The bitty baby seems to have developed a bit of a routine. After I’ve put the kibble out, I check inside the entry to the cats’ house, and usually see the bitty at the kibble, with one or two other kittens. Then I do my rounds and when I come back, I’ve been finding the bitty here.

He’s come out for some water, and taking a break.

The poor thing’s eyes are so gooby right now. The inner eyelids no longer look red and inflamed, so they no longer look like they’re bleeding, but now the eyes tend to be more stuck shut. I’ll have to get the girls to go out later in the day and give the eyes a good cleaning.

I was able to pick it up for some cuddles. It definitely didn’t like being picked up, but doesn’t fight me off anymore, either. After some cuddles, I put it down inside the entry, where it’s warmer. We got a mix of snow and rain last night, and while doing my rounds I saw snow still on the ground in the more shaded areas.

He is so incredibly tiny for this time of year, but I had a reminder that this is not the first time we’ve had such tiny kittens so late in the year. In fact, we had one show up even later. I popped onto Facebook while uploading pictures, and got one of those “X years ago today” things. It was a video of Dah Boy, who moved out here with us from the city. We had two stray cats show up on our balcony, having climbed the fire escape stairs to peek at us through the living room window. They were starving, so we started putting food out. One of them had a collar, and both were very friendly, wanting human attention as much as food and water! Then one day, the collar was gone and we could see a sore around the neck; the cat had been on its own since a much younger age, and outgrown the collar. We were able to take them to a vet to check for microchips, but there were none – and the one with the collar turned out to be a pregnant female. We tried to make a nest for her using a carrier we had, but when she disappeared for a while, we figured she had her kittens somewhere else. Soon after, we were able to put a patio table on the balcony, over the carrier, with a vinyl table cloth covering the space. That turned out to be what she needed. Somehow, that mama managed to drag her one kitten from wherever she had her litter, up two flights of stairs and a landing in between, under the gate onto our balcony, and into the carrier.

What a mama!

We already had two cats – the limit for where we were living – but we got permission to bring the mama and baby in. It was November, after all, and there was no way that baby would survive the winter without help. He was even younger than our bitty baby is right now! Once he was old enough to wean, we were able to adopt the mother out. A year later, she showed up on our balcony again! Pregnant again, but that’s another story. In the end, we found ourselves with Mom and Son (over time, our other two cats passed away), and they moved out here with us.

Dah Boy is now eleven years old.

Wow.

Which gives me hope for the bitty baby.

The bitty might be just tolerating attention so far, but the fully socialized cats are something else. Especially Plushy! Once she decided humans were good for something, now she won’t leave us alone.

Also, apparently I’m a tree.

The three of them were fighting for real estate when Plushy decided to take that open spot on the top of my head! This is a first!

Also, apparently my face is delicious. All three of them kept trying to like my face. Especially my nose! It is a rather large nose, so I guess it’s just easy to reach. 😉

Well, it looks like we’ve reached our high of the day already. 3C/37F. I’d better head outside and get some of the more temperature dependant stuff done!

The Re-Farmer