demanding, high maintenance creatures in the whole entire universe!
Exaggerating? Not much...
Gabby has now decided that it must be my responsibility to tell her if
and when she should feed the babies. She is more than happy to leave
them alone for up to 5 hours (that's when I chickened out and made her
go in as she'd successfully out-weighted me) without showing any
distress or discomfort, all the while letting herself engorge with
milk. Babies are more than happy to sleep in a big kitten heap, and
unhelpfully, don't make a peep! As soon as they squeak she's back in
there, so if I could only teach them to tell her when they're hungry
instead of just burrowing under the pile for warmth and waiting for
food to show up, then that would be great! But do they? Well, why have
a human and meow yourself! They just wait placidly for my alarm to go
off, wake me from a dead sleep, and for their mum to be pushed in to
feed them. Oh, the joy of it!
I must look like crap. I haven't slept propperly now in 2 weeks, and
it's really telling. My body is bone tired, my energy is at rock
bottom. I'm not eating propperly as I'm too tired to be bothered with
cooking. Am I selling this to you?
The other cats know there's something new in the house and some are
not happy about it. Millie, who is the best mum I've ever had, is
desperate to find these little squeaking babies who so obviously, she
thinks, need her help! Every time they cry she goes into a complete
frenzy, and has gotten to the point where she's taking out her stress
on the others. She had to be separated from everyone but her mum
yesterday as Tia's the only one Millie will not dare to pick on... Tia
is most definitely top cat in this house and everyone with any sense
respects that. This morning though, she's mothering Apache to death.
Poor Apache came for a cuddle to get away from her, sopping wet from
being over-groomed and over-mothered, but if it keeps Millie happy
then that's all well and good. Unfortunately I'm having to monitor the
kittens with a baby monitor, so Millie does hear every time they kick
off. I can't let her in to see them as Gabby and her have a hate hate
relationship and Gabby isn't leaving the nest for long enough yet
(well, not leaving from outside it should I say) for me to sneak
Millie in so she can investigate and see that they're Ok. Once she's
done that she'd be happy enough.
Gabby is only happy with Tia and Apache, but as she wants the pen
constantly open, and the other two would sneak in and eat all her
food, they're not allowed in. So now I'm running a 3 way separation.
Gabby in with me, 2 cats in the hall and another 2 in the living room.
It's taxing!
Kittens are getting so much better at taking affection. Today, I was
able to tickle the fattest out of the bunch, one of the little white
ones who surely must be a boy because he's so big! He was loving it,
rolling around, stretching, getting rubbies all over his little fat
tumm and chest. He's the first to actively, although clumsily, play
with me though. He was able to sort of bat at and catch my finger,
which he then proceeded to gum viciously. I was also able to pick up
little left knot (this referring to where I've tied knots in their ID
collars to work out who's who), another white, who stayed happily
curled up in my hands fast asleep while I kissed the kitten belly.
Well, it would be rude not to!
I love the baby smell of them. All milk and fat bellies and warmth.
They lose that all too soon and I'm sad to see it go, but right now
it's really delightful.
2 of the babies have now broken the 200G barrier which is fab news.
Little Mr fatty and red boy are the two biggest, with one of my whites
now as the smallest. That one's being watched very carefully but is
gaining so well. It's so difficult to find names to call them without
pet naming them, something I said I'd not do this time around as it
makes it so, so much harder to part with them, as if I don't find it
hard enough! So for now, there's 1 splodge who was the smallest at
birth and has 1 black splodge on his head, 2 splodge who is second
smallest and has 2 black splodges on her head (a her because I'm
completely in love with her outgoing, affectionate nature so need her
to be a girl so I can justify keeping her! I mean not keeping her),
red boy, left knot who is a white and the really quiet one of the
bunch, right knot who is the smallest of the group and another white,
and fatty 1 knot who's another white and a huge chunk!
They'll be 2 weeks old tomorrow and will be receiving their first
visitors. I have a couple of friends coming down who say they're
coming to see me, but I know the truth. They will have cameras at the
ready, so there'll be lots of new photos for next week! Can't promise
to blog over the weekend, but if I get time, I'll pop something down
quickly!
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