I hope you and yours had/are having a lovely holiday. We had a quiet one; visiting family and then home to open presents.
It was a little hard, being the first Christmas without Kit. I had purchased a calendar and a mug for the catman that was covered in images of Kit which brought up painful memories. That is now past, we move forward to a new year without her and with our six kitties.
And hopefully some kittens in the new year. When I started this blog in 2002 I could not fathom a time when I was not needed to foster. It appears that time might be at hand and isn't that a fabulous thing?
If you didn't receive a Christmas Card from me, this is the one I sent out this year. I will admit that I ended up photoshopping the kittens to all be in a row. They would not cooperate. Since I wasn't sure I was going to have another set of kittens, I took photos with Elsie and Emma.. Prism, Pirate and Paris were never really in a good spot to do a photo shoot with.
We watched movies on Christmas and didn't get to the Doctor Who Christmas Episode.. no one spoil it for me 😉
Since Cinnamon and Cayenne were here such a short time, I didn't get to share this with you. Since it is Monday and kittens are always appreciated on a Monday, I thought I would share them now.
If you remember, the last pair of kittens I had started using my couch to go pee when they showed up. I assumed that they did this because they were not used to the corn based litter the shelter gave me to go home with them. Once I put down a box of plain unscented scoopable litter we didn't have another problem.
I brought these kittens home and set them up with a clean and freshly filled litter box. I was confident we would not have problems this time around because they were older and I didn't have any of that new fangled funky litter for them.
Well the next morning I went to scoop the litter box and find this:
Eight plus hours of two kittens running around a room with food and water.. I found it highly unlikely that neither one of them had to use the box. I looked at the couch and was glad I didn't see anything, but wondered where they had decided to go. Something made me lift up the litter box.
Seriously?!?! How do you go pee UNDER a litter box?!?! I will admit I was tempted to put the box back where I found it and head to work, but I figured it would be easier to clean wet than later when I got home from work and it had dried. So I cleaned it up and put a pee pad down in front of the box and hoped for the best.
This is what I came home to:
The pad had been scraped on to try to cover the poop.. so whichever one of them did it knew enough to cover.. I was about to rip my hair out because I knew it was important to figure out which one of them didn't know enough to go IN the box when Cayenne came over, jumped in the box, threw some litter around and started to poop. Okay, well that answers that - mostly. I stood there what seemed like ten minutes waiting for her to finish when her sister ran over to the box (these girls do not do anything unless it is at full speed - well except apparently pooping) and she went over to the corner where the poop is (because I hadn't gotten to clean it yet because Cayenne showed up) and started to squat to pee.
I picked her up and held her waiting for the box to be free, but she wasn't having any of that. She squirmed and squirmed so I put her down outside the box, and she ran back in the box and proceeded to squat in the corner again, I picked her up again, she squirmed again, I put her down outside the box hoping Cayenne would be done by now, and she ran back in the box again and proceeded to squat.
*headdesk*
Fortunately, by the time I picked her up, the box was free, so I plopped her in the box... which she promptly evacuated, and she went to the back of the litter area near the wall and proceeded to squat there. I attempted to put her back in the box but she was having none of it and ran away under the couch.
Who wants to bet me $10 there is poop under the couch?
The only way I know how to work with this is to cage them, so that is what I did. I felt back caging them both as I had proof Cayanne knew to use the box, but while I was trying to get Cinnamon in the box she squatted outside of the box too, so I figured to be safe, I'd lock them both up for the night.
This is what I came down to in the morning:
Apparently Cinnamon is not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but boy she is adorable! I went home at lunch time to check on them and no one had used the box, but also no one had peed on the floor. Last night it was apparent that they were using the box. *knock wood* hopefully they have learned their lesson.
There be kittens on this kitten blog once again. I received an email yesterday asking me if I might want to take on three three-week-old kittens who were eating some on their own or a single teenage kitten who needed some time before it could receive his booster vaccine so he could be put up for adoption. It had been a while since I had wee ones, so I said I would take those and I planned to leave work early to head up and pick them up.
Once I arrived at the shelter, I was greeted with more options. I took a peek at the ones offered, but they were far too little to consume enough to deal with my going to work each day. I don't mind coming home for a lunch for a week, but two weeks would be draining, not to mention there would be no way I would be comfortable sleeping through the night. I really wanted them, but work won out, so I looked at my other options. There was a pair of kittens that came right to the front of the cage and made biscuits for me, so I wanted them. They only need a few days until their vaccine booster is due. I said I would take them, and if the orphans haven't found a home by the time the current kittens have come back I would take them then. The wee ones ears were open and up and their teeth buds had already erupted, so I'm guessing at the end of the week they'll be far more likely to be able to consume enough food, and if not it will probably only be another week at the most before they can. Paws crossed I can introduce you to them this weekend, but if not, that's okay too.
Now, let me introduce Cinnamon and Cayenne. I am not sure who is who, as I foolishly didn't ask, but I'm guessing the tabby is named Cinnamon, so that is what I'm going with.
and yes, they are going back on Friday, this Friday, the 16th, just so long as they both stay healthy..
