cute kitten

Morning kitties. I love them. Even when I don’t! 😄

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So… I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.

I was dozing off when something warm and fuzzy suddenly slid onto my face. I could reach my phone and was able to try and get some pictures in the dark. Which basically involved putting the phone on self mode, holding where I hoped was facing the right way, closing my eyes so as not to get blinded, and using voice activation to take a picture.

I was at least able to get one good shot!

At the time, I actually had all 5 of the older kittens on various parts of my body. Which was fine, until they got playful. They have very sharp little needle claws!!

Also, there is something amazing when all five of them are loudly purring at the same time. Suddenly, I don’t mind all the little pin pricks all that much.

But sleep would have been nice, too!

I had quite a crowd of kitties outside, too, though I could only count about 23, I think, before I gave up trying.

Would you look at the cheeky b******d!! That grey and white cat on the right? That’s Sad Face. The girls call him Shop Towel, but you can see why I call him Sad Face. He’s getting bold, to come up on the roof like that!

As long as he’s not attacking the other cats, I don’t mind.

I also had a Nozencrantz sighting. She slithered over to the bowl under the shrine, the slunk away when she saw me moving by the house. Later, I saw her watching me through the stack of wood near the shrine that the kittens like to play in so much.

As much as I wish I could get close to her, it’s been fascinating to see her moving around. Once again, no DNA test needed to know who her father was! We used to have a tom we called Nicky the Nose visit regularly, until Sad Face drove him away for good (it looks like The Distinguished Guest is driven off for good, too). We called him Nicky the Nose because of the distinctive patch of colour on his face that made his nose look much broader than it was. Nosencrantz has that patch, but she also has his mannerisms! That quite way she slinks around, with her body hugging the ground. It’s so much like Nicky the Nose that it’s almost disorienting.

And now we have another Nosey. One of this year’s kittens has a patch on her nose, very much like Nosencrantz. I’m not sure where that gene came from this year, but I’m sure Nicky had other progeny in his territory!

After I finished my rounds and headed in side for breakfast, I had a chance to chat with my younger daughter. Having lived in my brother’s house, alone, for almost a month, she got used to a level of cleanliness we just haven’t managed to maintain in this household. I’ll be honest. It’s a disaster. My focus is on the work outside, so there’s only so much I can do inside. My older daughter is shifting from working nights to working days, so there’s only so much she can do without keeping everyone awake. My husband can barely make it to the kitchen to put dishes in the sink, never mind pick up after himself or anyone else. That leaves my younger daughter. She’s been trying, but with so many cats making a mess of things, it’s really hard to keep up. Add to that things like the worn out condition of the linoleum floors, or the stickiness of the paint used on the kitchen cupboards, and cat hair EVERYWHERE, it get overwhelming, fast. Not to mention depressing as hell. But she’s been trying.

Well, today, she’s decided she’s going to work at it more, starting with the bathroom. While I went outside, she cleared the bathroom out and started cleaning and scrubbing. Which is fantastic. The downside is, we’ve only got the one bathroom.

My main frustration was when I finally made it back to my room and discovered things trashed by the kittens again. Ghosty has decided she WILL get to the top of the wall shelf, no matter how many things there are to block her way. A few things got knocked down (not the antique lamp, thankfully!!!), but there was something my brother had left up there before we moved in. The container is like a small margarine container, and it has a moisture and odor absorbing compound in it. That ended up dumped on my bed. It’s been up there for 6 years, so it was mostly granules. Something I did NOT want the kittens getting into! Plus, it landed on my pillow, too.

So there was a lot to clean up, including changing the bedding and getting the sheets that got covered with this stuff, first.

At least the tiny kittens are behaving. Mostly. The only issue with them is that they still pee on the puppy pad, right next to the litter box under my desk. *sigh* I’m glad they are no longer peeing on my bed, at least – that was mostly Toni, but since she’s been out of the isolation ward, she has only been using the litter boxes! I’ve actually run out of puppy pads but, thankfully, the care package my friend gave me included some bed pads used as packing material along with the first aid supplies! So I’ve been using those. Thanks again, M!!! Anyhow, it’s mostly Tiny that uses the puppy pad, even though I’ve seen her use the litter boxes, too. I’ve caught Pom Pom doing it, too. Frustrating!

The lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me. I’ll just do another post, and then I might just try closing my eyes for a bit.

If the kittens will let me, at least!

The Re-Farmer

Just too much cute!

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Before I headed out to help my mother with errands, one of my daughters came over to do bitty baby supervisor duty while I was gone.

Bitty was curled up on my bed, napping at the time. My daughter had had a sleepless night, so she took advantage of the situation.

Bitty responded by being even cuter, and took advantage of having a warm human to cuddle up against!

Later on, I got a message from my daughter saying that he was twitching and making nursing motions in his sleep!

We reached a high of 0C/32F today, though as I write this, we’ve started to cool down a bit. It’s still sunny and feels warm out there, and things are melting in various places. A perfect day to help my mother with errands. I’m happy to say she is well stocked up on quite a few things now. Especially the heavier things, like laundry detergent, or bags of potatoes, that she can get while I’m there with her car to help.

It’s also a perfect day to do a burn. Just before I headed home, one of my daughters got the fire pit going. There is a branch pile near the fire pit that we we’ve been adding to faster than we’ve been able to use it up – it’s separate from the logs we use when doing a cookout, and just getting too big. So the girls are planning to get as much of that cleaned up as they can. Now that I’m home and on supervisor duty (Butterscotch really, really does not like Bitty, but Bitty really, really wants to cuddle her!), they are both outside and tending the fire pit.

This is what I found when I came back into the room.

I mean, can he get any cuter? 😄😄😄

He really, really likes that hat! Gosh, he’s so tiny. And most of that is fluff. He’s actually smaller than he looks.

I’m going to miss him when the cat lady picks him up!

Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, however, will be very happy to see him gone! 😂

The Re-Farmer

The cuteness is off the scale!

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We’ve been keeping the bitty baby isolated in my room for now, with someone there to supervise at all times.

Life can be so hard, sometimes. 😉

I was expecting the bitty to go into hiding or at least be very nervous at first.

Nope.

After filling his belly with wet cat food, he started to explore, with Cheddar and Leyendecker following him around like lost puppies, trying to figure him out.

He’s an excellent climber.

He’s also ridiculously tiny!

Butterscotch is not happy with a kitten around and would growl and hiss at him.

Bitty gives no F’s.

Eventually, Butterscotch came off her window ledge, and the next think I knew, they were curled up near each other on my bed, sleeping.

Ginger has recently become one of the cats we can allow into my office with Butterscotch and Nosencrantz, without a fight breaking out, so we allowed him in, too. He didn’t like the bitty, and would hiss and growl at him, but was still willing to lie on the bed for a nap, too.

When I first brought Bitty in, I didn’t have a chance to take off my parka and hat where I usually do, and had just dumped them on the bed.

He found my hat.

So. Very. Smol!!!!

For a while, I lay across the bed so that I could reach cats to calm them down. Yeah. That’s why. Not because I wanted to snuggle the baby and take pictures. Nope. Not at all.

Ginger was very curious about my phone.

I managed to get a few of him, too. 😂

After a while he planted himself against my leg and tried to nap. Bitty, however, crawled out of the hat and decided to check him out. Ginger was NOT happy, was laying his ears back, snarling and hissing.

Bitty gave no F’s, crawled over him and squeezed into a crevice between him and my leg.

Poor Ginger looked ready to have a massive anxiety attack! He finally left and lay down on the heat vent. 😂

For now, the cat lady thinks she can be out here to pick him up on Wednesday, at the latest. That’s only two days from now. That actually works out better for us, since I am now scheduled to help my mother with her grocery shopping tomorrow.

As I write this, Bitty is curled up on my bed, snoozing again.

He is so, incredibly tiny!

The cuteness meter has overloaded. 🤎🖤🤎🖤

The Re-Farmer

Little Spitfire cuddles!

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If this bitty baby wasn’t as tiny as he (or she) is, I’d never be able to catch him and pick him up. He does fight back! After spending some time cuddling him and managing to avoid his teeth until I could finally scritch his ears, he did calm down a bit.

It makes me so happy to see him back in the cats’ house!

The Re-Farmer

Foggy morning, and new kitty cuddles

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We had another morning of very dense fog today. The photos do not do it justice!

The camera automatically cleaned up the images, but it was dense enough to shroud things I was standing next to – and it got thicker as I did my morning rounds!

What was interesting is that I was also surrounded by what sounded like the pitter patter of rain coming through the fog. It wasn’t rain, of course.

It was leaves. Falling leaves, hitting other leaves on the way down. Which I couldn’t see, because of the fog, until I was basically under a tree and had leaves falling around me!

The first thing I do when I head out in the morning it put kibble out in all the trays, which are full of cats and kittens by the time I get back in the yard after switching out the gate cam memory card. This sometimes gives me the opportunity to get close to, and maybe even pet, a less socialized kitty.

Or, in the case of one of Rosencrantz’s litter, pick it up!

While I was cuddling it, I got climbed like a tree by the two friendliest kitties.

The black and white one with the black splotch by its nose likes to just perch on my neck and shoulders. The grey and white tabby immediately starts licking my nose. The new kitty I was cuddling actually seemed to get more relaxed when the other two joined.

Getting my phone out of my pocket while juggling kittens to take this picture was rather challenging.

While I was cuddling, more of the white and grey kittens came out, as well as the one with the orange head (whose eye is getting better) and the tortie.

It took a moment for me to realize there was an extra white and grey kitten. One of the pump shack kittens had joined the bunch! It became easy to tell which one was the pump shack kitten when it slipped easily through the chain link fence to get to the kibble bowl under the shrine. Another white and grey did manage to squeeze though, but the others went around to where they can fit under the fence. 😄

I may not be able to touch them all, but at least they are more willing to come to the kibble bowl while I am standing nearby!

The Re-Farmer

I got to pet!

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While putting the kibble out this morning, Rosencrantz was actually letting me pet her, and not attacking me at the same time. I think that made a big difference, because this little guy seemed more relaxed beside her.

What a little cutie! He (she?) even let me pet him when he wasn’t eating. Not only that, but his tortie sibling came closer than ever before, without running away. Not close enough to touch, but still progress.

This entire litter is getting more exploratory and bold. I’m seeing them at the kibble house, and even inside the cat shelter. I think the pump shack kittens are starting to come closer to the house, too, but they run off so fast, I can’t tell for sure.

We still don’t know how many yard cats we now have in total! 😁

The Re-Farmer

Can’t close the door…

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My husband took the compost bucket our for me last night, leaving the sun room door open behind him. When he got back, the sun room was full of kittens, so he left the door open.

I went out last night to close it, and there was at least half a dozen kittens on the swing bench, and others running around, freaking out because I’d walked into the room.

The kibble was out, so I topped up all the trays, including the one in the sun room. I didn’t want to risk trapping kittens in there overnight, so I left the inner and outer doors slightly open, so they could go in and out still.

Before heading out this morning, I looked out the bathroom window and there were so many kittens on the swing bench, I could hardly see the seat.

Of course, the more feral ones ran off as soon as they heard the old kitchen doors as I started heading out, but not all of them disappeared.

The calico ran off a moment after I got the shot, then the black and white one ran into the mini greenhouse shelf. The third one is one of the two that are the most socialized. I was able to pick it up and cuddle it. The other black and white that lets us hold it was nearby, and for a while, I was sitting on the bench holding both of them.

So it looks like we won’t be able to close the sun room door for a while! I’ll have to put the rope/knob system back. Basically, the knobs for the two doors are tied to each other, with the rope going through the arm bar in the door frame. This allows me to have the doors almost closed, and the wind (or rough housing critters) can’t open them all the way.

Hopefully, their curiosity about the sun room will also have them getting more used to our presence, and help with socialization.

The Re-Farmer