Here's a journal of our first days with the kittens, to be updated as we go along, so you know what to expect. Each kitten is different, and here is our story.
The kittens are 8 weeks old (and three days) and were found in an abandoned house with their mother, aunt, and grandmother. All three adult cats had kittens at the same time... The kittens' mother was only one year old when she gave birth. Thus the importance of spaying your cat by five months old. The kittens are two sisters in a family of five: four sisters and a brother. All were black with random white hairs, except the one with Siamese markings, pictured above. We had wanted only one kitten, but ended up with two when we decided that she would be lonely.
Day 1
5:30 pm. We were glad of our decision already by the time we'd put both cats into the carrier for the 30 minute ride home in rush hour traffic. The kittens huddled together, quietly, nervously quivering.
6:00 pm. Arrival home, both kittens huddled in carrier, with door left open. We put the kittens in the bathroom so they would not be overwhelmed by the large wide open spaces of the house.
7:30 pm. White comes out of carrier.
8:00 pm. White starts playing with kids.
9:00 pm. Feeding First Mate Chicken Cat Food mixed with warm water. Black comes out and eats like she was starved. White does not eat and goes to sleep.
Day 2
7:00 am. My youngest daughter wakes up the kittens by checking in on them. They were silent all night.
8:00 am. Breakfast. Both eat, White quite heartily. White keeps pausing to paw the ground and she looks nervous and jumpy, exploring all over. I was concerned that she was looking for a place to pee...
12:00 pm. Lunch. Both eat. Then nap.
3:00 pm. Black pees for the first time in the litter, after I send a frantic email to the shelter concerned that they haven't peed for nearly 24 hours. White pees seconds after. Black poos minutes after.
4:15 pm. Dinner. Black eats well, White eat some then starts pawing the ground.
4:45 pm. White pees.
5:00 pm. First purr. White approaching us and wanting some loving. We cough up some love, and she purrs.
Day 8
The kittens are purr machines. You touch them, and that is the "on" switch for the purr machine. My supplies finally arrived, and they are loving the Kong Zoom Groom, which is an unconventional hair brush that is based on static electricity. It's a big gigantic for their tiny bodies, though.
Yesterday was the first time that the kittens left the bathroom they've been living in, to explore any distance from the bathroom. One of the kittens made it almost all the way down the stairs. She climbed out onto a wardrobe, the top of which is accessible from the stair railing, and she slipped and hung onto the edge with her front paws, seven feet off the ground. Thank goodness my husband got to her in time and scooped her to safety. He felt like a hero.
The door was open all day yesterday, but the kittens were too frightened to come out.
We've had a number of strangers come to visit and handle them, to get them better socialized.
The sound of kitten feet galloping through the upstairs hallway is pretty hilarious.
The kittens like hanging out in the litter box, and will sleep in it as well. I guess I keep it pretty clean.
Day 12-13, June 30
The cats are out of the bag! They now hang out in the upstairs hallway, and sometimes venture down the stairs. The black one is the leader. Tonight both of them were cruising the living room and they protested when we closed the door on them in the bathroom at 9:15 pm for the night.
Their purring ability has further developed so that now, they begin purring within seconds of touch. Every morning when you open the door, they are already purring, probably in anticipation of their
food.
Day 22, July 9
First potty accident. Black sniffed around one of the kids' paintings and decided it was an awesome place to let her bladder go. No punishment here, we just cleaned it up with vinegar. She's the equivalent of a two year old human at this point.
Day 24, July 11
I started the raw food diet today. Purchased beef and chicken drumettes from Safeway, sliced them up into chunks and strips, and fed them. Black was quite wary, but White attacked the meat. Following White's cue, Black eventually loved eating the raw meat.
So, no need to slowly introduce them to raw meat. They're naturals.
They are now confidently roaming around the main floor, sleeping in the open and also behind the TV, which is turned off most of the time.
Clipped their nails for the third time today, just a touch up. Some of the nails, maybe 2/3 of them on White were sharp. For Black, only 1/3 were sharp and needed trimming. I used a human nail clipper while waiting for my father to give me the proper cat claw clipper that I left behind from my previous cats. I need to get them used to being handled and having their nails cut.
Day 28, July 15 12 weeks old
The kittens are two days away from being 12 weeks old. So I took them into the vet today for their first shots. After a checkup and weigh in (Black is now 1.3 kg and White is 960 g), it was time for the dreaded shots-- The vet had one vial of the yellow liquid, and he gave it to them subcutaneously, lifting up the skin at the scruff of the neck and injecting there. The kittens made no comment, so it must have been relatively painless.
In other news, the cat tree finally came today.
August 13, almost 4 months old
Yesterday for the first time, the Black jumped up onto my lap for affection, kneaded me, and slept there. I never would have thought she would be a lap cat. The White is finally allowing me to stroke her without running away (sometimes). Both of them are so good natured that they don't scratch or bite when handled by small children.
Both are using the cat tree for some of their naps.
I started feeding my homemade raw food around July 17, and both cats loved it. Now, a month later, both will still eat it, but the Black shows a preference for canned First Mate and the White prefers the raw food. So I serve out a scoop of each at meal times.
To clean the air in my home, I wanted to buy plants. However, I share the house with two cats, who have a tendency to eat my plants.
