First trip out... visit to Mark our lovely vet

I decided that the kittens needed a little extra professional advice today and took them all to the vet, their first trip out of the house and ride in the car.

Herding them all into the carrier was fun, but with a warm snuggle safe and heat reflective bedding they were not getting a chill anytime soon. There was some meowing as I drove, I decided to believe though that they were singing along to the radio (Heart FM).

Walking from the car to the vet, and indeed in the vets office, I was halted several times as people noticed my little travellers and wanted to look. I allowed looking through the mesh or when I was waiting to the one I was holding, but defo no touching. Twice, I was asked were they Persian? These were so obviously not cat people as the Sphynx couldn’t be further from being a long haired snotty nosed Persian if they tried! I was polite of course, I’m proud to show folk these amazing cats, whether adult sized or a crowd of mini’s.

The reason I decided to go is because I’d been having problems with two kitties with loose motions and, worrying of it spreading, I wanted to get them checked out in case of an infection. Mark agreed that due to the two sessions of Panacur they have had that any infestation is unlikely and that he felt it was food related, possibly the introduction of the Orijen kibble proving too much for some (though they love it!). I left with a prescription with advice to give it to all kittens, which is a pro-biotic which includes good old fashioned kaolin.

Kittens were all good weights of between 620-680g. He listened to hearts and lungs and was happy with them. All were added to the system ahead of their first phase vaccination injections next week. I will ask that the microchipping is done at this first session so that I am certain all wounds are well healed before they leave, which they may not be if they leave very soon after the second phase injections 4 weeks after the first ones. They have come a long way in the 7 weeks since their births that’s for sure. All kittens use the litter tray, all have great appetites and I regularly see them drinking water from a bowl. I have for now disabled the water fountain as I want to introduce a ceramic rather than plastic one and haven’t decided on the one I will buy yet.

The drive home was loud, with lots of urgent mewing. They must be getting hungry again! On getting home though I noted my passenger car seat had a wet patch. Someone had obviously been yelling that they were in dire need of a litter tray, bless.

One bowl each, but look, someone has their eyes on the dish to their left! Have you got more?

 But, yours looks better than mine!

 

Lane changers eat better together 

 Well, this one dish each isn’t working out so well!

Calling all budding models

Not quite a ‘cat walk’ show for fashionista’s, I’d asked a dear friend of mine if she would mind visiting to help me with a mini photo shoot.

Taking decent photos of kittens is not easy at the best of times, they do have a habit of moving just when you’ve framed the perfect shot. Adding to my problems, my home has large oak trees around it and does t get its best light late afternoon and that is weather dependent of course. We had to rely upon artificial light, and entertaining the kittens into a pose that showed them at their best.

Although I have a lovely digital camera, I decided, that my iPhone camera would suffice and so we set to work, taking each kitten in turn into a room where we had set up our ‘studio’ (the kitchen!).

Many shots were deleted, there were several shots where just a belly or back only appeared as a kitten decided suddenly to take off as the camera delayed the shot as it focussed.... some shots have been great if only they were not blurry because at the precise moment of capture their attention had moved elsewhere, and consequently so had they.

Each kitten we took from their play time rough and tumble into our  ‘the studio’ (except the boy, who we wrenched from sleep). Each little kitty behaved so differently as Sarah tried to get them to stay in place & adopt the perfect pose while at the same time she tried to keep the toys she was using to distract them out of shot & not to create shadow. It was a lot to ask. Even with two of us, 4 hands were not really enough. For the final sequence we wanted to have both of the black girls together, these images were the least successful since, as you can imagine,  just when one kitten was perfectly poised the other would suddenly lurch out of the shot or move it’s head. Aaarrgghhhh!

At the end, we had managed a few questionably ‘serviceable’ photos ... some better than others however disappointingly, none are dynamite nor do they thrill me as I’d hoped to have achieved. Poor light in my home is the biggest culprit of all and even clever photo editing cannot correct this.

I will be uploading a couple of pics of each kitten on separate posts (because this silly website keeps moving them from where I am placing them (using iPad))

Anyone for tennis? 🎾 

How things change....

So, my last post was about my pretty scary Monday night into the wee hours of Tuesday morning... but my, how quickly things turn around... on Tuesday, supper time, almost 24 hours since the horror show of the previous night,  as I bottle fed the little lad I was also being mugged by the black girl who was still also wanting milk and had not yet successfully moved onto solid food.

I gave her a half feed of milk so that she was not so boisterously trying to do her little bro out of his meal, then I got back to feeding him while with my other hand (you know, the third one!)  put the sloppy pouched food onto my fingers and she began to suckle it hoovering it in. Finally she had got a taste for it. Again and again I covered my fingers. She began to bite in her haste to eat more of this delicious food, and each time I re-dipped I moved my hand toward the dish leading her forwards until at last she twigged and just went for it - ta-dah!

I then turned my full attention back to little boy blue, and since he had also started biting on the teat (a sure sign that sucking was receding and milk no longer suitable). He was interested but not enough to follow my fingers....so I filled his belly with milk.

Wednesday morning dawned. A busy day for me since I spend the day with my 18month old grandson, Holden. I was up early to feed the kittens and to clean litter trays (and on this particular day, surrounding furnishings and floors) then be off up the road.

Since the kittens were born I set up a security camera at home so I can check in and see what’s going on, and I also come back home periodically bringing Holden with me to see the ‘baby cats’ which he enjoys.

Though pushed for time that morning due to the sheer amount of cleaning required that particular morning I tried boy blue with the pouched food again and suddenly, by jove he got it/ Within a minute he too was eating side by side with his siblings!

The same occurred later on when I returned both times with Holden and they were so stuck in they took no notice at all as he took on the role of dinner lady and began to poke one kitten in the ear, saying “eyes” !