02.17.08

A Final Update:

My husband and I had several family emergencies at the end of 2007 (his father passed away, my husband was in the hospital several times, I was laid off) and we took them over to my stepmom's house for a while until we got on our feet again and knew we would be home again. Unfortunately, our lives did not slow down. We finally made the decision to move back home to our families. Since we knew we could not take the babies with us (we were driving, they weren't fixed yet, and had never traveled) and we would not be able to have them in our home when we got to our families. So we made the decision to find them a home there in NC.

Last known info about them, they were happy and healthy. We can only hope and pray that they will continue to be that way for all of their nine lives.

10.16.07

I haven't updated on our kittens for a while. A good update, dedicated just to them.

As I said before, we are potty training them. This means we are training them to use a toilet, not a litter box. They are already box trained, and we are making the transition from box to toilet. Naala has picked up the concept with no trouble. Sarabi, well, she's another story. She understands just fine. We know this already. But she is stubborn. But lately she has been waiting until she goes outside to do her business. We think she learned it from Piper, because Piper has done that for years. It's not exactly what we want, but we aren't fighting it. We don't want her to feel she can ONLY go outside. We want her to be comfortable going inside. They are making progress though, and we are pleased with that.

Today, they decided they were monkeys. Instead of playing on the ground and chasing each other horizontally, they enlisted a trees help. They would chase each other up and down and up and down.

They are growing so much! They are now four months old, and more than half way to their adult size. They spend at least half the day sleeping. When they are active, they are very active! The morning and most of the afternoon and evening is spent outdoors. They sleep inside at night. We will still put them outside when winter is here, but I am working on a box for them to be in if they need some extra warmth.

Naala is still dealing with some stuff. She no longer has worms, and is finally gaining the normal weight. We were scared for a while. As for her eyes and nose, they are still runny. At this point, it probably won't ever go away. It is more like allergies now than a sickness. Simply watery eyes and a runny nose. I clean her face about once a day, to keep it from building up. Other than that, she is much better.

Our home was sprayed for fleas about three weeks ago. All three cats have been receiving their regular flea treatments. We don't anticipate any more problems with that.

Soon, they will enter a new stage of adult-cat-hood. It is the stage of being fixed. I hate the thought of tearing up their poor little baby bellies. lol But we certainly do NOT need any more babies around here! I am looking into some discount vouchers to help with the cost, and then I will be making an appt to get them both fixed. We are hoping to get them fixed on the same day, so their recovery will be at the same time. I really hope it doesn't change their personalities to have them fixed.

Sarabi is learning to sleep on her own- finally! I can't tell you how much sleep I have lost. It started when her mom was taken to her new home. Sarabi would come to my head at night, snd snuggle her way into my hair. Not on top of, not underneath, not next to, I meant into. So that her little body was surrounded by my hair. (I pull my hair off of my neck and up onto my pillow when I sleep.) Then she would take her claws and "nead" my head. This would probably be relaxing- considering my love scalp massages- if she wasn't using her claws. And finally, she would purr. Really loudly. Like, 40 decibels loud. So in some, she would pull my hair, claw my brain, and blast my ears with purring. Not a restful nights sleep if you ask me. Anyway, between Hubby and I, we have changed her sleeping habits. She will now sleep next to us, by our feet, or snuggle us- which is fine. Great in fact. Come winter time, we are all going to enjoy the extra warmth.

I think Naala is camera shy. Sarabi loves to pose and play in front of the camera, but Naala is always hard to grab. I've taken a few pics, but they are mostly Sarabi. I will try to get a few more of Naala. Enjoy!

09.13.07

Two steps back, one step forward. I hope anyway. We found out that at least one of the cats was using under the bed as their litter box. Although after cleaning that much up, we are betting it all that there was more than one cat involved. Three to be exact. So we thought about it, and we gave in- for now. What we think, is that Naala has picked up on the poop in the potty thing, but Sarabi hasn't. (And Piper just doesn't like the litter box anyway. She'll wait all day to go outside before using the box.) Sarabi would pee in the potty, but she wouldn't poop there. We put the potty seat away, and put back the litter box. Once she is good and comfortable, we will go back to the potty seat. I know the changing back and forth isn't very consistent. But it's counter-productive to leave it there when she isn't using it. She has been using the litter box again- even though it is on top of the toilet seat. So we are pretty sure she will pick up the potty seat thing after a while.

Soon, I am going to take more videos to put up, and I am going to get the current pictures up. Eventually.

9.10.07

We are still working on this potty training stuff. It has been up, then down, then up, then down, then up. But today I figured something out. Naala has always been the first of the kittens to develop and take the next step. She was the first to eat solid food, the first to drink from a dish, and the first to successfully use the litter box. Sarabi, on the other hand, has been the last at all of these things. So while we have been training the kittens to use the potty, guess which one has been successful and which one has been struggling. Naala will potty and poop in the potty, but Sarabi will not poop in it yet. She is eager to go outside every morning, and use the flower beds (which don't actually have any flowers in it, so I'm not bothered by that). We are considering going back to the little litter box for a while. We would make sure Sarabi was using it always (instead of using the box to pee and pooping somewhere else). Then we would move the litter box back on top of the toilet. (It's a small box, so it's sits up there without problem.) Then we would go back to the potty seat. I don't really want to go back so far and confuse Naala. But if Sarabi never even learned to completely use the litter box, we are never going to have success potty training.
The kittens are obsessed with the bath tub. They love to get in it, play in it, drink water from it, anything. They jump in and out all day long. They play with each other through our clear shower curtain. They prance along the edge of the tub. And Naala, being the brave one that she is, actually got in the shower with me the other day. the nozzle on the shower head points downward, so she wasn't getting wet. And she just played with the shampoo bottles and stuff while I was showering. It was the funniest thing I think I have seen either one of them do.
All the fleas are gone. Well, if not all, mostly. We haven't seen hardly any of them since we put the Front line on them. I tell ya, that stuff is amazing. Their skin is healing from all the sores and scabs, and they are scratching less. It is wonderful to see them freed from those vicious little pests. We are still having the house sprayed though. We don't want to have any problems later.
They are growing and playing. They are doing very well, and getting so big. I will have pictures coming soon. And I am still planning on moving them over into their own profiles. But they are just so cute I would rather play with them than spend time on the computer. See ya later!

09.04.07

The kittens are doing so well! We have named them Sarabi and Naala. They play together all the time, and are practically inseparable. Piper and the kittens are beginning to get along. All the cats go outside in the morning when I leave for school, and the kittens come back in when I get home. Last weekend, the kittens spent their first days away from home. Since Hubby and I took a vacation, the kittens went to my step-mom's and spent two days there. They had fun with the four other cats and my little brother and sister to play with. They were very glad to be home again, too. Sarabi is always running and jumping and climbing and pouncing. Naala is often in my lap or loving on my face.
We are potty training them right now. We have a smaller litter box which sits on top of the toilet. There is a "stair-way" of sorts so they can get up there. They are used to the new location of the box, finally, so we are planning the next step. We are going to leave things the way they are for another week, to be sure they have all picked it up and are adjusted. Then next week, we will make the change to the next step. So far so good, and we are confident we will have smooth progress.
Such smart babies!!!

08.09.07

Some of the kittens are going to a new home tomorrow. My friends Jessica and Frankie are coming over for dinner, and then they are taking Sweetie and two of the kittens to his mom's house. He is going to keep Jac for himself. I am also taking China over to Granny Ball's on Monday. And we are keeping Gracie (Little Guy) and Bella- for right now. Hubby has decided to keep Gracie (Little Guy), but I told him he had to come up with a better name than Little Guy. I call her Gracie for right now, but he has promised to think of a name. As for Bella, I'm not ready to let her go yet. Besides the fact that she is so sweet and loving and I adore her, she stills needs special care for her eyes. When the kittens got sick, her eyes were significantly worse than the rest. She is just now off the medicine, but I keep a close eye on her eyes (hahaha) and I clean them daily. She is almost always on my shoulder or in my lap.
Unfortunately the flea bath we gave them all didn't do the trick. They still have fleas. The fleas don't seem to bother them, but I hate seeing them. We are undecided to the next step yet.
They are all on hard food and- finally- drinking water from a dish. Gracie (Little Guy) was so stubborn and had the hardest time learning. They still nurse occasionally, but they will survive just fine without MommyKitty close by.
As for the litter box, mostly good news. Just like any cat, they will use it as long as it is clean enough. Once it gets full, they use the carpet around the box. Drives me nuts! But I am cleaning it almost every day just to keep up with them. I know that once they are spread out a little and the box doesn't fill so quickly, there won't be any more problems. And boy do I look forward to that day!

There's the kitten update!
(I will soon be making a page for Gracie (Little Guy) of her own. Stay tuned.)

08.02.07

At the vet, I was told to bathe the kittens in PalmOlive dish detergent. It is gentle enough for their skin, but strong enough to kill the fleas. So yesterday when Hubby got home from work, we did. We closed ourselves, all seven cats, a bottle of PalmOlive, and lots of towels in the bathroom. And it was quite an event. We took all five kittens put them in the tub, and started on them. First kitten: we her down, lather her up, let her sit, move on to the next one. Once we had five kittens lathered in dish detergent, we starting rinsing them. Rinse, dry off with a towel, let it out of the bathroom. After they were all out, they snuggled together on a towel I had on the floor for them. Tonight, now that it has been 24 hours since their bath, they will get a monthly treatment to prevent fleas.

The kittens are now ready for their forever home. Kitten Anyone?

07.28.07

I took the kittens to the vet yesterday. Their "colds" were getting worse, and I was more and more concerned about them.

The vet was nice. She said they had a bacterial and viral infection. It is contagious and passed between them, and through the mom. They are all on an anti-biotic (Zithromax) once a day. And the ones that are having eye problems have to have an ointment (Neo Poly Bac) put on twice a day- which they absolutely hate. I can get the medicine in them okay, but as soon as the realize the ointment is coming, it's chaos. I bought some wet cat food to get them to eat more. It helped and they ate yesterday.
After one day of treatment, they are doing better. They are all eating again, and I am so relieved about that. They are active and playful, which is another good sign. The three that have eye problems haven't had much improvement there, but I won't be surprised if it takes a few days.

07.26.07

The twins both have colds that have made their eyes full of gunk, they sneeze a lot, sound like they are weazing, and sleep where ever they can find a warm spot.

Bella's eyes are so swollen she can hardly see out of them. She is constantly following her mom around waiting for her (MommyKitty) to lay down so she (Bella) can sleep near her. This is very un-like Miss Independent, as she prides herself on being by herself.

Little Jac seems to be healthy since he is running and jumping and chasing and playing and sneaking and peaking just like normal. However, I have noticed a certain 'wetness' in the eyes, which is quite similar to what happened to the other three before the 'sickness' set in. Keeping a close watch on this one.

Little Guy is healthy. Everything as normal, and no wetness to the eyes- yet. Ever chasing and snuggling Daddy, every chance that is given.

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I constantly have a kitten sleeping in my lap. I have been watching them closely, and although they sound sick, it doesn't sound life threatening. But like I said, I am watching closely. And I will be taking them to the vet if it hasn't cleared up by Monday, just to be sure. In other babykitty info, we think we have one male (the twin withOUT the tail) and four females (all others- including the two I was sure were boys). They are almost seven weeks old (tomorrow!). They had another outting outside today. I took them out and let them spend a few minutes in the grass and sunshine. Sweetie didn't freak and drag them back inside one by one this time. She simply stood at the door and called them. It was pretty cute. Little Guy didn't like the grass at all, and only moved when all the others around were on their way. As usual, Bella and Little Jac were inquisitive and wandered around. After getting them all back inside I turned my back to close the door, and Little Jac was already back outside, smelling the flowers. Have to keep a closer eye on that one. They are all eating solid food now- except Little Guy. No matter how long Sweetie deprives him (her?) of mommy-milk, or how many times I set him (her?) in the middle of two other kittens that are already eating solid food, he (she?) just doesn't seem to get it. Or just doesn't want it- I haven't figured out which yet. They are familiar with the litter box, and most are using it steadily. A few accidents still, but good progress has been made.

07.22.07

I'm turning the journal stuff over to Mama. I just don't have time for it. Too many things to play with!

*Author has now changed*
The kittens are six weeks now. They are developing their own personalities, and slowly getting names. So far, we are calling them Little Guy, Little Jack, Bella, Danger and Maiden (the twins). We still don't know who is male or female yet, but we should soon. One of them seems to be developing *something* on their backend. We are hoping it is little boy parts, otherwise it could be something wrong. None of the other kittens have these parts yet, so we have nothing to compare it to. I am keeping an eye on the behavior of this kitten, just in case.
Most of the kittens are eating solid food now. They can drink milk from a platter, and most will eat food that has been softened by milk. Some are eating food right from the adult cats bowl. They can also drink water out of a bowl.
They have their own litter box, and are beginning to use it. They seem to link the fringe on one of the rugs more than the box, but we are making progress. Little Jack is the only one that is constantly using the litter box as a hide out.
The kittens are also learning boundaries. They are not allowed in the bathroom (as they get stepped on too much) and are learning to run from the broom when they are chased. They are learning not to go in the kitchen as we now have a barricade that they can't climb over. Ya win some, ya lose some lol.
They favorite place to sleep is in Hubby's lap. At this moment, there are three all curled up on him. They occasionally sleep on our bed, but we don't particularly care for them being up there. They like to sleep in the laundry basket and (for some strange reason) in our shoe pile.
The kittens can climb now and are very playful. We are constantly giving them something else to play with (to keep them away from cords) and helping them get that last reach to the top. They can all climb up, and most can climb down now. Little Jack is definitely the most curious and playful, with Little Guy right behind him. Bella is the individual, she likes to be on her own and is often the first to do something (eating solid food). The twins are usually together, whether sleeping playing or causing trouble.

New pics have been posted on their photo album (see 6 weeks)
http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/aa122/Selosmini/K ittens/