A choir of kittens

Do please watch this with your sound on for the ultimate listening experience!

Now free to roam at will the kittens have quickly sussed out where the adults go to, and can scrabble upward to reach them. Getting down might be another matter if I’ve not remembered to nonchalantly (errrr… strategically) lay a throw to act as a scrabble net, but like all kittens, once in a situation they adopt an attitude of do or d…. Yell. Yes, that’s the word, yell! They’re pretty bullet proof and will scrabble fall the first few times and quickly develop yhe musculature to transition with fluidity and grace. 

The speed of progress right now is crazy, amongst their ordinance survey skills is the linking of the hitherto unknown area us hoomans call Kitchen with the stuff of dreams that is food. Having now decided they REALLY like that meat stuff and that it comes from the land of kitchen, when offered milk it appears of little concern. Such stark contrast to the desperation of the catchers mitt grabbing of the teat a few days ago! They’re learning that me calling “kittens, kittens, heralds food, but they’ll still try their luck by following me hopefully even if I’ve only gone to the kitchen to make tea or put something into the bin. I turn round to see a chain of kittens following, each with their tail raised with the jaunty little kinked tip of interest. Do you speak cat? The tail is used to convey a lot of emotions and so it’s worthwhile learning tail gestures as well as to read or tel your kitten or cat “I love you” . 

Prune is liking the fact that they’re interested in meat and, just as she did with her last litter, she is now dedicatibg herself to providing them with prey or encouraging hunting opportunities by bringing them toy mice. Noodle bless her never gave up the bringing of mice after the last kittens left and so still regularly rings the dinner bell announcing a successful hunt . She has noticeably upped the anti. So I’m just waiting now for Floozy to learn this skill too and begin teaching her class m!  At the mo she’s become distracted again  being back into heat in a very short cycle, Hopefully with autumn coming they’ll tail off for her now.

Shattered Peace!

Miss Sassy Pants! 

I’ve started you off with a dose of cuteness on purpose! This is today’s portrait of my youngest grandchild, aged 10 whole days.

For a couple of days now, in the late afternoon I’ve been opening up the side of the pen to give the kittens a taste of freedom and begin mapping their domain. This time allows me to give their area a spruce up while they, having had their meal and the adults allowed back into the room, can all play together. With melting heart I  watch the group matriarch Noodle as she gets in touch with her inner kitten. She crouches low, her fight front paw raised, her bottom wiggles, quivering as she gets ready to pounce. It’s a pose I used to see often when she was just a kitten learning to hunt her prey.  Her prey now? Oh, a kitten of course! As she dashes forwards her playmate turns side on, his tail straight up, his back arched and his head angled so that his eyes appear as large as he can make them, all in an effort to appear larger and more terrifying (as if!) It’s cute to watch as with each new game, the kittens are discovering that they can do more & more, they’ve learned to use their sharp claws to climb, to inch their way down and, to jump. After play, they’ve headed for their heat mat and sleep at which point I close up the pen again.

As I prepared for bed earlier (at around 1am) I was reading an online newspaper when I became aware that Prune was doing her sing-song voice, the one reserved only for speaking to her kittens. YES KITTENS! Entering my bedroom and, quickly making it onto my bed were the two adventurers. Having  climbed up, and exploring a while they very soon fell fast asleep. One chose my tummy to curl up on (well it is big, warm & soft!) but this adorably rendered me captive, while the other chose the heat mats where Noodle, Prune & Floozy catch their ZZZZ’s . No one though could scoooch under the blankets since a kitten now slept soundly on them. It seems that they too are opposed to waking a sleeping kitten. What are we to do, we are rendered utterly helpless by these tiny bed pinchers! 

Apologies for the flesh on show here

I just hope that these boys can get down and reach their litter tray when they wake needing a tinkle!

Tomorrow, morning the pen will be dismantled & put away. The kittens have most definitely decided that its served it’s purpose & that it’s time for the adult girls (including me!) to share their sacred spaces. 

Little Diggers

Post their late afternoon feed it’s always a lot of fun. It’s the time of day when after they’ve eaten I give their pen a final cleanup before they settle down. There I was shaking out their bedding (again) & sweeping the floor (again) while at the same time watching them all messing about in the smaller shallow litter trays. I could see them wanting to really get in and dig. It was also evident that 2 small trays were now insufficient when nature calls them all at once since they’re also growing at a rate of knots! Time then to bring in the big guns - in the form of deeper litter trays which, though providing a better dig, might also result in less litter scatter! (who am I trying to kid?) 

Having new trays caused such excitement with all four lads soon having the time of their lives. I know of course that the adult cats will also decide these trays look good for them to use too (because all Sphynx suffer dreadful FOMO) but that’s ok, as moving on to these is a great next step in their process.  I have a plan to open the pen this week and so I defo need them to identify these larger trays as being their en-suite facilities and then I will gradually move them across the room to where the resident cats litter tray area is. 

I rather suspect that, if they follow form, when they can climb and jump confidently they’ll probably choose to use the top entry trays rather than continue with the open or side entry ones they have just been introduced to. The roof is currently not fitted onto the one that has the door flap as I want to get them using it as an open tray and then slowly get them acclimatised to being enclosed, then trusting they can walk through the flap door. I offer all the litter tray options purposefully giving them the choice certainly and I do make note their preferences but, really it’s because I want to make everything seamless & easy when they go to their new homes thus their new families can choose the style of litter tray they prefer for their kitten/cat and can be reassured that their new kitten will know how to use it. On collection day I also provide new families with a bag of soiled cat litter from their litter trays (scooped of course!) which they can sprinkle in their litter tray at home thus helping kitty to identify by the familiar aroma where in their new home they need to “go”. 

Kittens are learning to identify the call of nature and to take action given that mum & Aunties no longer “do the deed” for them. They also make a mental map very quickly too so once they’re free roaming they’ll be able to gauge how far they need to run from wherever they happen to be in the home when nature calls and be able to navigate their way to the appropriate spot! 

Toys!!!

Im so looking forward to them being “free” as I have some fun toys set aside for them to enjoy. I’ll defo be making a cute video or two of their new experiences! The toys that are getting most love now are balls ⚽️ And a DM shoe lace that Has a series of large knots tied along its length and at the ends.  This was a toy idea I was introduced to by the new mum of one of the girls in Prunes previous litter. Ley (the new mum) had had a previous Sphynx whose most prized possession was her “string”. This Sphynx had sadly passed on but her string was kept fondly and used by her other Sphynx, a real gentle fella called Ash. When Elvira met her new cat family she was determined right away, in fact, it’s probably true to say that Elvi probably never questioned that she would be the centre of attention from the get go, anyway, she took ownership of this string and 2 years on still carries it with her (though perhaps she’s had a fresh new one since then?) My point in relaying this is that it’s a fun toy to learn to chase and grab, and cheap to buy. Kitten toys need not be expensive or store bought. Another fun idea is to make a pyramid of empty toilet rolls tubes. Stack 7 at the bottom, 5 on top of that, then 3, 2 and 1. You can glue or tape them to make it all hold together. Now you can put cat treats and mouse toys inside for your kittens to seek and fish out. This helps them with dexterity and focussed attention. You can also use empty loo roll tube cut shorter to make a set of different depth chimneys. Fix the chimneys to a flat surface by down about 1cm around the circumference then opening out these “flaps” which you can then glue to a flat surface. Or you can make round holes in an empty cereal box to slide the chimneys into which should hold them. Now you can drop in treats or small toy mice for your kitten to fish out. A little effort maybe but it’s a cheap toy that involves no plastics! Later you can make the tasks harder and the treats more difficult to get. Get creative! Or why not see what You Tube has to offer in terms of ideas! 

Right, it’s time for some bedtime milk for the lads so I’ll say goodnight and leave you with some video taken this evening during the clean up and play time to keep you amused!  Goodnight 🐾🐾❤️🐾🐾