The Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party - The Finale

And Spottacus steals the show..

Then he breaks out in song..

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay.. 

I sleep all night and I work all day

And a good time was had by all. I hope you enjoyed the Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party

The Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party - part five (Post 4,000 and a giveaway) #TFK4K

In honor of my four thousandth post.. I am going to do a little giveaway.. Just comment on this post and in your comment write #TFK4K and I will choose a winner.  The winner can pick either a Michaela and her Minions calendar or the right to name the next set of kittens.

I didn't time this very well did I? Yesterday's post of "Part Four" would have been a far better 4,000th post, but alas, I didn't get another post up over the weekend..

Yes, I have been fostering and posting kittens and cat stuff since 2002 and this, according to my blog count is my four thousandth post.. and no, you still may not call me a crazy cat lady.. (but if you want to just call me crazy, I'll be okay with that)

Now, onto the star of this Christmas Party.. Ren as Santa!

I was trying to get their photos up against a clean background but Ren wasn't having anything to do with it. He took his outfit and ran off to the other side of the room and sat there so proud of himself. I'm fairly certain he would have been perfectly happy to keep it on for hours, but I wasn't ready to watch him for hours. As I got closer to him to take it off, he did this..



Which I couldn't help laugh at because had he been human this totally would have been wildly inappropriate to put on the interwebs.. but .. kitten, so here you go 😹

Also, only a third of the holiday cards I ordered have been spoken for. If you want one you have to sign up for one..

The Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party - part four

Next up, Kreb

Kreb took to the sweater okay at first.. see he just sat there with a "whatever" face on..

But he didn't quite understand that he could move his arms forward once he was on his own. See the sweater is made for a wine bottle so the sleeves are on the side of the sweater, not under it like it would be if it were made for a kitten..

If one foot was done, the other was up in the air like there was a chopstick in there.. Once again, I quite rudely laughed at his situation, but he took it in stride..

Since we had another case of clothing paralysis going on I let him off the hook pretty quickly as well. I so wanted to do a photoshoot with all of them in their different outfits, but that has never gone well for me, and with so many kittens I would run the risk of losing track of what was one was doing and have there be an issue, so, we did it pretty much as you are seeing this, one (or two) at a time and keeping the kitten's best interest in mind.. Fortunately, this time around no one objected (one year I sent out a Christmas Card with three dressed kitties and one nekkid kitty because he did NOT want to wear anything)

Tomorrow, we meet Santa Kitten

The Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party - part three

I put Milo's sweater on and he sat there and waited for me to take photos. I did, he didn't move, so all the photos look exactly like this one.. so.. we have a one photo part three.

I'm going to take this opportunity to remind you of the Michaela and her Minions Calendar and of the Tails from the Foster Kitten's Christmas card

The kittens are all over two pounds, so we are just waiting for a time for them to be able to get into the clinic to be neutered. Most of the kittens have a home already lined up and the rest have serious inquires on them - so I imagine they will all be home for Christmas.

The Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party - part two

Several of you commented that Onyx didn't look too thrilled with her outfit.. She was a bit annoyed with me because I had to discourage her from playing with the pompoms to get her photo. As soon as I stopped distracting her she grabbed the strap in her mouth, jumped down and ran off with it.. it was adorable.

Zephy didn't mind the outfit so much, but it was simply much too big for her.

Unlike someone else (cough, Romy, cough) who developed an immediate case of acute clothing paralysis.. I mean an acute case of it.  She seemed fine when I got her into it, not reacting at all..

But when I put her down to get a photo...

She sunk like a stone and did not move so much as a whisker. The irony that she wore the "Joy" sweater was not lost on me and, despite my nearly uncontrollable laughter, I quickly picked her up and cuddled her. She wasn't upset in the least, simply frozen by the fact that she was 'surrounded'. Once I took the sweater off she was mobile again and we spent some time cuddling and playing. I really wanted to try again but I simply couldn't do it to her.

The Kittens' Christmas Sweater Party - part one

If you would like a Christmas card from us you can send me your address or fill out the postable form. If you would like to send us a card the address is PO Box 554 Grantham NH 03753

I was out shopping the other day and found a couple of festive wine bottle covers that looked like holiday sweaters. If you have been a fan of this blog for any amount of time you know I'm pretty partial to them (if the arms aren't sewn shut) to dress up kittens.

I ended up taking so many photos, that I think this is going to be a multipart post..

I thought I would start with Zephy and Wyatt.  I wanted to recreate a card I had of Skippy and Kit from a few years ago..

But it didn't go nearly as well.

As you can tell Zephy's dress was quite large on her. It is an x-small dog outfit and not really designed for two-pound cats. Wyatt's sweater stayed on a little better but not by much.

I originally tried to get the sweater on Zeph but that did not go well at all..

but it was freakin cute.. as kittens in clothes often are.

let us never speak of this again.. 

**for those of you wondering why I do this, I believe it helps socialize them. It gives them something weird to endure and then come out the other side with nothing bad having happened to them. I coo over them the entire time, give them lots of love and kisses and do not leave them unattended for any length of time. The CatMan and I were watching them very carefully and any kitten that told us this was absolutely not their thing has the experience end faster.

How is a seven week old kitten like a bottle of wine?

Both of them fit in the wine covers that Kohl's make. A few years ago I bought a fall sweater and it worked so well that when I saw this Hawaiian shirt wine cover I could not resist it. I wish I would have brought the hat into kitten room for the photo shoot because these kittens had a major case of clothing paralysis.

Now - before you all start in on me for dressing up cats I want you to know that I do this for their own good. The more new and unique experiences I can give kittens the better adjusted they will be and will be more adaptable to new and unique experiences to come. I monitor them and look for feedback and if a  kitten is really opposed to getting dressed up I stop.

This was the first set of cats that I've ever had that not only had clothing paralysis but acted like the shirt increased gravity tenfold.

At this point, I was laughing so hard that I had to stop trying. The Zelda and Zoey were running around like fools as well and I didn't want to interrupt their fun, so this was as far as it went. I think it went well although Zelda might have a different opinion... 

Jack wants you

Jack wants you to have a Happy Halloween!

A new experience for the kittens

One of my self-imposed responsibilities when fostering kittens is to introduce the kittens to as many new and 'weird' things as I can. This helps them be open to the new experiences that are yet to come.

One thing I've found to be helpful is to dress kittens up in clothing. I know, I know, there is a large segment of the population who thinks this is torture to cats, but it is not. It is only a problem if you do not listen to the cat. You only need to get them used to it. Being of a young age where new experiences are learning experiences, kittens are generally very accepting of it.. be it walking on a harness, taking baths, wearing clothing, etc.

Trina could not have cared any less. She had a bit of an interest in the tutu part of the shirt for a moment or two, but she was easily distracted with a toy. Max thought his sweater was completely inappropriate for the situation and tried to nibble it off, but when I told him that it was very fetching he almost instantly turned into a GQ model.

Both kittens adjusted to this new stimulus very quickly and I have no doubt they'll do very well where ever they land.