Everything is *knockwood* going swimmingly with the kittens Momma kitty is starting to eat up a storm, which is nice but hard to keep up with. She's also a little picky so sometimes food gets wasted, but that is okay and I am trying to stick to the foods I know she likes.
I have been supplementing the kittens to help them fatten up. Getting milk put in your mouth so all you have to do is swallow it is a lot less work than nursing, so the kittens strongly prefer it. When I am in the room they are constantly screaming at me. They don't much like it when I pick them up and there is no milk forthcoming...
But when I supplement them this happens..
apparently momma kitty doesn't much like recycled fake kitten milk, and since I'm not a fan of this, I will let her take care of all nursing duties from now on.
The shelter had their annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner today. In the past years it was held at the end of August at a local hotel but this year with new management they decided to hold it in the pavilion in town. It is a beautiful location, so I can't fault them for the decision to move it, and considering the weather yesterday, I can't even fault them for choosing something so late in the season, but today it was a paltry 44 degrees out so it unfortunately wasn't as nice of a day as it could have been, but it was nice to get together with other volunteers and it was very nice of them to take the time to recognize how important the volunteers are in the shelter's success.
I spent some time talking to a lovely woman who wore a cat hat and a small black purse with cats on it, only to find out I know exactly who she is, but I only ever see her when she is working at the shelter and not in 'civilian' clothing. She almost adopted one of my kittens once. It was nice to talk to her.
I did get the t-shirt and shh.. I stole the pumpkins.
I don't usually do a 'how they are doing' post during the middle of the week but since the last post was less than stellar I thought I would let you know what is going on. I started supplementing the kittens with kitten milk to help them get some easy calories and to help mom. Four hungry kittens draining her dry wasn't going to help her build up her resources so she could make a good milk supply for them, Initially they weren't thrilled, fake milk is never as good as the real thing, but when they realized what was going on they were all too happy to drink it... well three of them, The black and white kitten (without the white blaze) wasn't that thrilled to eat it at first but he was the heaviest of them so I wasn't worried. They thrived with the extra calories and are now heavy for their size. It is interesting feeding them. Most kittens eat a good deal and then stop. I put them down and let them walk/waddle around for a while which causes them to burp and they take some more formula and then they are happy until the next feeding. These kittens do this five or ten times.. which can be frustrating not only for me, but them and mom... she is not a fan of listening to them scream.
Last night I was giving them some formula and it was coming to the end as each one would only take a little bit of formula before turning their head - I think the formula was becoming cold - and my foot was falling asleep, so I put all of the kittens back in the basket with mom and moved the formula out of the way and I laid down on my side. Mom jumped out of the basket and walked up towards my head and around to the back of me. I thought she was going to go eat some more while her kits were relatively quiet, but instead she gave me a full body flop rub... you know when your cats rub up against your ankles when they are hungry and you are about to feed them, well she did it from my shoulder to my behind.
I replied "you're welcome" and instead of going to eat she turned around and rubbed up against my back again from my behind to my shoulders. She walked around to my front, rubbed up against my hands, walked around to my back again and rubbed on me again. It went on like this for five minutes or so, back and forth, making biscuits and purring the whole time she was walking and rubbing. Yes, I think she is very thankful to get out of the shelter and have a very nice quite place to nurse her kittens and have a nice supply of food. She's put on some weight too. She was 6 lbs 10 oz the other day, she was 7 lbs 1 oz last night.
Serious paws crossed that the rest of their stay is completely uneventful
feed me (girl)
Feed me not him!
No no, feed me first! (she was the first to escape the nest)
You were feeding my brother, but I'm here now so feed me!
(the black kitten climbed out of the basket on to my knee)
I so would love to leave this a wordless post, because seriously I think these photos speak for themselves. The only photo I want to caption is the one of Sarah touching my leg.. Which seriously, for her to touch my leg is such a big deal.. I'm glad the girls agreed to 'pose' for this photo shoot before they left.
As you can see the girls loved this food very much; licked that plate clean!
