Kittens Gone Wild!

Well, they've come inside now. Mike didn't want to do it, because he just doesn't want 10 cats in the house (our 4, Patrick's 3, and the 3 babies), but the babies will be in a room by themselves until we get them tamed and adopted. It's really the only way to do it.

What brought it to a head was this. Yesterday I tilled and hilled the mid and late corn, and Mike put the tiller away after it cooled down. I went out this morning to inspect my beans, and found that he had neglected to close the gate to the back yard, which leads to the other side of the house where I have my other garden, and also is where Li'l Lisa and the kittens were. This morning I thought I heard a dog bark, and sure enough, the juvenile delinquent Lab puppy from next door, Princess, and Shiloh the wandering beagle were in my garden -- and the kittens were nowhere to be seen!

I came in and told Mike to come "get these goddam dogs out of my garden" -- he's the dog apologist; I can take or leave them (and woe be unto the dog that even *thinks* about going for a cat when I'm around). He came and got them out, and I went looking for kitten carcasses. Luckily they all had gotten into my cold frame and hid under one of the plant trays I had turned upside down and leaned on one side of the frame, and were safe and sound, if completely freaked. So I took the opportunity to put them in a tote bin, and tote them indoors.

My sewing room was pretty cluttered, with lots of places for kittens to hide, so I hung sheets all around the perimeter about 3 feet high, stapled them to the walls, duct taped them to things I couldn't staple, and duct taped them to the floor. I put the bin with the babies on its side in a corner, stuck a dirty T-shirt, a towel, and a pair of underwear in there for bedding, put some kitten chow and water in the bin with them, and set a sandbox with a piece of poo and a ball of pee near but not too near.

And I left them alone. They've had quite enough excitement for one morning. We're taking Brownie Boo to the vet today for her shot, and I'm going to see if the vet knows anyone who rehabs feral kittens regularly. I can do it, but if there's someone who's done it for longer it'd be best for them to get the babies. I'll also make an appointment for Li'l Lisa to get fixed, since she's hanging around and now we've forcibly weaned the babies.

They're eating well, they'll clean up a plate of cat food mush in no time, and enjoyed a chicken carcass we put out last night. So they're quite ready to leave Mama. Their eyes haven't changed color yet, so I'm thinking they're about 4 to 5 weeks old. A little young, but there it is. They have all their teeth (as they'll be pleased to show you when they hiss and spit).

And I never got around to checking my garden! I'm kind of afraid to, because that goddam Princess is a holy terror. She already tore up a sweet shrub that I had planted next to the boundary fence between her yard and ours, so glub knows what she did with the beans and tomatoes and peppers... I'll be extremely pissed if she's torn it up. I didn't say anything about the sweet shrub, but I'll for sure say something about the fuckin' garden. People need to educate their dogs, not let them run loose and be nuisances. And this puppy is the biggest fuckin' nuisance I've ever had the misfortune to know.

And I was in a pretty good mood this morning too. Now I'm totally pissed off.

So how did you spend YOUR morning?

Writer's Block: Rabbit Rabbit!

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That all three kittens get tamed and trusting, so that all three get adopted. Yeah, that's two, but they sort of go hand in hand.

Kitten Update

Read to the babies for about 45 min today (Stephen King's "The Drawing of the Three", book 2 of the Dark Tower series), and they actually seemed to accept it well. They hissed and spit for a minute, then went to sleep. They'd wake up occasionally, look at me sleepily, then conk back out.

Fixed them some kitten gruel (canned cat food mixed with enough milk and water to make a runny slurry) this evening, and they came out of their house to eat it.

When Patrick (my son) got home he went and read to them for a little while -- he chose "The Shining" by Stephen King. They'll be twisted little kittens, for sure, if you go by our choice of reading material. At first Patrick said he didn't have anything to read he thought they'd be interested in, and I told him they weren't literary critics, all they needed was the sound of our voices droning and our presence. Heck, he could read the little free sale paper we get every week, they wouldn't care!

And they have names -- the big black female is Xena the Warrior Princess, because she's so feisty and tough, the smaller black female is Mohawk, because we cut off some head fur so we could tell her from Xena, and the tuxedo boy is Jack. I was reading to them and the character Jack Andolini was in the part I was reading, and Jack just seemed right. He even woke up during that point, so I asked him if he liked the name Jack. He went blink, and conked back out.

So Jack it is. I've got a picture of them in their house, which I'll put up as soon as I can get it downsized some. I'm hoping tomorrow they'll feel more secure and will venture out to play a little. They haven't hollered for their mama either, which is good.