keep coming back is for the pictures, so why don’t I just give you what you want. Then I don’t have to try to be verbally creative. I’ll have a lot more to say in the coming weeks given that we are beginning our house hunt in Colorado, so for those who actually like to read what I have to say, there will be something for you in the near future!

In the Sunday paper:

Why my insomnia is good for my husband (recipe here):

Fabulous and fluffy feline.

Scaredy cat no more.

Good enough to eat.

Princess in plain clothes.

Daddy’s surly little girl.

Something untoward.

Salad fixins (Sprout and Carrot).

Strange bedfellows (Buttercup has never liked kittens before).

At least when it’s quiet there are still scenes to capture. Besides, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

I miss them already

Yesterday I sent my kittens to a babysitter. We are going to Pennsylvania later today, and they aren’t ready to go back yet. I’m not ready for them to go back, really. I love my foster kittens.

I finally have evidence that Sprout loves me. Michael was able to snap this shot of her suckling my arm like I was her momma. This shirt is cotton, so I know it’s the behavior, not the shirt material that Sprout finds so wonderful. Of course, she still runs from me when we are in the living room. Sigh.

Who wouldn’t miss this face?

I can’t wait to get home. Not that I’ve left yet.

P.S. Check out this owl sweater. Is it not adorable as well? I can’t wait for the pattern.

Another year wiser

Today is Michael’s and my actual birthday. At about 1:00 this morning we realized that Michael is no longer a 20-something. He’s 30. That means only 2 more years until I am no longer a 20-something. I think I need to have a midlife crisis about then. My family is not long-lived – my maternal grandparents and paternal grandfather died at 67, but my paternal grandmother is still alive at 75.

I’m not really that obsessed with age now that it isn’t exactly limiting me anymore. Well, OK, it’s no longer acceptable to go trick-or-treating without a kid at my side (where is my niece when I need her?), I can’t play in the ball pit at McDonald’s (really more of a height issue, but only barely in my case), and going naked in public is a bit more controversial now. But what do I have instead? I get to adopt cats and care for kittens. I don’t have to ask someone for money to buy yarn. I can drive (but whether that is a good thing or bad thing is debatable – I am terrified of driving). I get to plan vacations. I think I like getting older.

It’s great when the kittens get older as well. Pumpkin, Patch and Sprout are old enough and big enough to go back to the shelter now. I may have to wait a little longer because of Patch’s ringworm. The ringworm is healing, but I managed to get a shot of it under the blacklight. The camera has a limited capability to pick up things like this, but if you look closely at Patch’s paw you can see the tiny green spots (click on the picture). Here’s a quick lesson for you: ringworm glows neon green, doxycycline glows bright yellow, and bodily fluids glow a duller shade of yellow.

Patch is looking less like a kitten now and more like a cat. He is long and lean and all the trouble I never asked for. He’s given up on leaping the baby gate for now, which is great because I am not so sure that I want to try to get the ringworm out of my carpet. His new favorite sport is trying to climb into the crib to see the new baby kittens.

Carrot is looking more grown-up now. She’s putting on a lot of weight and her diarrhea is gone, gone, gone. She gets a few supervised, Carrot-only eating sessions every day so I can be sure she doesn’t lose weight. I get less worried by the day, but I still look out for her. Now if I can just get her clean…

Tubby Tabby is really looking good these days. Check her out, trying to slip me some tongue! She still loves to eat, so I set her as an example to the new guys and the freshly weaned. Tabby may be ready to go back when Pumpkin and Patch get returned simply because she eats so much. She, like Carrot is the only survivor in her litter. I guess a it’s called a “healthy” appetite for a reason.

Pumpkin and Annie are still going strong. They are both just lovely kittens with a gentle but playful demeanor. A friend of mine wants to adopt Annie when she gets big enough. I still have no takers for Pumpkin. I think that she and Patch would make a great pair – just sayin’.

Sprout is coming out of her shell just a little bit, probably because of her fondness for Carrot. I tried to stick Carrot in the crib with the new kittens for the first night they were here, and Sprout climbed into the crib to be with her. I noticed that Sunshine and Moonlight, also semi-feral kittens, seemed to develop a fondness for the really tiny ones. It fascinates me, really.

As for these new ones I was talking about?

This one is a kitten that Toni wants me to wean. I am the only foster parent whose heart is hard enough that I don’t feel bad about taking the bottle away. The biggest help was when I let her spend time with the bigger kittens. She saw them all run like mad for the food, and I guess she thought she didn’t want them to get something she didn’t have. To be fair, she has the same reaction to the bottle when the other kitten (who is much younger than she) is having a meal.

This little bundle of everything cute is Minitab. He is also a loaner (I believe Toni wants them back when she comes home). I called him Minitab because he just looks like a miniature version of Tabitha. He had diarrhea for about 36 hours, but I managed to get it to go away by putting a little Recovery in his bottle along with some canned pumpkin. I also started him on Flagyl.

So, for now I have 8 kittens of various ages. The flow into the shelter seems to be abating somewhat, but kitten season is far from over – I expect to have at least some kittens until the end of December. I tend to be one of the first to get kittens and one of the last to finish for the year. I love kittens.

How sweet

How sweet are these kittens? Many of them are kissers. They love to sniff our lips and occasionally lick them. The babies love to rub their faces on Michael’s stubble – I think it’s like a mommy tongue. It’s really gross when Puddles rubs his nasty, food covered face against our nice, clean ones, but what are you going to do? He’s a sweetheart, a lover, and I wouldn’t want it any other way (but I’m not going to lick him clean. Yuck!).

This is what feeding time looks like now. It is a zoo in that kitten room with so many hungry kittens. As you can see, Moonlight thinks we are good cooks.

With so many kittens, it really is hard to give each one the time he/she deserves. When I sit down, they all want to be in my lap. I actually love the big family love fest, but it’s hard to fit that many babies in.

The picture looks a little weird because I Photoshopped the image off of my t-shirt. I use old clothes that I no longer care for when hanging out with the kittens since they are likely to be clawed to pieces.

Despite the large, needy family, I’ve managed to start and finish a few knit projects. I know, I know, I had done so well getting my WIP list down. I have 2 deadlines coming up. My sister-in-law and brother are coming in a few weeks, and I would like to send them back with 2 set of dishcloths – one for them and another that they are giving away as a gift. I am also attending a baby shower in a few weeks (I think 5), so I am making a baby dress. I don’t think that the mother reads my blog, so I’ll post the pictures as it comes along.

Here are the dishcloths (the whole set of 3):

Yes, I can count. The third and fourth pictures are of the same dishcloth. It’s an illusion knit – when viewed head-on, it just looks like a regular, striped dishcloth. When viewed from an angle, it looks like a checkerboard. Cool, no? You can put any hidden design you like in these things.

The baby dress is going to be made in Berroco Comfort dk. I am making it mostly in lilac with yellow and pink accents. The color names are something more frou-frou on the color card – I’m practical and call ‘em how I see ‘em. I’ve only worked on the swatch at this point. I didn’t get gauge and I had to go down a needle size. It won’t be so bad if I’m a little off since the baby will grow into it pretty quickly. Still, I don’t want her to have to wait until she’s 7 to try it on.

What do you think of these pictures for Sunshine’s advertisement? Do they make you want to take her home?

I’ve got knitting to do – back off!

On our Wednesday knit night, Kristy came to visit. She wanted to pick up the hats we had made thus far and to meet some of the people helping with her project. She was late to our gathering, but she had a very interesting story to tell. Apparently as she was racing away from work to get to the train in time, a guy driving in front of her just jumped from his still moving car. Many other people had stopped and called for help, so she kept going. I think she was feeling a little guilty about not stopping, but honestly, if too many people stop it creates a bigger back-up and makes things worse. It was a bit of a Weird-Al moment:

Kristy said all she could think was “I’ve got knitting to do – back off!” Don’t worry, you’re not a bad person – quite the opposite.

Kristy has far exceeded her original 300 hat goal. She had knitters from across the country, from foreign countries, and knitters who learned the craft solely so they could donate to her cause. It is truly amazing to me how generous people can be. Our group only committed to 15 hats and we sent her home with 30. Dude.

I tried to finish my 7th – and final – hat for her project while she was here, but I had hostessing duties and I just missed the goal despite furious knitting. Carisa will mail it to her for me, but still, I wanted to finish in time. In any case, here it is in 2 views:

At 11:59pm on Thursday I finished my 4th Ravelympics project.

The Romantic Cardigan, in all it’s imperfect glory. There were a few problems special design features in this one. First of all, the pattern was full of mistakes. There are comments on Amazon about this issue. I couldn’t get the stitch count correct for the main body portion, so I had to count the stitches on every row and fudge the rest. The border for the main body has some instructions that are impossible if you complied with earlier instructions. I had a hard time finding the written errata for this pattern, but I didn’t think to look in time to do anything about it if there was something. Oh well.

I also had something happen with the yarn in this project. The ball bands all claimed that the yarn belonged to the same dye lot. When I got to the actual crochet, I learned that this was a huge LIE! In person it isn’t quite so obvious, but the camera tells no lies. I wonder how this happened. Maybe the ball bands came off and someone just randomly replaced them? Maybe it was a factory error?

As for the kittens -

Cute as ever. I got the orange guy’s tongue by accident. He begs for his food by holding my leg and meowing while I am busy scooping it onto the plates. Tiki was having a “cute session” – she was sleepy and lying in bed, lazily posing for me. The picture of Sunshine yawning was actually part of the same picture of Tiki yawning.

We are keeping (for foster) the 3 kittens that I acquired this weekend. We do not yet have a name for the mostly white kitten – any suggestions for the comments? We’re calling the black and white girl Panda. The orange fellow is Puddles. That boy just tinkles anywhere, even right in front of his food. He’s just learning, so I’ll give him a break. The others have already caught on to the whole litter box thing. The only time they miss is when they have diarrhea.

Which brings me to the next challenge. The boys and Panda have the vomit virus that the Constellations caught months ago. It is accompanied by diarrhea. You know, it almost looks like food poisoning, except that all of the kittens eat from the same plates, so they would all have it. The sick ones are on antibiotics and fluids for the moment. I knew that continuing health was too good to be true. Puddles feels so bony – almost like Moonlight did when I got her.

Sunshine made weight yesterday. She is adoptable now, but she won’t pass behavior at the shelter. I am going to have to advertise her on Craigslist or something like that and make appointments for her adopters. She is a total sweetheart – if she is in the kitten room. If she is in an open space, she freaks out and runs for a hiding space. Michael and I are trying to give her intense snuggling while we watch TV, but she is trying to resist rehabilitation. She’ll need a home with patient parents and no small or particularly loud children. Sunshine will need to be confined and only gradually allowed access to the rest of her new home so she can gain confidence. This process may take a lot of time. By the way, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to adopt her, please leave a comment. I’ll follow up in email.

Moonlight, on the other hand, is a total snuggle fiend. She hides if left to her own devices, but if I stick her in my lap she forgets everything else and starts rubbing herself all over me. She loves to be scratched under her chin and kissed. Moonlight purrs constantly when she’s held. When she makes weight I think her behavior will have dramatically improved given her progress thus far. She’ll also need a quiet home (maybe with Sunshine?) but maybe she won’t need as much time to get comfortable.

Anyway, I’ve got knitting to do if I am going to finish the Ravelympics with the gold medal. All I have to do is finish Jen’s sock. I feel a little torn about Donald’s kilt sock. My goal was to have a sock made that I could take to another fitting. I did that, and it still needed to be altered. Is my goal met? Do I have to make it fit before I can call that one complete? I didn’t plan on making the entire pair, but am I cheating if I call this one complete when it still isn’t quite right?

The new kitten is named…

We are happy to announce that Ling Ling’s sister now has a name. After viewing all the suggestions, Michael and I settled on:

<drum roll>

Tiki. Congratulations Peggy, you have the bragging rights for naming my new bottle-feeder!

I really liked the other 3 suggestions as well.

Lane, where did you get the name Esme? It definitely fits the criteria, and I liked it, but I was wondering what particularly attracted you to it? Maybe I can use it in the future.

Sara: Cleo is a lovely name. My aunt had a dog by that name who was recently put down, so I decided that this just wasn’t the right time. Also a name I will file away for a future kitten.

Carisa, I do think Panda is an adorable name, but I think I should use it on the next black and white kitten. Naomi (not my spinning friend, but the foster parent who got my Blaze) named Ling Ling for the panda for obvious reasons. Foxy is also a cute name. I wonder what sort of kitten I would see as a Foxy..?

I returned Lani and Kai to the shelter today. They passed the behavior evaluation, but they need to get the doctor to look at them and confirm that Lani’s lice are dead. The thing with feline lice is that the eggs adhere so permanently to the hairs that they do not go away until the fur comes out. I tried trimming her fur, but it was just so much. It isn’t contagious to other species, and Kai doesn’t have it, so I think it will all work out.

After all that, can you believe that I got even more kittens today? Undersocialized kittens, as a matter of fact. I think that they are less fearful than Lani and Kai were, but not by much. Linnea came over today and named them. Don’t worry, I will have more naming requests in the future, and maybe I’ll make some cat toys to send out to the winner.

This is Moonlight. She started out today in the feral kitten room at the shelter. I told the foster coordinator that I needed a sibling for Wisteria. She mostly cries now because she is lonely, and she needs other cats. The foster coordinator said she needed foster homes for several under-socialized kittens. I decided it was best for all involved that I take an under-socialized kitten home so I could solve both problems at the same time. Wisteria is just so self-confident and trusting that it has to rub off on the other kittens. I put the two of them in the same room, and within minutes Wisteria was engaging Moonlight in snuggling. Linnea visited all my new kittens tonight, spending a great deal of time with this one – I think they are in love now. Poor Moonlight is so bony – she is about 2 weeks older than Wisteria but she weighs less. Linnea fed Moonlight wet food from her fingers and comforted her with petting. After awhile in her Auntie Nea’s lap, Moonlight began to purr. At first it was so quiet I thought I was imagining it. As she sat there, the purr got louder and louder until it filled the room. Yep, this one cracked like an egg.

This ‘fraidy cat is Sunshine. She didn’t seem so bad at the shelter. As a matter of fact, she was in a different room than her sister, Moonlight. She was purring for our foster coordinator, and seemed ok. It was for a different reason that I took Sunshine home:

.

Take a look at Sunshine’s rear right leg.

She is missing her leg from about mid-calf down. It’s kind of a club-foot. She gets around normally and even scratches her head with the abnormal appendage. Sunshine was much more fearful at home and hid in her box most of the time. She came out to go to the bathroom and ran past us so we couldn’t touch her. After I see how her poop looks (I don’t want to make a diarrhea situation worse), I am going to start her on baby food therapy as soon as possible.

The bottle-feeders have gotten to a new life stage today. They are awake for awhile between feedings. They are a great deal of fun to be with because they just look so darn cute! Here are a few adorable baby pictures:

Tiki and Ling Ling are still in need of stimulation to go potty. They hadn’t made number two yet, so I gave them some vegetable oil (0.1mL) at their last feeding to help things along. I thought it was working, but for some reason, I couldn’t seem to make anything come out. Unlike me, my husband is good at getting that job done. He just has the magic touch with the tiny kittens. By day he is a professional finance guy, but by night he is Poop Master Michael!

Wisteria was very helpful in getting her new roommates settled. The bigger kittens now sleep in the same bed as Wisteria. She welcomed them as well as I could ask of a 4 week old kitten. She tries to play with them and to groom them – I think she’s happy to have some new friends. The bottle-babies have their own cage that I lock them in when I am not in the room, but while they are out, Wisteria helps me with them, too. See how she snuggles those two? She also played gently with them, but I think she is teething and got a tad bit rough with the little ones; hence the cage they stay in when unsupervised. Wisteria was also incredibly cute at their dinner feeding-time. Tiki and Ling Ling started to peep for their food, and Wisteria went to their door to check on them. What a sweet big sister! I think all that work wore her out, though.

Tonight I have a special treat! I managed to get not 1, but 2 kitten-tongue pictures:

So help me, I have no idea why I think this is so cute.