Kitten update

Updating the kitten status.  I didn't realize it I left things hanging so long.

After the first three disappeared, I started taking the last two into the house in the evening whether Calleigh was around or not.  She was a decent mother kittie, but obviously had trouble defending against whatever grabbed those kittens.

For about a week, that went fine.  Then one day I was a little late collecting the kittens.  It was about dusk when I went down to the utility room.  The black & white kitten was already in there playing.  When I went out the back door, the orange kitten was lying dead a few feet from the back door.  Something had grabbed him around the chest/throat, and scraped most of the hair off of his chest, probably when he tried to fight free.  Still have no idea what it was doing this.

At that point, I grabbed that last kitten, and relocated him to the spare bedroom.  He's still there, though he seems to be wanting outside just a little bit recently.  Calleigh will come into the house and spent the night with him most evenings.  Once everyone is a bit bigger and stronger, I'll think about letting little Squeek outside again.

So something got four of Calleigh's five kittens.

Sorry to have to bring such bad news, but I thought you would want to know.

It looks like something grabbed the missing kittens

It looks like something has grabbed those three missing kittens.  I haven't seen any sign of them for several days now.  Maybe worse, some of the older stray/ferals that had been coming by to eat haven't shown up in a while.  There is a vacant lot and a patch of woods across the street.  Those woods are mostly surrounded by fields and pastures, so who knows what could be running around over there.

About all I can do is keep the last two kittens inside at night, and try to ensure the older kitties have a safe place to hide if they need to.

On the good side, Calleigh is getting more comfortable being around me while she's inside.  With luck, I'll get to pick her up and take her to the vet sometime soon.  The remaining two kittens are getting around better, and are eating solid food, although they still hit the milk bar when it's open.

Starting to worry a little

Just a quick note. The little kittens had been running around, climbing up the stairs and eating great. 

But for the last day or so, I've only seen two of them -- the orange boy(?) and one of the black and white ones.  Not sure if the others are hiding somewhere, or something has happened to them.

There has been a family of raccoons running around the last few days, eating the cat food and bird food.  The kittens were running around with the raccoon babies, and everyone was pretty much ignoring everyone while I was watching.  Not sure if they would attack kittens or not.

Momma Calleigh doesn't seem upset, but she is a new mother (less than a year old) so I'm not sure how she would react if something went wrong.

Calleigh, the Calico mom

Do you remember Little Momma?  After she and the kittens Bobby & Little Dots parted way, she disappeared for a while.  Then Little Momma reappeared with another group of kittens.

Those kittens grew up over the winter, so we never got much chance to socialize them.  Momma had five kittens, and three of them are still hanging around pretty regular.  But there was only one of them that we could touch or cuddle with.

Yep, he's sitting on the Ham-Mick

We're calling him Horatio.  It is about fifty-fifty whether we decide to keep him, or find him a different, furrever home.  It depends mostly on whether we can or not.  More on him in another post.

On to what most of you are really interested in:

KITTENS!!

Little Momma seems to mostly have boy kittens for some reason.  The litter from last Fall had only one girl kitten.  Calleigh (she was a calico) would let us get close to her, but never, quite touch her.  But she kept sneaking into the utility room.  Eventually, we found out why.

She had sneaked in there to have her kittens, way in the back where no one could get to her.

Best guess is they are about 4-6 weeks old, maybe a bit older.  They are just starting to run around and climb up and down steps.  The one at the bottom of this photo is the kitten asleep on my arm in yesterdays photo.



A shot of the proud mom.  I tried to get her to look at the camera, but she seems to be a bit shy.

One last photo, all five of the kittens, on one of their first excursions outside.

More info in a day or two.

 

Details to follow

Yes, another kitten.

But this one still has his(?) mother with him.

For Mothers Day -- the Little Momma

Last summer I kept the back door open a crack so my kitties could get in whenever they wanted.  That, coupled with the food and water I kept out, started attracting other critters.

One of them was a tabby girl I started calling Little Momma, mostly because she had two kittens with her, and wasn't a whole lot bigger than the kittens she was raising.  Little Momma wouldn't let me get close to her, or her kittens.  But she wasn't bashful about using the supplies I set out for the crew.

The Little Momma, finishing someone's breakfast

in the kitchen.

Little Momma taught her kittens to use the Clowder's litter boxes and eat their food.  But the Clowder finally got their revenge, sort of.  Little Momma's kittens started playing with Grace O'Malley and Billy White Shoes, and eventually both of them moved inside.

One of the first photos of Little Momma's boy kitten.

He's staying under the far side of the car, just in case.

 

 

And a totally gratuitous video of Billy White Shoes as a little kitten.  I thought I had lost it, but I found it the other day.  Enjoy.

Watch Billy's ears.

They don't show up as well as I'd hoped, but they do wiggle.

Sad News - Part II

This morning there was another kitten, about where I found the two from Sunday morning.  This one was out of the sack, but it was dead too.


I took Grace to the VET.  He said it looked like that was the end of the kittens, but he thought there might be a lump in her abdomen -- he wasn't sure.  He injected some antibiotics, and gave me some more to give her every day.  We shall have to see what, if anything, happens the rest of the week.

Grace seems to be feeling OK, and is trying to get me to quit playing with the computer and start playing with her.


see you...

Sad News

It looks like Grace O'Malley is no longer pregnant, and not in a good way.


This morning I was cleaning out the litter boxes, and by one of them I found two new-born kittens, both dead, and still in their birth sacks (or whatever those things are officially called).  They must have been born sometime during the night.  I have no idea whether they were stillborn, or Grace just had no idea what to do after they were born.


Grace had a mess by her tail.  I cleaned her up, and for once she didn't struggle when I tried to wash her.  She is laying beside me on the table now, purring.  She might be a bit more subdued than usual, but  she seems to be doing OK.

I just thought you might want to know about this.