Archive for May, 2009

We’ve had an interesting week so far… On Sunday, Pookey was doing yard work out back, and discovered a small kitten near the bushes beside our shed in the rear of our yard. On closer inspection, he found another kitten hiding within the bushes nearby. We looked around for more, but didn’t see any. It appears that the mother cat had her kittens in the shed, and had been rearing them there. I’ve seen the mother around the backyard, but didn’t realize she was an abandoned cat. She’s skittish, but I don’t think she’s gone feral yet. I’ve been putting food out for her, and hopefully she’ll get used to me so we can adopt her, and get her spayed. Otherwise I’ll have to to trap/neuter/return her. She deserves a better life than the one that her asshole former owners forced upon her. People who abandon domesticated animals out into the wild should have their asses kicked. If you don’t want the responsibility that comes with pet ownership, then don’t get one in the first place. Period.

We took the kittens in, and have been caring for them. So, we now have two new cats. lol. If I had left them alone, they would have been truly feral when they grew up, and their lives would have been miserable. The kittens, a male, and a female, are about 4-6 weeks old. They have taken to us remarkably fast, and are thriving wonderfully under our care. I keep them in one of our cat carriers/kennels, and lined it with a towel, so they have a nice secure place to sleep. We only let them out when they can be supervised, and it works out fairly well. They generally sleep, eat, poop/pee, play, then go back to sleep again. I swear it’s like having a baby in the house again. We bought kitten formula, a cat bottle, and cans of Iams wet kitten food. The female eats only formula, but the male will also eat the wet kitten food mixed with some formula. It’s such a joy to see them eating well, and their fat little tummies are so adorable. They’ve begun purring up a storm in the past few days, and it’s clear that they are happy, and content.

As for names, we are going to continue the Roman cat name theme we’ve established… For the male (who is a black, and white, shorthair) we have come up with Tiberius, Marcus, or Nero. For the female (who is a grey, and white, shorthair) we have come up with Juno, Minerva, or Calliope. Leaning towards Tiberius for the male, and Minerva (Minnie for short… lol) for the female. I think I’ll call the mother Juno. Wish me luck on getting her to accept me, so we can adopt her too.

Augustus, and Julius, have been freaking out… They’re sure this is a conspiracy, and that somehow the kittens are some new life form whose sole purpose is to kill them, or otherwise do them great bodily harm. It’s nothing new to me, being a cat servant most of my life, and being experienced in introducing a new cat to the established cats in the household. The last time we had to do it was with Juju, and it didn’t take Gus all that long to finally accept him. In fact, Gus has mostly gotten over his hissiness with the kittens, and will tolerate them being somewhat close to him now. Juju makes himself scarce when the kittens are out, and about, and only comes out when they’re napping. He was pissed off with me for a few days, but seems to have finally forgiven me for bringing them into his life. lol.

Morgan, of course, is thrilled with the kittens, though we need to supervise him around them since he doesn’t remember when he gets really excited that he needs to be very gentle with them. He’s getting better as the days go by though. His tendency to want to wake them up when they’re napping has quickly gotten old. Thank the Gods that he’s in school during the week, so those poor cats can nap undisturbed. I think during the weekend we’ll be putting their carrier in our bedroom, so he doesn’t drive them crazy. lol.