Just too much cute!

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!

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

Foggy morning, and new kitty cuddles

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!

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…

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

Breakfast buffet

What an adorable way to start the morning!

There are actually six kittens in this photo. There’s the four in the kibble house, Junk Pile Jr at the other kibble tray outside the kibble out, and there’s a grey tabby behind her. You can just barely see the top of it’s back.

Nosencrantz actually stayed in the kibble house with her cousins, while Toesencrantz and her mother used their own private dining area under the shrine. Potato Beetle as hanging out as well, though he walked out of frame as I was taking this picture. 😀 I also saw flashes of the other three kittens, wanting to come and eat, but still too nervous with me around. The little tuxedo actually stayed close, and didn’t even leave the kibble house when I went around the other side to fill the kibble tray on the ground. 🙂

What an adorable bunch!

The Re-Farmer